Configuration

If you are starting the Number Game without specifiing a configuration file on the command line, then you will be guided through a configuration process. To go through this sequence of configuration windows, type the following command on the command line:

   numbergame

Choosing a configuration file

At first you will be asked to choose a configuration file:

If you do not want to load an existing configuration file and you want to create a new one, then click on the New button. Otherwise choose an existing file with the Browse button, or type the name of the file into the text field. Now you can edit the file, or just start the Number Game with the specified configuration.

The configuration file format is XML. This format is readable by humans; you can open the file in a simple text editor (like notepad) and edit the configuration if you want to. But you do not have to do that; if you click on the Edit button, you will get a GUI-guided configuration facility.

Defining the number lines

If you have decided to create a new configuration or to edit an existing one, then you will be asked to specify the tasks.

Every task consists of four values (named "the tuple"): The left and the right border of the number line, the target number, and the scale of the number line units. The target number is the number the player has to search for. The use of the scale value is a little bit difficult: If all task tuples have the same scale value (0, for example), then all units of all number lines will have the same length. If the task tuples have different scale values, the unit of a single number line will get her length by the following method: At first the minimal and the maximal unit length will be determined: The maximal unit length is dependend on the window size, the minimal unit length is the half of the maximal unit length. The minimal unit length belongs to the scale value "0", and the maximal unit length belongs to the maximal scale value of all task tuples. All other unit lengths are equidistant between the minimal and the maximal unit length. So the unit length of a single numberline will be determined by the following formula:

Add a new task tuple to the end of the list (or to the marked position) by typing the values in the text fields at the top right corner and pressing the Insert button. You can delete a marked tuple by clicking on the Delete Tuple button, or you can delete the whole list with the Delete List button.

If you do not want to specify all task tuples by yourself, you can use the random tuple generator by clicking on the Random button.

In the random generator window you can specify the number of task tuples to be generated and the intervals the single values will be taken out. Note that some values are dependend on another one (the maximal value of the left border must be lower than the maximal value of the right border, for example). If you want one value to be the same everytime, just set the minimal and the maximal value to this value. Click on the Ok button to generate the task tuples. The resulting tuples will be inserted at the marked position or to the end of the list if no position is marked. Change to the next configuration frame by clicking on the Ok button.

Specifiing the images

In the next frame you can choose the images:

The Question Image is the image shown on the left side of the number line during the player is searching for the number (The hedgehog in the config1.xml configuration). The Solution image is shown when the user has found the target number (The cheering hedgehog in our example). You can specify a Treasure Image which will be shown at the beginning of a task just for a short time. This can serve as motivation for the player.

Everytime the player finds the target number with a number of trials less than a specified number, he or she will get an award. Therefore you can specify the Award Image.

Other settings

The next window looks like this one:

Here you can decide if the middle of the number line should be shown or not. If you have selected an award image, you can specify the maximal number of failures to get an award.

Save the configuration

If you want to save the configuration you have just made, select the file in the last configuration window:

If you do not want to save the configuration, click on the No saving button.

Now the game will start with your own configuration.