Version/Build number in Launcher window

[maqifrnswa]

I've been experimenting with nightly builds in an ubuntu PPA. I have them all set up, but they fail because the packages dosn't know the git revision since the code doesn't come from git.
I know sirh is woking on it, once it is fixed they will be available here:
https://launchpad.net/~openmw/+archive/openmw-daily
and most likely will work for quantal (13.04) and newer.

[Greendogo]

This might be too complicated to do across systems, but since we put the version and build number in the launcher I've often wanted to be able to click it and have it open up the github page for that revision. Is that doable/desirable?

Alternatively, we could use a github icon (such as one from here: https://github.com/logos) shrunken and put the right or left as a link.

[Zini]

Doesn't sound hard. As someone who is only self-build versions of OpenMW I have little to no use for this feature. What are people who use prebuild packages thinking about that?

[psi29a]

I'm not sure what the need for that is that great, if you are a developer, you kind of know what you are looking at and don't need a link to get there. If you are a typical user, I don't see any benefit of going to the revision in github... what are they going to do, stare at it?

I was thinking a better choice would be to go bugs.openmw.org and automatically fill in the release version and revision for you to help aid bug submissions.

[Greendogo]

Well, my idea was to help people get a grasp on where the release they're using falls in the grand scheme of commits and patches.

I think it might even help people interested in the code get their foot in the door and guarantee a constant connection between our builds out in the wild and our permanent code base that's easy to find and sends you to the most relevant revision for that build.

[psi29a]

Well, my idea was to help people get a grasp on where the release they're using falls in the grand scheme of commits and patches.

I think it might even help people interested in the code get their foot in the door and guarantee a constant connection between our builds out in the wild and our permanent code base that's easy to find and sends you to the most relevant revision for that build.

I don't think it is a bad idea, I just think it targets the wrong audience. I'm going to pull this number out of thin air, but I would guess that only 5% of the total userbase of OpenMW would even be able to understand what they are looking at once they land on github.

This is the kind of thing that we should do a poll for in the blog, I could be wrong as well and not judging the community around OpenMW correctly.

[Sload]

I don't think this would have any practical uses, but it could be valuable as a statement toward the project's free & open source principles? I think having a link for bug reporting (clearly labeled as bug reporting) would be a very practical addition, though.

[Greendogo]

I like the idea of a link to the bugs.openmw.org site in the launcher, but linking it directly into bug reporting mechanism seems a little much, aesthetically speaking. People are perfectly capable of going from the "Overview" page to the "New Issue" page- from the general to the specific.

I propose we divide the revision text with the words "OpenMW development" (or whatever) linking to the OpenMW bug tracker while the revision number itself links to either the GitHub revision in question or the top level of the OpenMW GitHub repository. Like this:

(we'd still have the tool-tip with the build date and time; just didn't put it into the mockup)

Additionally, we could probably also put a link to OpenMW.org on the OpenMW logo at the top right of the launcher:


Edit: As Sload said, if a link to the Bug Reporting mechanism on the bug tracker site were put in the launcher I think it should be clearly labelled as a link to "Report a Bug" or something.

[scrawl]

Adding links when they are not clearly styled as such is not a good UI design.
In general I am not in favor of overloading the launcher with arguably useless stuff. That is something commercial games tend to do. What's next? Inbuilt news blog and changelogs? Auto-updater? Can we instead just settle on having the program do one thing and do it well?

[psi29a]

Wishlist!

As I said above, I don't see the necessity of it... but I could be wrong. That is why I suggested a poll, with one option to be "just leave it alone".