Found compatibility issues with test users because they didn’t have special characters in their fonts, so I’ve started to use images. I also added some code to make it possible to change the font on my end (Times New Roman for example). I’ve also been trying to add the ability to edit ideas the user added, but it seems really hard. If anyone is reading this, let me know if that’s an important feature to you, since if not I might scrap it.
Finally got the undo feature working after 3 hours of work. I had a lot of issues throughout, and I think I can put it in 3 stages. In stage 1, I was trying to make the undo feature work by running inverse commands to get back to where you were (for example, undoing adding an idea by removing an idea). This wasn’t a good idea because it was making the undo function very large and complicated. The second stage was more just a new approach, instead of trying to undo the actual changes, I tried to fully replace the list with an older version. This was closer, but it ran into lots of errors when I tried to do it because of how I was creating objects and not getting rid of them correctly, and referencing things that didn’t exist, and overall making a mess of memory and lists. The technique however was made working when after too long of not knowing what was wrong (turns out a lot) I caved in and asked ChatGPT. Still not proud, but it did work. It showed me what I did wrong, and then I fixed it’s fix because it made a couple mistakes (it’s AI after all, so that makes sense). Now with these fixes, it works as intended to my relief.
Added a bunch of new features this update!
Firstly, you can now save your lists as a JSON file and load them again whenever you like. This took a while for me to fully figure out (working with two libraries now instead of just one is definitely more complex) but now I can save and load lists easily, allowing you to actually save your ideas for later if you need to do something else, for example.
Another addition is the exit button, since to me it feels more proper than just pressing the “X” button in the top-right. It also reminds the user to save in case they forgot, since forgetting to save your stuff is a pain I think everyone has dealt with. I did this pretty easily, though it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to run two different things with one button in tkinter.
I also fixed a bug, which was that as you added items of different lengths to your list, they would become misaligned, but be fixed when you changed the list’s order. I just ran the line of code that did this in one function and put it in another, quite simple! I’m sure I added more bugs though, which I’ll hopefully fix tomorrow.
Also, this update did not require any AI, just some classic copy-pasting from geeksforgeeks and stackoverflow, like in the olden days :P
Added the last main feature: idea rearranging! You can use the arrow keys to move the different ideas up and down as you like to rank them. While this technically works, there’s still more to do. Other things I’ve added since the last devlog was making it so you can’t add an idea with no text, since that makes no sense. I did sadly have to use AI for help, since I couldn’t find a solution anywhere else online. I however have commented the code it made and have fully understood how the code works. Side note: AI is still really annoying to use.
Fixed two bugs. The first one caused the text to overlap with the X button with longer idea phrases (I was able to fix this by making the X button’s position relative to the text instead of being relative to the parent frame). The second bug I was able to fix was that the longer idea phrases caused the input menu on top to go separate (label goes further left, enter button goes further right). I was able to fix this second issue by putting the typing menu and the list is separate frames that can’t interact with each other. Next I will finally add the last feature to make the app fill all technical criteria; the ability to drag around the ideas to sort them.
Item removal is now working! It took a while to figure out, but it now works. In addition, everything is now centered (with a little help from AI, and then immediately turning it off because of how annoying it was). The main issue with this version is longer strings will overlap with the X button, which will be fixed when I can. After that bug is patched however, I will make it possible to change the order of the listed items.
First feature added, making a list. I have decided to use tkinter for this project since I’ve used it before and it’s pretty simple to use. The list can’t be edited yet, but this is a good start. My next addition will be to make it possible to delete the ideas you add.
All the mechanics and stuff are in! Just need to export! Been a fun few days of work on this for sure!
Game loop done!
Added art!
Got all the main mechanics working! Next up is art!
Getting the missile working! No art yet but it does work mechanically speaking. Should be the hardest part, since I can recycle some code and stuff from here.
