Future Development Requests

[Programmer]

As I mentioned on another spread, my development time has run out for this summer so from now on barring exceptional circumstances I will just be limiting myself to bug fixes. This is the list of features that have been requested recently and seem to be worth implementing:

1) Introduce a way of dealing a spread one card a time, so that each random card ends up in its correct position and in the correct order, face up or face down according to the user's preference, just not all at once like at present.

2) Make it so the possibility of dealing a card while shuffling by using the space bar extends to this functionality.

3) Have an option of launching all the decks in a collection.

4) Closing a partial deck (i.e. one where a subset of cards from the main deck have been gathered into a smaller deck) should return those cards to the bottom of the main deck they came from. As this might not be everyone's preferred option, also include the option of gathering and discarding cards that are out.

I might not get a chance to work on these until next summer but everyone please feel free to add their suggestions on this thread. Thanks!

[Greg the Yeti]

Since the "Erratic Fault" - where Orphalese overwrites the correct number of cards with an error is continuing, I'd really like to see my suggestion implemented of an optional display of the number of cards in a Deck - perhaps inbetween the Right and Left History Arrows.

This would help to spot the errors AND would be a nice confirmation of the sizes of the Decks when using "Gather to a New Deck".

Please note:- Currently when using Multiple Decks the program always displays the Deck Options of the Master Deck, not of the 2nd or 3rd opened Deck. Ao that would require looking at as well.

Regards
Greg the Yeti

[Programmer]

Thanks for taking the time to post your last few messages again. Having the number of cards in the deck visible somewhere makes sense to me to.

[Greg the Yeti]

When using the P2P it would be nice to be able to sort "the whole lot" by whatever column you like - for example to find recently uploaded Decks.

Currently it does sort for each column - but ONLY within the small chunk of the Decks currently displayed. This isn't really very helpful..

Regards

[Programmer]

OK, that makes sense. Something like that was on my list for this summer but it got passed over amongst all the other stuff.

[baydar123]

Just read the development request by Greg the Yeti. I also wondered how to sort by most recent decks for the whole lot. You may already have thought of this, but I noticed, in the "options", you can increase the list size up to 500 and that makes for only three lists, the last of which is quite short since there on just over 1,000 decks. You can then sort by column and only have to look at three different columns. You simply change the "Number of results to request" to 500, then do a search leaving the search field blank. You get only three lists showing. Not sure how hard it is to increase the maximum number so it is more than the number of decks on file, but that may be some type of fix.

At any rate, I greatly appreciate the work done on this program and the P2P deck exchange as it greatly helps the development of the Tarot community.

[Programmer]

That sounds like a good work around until I can get something else in place, with just two or three pages of results it is very easy to sort and find the most recently added or updated decks. I was actually thinking of making it the default order for the whole set of results, so that the first time you load up the exchange you see any newly added decks on the first page. Of course I would include the option to then select alphabetical sorting, but I think changing so you initially see new or updated decks would encourage people to get in the habit of checking back into the exchange more often.

[Greg the Yeti]

Hi Richard,
and thanks for including this request of mine in the new version.

However a complaint. You havn't implemented it quite the way I'd hoped.

Fine it comes up as the default sort now. That's OK, but its what it's sorting ON that I don't think is the most useful.

Let me translate from the "Most Recently updated" into real English:-

What it's ACTUALLY giving us is a list of the "Most Recently DOWNLOADED". ( A Download counts as an "Update" for the purposes of the tally you've kept to tell you when to delete a share to make room for others on the limited Server Space.

But correct me if I'm wrong, there are now a whole lot more decks listed. So Server Space must have gone right up? So that tally you kept for purposes of deleting shares that hadn't been "Updated" is now not a useful category. Certainly it was never really a useful category to sort on.

It provides us only with information about the current WAR going on between a number of people to win the "Popularity Stakes" or to promote their kind of decks, as opposed to the "Others"?

And "Programmer God" has also been involved directly in the war, because of the limited Server Space, which provided a "necessity" for people to make a "false" download, every now and then, if they didn't want their deck share to get deleted!!

Look anybody who lists their deck as "1 Old English Tarot" is primarilly trying to win a race!
(Then one looks at the quality and the images are frankly poor quality and the notes are not those from the Deck but a substitute...)

OK, so that's quite interesting and amusing to see! So I'm gonna suggest to definitely KEEP it this way - but just change it's name to a sort according to "Downloads". That would be more accurate and honest.

Then, using real English we would be free to have a completely separate sort category, which might prove much more useful to those wanting to keep up to date with what's being shared on the P2P.
We should name it as a sort according to "Uploads" (lets completely forget the misleading "Update" category)

THIS new sort would enable me to find any of Dominatrix's fresh creations, or anybody else's for that matter.
Like I said, this would be much more useful to the average "punter" and would completely step aside from the Popularity War!

Regards Greg

And yes I have been a part of that war:-
deliberately promoting "my kind of decks" and also waging war against what I've seen as really low quality decks. Low image quality, without the original LWB notes, with corrupted notes, with mischievously altered notes or changes to the order or even the number of cards from the original. Yes I've been one of the "combatants". But yes it's funny to finally have a tool that shows it for all it's worth!!! So KEEP IT, but please change the misleading name...

[Programmer]

Actually no, that is not it. Last updated means just what it says in plain English. It means either it is newly added or the person who shared it made some change to it. I could add an option to order by the number of downloads but at the moment it isn't there. I have made it the default so people can easily see what is new without having to search for a specific deck. They can just check for any changes since their last visit.

It is true I was optimistic at first about how popular and busy the Deck Exchange would become (or maybe that should be pessimistic if we are talking about running out of space) but actually since the last server move there hasn't been anything coded to delete decks from the server, I saved myself the bother and just excluded decks from the results after a certain time. As a result I have realized that server space is not likely to become a problem for a long time, if it does I will do something about it then. So that is the reason for the change, I am just showing all the decks that are there now, except of course where the user has proactively stopped sharing the deck.

[Greg the Yeti]

Hey Richard,
I can say categorically from my experience sharing decks (under a Pseudonim) that NONE of my shared decks that the P2P shows as "Updated" recently had any "change" or "update" or "upload" in that period. It was all "down" to Downloads!

Look I've had a lot of experience on various Forums and have usually found that the various Forum software seems to be keyed in to interpret ANY action as an "Update".

Just as this Forum probably runs on third party Forum software, You might be using a third party "module" on the P2P to enable the actual nitty gritty peer to peer uploads and downloads? Blame them! I would!

To get a genuine measure of real "Updates" or "Uploads" on decks, it might be necessary to ignore what that third party module says and code it seperately somehow? Could that be done. This might be messy and I'll forgive you if it's not a priority!

Regards Greg