Future Enhancement Request - a deck of backs

[purple_scorp]

Hi Richard,

I'd like the Random Deck Selection and it could be as simple as loading a random deck each time you open Orphalese (rather than loading the deck you used last. Although I'm now thinking a new strategy. .-)

It would involve the introduction of a new drop-down field in the deck file to categorise the deck type (Tarot, Oracle, Divination, Cartomancy, Other etc). This could then be used as a filter when selecting which deck to load (this would be a good way to help with sorting decks in the list anyhow). You could also add a choice, Load Random Deck and then filter on Category type - so we can choose from which category to load the random deck from - Tarot, or from Oracle, or from All Categories.

Alternatively, as a Random Deck Select method, create a tick box on the deck table to select whether or not you wanted that deck to be included in the Random deck folder. I was initially thinking that your program could search for decks with a tick, and copy the back.jpg from individual files into a master folder. Then you would need to generate a new number sequence 00.jpg to whatever in the Random folder. This may need to be a file that gets rebuilt from scratch each time you select Load Random Deck (otherwise it wouldn't know which backs to delete - as the cards would be renumbered and lose the identity of which deck folder they came from). Of course, each back is going to be called back.jpg which might be confusing in the Random folder, until your program can renumber the sequence, which gets me back to creating an additional card for each deck - a title card that could display the image of the deck box etc. That could be named within each deck folder using the format DeckNameTitle.jpg. That way, when they were copied into the Master Random folder, there would be no file name conflicts.

Just some thoughts, spinning around in my head.

Regards

purple_scorp

[Programmer]

Hi Scorp,

Well, some of these ideas have been spinning around in my head too. Aurora just posted to the forum abut the beta and made a throwaway comment that the program takes a long time to load when you have a lot of decks. I am thinking now that it might be possible to tackle both of these issues by allowing users to define extra deck folders, based on categories they choose. I am against predefined categories because people will always want to use their own, but these customised categories would simply depend on the user's folder structure.

Suppose you had your default deck folder, and this gets loaded up at startup as the My Decks list. You could then also have a second, third of fourth etc deck folder representing different categories of deck. These would appear as top level headings on the main menu, but they would not be loaded up unless in a particular session you decided you wanted to use a particular deck. Then you could load up the menu for that category and select that deck. Users with a lot of decks could reserve the main My Decks list for their frequently used decks.

Allowing a random choice from any category could certainly be possible.

I am just thinking out loud here, but obviously I would welcome feedback. It is also worth pointing out that I often add enhancements for the program to my To Do list and then they don't appear until several months later, so don't hold your breath :)

Cheers
Richard

[purple_scorp]

Hi Richard,

I had thought about the many different ways that peeps may want to categorise their decks and I wondered if you could build into the software the ability for us to label our categories however we choose. In other words, you would perhaps have a number system 1, 2, 3 etc as the primary key for the table but allow us to have write access to a field where we can create our own labels. Not a big problem, your method of having separate folders would be okay too. But, I was thinking how handy it would be if you had some mainstream categories (tarot, oracle, cartomancy, runes, i-ching etc) that were carried into the Deck Exchange area - so that when we you upload a deck, you select a category and then we could search by that category, instead of having to display all decks.

I know that Orphalese isn't your main job and really, Richard, you have done such an amazing job with it with your limited time available. If you made no further changes from this point forward, it would still be the best Tarot software out there. I don't mind how long it takes for some of these enhancements to creep into the program. It's great that you have such an enthusiastic approach to the future of this software and are looking at the big picture. I love that you are so receptive to enhancement suggestions and you take feedback/criticism onboard and do something about it. That's why you have so many happy users.

regards
purple_scorp

[Programmer]

Hi Scorp,

Thank you, it is lovely to be appreciated! And of course, I wouldn't do it if it wasn't a lot of fun too :)

I take your point about having categories reflected in the Tarot Zone, and in fact the subject has come up here before. Basically what was decided was that the best thing would be to appoint one or more administrators or librarians to look after the deck exchange, categorising the decks, rooting out duplicates, and chasing up the uploaders in cases where there might be missing cards etc. I had a few volunteers for this. The only reason nothing has happened is that I haven't got around to designing an interface for the administrators (when they are appointed) to do their work. You've reminded me how important this is though - as there are more and more decks on the exchange it starts getting difficult to find precisely what you are looking for.

I think with the decks in the program the best thing would be to keep the categories 100 customisable - i.e. based on folder structure. I thought a bit more about the business of loading the menus up and there is actually a very easy way to do it. I will add a menu option in the deck management form so a user can indicate that a folder's contents should not be loaded automatically at startup. This will update a hidden system file in the folder in question, which the program will look at when it builds the menus.

As far as the select random deck feature goes, I thought about maybe putting it on the compare cards form - i.e. a button that lets you select a random deck from the currently selected ones.

Cheers
Richard

[purple_scorp]

Hi Richard,

Great ideas re administrators/moderators for the Tarot Zone.

Re: loading of random decks. I thought a good place to put Load Random Deck would be on the My Decks menu (at the bottom with Deck Management).

Regards
purple_scorp