Some Ideas.

[Luna]

Oh, well here it goes. I think that we should provide some starting
GUI for the users but it should all be stored in a folder, so they can
change it if they don't like it or whatever. Also like P32 and Px and
PC all have one fixed background color we should change that, they
should be able to change it even to a image.

Also the whole interface should be coded in a file so they can change
it to their liking, or we could make a graphically enchanted editor/
configurator for it, I know it's a long shot but if we could pull that
off a lot of people would be attracted to it and it might be the next-
gen client. Or we can keep the GUI stored in folders, like themes so
we can make one that looks exactly like Pal32, PX or PC so they would
use a better client with the interface of their old one. Then we would
have themes. And we shouldn't do the same mistake PC and Px did by
changing and screwing up ipt, with changing, adding or removing
features or even worse coming up with a language every palace scripter
dislikes and is not willing to use. The prop bag should be stored in
categories like on PX but we could make it so the props can be moved
trough the prop-bag like drag & drop...
I g2g now, moms yelling but I'll add more ideas tomorrow.

-
Luna

[Turtle]

Skinning and interface customizability cannot be a priority for
OpenPalace at this point. I'm a strong believer in the Apple design
sensibility and philosophy, wherein you provide some minimal
customizations, but for the most part, do the interface "right" and
people will enjoy their experience with the application.

Beyond that, implementing a fully skinnable and configurable user
interface is actually really hard, and development priorities must be
first focused on creating a fully-functional product that is well-
usable by a majority of users.

I do intend to overhaul the UI of the application, but making it
heavily customizable beyond perhaps basic colors, fonts, and window
layout cannot be my priority.

That being said, the bulk of the functionality of the application is
encapsulated in the "PalaceClient" library. The "FlashPalace" and
"AirPalace" projects in the source code repository are literally just
flash-based thin user interfaces wrapping the functionality of the
core library. There's no reason someone couldn't write their own
Flash/Flex user interface or modify the existing one. In fact, I
would encourage people to try their hand at exactly that.

Brian

[Turtle]

In regard to Iptscrae, I'd like to support it if I can, and have an
idea how I might be able to go about it. But lets be honest here,
it's a poor language based on a long-dead language (Forth)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_(programming_language)

If there is to be any expansion in the capabilities of what palace
scripting can do, Iptscrae has to go, no question. The logical choice
would be to replace it with something else that is standardized and
well understood. The most likely candidate would be JavaScript. It's
a well-loved language with a huge base of developers already familiar
with it. The few Iptscrae programmers that remain may not like the
change but ultimately, the community will have to move forward if
there's going to be any progress.

I'm going to take a crack at implementing Iptscrae before I move onto
JavaScript, but ultimately if it's not straightforward to port the
iptscrae engine to Flash, it's time to move on.

Brian

On Jun 8, 1:50 pm, Luna <valsal...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Luna]

Oh, JavaScript is a good idea I guess since it is quite cool, but ipt
would be needed eventually since most servers now use iptscrae(at
least as a room layout), and I don't think palaces will like the new
change of language since there aren't many scripters/coders on palace
anyways and the new language will probably be ignored because big
palaces like AVP will def not re-script everything, so maybe keeping
ipt *and* adding another language to OpenPalace to enchant it's use,
about the UI, I meant that to be added later, not at first since all
the features & w/e would be changed a lot during the development.


-
Luna

On Jun 9, 12:33 am, Turtle <tur...@openpalace.org> wrote:
> In regard to Iptscrae, I'd like to support it if I can, and have an
> idea how I might be able to go about it.  But lets be honest here,

> it's a poor language based on a long-dead language (Forth)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_(programming_language)

[Turtle]

Room layout is not a function of the scripting language at this
point. Only the interactivity. Support for iptscrae is not necessary
for room layout.

As far as re-scripting things, a new language like JavaScript would be
massively more powerful and easier to code than iptscrae. People
would be motivated to update scripts if a significant enough
percentage of users started using new clients that support the new
system.

But again, that's a ways down on the priority list. Right now I need
to focus on the simple things like getting chat bubbles to work
correctly, a more universally usable UI layout (the current one
doesn't work on small screen resolutions when you use big room
backgrounds,) and an updated prop handling system with prop bag and
saved avatars.

Brian