Display problems for gnome-sudoku in every theme installed by default

I should add that this game does not display properly in every theme available on a standard Ubuntu install. In some cases the lines and borders do not show up; in one theme numbers that are entered are drawn in white on a white background, in another, numbers in the highlighted square are not visible. The most tolerable is the low-contrast theme, where you can get almost everything to display correctly, as long as the highlighted square is one of the permanent numbers (numbers you've added are drawn in the same colour as the highlighting). In all other themes the game is rendered nearly unplayable.

I have only noticed this problem with the release of 11.10
Now the grid lines that distinguishes the boxes is almost the same as the lines between the squares.
Also the background on the start numbers is very dominating and difficult to look past.
But there appears to be no way of adjusting the colours (background or foreground)
This is a great version of the Soduko game but has been spoilt in this release
One solution would be to add an interface to allow the user to configure their own foreground & background colours.
As an example an older windows version of Sudoku allows for this - http://games.softpedia.com/get/Freeware-Games/Darren-Coles-Sudoku.shtml

I assume there was a redesign for the move from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 - but it certainly does not seem well thought-out. I suppose the workaround is to install one of the many other sudoku games available in the Ubuntu repositories!

Hello Sean, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-games into oneiric-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

Hi Martin,
Immediate feedback is: huge improvement! The game is now playable. I don't have time to do a full test now but first impressions are good, and I'll add further comments once I get a chance to test further. FWIW, I think it's great that I can post a design complaint about a relatively unimportant game and get results in a matter of weeks :-)
11.10 is looking great so far. Thanks!

I also confirm that this works now. The oneiric final version had this crash:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gnome_sudoku/gsudoku.py", line 59, in set_bg_color
    color = Gdk.color_parse(color)[1]
TypeError: 'Color' object does not support indexing

which caused the borders to not be displayed. The proposed version fixes this and displays the borders.

Yes, it is working now, Thank you very much

Agreed - the playability is the issue. I hope it can be fixed.
Andries
 ><>

-----Original Message-----
From: Victor Zamanian <email address hidden>
Reply-to: Bug 844385 <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 844385] Re: Display problems for gnome-sudoku in every
theme installed by default
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:30:54 -0000

** Description changed:

  This is not so much a bug as a design problem in the latest version of
  gnome-sudoku, but it leads to serious playability issues. Since 3x3
  squares are relevant to game play, there is typically a darker border
  around those squares as compared to the individual squares. The only
  theme where this border is in fact darker is high contrast inverse.
- With the high contrast them there is no border at all, even around the
+ With the high contrast theme there is no border at all, even around the
  individual squares. With most others, (Adwaita, Ambiance) there is no
  difference in the thickness of the individual and 3x3 borders. The game
  should display correctly regardless of theme.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
  Package: gnome-sudoku 1:3.1.91-0ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-10.16-generic 3.0.4
  Uname: Linux 3.0.0-10-generic i686
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Wed Sep 7 17:37:50 2011
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427.1)
  SourcePackage: gnome-games
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-08-26 (12 days ago)

It's been fixed in the latest version - follow Martin's instructions in #5 and you'll be up and running. (Just enable oneiric-proposed, reload, and update.) The borders are now there. The interface for entering notes is not as nice as it used to be (it no longer fits in the square) but it works too - there's no problem with gameplay now.

As an absolute beginner, having zero programming knowledge, how can I implement the fix on my computer?

No programming needed. Open up the Update Manager, and click on the Settings... button bottom left; this opens up the Software Sources window. Click on the Updates tab, and then check off the box next to where it says Pre-released updates (oneiric-proposed). Close the software sources window, and click on the Check button in update manager to reload the software info. It should then ask you to update the sudoku program to the latest version with the fix.

Dear Sean

You just saved me from serious withdrawal symptoms.

I am new to UBUNTU, is very happy with it and would like to learn more.
I was an IT expert in the time of NOS, CP/P and PCDOS and would love to
learn more about UBUNTU. I will have to start from scratch and would
appreciate suggestions.

My first problem: Disk layout ...

Thank you again
--
Andries vanTonder
  ><>
37 Delmere, Enfield, Co. Meath, Ireland
Home: +353 46 954 9748
Mobile: +353 87 977 4515

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Fitzpatrick <email address hidden>
Reply-to: Bug 844385 <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 844385] Re: Display problems for gnome-sudoku in every
theme installed by default
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:09:04 -0000

No programming needed. Open up the Update Manager, and click on the
Settings... button bottom left; this opens up the Software Sources
window. Click on the Updates tab, and then check off the box next to
where it says Pre-released updates (oneiric-proposed). Close the
software sources window, and click on the Check button in update manager
to reload the software info. It should then ask you to update the
sudoku program to the latest version with the fix.

Andries:
For the suggestions you're asking for it's more appropriate to use either the Ubuntu forums (ubuntuforums.org) or Ask Ubuntu (askubuntu.com) - Launchpad is more for reporting bug info to the developers.
You won't be the first person with questions about things like disk layout, so first thing to try is a Google search. Almost certainly you'll get a few results involving old Ubuntu forum discussions with info. Ask Ubuntu is newer but very helpful.

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-games - 1:3.2.1-0ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-games (1:3.2.1-0ubuntu1) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
    - Translation updates
  * debian/patches/90_fix-sudoku-borders.patch:
    Bugzilla patch to fix missing borders in Sudoku (LP: #844385)
 -- Jeremy Bicha <email address hidden> Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:53:15 -0400