Differentiating equipment and inventory commands

[effable]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section -- the line between ToME and T-Engine gets blurred at times, but I thought it was time the Engine got a little love (or at least BBS traffic).

Currently, there seems to be no difference between the "Equipment" and "Inventory" commands, with both calling up the same three-panel display showing equipment, inventory, and item detail. Other commands (e.g., "Drop" or "Wield") create a two-panel box displaying the inventory and item detail, albeit with different activation behaviors when items are selected.

My suggestion is as follows:

• 1. Leave the Equipment command alone; if people want to see equipment and inventory combined, they're right there displayed as usual.
  2. Change the Inventory command to use the two-panel display from the Drop command; it would show, well, the inventory items as well as the associated item detail panel. This would eliminate the command duplication while allowing far more items to be displayed by eliminating the bottom panel.

As it stands now, when I'm trying to find something in the middle of my inventory, I will often use the Drop command simply because I can see more items at once. Considering that higher-level characters inevitably end up lugging around dozens of items, the extra display lines are quite handy. It would be even nicer if I could then select the item and choose from the full range of actions (rather than only to drop, wield, or whatever).

Eventually the Equipment command could develop in different directions, with new displays and functionality; you don't have to decide on that now, but this would lay the groundwork for the differentiation. For now, though, this seems like a simple tweak that improves efficiency and reduces redundancy with minimal disruption beyond remapping the key if users preferred the original behavior.

What do you think?