Lix title character length limit

[Silken Healer]

Lix Version: Lix 0.10.27
Operating System Version: Windows 10 LTSC 2021 64-bit English-United Kingdom, Version 21H2 OS Build 19044.5131
Description: When I attempt to title a Lix level (or the filename through Lix) there is a character length limit. This is too small to put everything I need in the title, and I could just manually edit in a file browser for the filename, or text editor for the title anyways.
Steps to reproduce:

• Open Lix
• Create a new level
• Attempt to name it more than whatever the current limit is

Screenshots/Recordings: None
Expected behaviour: No limit and we can create titles (or filenames through Lix) as long as we'd like

[Simon]

If you put longer titles, Lix will abbreviate your titles throughout the UI. You'll see abbreviations in the browser's level list, in the preview, ...

You'd also make it hard to talk about your levels in discussions. You're enticing people to abbreviate instead of typing the entire title, even if it's the first appearance in a post.

It's easy in the code to change the editor's text field for the level title from limited to unlimited. But given the exiting design throughout Lix's UI elsewhere, I prefer to keep that text field limited. It's a clear way to make people choose titles that render properly.

What kinds of titles do you want? Why do you need those? What are alternative titles that would fit, and why are they worse? How do you expect Lix to render your long titles? Do you want two rows of text for the title?

-- Simon

[Silken Healer]

I use this for putting at the end of my practice levels e.g.

(single-player practice)
(single-player practice) (increased Lix)
(increased intended players)

etc.

You could maybe make it show the full name upon hover like with the HTML abbr element does or maybe have it so if you hover on it scroll from left to right etc. but I don't really care. I just want the ability to be able to do so

[WillLem]

Idea: allow unlimited characters, but warn the user if they go over the amount that will play nicely with Lix UI. This could be done by changing the colour of the text to orange during typing (display it in the usual colour once it's set, of course) and/or showing a label below the title field that says "title is longer than the UI's limit" or something like that.

[Silken Healer]

Also, how does this reasoning justify making the filename having a limit?

[Simon]

Yeah, the filename should be unbounded.

No decision for the title. It's good to know that you don't want to release levels with longer titles. Instead, you want to use extra title length as always-visible annotation.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

Another idea, perhaps a bit out there: subtitles...?

[Silken Healer]

Also, semi-related, I just noticed something, is it inentional that the length limit is based on the width of the characters, not the amount of characters, e.g. 27 upper-case letter X's, and then two full stops is allowed, but 27 upper-case X's and two lower-case letter a's are not allowed?

[Simon]

Another idea, perhaps a bit out there: subtitles...?

Where do you want to print subtitles in the browser's list of levels so that they help Silken?

length limit is based on the width of the characters, not the amount of characters

Yes, and even funnier: The editor's length limit depends on the font scaling, which is not perfectly linear with respect to the resolution. At 1280x800, I get 27 X and 4 ., or 27 X and 2 a.

Title max length has always been vague. In the system as it is, you can't expect overly long titles to render abbreviation-free in every resolution. For now, the best is: Make titles shorter than 80 % or 85 % of what the box offers. Even if it fits in the editor, it won't necessarily fit in the level browser. This is a problem, but it's a different problem than what you want here.

For your use case (training variants of existing maps, and you aren't going to release the variants), I'd invent abbreviations and rely on the existing title support. 1P for single-player practice, +L for more lix, +P for more players, +S for more skills.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

Where do you want to print subtitles in the browser's list of levels so that they help Silken?

I'd invent abbreviations and rely on the existing title support. 1P for single-player practice, +L for more lix, +P for more players, +S for more skills.

Yes, this is probably a better idea tbh. FWIW, I'd suggest using "1P(P)" or "SPP" for single-player practice, as "1P" by itself could just mean "1-Player Level".

[Silken Healer]

Can you add support for emojis and symbols like star, heart, etc. in the title?