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Author Topic: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06  (Read 999879 times)

gj39rtlpa

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2760 on: September 27, 2016, 02:34:15 pm »

Alright so first time in the forums, and by extension, first time interacting with the modding community at all. Also, I've finally come back to Dwarf Fortress since 0.34, and damn, have things changed!
But mostly Dwarf Therapist, which no longer felt quite right. Specially with all the new layouts and the weirdly arranged jobs.
So, after reading the help file and finding out why the changes (whose logic I don't quite agree with), I guess the old layout has been completely deleted.

So, I set after recreating and modifying the old layout, mostly using the in-game menu as reference (which sort of matched what I remembered, as well as the old screenshots I found).

Now, here's the thing: Grid layout customization is buggy, and painful to work with.

First off, you get two panels, left for job groups and right for the jobs in a group. You can rearrange the order of jobs, and the order of groups, in a simple drag-and-drop motion. Yay, basic functionality!
Not so happy after something as intuitive as dragging a job from the right panel into a group at the left panel. No easy one-click, one-drag option this time. Instead I had to right click the offending job, click again to delete it, click to get into the other group, right click to search the job in a labyrinth of menus and click again to have it be there.
Like, using an already existing layout is something that's being encouraged, with the COPY option, and moving jobs from one group to another would be the most common modification!
Also, forget about using the DEL button to delete stuff, nah, you gotta right click first.

But let's keep going. Remember the menu labyrinth? There's a nice rule of thumb in GUI design that says that there should be 5-7 elements in a drop down. Well, the right click menu has 20 elements, with lots of sub-menus that will more often than not ignore said rule, often looking similar! Good luck not confusing roles with labors in a menu that will move around as every right click, thus having to navigate some more.
And really, all of the operations there are done often enough that they shouldn't be locked behind that useless, additional right click. Can't they just be moved into a toolbar or sidebar of sorts on the left, with like, nice, shiny and easily accessible buttons?

Like, say, an "Edit" button, a "Delete" button, a "column category" drop down, and the actual column drop down?
Let's say I want to build a new group of columns, labor columns, so I only need to set the column category once, and then choose the individual columns. Want to add weapon skill columns? no problem, set the column category to weapon!
But as it stands right now, it's like I have to set the column category every time I add a single column. Plus an extra right click. This HEAVILY discourages creating a grid from scratch.

Then there's the spacers. If you're using them, you'll want to play around with them. Make this thinner one, make this one bigger... This color doesn't quite work... And hey, when you're playing around with stuff, it's only logical that you get immediate, visual feedback of your changes, instead of being forced to close the preview and open it up again every time you increase a single pixel in that spacer until it's just right.
While we're at it, having a color selection menu easily available instead of behind a double click, and then three extra clicks. So let's have that too. And now that we can separate color editing from name editing, and since you can delete multiple selected columns, let's have it so you can change the color of multiple columns all at once!

But, now, that's where all the bugs come in.
For starters, spacers being named "SPACER", "SPACER 1", "SPACER 2"... on creation will turn into " ", "1", "2" the next time you open Therapist. Sure, it's not that bad, but I really doubt that was intended. And it's terribly ugly when you have numbers and "SPACER" mixed around in that list.

Then there's the issue of color. Change a labor's color? No biggie, now it's the color you wanted it to be, forever and ever. Want to change a spacer's color? It'll be gone next time you open Therapist. Seeing all the work I had lovingly poured into making a nice grid I enjoyed suddenly gone wrong is making me seethe with rage, in case you hadn't noticed yet. Like, dude, why do you hate spacers so much? Don't deny it, it's made clear in that help file, and in the default labor layouts. I can understand the points you made in that pdf about spacers being useless, to you; but I do like them and I do want them, so don't leave glaring bugs like this around.

There's also a really weird issue were sometimes editing a column will make the changes on some column at the first group, instead of wherever you were, working, and also taking you to said first group. Damn, it feels great to feel dumbfounded for half a second wondering why there's way less columns, and why all but one are white instead of just changing the color of whichever one you were editing!
But hey, that looks like a hard one to pinpoint, so I guess it's sorta ok.

Now that I'm done rambling about the grid layout editor, let's move on to superlabors. They're pretty neat. I was pretty sure old Therapist had, like, additional columns to toggle all jobs in a group for a dwarf. but haven't found any screenshot featuring that. Fever dream or not, that would be pretty nice and it's easy to implement with said superlabors. I know you can do that with a right click, but I think I've already made clear my opinion on right clicks

But managing superlabors is terrible, too. There's like this long list of labors to choose from, and no way to cross-reference the labors in a superlabor with other superlabors, to prevent duplicates. It's not fun moving spinner to farming, changing the farming and clothesmaking superlabors, move spinner back to clothesmaker, update the clothesmaker labor and some time afterwards try to figure out why all the new farmers have spinner enabled.
Yeah, something more visual would be welcome, maybe some sort of grid, with like, labors as columns and super labors as rows. Not sure were I might have seen that before, huh?
But really though, I don't know if its spaghetti code you're working with and how hard it'd be to implement such a menu, but it would be a nice addition that looks easy enough to implement, since the system is already there, so give it some thought.

You should also give some thought to group toggles. Like, a superlabor column you can add to a group, which will update itself with all the labors on it's group. Not only that, but since it effectively represents it's group, you could have the group collapse into the group column and reduce the space it takes, opening up said group when you need to enable or disable a single labor in said group. I know you love anything that'll condense the info, so give this some thought too.

Now, here's something that really irks me about superlabors: You know how you can enable a labor for a group of dwarves all at once, right? Then why can't you do the same with superlabors? Like, hey, let's turn all these new migrants into rangers, in a single click! Only you can't.


I think they might be waiting until there are 64-bit memory maps available to make testing easier.

Well, if they ever get bored then they can get off their lazy asses, come fix some bugs and start improving Therapist's usability



TL;DR:
-Bugs:
--New spacers in the grid layout editor change their default name upon restarting DT
--Spacers do not keep the grid layout editor specified color upon restarting DT
--Sometimes, editing a column in grid layout editor will edit another column in a different group instead

-Issues:
--Column selection GUI for the grid layout editor is inefficient and could be improved upon
--Column edition GUI for the grid layout editor is inefficient and could be improved upon
--Superlabor editing GUI is inefficient and could be improved upon

-Feature requests:
--Dynamic, collapsable superlabors dependent on their current group, aka "Group columns"
--The ability to assign a superlabor to multiple dwarves, much like you can already assign a labor to multiple dwarves
--The ability to drag and drop columns from one group to another in the grid layout editor
--The return of the old grid layout

-Lots and lots of anger fueled rambling, spawned from frustration at the aforementioned bugs and issues
-The assumption that whoever is currently working in DT hates spacers, which I like, and loves right-clicking, which I hate.
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g2knee

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2761 on: September 27, 2016, 02:53:03 pm »

Oh man!  Just be glad you can give your dwarves jobs and keep track of them!
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Bumber

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2762 on: September 27, 2016, 05:04:59 pm »

Now that I'm done rambling about the grid layout editor, let's move on to superlabors. They're pretty neat. I was pretty sure old Therapist had, like, additional columns to toggle all jobs in a group for a dwarf. but haven't found any screenshot featuring that. Fever dream or not, that would be pretty nice and it's easy to implement with said superlabors. I know you can do that with a right click, but I think I've already made clear my opinion on right clicks...
I think you need to create a custom view (clone the original) and add your superlabors to it.

toad-edit: (edited quote to reflect username change for 'gj39rtlpa')
« Last Edit: April 03, 2020, 03:29:10 pm by Toady One »
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PeridexisErrant

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2763 on: September 27, 2016, 05:28:01 pm »

@gj39rtlpa - detailed reports are great, but please remember that you're talking to volunteers; please keep it civil.

toad-edit: changed @ to reflect username change for gj39rtlpa
« Last Edit: April 03, 2020, 03:29:51 pm by Toady One »
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lethosor

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2764 on: September 27, 2016, 06:33:05 pm »

Does the new "breakthrough" for DF Hack have any bearing on DT being brought up to the latest version?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=139553.msg7190743#msg7190743
No, it doesn't. And it's not really a "breakthrough" - more of a bugfix for an issue that was causing DFHack to crash on Windows, but wasn't hindering 64-bit research elsewhere (and there had been some done on Windows before that issue showed up).

If I'm understanding correctly, I think Lethosor had been using and making updates to some scripts to generate the DT memory layouts in the past, but with this new version, the scripts are completely out-of-date and need to be re-written.

With an almost-fully-functioning DFHack, the Dwarf Therapist team will probably have an easier time and maybe more motivation to try to make updated memory layouts for DF v0.43.05. I think there might still be some updating to do on the DT app itself to make it work with the 64-bit versions of Dwarf Fortress. So I'm wondering if we may see it updated to work with 32-bit Dwarf Fortress v0.43.05 before we see it working with 64-bit DF v0.43.05.
Just using the scripts, really. They definitely don't need to be completely rewritten at all, but they might need to be tweaked to get proper layouts generated.

It would probably be easier for the DT team to support 32-bit 0.43.05 than 64-bit, although there could be issues on Windows/Linux with new compilers (probably more on Windows), or maybe not. You are correct that the DT internals require changes to work with 64-bit DF, which is part of the delay. I think some work has been done, but it's not complete, but I'm not involved enough with DT to know exactly how well it's working at the moment.
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Iamblichos

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2765 on: September 28, 2016, 04:57:44 am »

@gj39rtlpa - detailed reports are great, but please remember that you're talking to volunteers; please keep it civil.

Seconded.  A for feedback quality, D- for presentation.

I have worked in corporate America for >20 years, and I wish that the homegrown apps I had been exposed to were as professionally designed as DT.  Nothing is perfect, and everything can be improved, but it collates a tremendous amount of information and does it in a readable, easily-graspable format.  It also does an excellent job of presenting the basic information while hiding the more advanced/obscure information while still making that obscure info available if needed.  The UI may not be to your taste, but it isn't "bad".

I also give mad kudos to the author for being willing to devote hundreds of hours to something which has the sole purpose of improving the quality of life of other players, and doing so expecting no remuneration.  That in itself is praiseworthy.  Let's all play nicely  :)


toad-edit: edited quote to reflect username change for gj39rtlpa
« Last Edit: April 03, 2020, 03:30:19 pm by Toady One »
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Meph

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2766 on: September 28, 2016, 08:45:57 am »

Just wanted to add that splinterz is a top-notch person; he is super reliable and takes feedback serious. :)
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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2767 on: September 28, 2016, 12:51:13 pm »

@gj39rtlpa - detailed reports are great, but please remember that you're talking to volunteers; please keep it civil.
I have worked in corporate America for >20 years, and I wish that the homegrown apps I had been exposed to were as professionally designed as DT. 

This


toad-edit: edited quote to reflect username change for gj39rtlpa
« Last Edit: April 03, 2020, 03:30:46 pm by Toady One »
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Icefire2314

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2768 on: September 28, 2016, 06:23:09 pm »

Is it still possible to use Dwarf Therapist at all with the current versions? I'd hate to go back to the old way of managing labor; actually managing it from an individual unit lmao
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userpay

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2769 on: September 28, 2016, 06:43:34 pm »

Is it still possible to use Dwarf Therapist at all with the current versions? I'd hate to go back to the old way of managing labor; actually managing it from an individual unit lmao

To my understanding you cannot use Therapist with the most recent versions (hence the old version number in the title) due to a requirement for DFHack to be usable. There's been some progress recently but DFHack isn't quite there yet.
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lethosor

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2770 on: September 28, 2016, 07:17:40 pm »

Is it still possible to use Dwarf Therapist at all with the current versions? I'd hate to go back to the old way of managing labor; actually managing it from an individual unit lmao

To my understanding you cannot use Therapist with the most recent versions (hence the old version number in the title) due to a requirement for DFHack to be usable. There's been some progress recently but DFHack isn't quite there yet.
No, DFHack being usable is not a requirement. DF globals and structure layouts being located is a requirement for both DT and DFHack, but in this case, DFHack is ahead of DT.
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DFHack - Dwarf Manipulator (Lua) - DF Wiki talk

There was a typo in the siegers' campfire code. When the fires went out, so did the game.

Icefire2314

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2771 on: September 28, 2016, 07:29:52 pm »

Is it still possible to use Dwarf Therapist at all with the current versions? I'd hate to go back to the old way of managing labor; actually managing it from an individual unit lmao

To my understanding you cannot use Therapist with the most recent versions (hence the old version number in the title) due to a requirement for DFHack to be usable. There's been some progress recently but DFHack isn't quite there yet.
No, DFHack being usable is not a requirement. DF globals and structure layouts being located is a requirement for both DT and DFHack, but in this case, DFHack is ahead of DT.

So does that mean we can't use it till DT's creators come back and update it?
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jecowa

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2772 on: September 28, 2016, 07:43:50 pm »

DFHack isn't required, but I think DFHack has a bunch of tools that make memory research easier. And once DFHack is updated, Dwarf Therapist memory maps can be created more easily by using some scripts.

From discussion on the github, the 64-bit version of the Dwarf Therapist app sounds like it still needs some work. I think the 32-bit version of Dwarf Therapist should work fine once it has a memory layout for the 32-bit version of Dwarf Fortress v0.43.05, though.
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lethosor

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2773 on: September 28, 2016, 07:57:57 pm »

Okay, what I should have said is that DFHack and DT depend on the same memory research, but also on people to do whatever work on DFHack/DT is necessary to make them work. Usually, DT requires less work than DFHack because it has a narrower scope, but in this case, it (and DFHack) have to be updated to work with 64-bit DF (not to mention the new compilers on Windows/Linux). The separate work, besides memory research, is farther along with DFHack than with DT, but those are two separate processes, and the progress on one at this point has little effect on progress on the other.

Is it still possible to use Dwarf Therapist at all with the current versions? I'd hate to go back to the old way of managing labor; actually managing it from an individual unit lmao

To my understanding you cannot use Therapist with the most recent versions (hence the old version number in the title) due to a requirement for DFHack to be usable. There's been some progress recently but DFHack isn't quite there yet.
By the way, the version number in the title corresponds to the last DF version supported out-of-the-box by DT. Basically, DT 37 contains memory layouts for 0.42.06. However, it will still work with 0.43.03, given memory layouts (which are available), since internal DT changes weren't required between 0.42.06 and 0.43.03.
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DFHack - Dwarf Manipulator (Lua) - DF Wiki talk

There was a typo in the siegers' campfire code. When the fires went out, so did the game.

userpay

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Re: Dwarf Therapist (Maintained Branch) v.37.0 | DF 42.06
« Reply #2774 on: September 28, 2016, 08:04:43 pm »

Ah my mistake, I've been watching both and that had been the impression that I'd gotten. Regardless catspeed to both projects!
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