runbasic in action

[richard]

http://1littleworld.net:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=house


Just finished this tonight and as you'll see, an interesting card
game.
The original author of the game, Thomas Warfield, includes it in his
solitaire package at www.goodsol.com I've been playing this game for
years and have never grown tired of it.

Please, don't try to validate this thing. It's an application like a
Java Applet is. The validator will have holy fits with it.

Yes I'm aware of a couple of glitches on it.

Let me know of any other problems you have with it.

 

[asdf]

OMG... here we go again.

http://1littleworld.net:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=house


Just finished this tonight and as you'll see, an interesting card
game.
The original author of the game, Thomas Warfield, includes it in his
solitaire package at www.goodsol.com I've been playing this game for
years and have never grown tired of it.

Please, don't try to validate this thing. It's an application like a
Java Applet is. The validator will have holy fits with it.

That's a lame excuse, and you know it. If you choose to distribute your
application using HTML, then please adhere to HTML specs.

Oh yes... java applets... I remember those... didn't they used to be quite
popular in the 1990s?

Yes I'm aware of a couple of glitches on it.

Then nobody will be interested in it. Fix it, then release it.

Let me know of any other problems you have with it.

See above.

 

[asdf]

http://1littleworld.net:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=house


Just finished this tonight and as you'll see, an interesting card
game.
The original author of the game, Thomas Warfield, includes it in his
solitaire package at www.goodsol.com I've been playing this game for
years and have never grown tired of it.

Please, don't try to validate this thing. It's an application like a
Java Applet is. The validator will have holy fits with it.

Yes I'm aware of a couple of glitches on it.

Let me know of any other problems you have with it.

Point 1. No instructions. No rules. If I didn't know how to play this game,
what am I supposed to do... ( and please don't tell me it's 'proof of
concept'... I'm getting sick of hearing that in regard to runbasic).

You still don't get it, do you... though hats off to your persistence.

You haven't provided anything that couldn't be provided using any of the
existing server-side plus javascript current coding schemas. Frankly, for
the game you have provided, the same functionality could have been provided
using javascript.

The difference is that the existing ones... ASP (god forbid), CGI...
(arrrgh) and PHP... (all PLUS javascript) are widely supported and generally
regarded as robust and able to complete the task. Why on earth would we
choose a YAPL (yet another programming language) to complete the task?

Providing trinkets of (minimal) usefulness will not convince anyone to
switch to runbasic, no matter how ardently you argue your case. To most
developers, runbasic simply does not exist. It's not widely supported by
hosting providers, does not appear to have any useful documentation and
doesn't seem to do anything beyond the trivial.

What's even worse.... Every time I click on something on the supplied URL,
it makes a round trip to the server. Is that really necessary for
solitaire???? ROFL

....and you obviously haven't tried it in all browsers... it seems that the
javascript is flawed. The drag and drop javascript doesn't work for me on
some browsers.

 

[richard]

OMG... here we go again.




That's a lame excuse, and you know it. If you choose to distribute your
application using HTML, then please adhere to HTML specs.

Oh yes... java applets... I remember those... didn't they used to be quite
popular in the 1990s?


Then nobody will be interested in it. Fix it, then release it.


See above.

This is not something you package and sell as is. Once you put it
online, it is released. While this is a working test module, it will
be improved upon over the next few days.

Apparently you have never played a solitaire game so what you need to
do isn't so obvious. Duh gee dude, wonder what happens when I click
here? Oh look, is that a link? How did you get beyond kindergarten?

 

[asdf]

This is not something you package and sell as is. Once you put it
online, it is released. While this is a working test module, it will
be improved upon over the next few days.

Apparently you have never played a solitaire game so what you need to
do isn't so obvious. Duh gee dude, wonder what happens when I click
here? Oh look, is that a link? How did you get beyond kindergarten?

Have you even heard of usablity guidelines?

Apparently not.

Let's say (for argument's sake) that I have not played it before. What do I
do?

Oh... and I guess a PhD counts as 'beyond kindergarten'?

Instructions on your page were (at the time) non-existent, at least in MY
browser.

Your arrogance in expecting users to know what to do belies the mindset, and
hence lack of usefulness of runbasic.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

http://1littleworld.net:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=house


Just finished this tonight and as you'll see, an interesting card
game.
The original author of the game, Thomas Warfield, includes it in his
solitaire package at www.goodsol.com I've been playing this game for
years and have never grown tired of it.

Please, don't try to validate this thing. It's an application like a
Java Applet is. The validator will have holy fits with it.

Yes I'm aware of a couple of glitches on it.

Let me know of any other problems you have with it.

What does this have to do with HTML? Can you not find a relevant NG?

As to the HTML aspect completing "move" via forms and rebuilding the
page for each step of the way is tedious at best. This would be much
better serve a Flash. Even via JavaScript could be a more suitable
solution (although not as robust)

 

[Harlan Messinger]

http://1littleworld.net:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=house


Just finished this tonight and as you'll see, an interesting card
game.
The original author of the game, Thomas Warfield, includes it in his
solitaire package at www.goodsol.com I've been playing this game for
years and have never grown tired of it.

Please, don't try to validate this thing. It's an application like a
Java Applet is. The validator will have holy fits with it.

Are you familiar with the term "non-sequitur"?

Do Java applets work when you use invalid Java?

 

[richard]

The game seems quite fun. I found a couple of bugs.

Quite a few times when I clicked on a card it told me I could move it to
some of the empty green blocks which you aren't supposed to be able to
do (and it didn't work when I tried it).

Then, and this meant I couldn't really finish my game, one of the Jacks
of Clubs just vanished into thin air after I tried to move it.

If you don't have it already, you could make some automated testing--
write another program that plays the game. After every move verify basic
assumptions like that all 104 cards are accounted for, and that
everything in the blue area at the top is stacked properly. This should
shake out the bugs so you can fix them.

Other suggestions:

1. The "Move This" tip looks too much like a button. Don't have it grey
like that but yellow or something.

I may change that thanks.

2. The "To Here" buttons arguably make the game too easy-- you can just
click on a card and let the computer figure out where you might be
able to move it.

Actually, the button acts as a trigger. While clicking on a card does
something else.

3. JS would be better for this since as it is it has to keep going back
to the server every time you move a card.

Not really. Trips to the server are most likely only for the images.

4. Needs an "undo" button, but maybe with a queue of only three or four
entries so as not to make the game too easy. But you don't want to
ruin your game just because you "missed" with the mouse.

Haven't figured out how to do that yet. That's kind of why I left the
card buttons active. So if you did "miss", just click on the card
again. In the commercial version he has a total undo feature. So you
can step back to the first play.

5. A "you're doomed" flag is quite good and interesting to program-- the
computer works out when there are no possible solutions and tells
you.

That would be one hell of a trick. With the zillions of combinations
available how could you do this?

 

[dorayme]

http://1littleworld.net:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=house


Just finished this tonight and as you'll see, an interesting card
game.
The original author of the game, Thomas Warfield, includes it in his
solitaire package at www.goodsol.com I've been playing this game for
years and have never grown tired of it.

Please, don't try to validate this thing. It's an application like a
Java Applet is. The validator will have holy fits with it.

Yes I'm aware of a couple of glitches on it.

Let me know of any other problems you have with it.

Good on you for having a go... it has an old fashioned clunky feeling of
early computing... <g>

Is there some technical reasons for the help splash screen to be marked
up the way you have it, with so many <br>s? On my Safari and iCab, the
text runs off the yellow into the grey and disappears into the land
which has to be reached by scrollbar. Not so on FF.

Let me contribute a slight point that will make it look better, some of
your cards do not look sharp, I realise you would be concerned to keep
load times down but there is a better way than to use high compression
jpg for things like cards which have many high frequency lines and
shapes. You are getting, for instance, about 2.6k for a seven of hearts.
But you can use a gif or a png with 8 colours that is sharp for less
than 1k (depending, gif in this situation can actually beat the usually
more efficient png), you can possibly make do with 4 colours and go down
further, the sharpness is important for cards.

(I shot a poker player once for dealing me an unsharp 2, it was totally
impetuous of me. He survived and was most understanding, confessed to me
that he would have done *similar* had he noticed. However, he
diplomatically added, he would have shot the host of the game not the
dealer... I looked down shamefaced and humbled at this...)

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

The original author of the game, Thomas Warfield, includes it in his
solitaire package at www.goodsol.com I've been playing this game for
years and have never grown tired of it.

Thanks for turning me on to the game. I have Good Sol, too, and I play a
lot of Josephine and Alexandria.

But, I agree with the others. The game is very slow, and the pictures look
pixalated.

 

[Travis Newbury]

http://1littleworld.net:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal?app=house
Just finished this tonight and as you'll see, an interesting card
game.

I think I just came...

 

[Harlan Messinger]

Are you familiar with the term "non-sequitur"?

Do Java applets work when you use invalid Java?

In what way does this illustrate anything about RunBasic, as your
subject line implied it would?