Hi, I love interactive fiction, but when I play certain games at textadventures.co.uk, such as Whitefield, the prompt box keeps focusing and defocusing, making the keyboard come in and out. I have a multi-terp, but it only opens glulx, zcode, hugo and others. It obviously doesn't work for Quest, so can you make a quest to zcode converter or an Android Quest?
Quest 6 will run entirely in the browser, so might be better?
In fact, you could check that now. This is an early test game; how does it work on Android:
http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/48pkf40on0soigganjtatq/first-steps
Hello.
the prompt box keeps focusing and defocusing, making the keyboard come in and out
Lots of games do that to me in a mobile browser.
It is VERY frustrating; isn't it?
I tried and tried (and tried) to find a way to code around that, but, if memory serves, it's a choice between two evils:
You can use focus, and the screen will automatically scroll down when text is printed before 'focusing' on the text entry field so the player doesn't have to click before typing. This is the way it works now -- it just goes haywire sometimes, as you describe above (and this renders many games unplayable, as far as I'm concerned).
You can not use focus, and the player will have to scroll down through any long bits of newly printed text and then click inside of the text entry field to enter a new command after each turn. (This also renders many games unplayable, as far as I'm concerned.)
So, sadly, I just avoid the mobile browser when text-adventuring.
Even the apps for zgames ruin the overall experience for me, and they have been masterfully crafted (I must admit). Don't get me wrong, I very much like the idea of text-adventuring on my mobile device, and there are three Android apps which are very cool, but nothing compares to text-adventuring on an actual computer.
It seems like I just digressed, but all that just leads into this:
can you make a quest to zcode converter
Negative.
Well, no one ever successfully has, and I've found a few posts which reveal that a few people have tried.
If there was enough money to be made, I'm sure someone would find a way, but, alas, everyone can play text adventures for free, so cross-platform compatibility is lacking (and this is the case with Quest, Inform 7, and all the rest -- not just Quest).
or an Android Quest?
I think the future Quest 6 editor could be packaged as an Android app. If I understand it well enough, Quest 6 is just a website. That website can be packaged as an Electron app and/or as an Android app (and probably as an iThing app).
If all mobile devices are like all the Androids I've ever used, you cannot run a website from the device's storage. My mobile devices will not allow the CSS or JS files to be 'included' when running an HTML file. (Lots to do with security.) If this is actual fact, maybe the mobile version of the editor could zip and save the created game(s) to a directory inside of the app, and that way the app could actually run the games without having to go through an actual server. (I think this is how mobile apps work, but I am not certain.)
I'm not saying I could code it, or that I could even help with it. I'm just saying that I (very lightly) dabbled in app creation with Android Studio as well as Electron, and I'm pretty sure an experienced coder (with lots of free time) who is familiar with all the specific programming languages which would be involved could probably pull it off.
In fact, I seem to recall that Electron itself can create all those different apps as long as all of the dependencies are installed. It will output apps for Windows, Mac, iStuff, Android, etc. My big problem was the SIZE of the apps I created. They were HUGE.
Anyway, I just tested out Pixie's game on my Android. I didn't run into this particular issue, but there is no scaling.
(I would post screenshots, but that would be time-consuming and it's easy for anyone to test it on their phone.)
The current version of Quest has its own special JS and CSS files for mobile displays. That's how the scaling is handled, but it's also where the focus issue comes into play (again, this is if I understand this stuff correctly).
I know that most of this doesn't directly deal with the OP, but maybe all the stuff I (almost) learned while fooling around with the Quest code will help or inspire those who are currently helping out with the Quest 6 editor's GUI.
I'm pretty sure it's just a website. So, I assume there could be a page added to play the games from within the app.
I've also 'used' Electron, and I think it can output Windows and Android apps from a Windows machine. (I also think it can only output Mac and iThing apps from a Mac.)
Anyway, that's all I've got that might help behind the scenes.