tooltip on leader icon with its side's color name (GNA #16116)

[wesnoth-bugs]

Original submission by anonymous on 2010-06-04

A tooltip on the leader icon that shows its side's color name would be useful for color blind folks who can't tell the difference between black and purple (and other colors). In on-line multiplayer games, people frequently address each other by their colors (e.g. "purple, go caves").

(Reproduced on GNU/Linux)
Release: 1.8.2
Priority: 5 - Normal
Severity: 1 - Wish

[Wedge009]

Not sure why I kept selecting Campaign label by mistake. Also I know this isn't specific to MP but it's more relevant for that mode.

[jostephd]

That's actually easy:

patch

--- a/src/reports.cpp
+++ b/src/reports.cpp
@@ -233,6 +233,7 @@ static config unit_side(reports::context & rc, const unit* u)
        std::ostringstream tooltip;
        if (!u_team.side_name().empty()) {
                tooltip << _("Side:") << " <b>" <<  u_team.side_name() << "</b>";
+               tooltip << " (" << team::get_side_color_id(u->side()) << ")";
        }
        add_image(report, flag_icon + mods, tooltip.str(), "");
        add_text(report, text.str(), tooltip.str(), "");

And it could be added to the status table too with little effort. I suppose we need an advanced preference or something, though?

[Wedge009]

Looks good. Is there a problem with leaving it on permanently?

[jostephd]

It's redundant for the majority of players.

[Wedge009]

Hmm, but tool-tips don't show unless the cursor is hovered over the item. Yes, it might be unnecessary but I don't think it's a huge deal. But I suppose it's nicer to have the option to switch them off.

[ProditorMagnus]

People who need this might not notice this preference. I think showing it always in that tooltip is good enough. Most people just have no need to regularly use that tooltip.

[Wedge009]

If we have a consensus that making this optional may not be necessary, can/should we just add this?

[jostephd]

I also got feedback in private to the effect of "options are bad". If no one disagrees, I'll assume this should be done without a new preference.

As implemented, the color name will be in English regardless of the UI language. Would that be a problem?

[Wedge009]

I wouldn't say bad... but sometimes they may not be really necessary. Hmm, I remember Vult used to say options are bad. XD

I'm happy for this to be implemented without the option (was going to have a go at it myself later but go ahead and do it now if you can). As for translations... it would seem inconsistent to not translate it. Is it a lot of extra work to make translations available for the colours? (We don't have translated colours already?)

[ProditorMagnus]

From the code it looked like it would show color id not name. And custom colors do not have English name even.

[Wedge009]

The image seems to show that it's displaying the colour correctly.

There are custom colours for teams (as in, you can choose the colour itself, not just choose a specific pre-defined colour for a given team)? If that's the case that would cause complications for this idea. And I was going to suggest that having some colour text would be better than none at all in the case that only English colour names are available.

[ProditorMagnus]

https://github.com/ProditorMagnus/Color_Modification/blob/master/color_mod.cfg#L1 only id and color values exist.

[jostephd]

And I was going to suggest that having some colour text would be better than none at all in the case that only English colour names are available.

When you're colorblind, sure. But when you're not colorblind and see red (in English) or Rav_pink in the middle of the UI, that's kinda odd :)

[Wedge009]

Hmm, so I wonder how did jostephd get the result in his screen shot, then.

Edit: Near simultaneous post. Then maybe we leave this as low priority then.

[jostephd]

Hmm, so I wonder how did jostephd get the result in his screen shot, then.

I posted the patch I used right next to the screenshot. It just puts the color id there, but the color id is "red" which is an English word, so it all looks fine.

[Wedge009]

I see, so it's dependent on the IDs being self-descriptive.

[jostephd]

It's as you said:

having some colour text would be better than none at all in the case that only English colour names are available.

[soliton-]

I would display the translatable name instead of the id. If necessary there could be a fallback to the id if no name is given.

"Options are bad" means there is always a trade-off to consider when adding an option since it causes an implementation and maintenance burden. If the benefit of the option is big enough it can still be implemented.

[jostephd]

https://github.com/ProditorMagnus/Color_Modification/blob/master/color_mod.cfg#L1 only id and color values exist.

Names do exist:

wesnoth/data/core/team-colors.cfg

Lines 11 to 16 in d0a3376

	[color_range]
	id=red
	rgb=FF0000,FFFFFF,000000,FF0000
	name= _ "Red"
	default=yes
	[/color_range]

So we should be able to use the name if specified, and fall back id otherwise - as @soliton- said while I was writing this :)

[ProditorMagnus]

name: A translatable name for the color. This may be ignored for non-core colors?

Documentation can be updated then.

[Wedge009]

"Options are bad" means there is always a trade-off to consider when adding an option since it causes an implementation and maintenance burden. If the benefit of the option is big enough it can still be implemented.

I understand that, it just sounds like a blanket statement to say you should 'never' add options.

[Wedge009]

I just noticed this enhancement could benefit #2682. While I can still see the difference between blue and purple there, clearly it's difficult for some to distinguish them even if they would not normally consider themselves colour-blind.

[jostephd]

Documentation can be updated then.

Honestly, I fail to see how "may be ignored for non-core colors" could possibly be true. It's not like there's a boolean field in the parsed config object that says whether the color range had been parsed from data/core or from ~add-ons, after all...

So, yeah, the plan is:

1. Use the name of the color_range, if available, else id
2. Add it to the sidebar, top bar, and game status dialogs
3. No new preference

[jostephd]

Use the name of the color_range, if available, else id

Translated color names are stored in game_config::team_rgb_name.

[Wedge009]

Thanks. I know I said I'd revisit this by Tuesday but I don't think I'll have time this week - though I do plan to come back to it (and a number of other issues I've marked for myself to look into) at some point (this year I mean).

[jostephd]

Thanks for the info. I might beat you to it, then. We'll see.

[jostephd]

PR: #4366