Better Console UI

[matthew-parlette]

Right now, we have output simply displayed on the screen (which may change somewhat with #21).

It would be great to have a console UI that would show some 'static' contents, like always showing the map, and the player's statistics, and then the menu for the user's command would change depending on where they are located.

(This is actually an image of the mockup, it wouldn't render right when I submitted it, so don't try to copy/paste it)

[matthew-parlette]

we may be able to accomplish this with curses: http://docs.python.org/2/library/curses.html

[cparlette]

I read a little bit about Pyglet (http://www.pyglet.org/) today, it seems to be sort of like pygame, but more lightweight. We could consider using this for the UI, and that would leave the door open for sound, music, graphics, mouse input, and event processing.

I think it's probably overkill for now, but maybe something to look at when the basic game logic is done and we're looking to make it better.

[cparlette]

I just saw mention of Kivy (http://kivy.org/#home). One of the main selling points is that you can make GUIs that work with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. It has multitouch support for mobile OS's, and has methods of packaging for each OS.

We'll have to pick something to go with, but I'm intrigued at the possibilities for different OS's and packaging.

[matthew-parlette]

Wow kivy does look nice, and I agree the cross-platform is ideal.

I guess the choice would come down to how easy it is for each system. Have you done anything with pyglet yet?

Is pyglet cross-platform? Or pygame? I guess I had assumed they were since they are just written in python, but maybe they do have modules specific to the OS

[cparlette]

I'm going to put this as an item for bitfl-2.0, even if it's very basic and just has placeholder graphics, just to see if we can push ourselves.