Gramphos: As a software developer myself, I am completely in
awe of the work you have put into this tool!!! You either have no job (which would be a crying shame), or you have devoted a significant portion of your time off to developing freeware... in my opinion, Firaxis should pay you to include the MultiTool in the PTW release!
I didn't download your utility for the longest time, because from the comments I'd seen elsewhere on the boards, I thought it was principally designed for mod-makers. After I ran into a Civ3 problem that I couldn't find a solution for, someone pointed me in your direction. I downloaded the utility (from Apolyton... BTW, when are you going to update the links here?), and solved my problem. Then I started checking out the other features of the MultiTool and I was completely
blown away!
Of course there is
no such thing as perfect software. So here are my suggestions for future changes. Since I am principally a VB programmer (though I have done some work with C/C++ and the MFC), these are mainly user interface issues. From what I've seen of the app, it was written in C/C++ and MFC, and you are far more familiar with low-level programming than with user interface issues (UI is one of the things I'm known for being good at). Please understand that these are suggestions, and
not criticisms!
Suggestions:
- Give your executable an icon
If you don't feel up to creating the icon yourself (I am certainly no artist myself and tend to steal... I mean borrow, my app icons from other sources <grin>) you should be able to find an artistically inclined Civ3 gamer willing to create one for you. Heck, make a contest of it!
- Add an install program and turn the download into a self-extracting executable
If you are using one of the Microsoft tools, I can probably give you some more specific advice on this one. They've actually made it a whole lot easier than you might think. Drop me a private message/email letting me know your development environment, and we can take it from there.
- Add a toolbar to the app with the commonly used functions on it (Open file, Open Terrain Graphics, Save, Open Map, Edit Filter, Apply/Clear Filter, just to start)
If you are using VB, I can give you explicit instructions on how to do this (I just recently gave a class for the jr. developers, of our software group, on how to use these types of VB functions). If you are using MS C/C++/MFC I may be able to point you to the relevant portion of the help files.
- If the previous suggestion isn't feasible... Then you should really add both an "Edit Filter" and "Apply/Clear Filter" button to each tab
- Change the size/placement of the controls on each tab to better manage the 'whitespace'
The 'whitespace' is the clear area, and it should be kept to the right and bottom. For example, the "General" tab is perfect, but on the "Units" tab the top and bottom drop-downs should be widened to the edge of the other frames and the buttons on the "Map" tab should either be enlarged to better fill the space (with an increase in the font size of the button labels), centered & widened a bit, or they should be rearranged into multiple columns.
The last one is relatively minor (adjusting 'whitespace' and setting the tab-order are the last things I normally do before turning the app over to the QA dept.).
Please, please, understand that I really don't mean these points to be taken as criticisms... I'm just a really anal-retentive software developer (specializing in user interface design), who can't help noticing these sorts of things. If I didn't think the MultiTool was an awesome application, I wouldn't waste my time making these kinds of suggestions.
Thank you for all of your hard work!