[interface] Link to wesnoth.org

[Daravel]

There are a lot of websites that offer downloads for Wesnoth that are not maintanined and thus providing out of date copies of the game and these people may never know or look for a website or updates (or dislike the old version and stop playing).

I think the main screen needs either:
- Text saying something like "visit wesnoth.org for the latest updates and to get involved in the games development" or
- An update button which brings up a similar message

[Insinuator]

Great idea. Bottom right hand corner of main page could have a little "wesnoth.org" link.

[JaMiT]

Just adding some information (not commenting on how good or bad the idea is): One of the "tips of the day" that get shown on the main screen is "On www.wesnoth.org you can find strategy guides, technical support, the history of Wesnoth, and much more."

[Dugi]

When speaking about this, would it be possible to add a wml tag that links to a certain page on wesnoth.org? It should be quite useful to get access to some add-on specific tech support.

[Iris]

One of the "tips of the day" that get shown on the main screen is "On http://www.wesnoth.org you can find strategy guides, technical support, the history of Wesnoth, and much more."

I thought this one used to be always displayed first when starting for the first time, but it doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. That would probably be a good thing to do.

When speaking about this, would it be possible to add a wml tag that links to a certain page on wesnoth.org? It should be quite useful to get access to some add-on specific tech support.

First someone would have to implement/find a—hopefully simple—solution to call the default web browser on all three main supported platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/X11).

[Alarantalara]

I'm guessing it would have to be platform specific (much like copy-paste) unless it's in some cross-platform library already.
LSOpenURLsWithRole is the function on OS X.

[Daravel]

One of the "tips of the day" that get shown on the main screen is "On http://www.wesnoth.org you can find strategy guides, technical support, the history of Wesnoth, and much more."

I thought this one used to be always displayed first when starting for the first time, but it doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. That would probably be a good thing to do.

A good idea. Although many new players might not be interested in either the tips, updating or getting involved on their first start up (although I would imagine that you would look at everything on the screen and therefore read it). But the next time they come to play that message will not be there.

I would still favour an update button that brings up a small box that could:
- Provide the link to wesnoth.org to download the latest version
- Provide a small amount of text to describe the development process, how long usually between updates and how they can get involved
- Possibly report the latest version for download

[Iris]

I would still favour an update button that brings up a small box that could:
- Provide the link to wesnoth.org to download the latest version

This could turn out to be a bad idea, especially for software distribution users (i.e. Linux distributions) who we don’t support directly, which is pretty much all of them since only Mac OS X, Windows, and OpenPandora builds are part of the mainline release procedure; that is, besides the source code tarballs, which are always the most official form of a release.

If they don’t know how to build from source—or don’t want to, or simply can’t—providing them with a link to wesnoth.org for updates could create even more confusion amongst them than there is already, especially for distributions that don’t have official backport repositories, or don’t use a rolling release scheme, or simply lag behind upstream (wesnoth.org) too much.

Provide a small amount of text to describe the development process, how long usually between updates and how they can get involved

Stable and development releases officially follow the traditional IIRWIIR scheme. Any perceived patterns are just coincidental. Stable releases in particular are pushed at semi-regular intervals, but that is never guaranteed to be the case.

As for the development process, there is no official specification on it yet because most of it is done in a very informal fashion. I have also been complaining about our lack of centralized, user-level documentation—as opposed to scattered technical documentation—for prospective contributors for a while, but so far none of the other developers seems to be willing to help with this matter. I may put something together myself eventually along with some minor changes to the website’s organization.

[Daravel]

This could turn out to be a bad idea, especially for software distribution users (i.e. Linux distributions) who we don’t support directly, which is pretty much all of them since only Mac OS X, Windows, and OpenPandora builds are part of the mainline release procedure; that is, besides the source code tarballs, which are always the most official form of a release.

If they don’t know how to build from source—or don’t want to, or simply can’t—providing them with a link to wesnoth.org for updates could create even more confusion amongst them than there is already, especially for distributions that don’t have official backport repositories, or don’t use a rolling release scheme, or simply lag behind upstream (wesnoth.org) too much.

Hmm. The idea of the button is for users who have downloaded from an obscure website that hosts an old version (I just googled "battle for wesnot" and the first page hosts a 1.9.9 download and the second page a 1.8.6). Generally a user who is familar enough to be downloading for the unsupported OS's would know this (I think). Of course, there may well be those who don't.

Nothing stops this being explained in the dialog box though. "If you are playing on this or that OS then note that Wesnoth.org does not host the latest compiled version of BfW, the current version is 1.10.3, you should check the website you downloaded from for an updated client. Or download the source from Wesnoth.org and learn how to compile it yourself from Here(link)."

Stable and development releases officially follow the traditional IIRWIIR scheme. Any perceived patterns are just coincidental. Stable releases in particular are pushed at semi-regular intervals, but that is never guaranteed to be the case.

As for the development process, there is no official specification on it yet because most of it is done in a very informal fashion. I have also been complaining about our lack of centralized, user-level documentation—as opposed to scattered technical documentation—for prospective contributors for a while, but so far none of the other developers seems to be willing to help with this matter. I may put something together myself eventually along with some minor changes to the website’s organization.

I meant for it to be more general, to give a rough idea to the general user who knows nothing about developement, open source or Wesnoth - someone who just plays the game, on what the overall picture is.

Something like this perhaps:

"Your current version of Battle for Wesnoth is 1.8.8. The most up-to-date version of Battle for Wesnoth is 1.10.3.

To download the most recent version go to http://www.wesnoth.org where you can access the download for your operating system.
If your operating system is not present then this means that we do not currently provide a compiled version of the game for your operating system. You can either: Check the internet for a more up-to-date compiled version or download the source code and learn how to compile it yourself here(link).

Battle for Wesnoth is an open source game that is developed by volunteers, you can find out more on how you could contribute here(link). The game follows a loose development schedule, a development branch of Wesnoth contains all the new features being worked on and can be downloaded here(link) (note: development branches use odd numbers, the current version is 1.11). Once the development branch is complete and fully tested then it is released as a stable, full version (the next stable release will be 1.12)."

Edit: Some people may not be connected to the internet very much, so the 'current version' available stuff will not work. Instead just say:
"Battle for Wesnoth is constantly in development and therefore updates are released periodically including major changes. Check www.wesnoth.org to find out if there is a more recent version available."

[Frogger5]

The main issue I can see with that, is that (correct me if I'm wrong) the next version number might be a little cumbersome or annoying to update. The current version number, I imagine, wouldn't be a problem.

[Insinuator]

The main issue I can see with that, is that (correct me if I'm wrong) the next version number might be a little cumbersome or annoying to update.

True. Perhaps the Add-On Server could auto-update the correct version number whenever someone connected to it?

[MetalKing]

Just adding some information (not commenting on how good or bad the idea is): One of the "tips of the day" that get shown on the main screen is "On http://www.wesnoth.org you can find strategy guides, technical support, the history of Wesnoth, and much more."

I don't like Apps that try to call home due to Reasons which are not caused by User's Interest. If that Tip gets loaded from a local DB it's ok but It's crap if a User without Inet-Link have to wait for unknown Reasons due to any stupid Tip-of-the-Day-Function tries (and fails) for Minutes to open a Connection into Internet.

E.g. the SConstruct of actual SVN-Trunk tries to ... probably get an Update via SVN. I wasn't asked for but have always to interact manually. At first I figured out what Process was stalling 'scon' and later I found Ctrl-C does effectively the same to continue Build-Process.

Brief: I don't like Apps requiring or expecting and use without Confirmation or Configuration to enter my Network. Same for File-Indexer and ToolBars for Browsers.

Tip-of-the-Day is useless due to I can get Tips as many as I want from MainMenu resp. there is always a Tip-from-entering-MainMenu and I think we don't need to floor the whole GUI-Pathes with those incredible important GameTips.

Ergo: Con that Tips

[Insinuator]

Just adding some information (not commenting on how good or bad the idea is): One of the "tips of the day" that get shown on the main screen is "On http://www.wesnoth.org you can find strategy guides, technical support, the history of Wesnoth, and much more."

I don't like Apps that try to call home due to Reasons which are not caused by User's Interest.

I have difficulty reading/looking at your post, but your first sentence seems to be the jist of it. Your quote from JaMiT does not relate to your complaint, however. The "Tip of the Day" does not currently "call home". It merely provides a link whereby the user can initiate contact. Additionally, while such action as you describe has been implied, a couple of simple workarounds which directly address your concern have already been suggested. You do not refer to these at all. Did you see them?

[JaMiT]

Tip-of-the-Day is useless due to I can get Tips as many as I want from MainMenu resp. there is always a Tip-from-entering-MainMenu and I think we don't need to floor the whole GUI-Pathes with those incredible important GameTips.

This does not seem to make any sense. The "tips of the day" are useless to you because they already exist? Or is that supposed to say that they are useless and their presence on the main screen is undesirable to you? (You want to get rid of them?) Your over-use of initial capital letters suggests a non-English background (German?), so maybe there's a language barrier?

For your other concerns:

1) The tips are indeed loaded from a local file (data/hardwired/tips.cfg, line 40 for the one I quoted), so it falls in your "ok" category.

2) I've noticed no difference in trying to build trunk with scons whether or not I have an internet connection. Nor has my checkout ever been updated without me explicitly requesting it (using svn, not scons).

Was there something related to ideas for Wesnoth buried somewhere in that rant?