SDL interface thoughts

[mskala at ansuz dot sooke dot bc dot ca]

So, tonight I had a bit of time for XConq hacking, and I grabbed a fresh
snapshot out of the Sourceforge CVS.  Compiling that took longer than I
expected because I had to install ParaGUI, and ParaGUI required something
called "sigc++", and a new version of SDL, both of which had to be
downloaded and installed, but after I got it up and running I gave the
current SDL interface a try.

I have one thing that may be a bug:  After playing for a while in the
standard game, the interface seemed to get into a state where I couldn't
proceed.  I could switch between move and select modes and click on units,
but all the units I selected seemed to already have orders and be out of
movement points. I couldn't seem to wake them, or override or change their
current orders. I wondered if maybe I'd run out of movement points. I
figured out by trial and error that I could press "enter" to end the turn,
but that didn't help; it let the computer units move but it didn't seem to
let me give commands to my own units.  I also couldn't tell what turn I
was on, or whether the turn actually had ended - "end turn" is my best
guess of what "enter" was doing because it seemed to cause the enemy units
to move.  It's just as well there were enemy units visible on my screen at
that point (it took me a while to find them) because otherwise
"enter" would have had no visible effect at all.

I typed and deleted a rant about the hidden input states and lack of any
kind of menu in the SDL interface, so that it's impossible to use
comfortably, because I imagine that those things are already in the
process of being corrected.  The bug, though, might actually be a bug.
-- 
Matthew Skala
mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca                    Embrace and defend.
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/