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Old 05-26-2008, 02:22 AM   #1
trgeoff
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Default wifight help file and wiki project

Brennan

So I've commenced work on the help-file/ wiki project. I started off by listing all the things that happen within wifight in a hierarchical way, just so I could get a proper sense of the extent and nature of the material that needs to be managed. It's amazing how many aspects wifight has developed! The experience has already reinforced the feeling that a help-file will be useful.

Ive got an idea now of how things could be organised:

Help-File

* The help file contents could be accessed in BOTH of the following two ways:

(1) As a single block of information, initially accessed say from an item in the About menu. The block itself would be broken into sub-sections, and people would move from page to page, say, via Next links at the bottom of each page. The internal organisation might also benefit from some sort of hyper-linking, or contents list, but the implementation of that is of course up to you.

This mode would allow users to read through everything in one go.

(2) As context-sensitive chunks of information that make sense of the various screens (log-in, create new game, game-list screen, individual game (chess/checkers/boxes/TTT), chat, browse all games, game details, Alert preferences, manage tones, about wifight). Each chunk would be accessed by some Help icon on each screen, or a single menu-item that provides screen-sensitive information (eg datebk does something like this).

This mode has obvious uses.

So the main organising principle for the majority of the text will be the system of screens themselves. This keeps things modular and allows for easier updating as wifight evolves.

Most of the sub-sections referred to in (1) would therefore be the "context-sensitive chunks of information" referred to in (2). From what you said previously, text could likely be accessed from multiple points within wifight without duplication. The "chunks" would be presented in a sensible sequence, eg starting with: login screen, then game-list screen, then create new game etc etc.

I would also front-end the help file as accessed in (1) with some information whose organising principle is focussed on what people can do in wifight, perhaps along the lines of

* Play games against other wifighters online on your Treo
* Chat with other wifighters online
* Spectate the games of other wifighters

I also liked your idea of some splash screen that greets new users. Perhaps that could also have the "tip of the day", and a check-box for "Don't show again"! This screen itself could have a help icon link to the "front-end" material mentioned above.

Wiki

Most of the help-file information could translate directly onto the wiki, where one would have the advantage of using screen shots for each screen as well. (I haven't thought about using graphics in the help-file?)

Anyway, before I proceed further, your feedback, and that of other wifighters, would be appreciated,

Cheers

geoff

Last edited by trgeoff; 05-26-2008 at 03:22 AM.
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Old 05-26-2008, 07:55 PM   #2
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Wow, you have evidently put some thought into organizing this information. It sounds like you're definitely on the right track so far.

So it seems like what you're describing could be implemented as a single long document, with anchor points for various sections that can be jumped to from various context-sensitive menu items? Kind of like # style anchors in HTML.

I agree that tip-of-the-day/motd popups can get tiresome. I imagine I could make it only pop up when it has changed though, or have that checkbox so you can make it never pop up. You'd still be able to select it from the menu perhaps.
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Old 05-26-2008, 09:02 PM   #3
trgeoff
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brennan View Post
So it seems like what you're describing could be implemented as a single long document, with anchor points for various sections that can be jumped to from various context-sensitive menu items? Kind of like # style anchors in HTML.
yes thats the idea exactly. Ill start working on the "chunks" for the various screens now.
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Old 05-27-2008, 06:02 AM   #4
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Brennan:

a style question:

just in case any metaphors come to mind while im writing, do you have any dislikes of particular themes? Some pacifistic people ive written for before might have objected, for example, to calling the game-list screen the "wifight HQ" or "command centre" because they didnt want to introduce a military perspective.

on the other hand are there any metaphorical themes you *do*:

* feel a special kinship towards and/or
* think have a natural applicability to wifight?

geoff
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Old 05-27-2008, 10:02 PM   #5
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I guess overall we'd want to keep things fairly neutral and literal, i.e. saying "players" and "games", not necessarily "enemies" or being "crushed" or other violent imagery. Obviously a "fight" still seems like a useful metaphor, what with the name wifight. I just wouldn't want people to take it too literally I guess. But I think it can work as a metaphor for fun competition.

A game room would also be a decent overarching metaphor. Or a party. Or a party in a game room
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Old 05-28-2008, 04:11 AM   #6
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By the way, I meant the above in the context of the top level game of wifight, i.e. player vs player stats and rankings and profiles and such. In-game, of course, you might crush enemies all day long Or explode them.
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Old 07-19-2008, 02:23 AM   #7
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Brennan

Ive just gone through the entire User Guide and updated its text and pix so that everything now is correct for 0.28
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Old 07-22-2008, 12:27 AM   #8
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Hi Basu

Just wondering about the accuracy of the info you are using for deciding the situations for draw by low material

All the sources Ive looked at, e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw_(c...s_in_all_games
http://www.chessvariants.org/fidelaws.html

give these 4 situations only:

(a) king against king;
(b) king against king with only bishop or knight;
(c) king and bishop against king and bishop, with both bishops on diagonals ****of the same colour***.

You might have been assuming that since K vs K + Knight is a draw, then

K + Knight vs K + Knight

is also a draw, but this is not the case, since the second knight can block the attacked King's mobility such that a checkmate becomes possible. Likewise

for

K + Bishop vs K + Knight

and

K + Bishop vs K + Bishop (when the bishops are on opposite colours)

I always find the Bishop "colours" thing quite intriguing, because its something human players (should!) use a lot in their general strategy (e.g. you might try to swap off your white-square bishop for your opponent's knight if the white squares are clogged with pawns).

But I doubt that computer programs can make such a decision, since I dont think they actually ever "consider" the board as having squares of different colours, just squares.
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Old 07-22-2008, 10:55 PM   #9
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Thanks for the feedback. I went with the bigger list of situations based on what the ICC does: http://www.chessclub.com/help/draw

So from what you're saying/links you posted, checkmate is indeed still possible in those situations. But it also seems likely that it would be very very difficult to actually pull off and for reasons of fun ICC probably went with the bigger list.

Detecting what color of square bishops are on isn't too bad, so that's doable if need be.
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Old 07-22-2008, 11:41 PM   #10
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Aha

Good source! Yes, no doubt the ICC rules are better suited to the wifight situation.

Interestingly, I just looked through the ICC interfaces and there is still nothing mentioned for smartphones, just the web applets etc, which are probably pretty tedious to use, if they work at all.

With regard to B colors, I wasnt looking for any change to wifight, it was just a general observation

btw i second Nithya's call for more info re test builds on the website. I think the About screen should also show the "t" after the version # (like it used to) and also build #, since there are often multiple versions of tests. Its easy to completely miss mention of a new test build in the Chat Room, and then there is no way of knowing if one has the latest build.

Not that we dont enjoy trying to detect the changes
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Old 07-23-2008, 04:12 PM   #11
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Yeah, while I don't want to just follow the ICC blindly it does seem like those extra situations would be pretty difficult. Maybe the docs should mention that they are not impossible checkmates, just improbable?

Apparently there was a PalmOS client for ICC but it doesn't seem to have been updated since PalmOS 3.5 or something... IIRC.

I do try to use the bishops-limited-to-original-color rule when I can. Not so much to determine their worth but more of can-this-guy-ever-get-this-guy.

re test builds, you may notice that the test page now includes the latest version of whatsnew.txt. So assuming I remember to update that you should get a nice list of the changes when you go to update. Unfortunately Blazer might be caching the old page still so you might have to hit refresh if you don't see it.

Oops, forgot to put 't' on the latest builds. Good point. I'll try to remember to add another number after that if things get confusing. Ideally there would be only one test build per version but it never seems to work out like that...
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