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Re: [Chessdb-users] New release of ChessDB (3.6.12-beta-7)

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Jeremy White wrote:
>>The interface to The Week in Chess (TWIC) is much improved and the 
>>interface to ICC and FICS is around 50% complete.
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Okay, I cheated - I tested with the CVS tip, rather than that build;
> hopefully they are close enough that it's still useful testing.
> 
> Right now I'm noticing an error when I try to exit; I get a
> tcl error, and I have to ^C on the console to close.
> 

Oops, I overlooked that. Teach me to control-C to quite the program 
won't it !!

I've corrected the CVS. It was basically trying to save an option I have 
removed.

For anyone building this, from source, remove the following

"::tools::twic::autodownloads"

from menus.tcl (not the whole line, just that bit).

If you want to edit chessdb or chessdb.gui, the offending line is line 
30494.

I better make a new release of that.

> Also, is there any useful testing I can or should do around the download
> from FICS?

No, not really, other than give me some feedback on the interface or 
documentation of that part. Also, translation problems (or missing 
translations) if you know another language.

I have had the telnet code go as far as to get a 'login' from the chess 
server, but I have removed that. Hopefully it will not be too long coming.


dave

Re: [Chessdb-users] New release of ChessDB (3.6.12-beta-7)

[Jeremy W. <jw...@co...>]

> The interface to The Week in Chess (TWIC) is much improved and the 
> interface to ICC and FICS is around 50% complete.

Hi,

Okay, I cheated - I tested with the CVS tip, rather than that build;
hopefully they are close enough that it's still useful testing.

Right now I'm noticing an error when I try to exit; I get a
tcl error, and I have to ^C on the console to close.

Also, is there any useful testing I can or should do around the download
from FICS?


Cheers,

Jeremy

[Chessdb-users] New release of ChessDB (3.6.12-beta-7)

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

I've made a new release of ChessDB,

The interface to The Week in Chess (TWIC) is much improved and the 
interface to ICC and FICS is around 50% complete.

The specific changes in this release, along with a few screen shots, are 
detailed at

http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/changes/

You can get the code at

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=chessdb&filename=ChessDB-3.6.12-beta-7.exe&use_mirror=osdn
(windows executable)

or

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=chessdb&filename=ChessDB-3.6.9.exe&use_mirror=osdn
(Source code)

I'd be interested in comments of course.

I'm aware there will be some translation errors caused by me 
re-arranging some of the text. See the link for specific areas which 
this is expected to occur. Let me know if you see a problem and of 
course, better still if you can send me an updated language file with 
the corrections.


Dr, David Kirkby

Re: [Chessdb-users] More on pgn edit facility (? an export function with 'paste clipboard text as pgn game')

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Richard & Hilary Dickinson wrote:
> Hi David & all,
>  
> Thanks for your reply to my query about pgn editing (& spelling).
> I have now looked a bit more at ChessDB & have found the "paste 
> Clipboard text as pgn game".
>  From there I can edit and copy & paste the pgn into notepad text 
> editor, which is good.

> I have 2 questions though
> a) what does the import button do? where does the game import to? 

On Solaris at least, if you copy a game with the copy button, it appears 
there. I suspect under windows the clipboard will be put there.

> (I 
> tried it & couldn't find it! Do I have to have a database already 
> open?probably!).

Yes, although if none is open, the clipbase should be used.

> I will look at the help files & play around with it to 
> try & work this out- but if you tell me it may be easier!
> b) can you add an export button/facility here which would open a windows 
> dialogue box to allow you to save this as a text file to any directory 
> on your computer?

Where do you want to take the game from, to export it to a file? If you 
have just used that facility, you must have had it in the clipboard I 
believe, so why not just

Tools -> Export Current Game -> Export game to PGN file ?

where yo ucan select exactly what you want exported, and whether it 
should append to a file, or create a new one.

> In regard to spelling I will gladly try & correct the mistakes-but I am 
> not sure when I will have enough sparetime to do it all at once as you 
> suggest. I hope to work something out in the next week or so (as I will 
> probably be away from the computer over the weekend). 


I'm NOT suggesting you do all at once!!

Do half a dozen corrections and if you have had enough for the day, just 
email the 6 corrections to me. I'll then upload it as soon as I can.

Next time you want to do a few more, just download it again. Hopefully I 
would have time to upload it, but if not, just carry on.

What I want to avoid is you downloading a file, me or someone else 
making *major* changes to it, then finding we have two quite different 
versions of the file and have to spend a lot of time sorting it out. On 
reasonable way to avoid that is to simply share the corrections once 
have finished for a day or so.

I perhaps overstated the importance of this, but i think you can see 
where I am coming from.

> BTW I now have both the stable ChessDB ver 3.6.9 & the beta1 version & I 
> will use the beta version & see how it works.

The two major changes are the downloads from TWIC and the ability to 
check your version is the current one by use of an item on the help menu.

> (have you seen 'chess for 
> blood' blog site- there are 2 good video game annotations there using 
> ChessDB).
>  

I had a quick look and found a link to ChessDB, but never see anything 
else. Perhaps you can post a link to the page.

[Chessdb-users] More on pgn edit facility (? an export function with 'paste clipboard text as pgn game')

[Richard & H. D. <ri...@di...>]

Hi David & all,

Thanks for your reply to my query about pgn editing (& spelling).
I have now looked a bit more at ChessDB & have found the "paste =
Clipboard text as pgn game".
>From there I can edit and copy & paste the pgn into notepad text editor, =
which is good.
I have 2 questions though=20
a) what does the import button do? where does the game import to? (I =
tried it & couldn't find it! Do I have to have a database already =
open?probably!).I will look at the help files & play around with it to =
try & work this out- but if you tell me it may be easier!
b) can you add an export button/facility here which would open a windows =
dialogue box to allow you to save this as a text file to any directory =
on your computer?

In regard to spelling I will gladly try & correct the mistakes-but I am =
not sure when I will have enough sparetime to do it all at once as you =
suggest. I hope to work something out in the next week or so (as I will =
probably be away from the computer over the weekend).=20

BTW I now have both the stable ChessDB ver 3.6.9 & the beta1 version & I =
will use the beta version & see how it works.(have you seen 'chess for =
blood' blog site- there are 2 good video game annotations there using =
ChessDB).

Thanks,
Richard

Re: [Chessdb-users] Incorporate edit pgn facility in ChessDB

[Michal R. <mr...@kd...>]

Dr. David Kirkby,  czwartek, 8 lutego 2007:

>> Here is just a simple thought from me: is it possible to add the
>> facility to edit pgn files in ChessDB (presently it is pgn read only)?
>I think not. If you want to do this, you can use any text editor
>(notepad  will do in Windows).
>If you want to search games first, to find a specific game, opening etc,
>then they will have to be in a database.
>If you don't want to create a database, you can always read them into
>the clipbase and then export them once you have edited them.
That is what should make it possible. Scid implements three database formats:
* PGN (read only)
* native
* in-memory

When loading not-too-large PGN database, we can open it as in-memory database. 
That should make editing possible, as well as spellchecking, sorting etc. 

It is probably not trivial, but shouldn't require much coding.

-- 
Michal Rudolf

Re: [Chessdb-users] Incorporate edit pgn facility in ChessDB

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Richard & Hilary Dickinson wrote:
> Hi David & all,

Hi Richard

> Here is just a simple thought from me: is it possible to add the 
> facility to edit pgn files in ChessDB (presently it is pgn read only)?

I think not. If you want to do this, you can use any text editor 
(notepad  will do in Windows).

If you want to search games first, to find a specific game, opening etc, 
then they will have to be in a database.

If you don't want to create a database, you can always read them into 
the clipbase and then export them once you have edited them.

> I feel this would be a good enhancement to the program ( & this has 
> probably been considered before?) to be able to work more fully with pgn 
> files.
>  
> (Another point while I am writing-there are quite a few spelling 
> mistakes on certain help file pages.If these could be corrected it would 
> be better.The help file documentation is extensive & good except for 
> these spelling mistakes. I hope you don't mind me mentioning this).

Richard, would you mind if I ask you correct them? It would be very 
helpful and my spelling is pretty poor anyway.

If the problems are in the help pages, please go to:

http://chessdb.cvs.sourceforge.net/chessdb/chessdb/tcl/lang/english-help.tcl?view=log

view or download the latest and edit it, then mail it to me.

If spelling errors are in the 'Tip of the day' section, do the same at

http://chessdb.cvs.sourceforge.net/chessdb/chessdb/tcl/lang/english-tips.tcl?view=log

If errors in the main main code (menus, windows etc), go to

http://chessdb.cvs.sourceforge.net/chessdb/chessdb/tcl/lang/english-basic.tcl?view=log

and do the same.

For other languages, go to

http://chessdb.cvs.sourceforge.net/chessdb/chessdb/tcl/lang/

then select one of 4 files:

$lang-basic.tcl for the menus, windows, popups etc
$lang-tips.tcl for the tip of the day
$lang-help.tcl for the help pages
$lang-eco.tcl if you fancy converting the ECO database into another 
language.

where $lang is the language of interest.

If you feel you are in a position to expand the documentation, or add 
some tips (very easy file format), then please do.

Please do not download the files, leave them on your disk for a week, 
then start editing them, then mail them back a week later!! It is better 
to download them as close as possible before editing them, and send them 
back as soon as possible afterwards. If you do some editing, but want to 
do more, just mail me what you have done, then download when you are 
ready to continue.

Try to preserve the file format. I will check anything sent back to me 
for file format, but it would be useful if you can do so before sending 
back.

I've not tried it myself, but believe Winmerge

http://winmerge.org/

might be a good way of having the original file and your modified 
version  and seeing the changes between them. Hopefully the only changes 
will be the spelling/grammar corrections.

I guess it would be wise to use well known English words, so that those 
whose first language is not English, have the best chance of 
understanding the English pages if noting else exists.

David Kirkby

Re: [Chessdb-users] New User Question about Saving Games

[Michal R. <mr...@kd...>]

Dr. David Kirkby,  czwartek, 8 lutego 2007:
>> Now the window under the chessboard shows:
>> Game 1
>> Result Hidden (etc.)
Right click on the Game information and uncheck "Hide result..."

>> Here's the problem: when I Close this game (Control-W)
>> it seems to be lost and not saved.
Ctrl+W doesn't close the game. It closes whole database in which you saved the 
game. After saving the game (Ctrl+S) you may press Ctrl+X to start a new one.

-- 
Michal Rudolf

[Chessdb-users] Incorporate edit pgn facility in ChessDB

[Richard & H. D. <ri...@di...>]

Hi David & all,

Here is just a simple thought from me: is it possible to add the =
facility to edit pgn files in ChessDB (presently it is pgn read only)?

I feel this would be a good enhancement to the program ( & this has =
probably been considered before?) to be able to work more fully with pgn =
files.

(Another point while I am writing-there are quite a few spelling =
mistakes on certain help file pages.If these could be corrected it would =
be better.The help file documentation is extensive & good except for =
these spelling mistakes. I hope you don't mind me mentioning this).

Best wishes,
Richard

Re: [Chessdb-users] New User Question about Saving Games

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Robin Whitman wrote:
> Hello and thanks in advance,
> and apologies for this simple question.
> 
> I'm having trouble saving games and data. For example, after starting 
> ChessDB, I move the pieces on the board for a chess game:
> 
> 1. f3  e6
> 2. g4 Qh4#
> 
> Now, I save the game with Crl-S
> then fill in the information in the new window (date and result and ECO 
> code)
> then I click the SAVE button on the bottom of this window.
> 
> Now the window under the chessboard shows:
> Game 1
> Result Hidden (etc.)
> 
> Here's the problem: when I Close this game (Control-W)
> it seems to be lost and not saved.
> I tried to find it using "Load Game Number" (Control-G) --
> and I looked in the files
> 
> but it seems as if this game is lost after I close it.
> 
> I'm running Chess DB on Windows XP.
> 
> Help appreciated. Thanks again,
> 
> RW

You are saving it to a temporary database called the 'clipbase'. When 
you close the clipbase, it's contents are lost - it is not saved on disk 
at all.

What you need to do is create a database that is saved on disk.

File - > New

select 'ChessDB database (*.si3)

then go through the procedure you described. When you close the 
database, it will be saved onto disk. Then when you reopen the database, 
you should see the game.

I hope that helps, but if not, get back to us.

dave

[Chessdb-users] New User Question about Saving Games

[Robin W. <rob...@gm...>]

Hello and thanks in advance,
and apologies for this simple question.

I'm having trouble saving games and data. For example, after starting
ChessDB, I move the pieces on the board for a chess game:

1. f3  e6
2. g4 Qh4#

Now, I save the game with Crl-S
then fill in the information in the new window (date and result and ECO
code)
then I click the SAVE button on the bottom of this window.

Now the window under the chessboard shows:
Game 1
Result Hidden (etc.)

Here's the problem: when I Close this game (Control-W)
it seems to be lost and not saved.
I tried to find it using "Load Game Number" (Control-G) --
and I looked in the files

but it seems as if this game is lost after I close it.

I'm running Chess DB on Windows XP.

Help appreciated. Thanks again,

RW

Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Michal Rudolf wrote:
> Mario Molinari,  czwartek, 8 lutego 2007:
> 
>>1.  Instead of supplying proxy support for TWIC files, as some of su are
>>not able to get to TWIC anyway from work (it's a banned site in Websense,
>>for  example), would it be possible to set up an option to make automatic
>>   integration into a database supplying the already downloaded files in a
>>   given directory, instead of getting them directly from the Internet?
> 
> Option to import multiple files at once should be enough - and easier to 
> implement. This is specially useful for Windows users, Unix people can 
> use 'cat'.


Although Windows users can use 'copy' almost as easily.

1) Open a command tool (Program Files -> Run, enter 'command.exe' or 
'cmd.exe' - depends on windows version)

2) Use copy:

e.g.

C:\> cd chess\PGN-collection\
C:\chess\PGN-collection\> copy *.pgn foo
C:\chess\PGN-collection\> rename foo big-file-of-games.pgn

then just import 'big-file-of-games.pgn' as one file.

I can see some advantage in making the process a bit easier, but it is 
not hard to do now, even under Windows. On UNIX it is much the same 
process, but its best to do both 'pgn' and 'PGN' as games tend to have 
both extensions and UNIX is case sensitive (Windows seems to be 
inconsistent on case sensitivity).

$ cat *.pgn *.PGN > foo
$ rename foo big-file-of-games.pgn

I will document this process in the tutorial, as perhaps its not so 
obvious to Windows users. But it is not hard to do now.

One BIG problem is that the number of feature requests far exceeds the 
number of offers to help. In such cases, I am tempted to concentrate on 
things that is impossible, or very difficult to do already. This is why 
I am adding support for downloading games played by other players from 
ICC/FICS. That process is very tedious at present.

Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Mario Molinari wrote:
> 
> About feature requests, I had sent a mail to the list and to Dave some week
> ago. I got no answer then, but I think it may be useful to resend it now.
> 

I'm sorry Mario, I thought I'd sent a reply, but on checking it was only 
in the Drafts folder, so it never got sent.

> Dave,
> 
> do you believe it would be possible to set up a page where people could
> vote
> for new feature requests?

There is no such facility on the Sourceforge site, but I admit I could 
set one up on my own UNIX server. But I'm not sure it is a good idea.

1) If someone wants a feature, they could easily vote for it many times, 
giving the false impression it is a popular idea.

2) It might imply that the feature with the most votes would get done 
first, which may not be so.

I feel that this is perhaps best discussed on the mailing list.

Please submit feature requests (including this one if you wish), to the 
Sourceforge 'Feature Requests' tracker at:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=184864&atid=910965


> Anyway, here are some suggestions of mine.
> 
> 1.  Instead of supplying proxy support for TWIC files, as some of su are
> not
>     able to get to TWIC anyway from work (it's a banned site in Websense,
> for
>     example), would it be possible to set up an option to make automatic
>     integration into a database supplying the already downloaded files in a
>     given directory, instead of getting them directly from the Internet?

I'm led to believe some ISPs (something I think mentioned Orange in the 
UK), insist on the use of a proxy server, so it might not only be users 
from work. Having worked at Marconi, I'm somewhat surprised by this, as 
the place I worked for (Marconi Optical Components) encouraged the use 
of the Internet. One site of interest to us optical scientists was the 
Britney Spears web site - do check it out, as it won a Scientific 
America award for the best scientific web site:

http://www.britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm


Anyway, getting back to ChessDB, Warren Lewis who has joined as a 
developer has added Proxy support for downloading games from TWIC. This 
is not in any current release, but is in the CVS, so if you download 
files from CVS, using either the standard 'cvs' client on UNIX, or a 
Windows CVS client such as CvsGui

http://www.wincvs.org/

and build according to instructions at

http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/tutorial/create-windows-setup-exe.php
(Windows)

or

http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/tutorial/UNIX-source-installation.php
(UNIX)

then support for Proxy servers is added. So its already done.

> 2.  I have a large SCID database (more than 3 million games), and I've
> always
>     had problems with wrong names and twin games.

You are not alone.

>     The problem with wrong names is that I have a lot of names which may
>     actually be the same name, but I cannot say whether they are or not.

I'm not sure if there is a good answer to that. One a few games you can 
probably get more information by asking around, but on lots, there is no 
obvious way.

>     The problem with twin games is that potential twin games are identified
>     on the basis of the header information, rather than on the move
> sequence.
>     Would it be possible to try and apply some hash code to games, only
>     dependant on moves, and trying to identify twins looking at such hash
>     code? And would it be possible to retrofit the information coming from
>     discovered twins onto the names (or maybe this is already done)?
> 
You can already do this in ChessDB and could in Scid before it. One of 
the criteria is 'Same moves'

In fact, I usually leave that as the *only* criteria, since if two games 
have the same moves, they are either

1) The same game
2) A very short game

Thinks like player names do tend to get misspelled a lot. Other problems 
I have noticed is the same moves, same players but different result. On 
one or two I have run a chess engine on that at the end to see the 
likely score. If the chess engine makes it +5 and the one pgn says 1-0 
and another 1/2-1/2, I tend to believe the first is right.

I've also seen several games from TWIC where ChessDB reports the moves 
are illegal. Overall, there are a lot of problems with PGN files on the 
web - unless they are generated by computer where people have played on 
computers (such as on ICC), they are always going to be subject to errors.

Soon it will be possible to download games directly from the chess 
servers FICS and ICC, so getting games without such errors should be 
much easier.

> 3.  When you copy games into a database, that's a moment where you may
>     generate a lot of twins. Would it be possible to add an option to check
>     for twins at that time, and avoid importing them, rather than having to
>     go through maintenance afterwards? I guess that working this way would
>     be much less cumbersome. Or is there some option like this already and
> I
>     don't knnow?

I think this would be difficult, to do in a good way, as the code for 
searching for twin games needs the games to be in a database. I'd 
suggest  putting your files into a temporary database and then looking 
for duplicates there before importing them into a larger database.


David Kirkby

Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

[Mario M. <Mar...@ma...>]

> Mario Molinari,  czwartek, 8 lutego 2007:
> > 1.  Instead of supplying proxy support for TWIC files, as some of su
are
> > not able to get to TWIC anyway from work (it's a banned site in
Websense,
> > for  example), would it be possible to set up an option to make
automatic
> >     integration into a database supplying the already downloaded files
in a
> >     given directory, instead of getting them directly from the
Internet?
> Option to import multiple files at once should be enough - and easier to
> implement. This is specially useful for Windows users, Unix people can
> use 'cat'.

What I'm thinking of is allowing to import all the games contained in one
directory where you have either pgn and/or zipped pgn files in a single
step.


> > 3.  When you copy games into a database, that's a moment where you may
> >     generate a lot of twins. Would it be possible to add an option to
check
> >     for twins at that time, and avoid importing them, rather than
having to
> >     go through maintenance afterwards? I guess that working this way
would
> >     be much less cumbersome. Or is there some option like this already
and
> >     I don't knnow?
> Limiting some operations to the newly imported files will be nice.
Perhaps
> just limiting them to filter is again easier to implement and more
flexible.
> Then, you can insert imported games to filter and later perform
operations
> such as spellchecking, ECO-classifying or adding Elo ratings on the
filter.
> --
> Michal Rudolf

I am not sure whether this would work. I mean, when importing games, you
may
have a game that has a twin in the database: so the first one is in the
filter,
but the second is not. This means that looking for twins in a set of
filtered
games should allow to get couples where the first game is in the filter,
but
the second is not.

Mario

Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

[Michal R. <mr...@kd...>]

Mario Molinari,  czwartek, 8 lutego 2007:
>1.  Instead of supplying proxy support for TWIC files, as some of su are
>not able to get to TWIC anyway from work (it's a banned site in Websense,
>for  example), would it be possible to set up an option to make automatic
>    integration into a database supplying the already downloaded files in a
>    given directory, instead of getting them directly from the Internet?
Option to import multiple files at once should be enough - and easier to 
implement. This is specially useful for Windows users, Unix people can 
use 'cat'.

>3.  When you copy games into a database, that's a moment where you may
>    generate a lot of twins. Would it be possible to add an option to check
>    for twins at that time, and avoid importing them, rather than having to
>    go through maintenance afterwards? I guess that working this way would
>    be much less cumbersome. Or is there some option like this already and
>    I   don't knnow?
Limiting some operations to the newly imported files will be nice. Perhaps 
just limiting them to filter is again easier to implement and more flexible. 
Then, you can insert imported games to filter and later perform operations 
such as spellchecking, ECO-classifying or adding Elo ratings on the filter.
-- 
Michal Rudolf

Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

[Mario M. <Mar...@ma...>]

About feature requests, I had sent a mail to the list and to Dave some week
ago. I got no answer then, but I think it may be useful to resend it now.

Dave,

do you believe it would be possible to set up a page where people could
vote
for new feature requests?

Anyway, here are some suggestions of mine.

1.  Instead of supplying proxy support for TWIC files, as some of su are
not
    able to get to TWIC anyway from work (it's a banned site in Websense,
for
    example), would it be possible to set up an option to make automatic
    integration into a database supplying the already downloaded files in a
    given directory, instead of getting them directly from the Internet?

2.  I have a large SCID database (more than 3 million games), and I've
always
    had problems with wrong names and twin games.
    The problem with wrong names is that I have a lot of names which may
    actually be the same name, but I cannot say whether they are or not.
    The problem with twin games is that potential twin games are identified
    on the basis of the header information, rather than on the move
sequence.
    Would it be possible to try and apply some hash code to games, only
    dependant on moves, and trying to identify twins looking at such hash
    code? And would it be possible to retrofit the information coming from
    discovered twins onto the names (or maybe this is already done)?

3.  When you copy games into a database, that's a moment where you may
    generate a lot of twins. Would it be possible to add an option to check
    for twins at that time, and avoid importing them, rather than having to
    go through maintenance afterwards? I guess that working this way would
    be much less cumbersome. Or is there some option like this already and
I
    don't knnow?


Mario Molinari




Michal Rudolf <mr...@kd...>@lists.sourceforge.net on 08/02/2007
02.47.44

Sent by:    che...@li...


To:    che...@li...
cc:

Subject:    Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

Warren Lewis,  czwartek, 8 lutego 2007:
>I'll enter these into the chessdb bug tracker. Michal, please post the
>feature requests and I will add those to the tracker as well.

Ok, since you asked...

I managed to dig up my old TODO file dating back to the times when I was
maintaining Scid during the first of Shane's disappearances.

Some of the items are most probably obsolete now, others may be too cryptic

(these were just my notes).

Sorry, I cannot clean the list now, but if something is not clear, feel
free
to ask.

Here it is:


Categories:
bug: bug to be fixed
cmd: command to be added
opt: option to be added
fea: internal feature to be added
ide: larger feature, idea or new concept
usa: improve usability, clean interface

GAME EDITOR
* bug: adding move at the end of variation deletes previous comment
* bug: with comment editor active browsing the game 'modifies' it
* cmd: [~] and [~=] buttons in Comment editor
* cmd: "Save/Replace" option for "Current game has changed" dialog
* fea: automatically delete empty comments
* fea: automatically replace conflicting NAGs (f. e. ??/?/?!/? or =/+=/=+)
* fea: merge game ignoring move sequences (use last matching position)
* fea: merge game into variations too
* fea: properly detect that game was modified
* fea: warn user when replacing large portions of game comments
* ide: any NAG in Comment editor (combo box?)
* ide: better editor (best: merge Comment Editor and PGN Window?)
* ide: allow merging two commentaries of the same games (f. e. we got
  (Annotator: Fritz    15. Bg5 ( {better } 15. Ng3) )
   Annotator: Crafty   15. Bg5 ( {with equality} )
   =>
   15. Bg5 ( {Fritz: better } 15. Bg3 )
           ( {Crafty: with equality} )
* usa: improve Save/Replace game window
* usa: improve adding specials (arrows,

BOARD
* bug: GoTo game ignores changes to cuurent game (-> Game Editor bug)
* fea: ignore Right arrow at the end of the game/variation
* fea: update board after every move when Right/Left arrow is pressed
(possible
  by adding "update idletasks", but it causes flickers
* ide: when brownsing, show box with main move and variations (as in CB)
* ide: swap board depending on player (your) name
* ide: make Home/End go to the end of the variation, not the game?
* ide: use fancy graphics for pieces and background

GAME LIST
* fea: highlight current game in game list by default
* fea: mark that there are no matches instead of showing 1st game

CROSSTABLE
* bug: some round robin tournaments are not detected
* bug: combo box uses small font
* fea: support larger swiss tournaments (such as Olympiad)

PGN WINDOW
* bug: adding pre-comment in variation doesn't scroll PGN window
* cmd: print game
* ide: better PGN display (figurine font?)
* opt: display 'strict' PGN
* opt: strip spaces after/before brackets for variations in PGN window

SEARCH HEADER
* bug: game count in search windows is sometimes incorrect
* bug: searching for ECO shouldn't find non-standard positions (disable?)
* usa: improve Header Search window (use tabs?)

SEARCH MATERIAL
* bug: fix font in Material search
* bug: starting position isn't sought (bad for non-standard games)
* fea: find symmetrical patterns (pawns a,b,c = f,g,h)
* fea: search by white/black/all piece count
* fea: find certain moves, specially captures (f. e. BxPe6 or RxNc3)
* fea: 'any white(black) piece' in patterns
* usa: Material Search window (use tabs)

DATABASE
* bug: cancelling Open Database command causes instability
* bug: some entries in Recent Files contain ./
* fea: reopen last databases/games
* ide: datasets (you define current filter to be current database subset)
* usa: improve Maintenance usability

TREE
* opt: configurable number of moves for best game
* bug: selecting tree move replaces current game move (-> Game Editor bug)

INTERNATIONALIZATION
* bug: correct charset support in Tcl 8.3.x and Tcl 8.4.x
* bug: convert from current encoding to UT8 on import
* bug: convert from UTF8 to current encoding on export
* bug: GUI is not updated automatically when language is changed

PLAYER INFO
* bug: incorrect photo positioning (sometimes text is hidden behind photo)
* fea: filter games selectable in Player info

PLAYER BROWSER
* cmd: popup menu to load All/White/Black games of a player
* opt: incrementally match player name

ANALYSIS WINDOW & ENGINES
* bug: cancelling move added by Analysis/Training
* bug: Comment button doesn't work ('window grab failed')
* bug: Phalanx sometimes doesn't see last move
* bug: sometimes wrong position is send to engine
* bug: Yace gets lost when current game is changed
* cmd: blunder search
* cmd: restart engine (specially if above-mentioned bugs are not fixed)
* fea: chess engine output in main window
* opt: option to always start engine in "low cpu usage" mode

OPENING REPORT
* bug: some options are ignored
* usa: configure Opening Report _before_ creating it (it is too slow now)
* fea: optimize opening report (rewrite Tcl code in C++)

TOURNAMENT BROWSER
* bug: tournament browser ignores EventDate

SPELLCHECKER
* fea: don't match partial name for surname

SCID DATA
* fea: update ratings
* fea: more pieces (convert from TTF?, fix outline)

INTERNAL GAME HANDLING
* bug: in PGN export, comment before first move written before header
* bug: truncate games strips comments
* cmd: remove verbal comments (leaving NAGs)
* fea: in non-strict PGN view, convert all $ NAGs to symbols/words
* ide: datasets (allowing to work on current filter as on the whole
database)

CLIPBOARD
* cmd: remove game(s) from clipboard
--
Michal Rudolf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Chessdb-users mailing list
Che...@li...
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/chessdb-users

Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

[Michal R. <mr...@kd...>]

Warren Lewis,  czwartek, 8 lutego 2007:
>I'll enter these into the chessdb bug tracker. Michal, please post the
>feature requests and I will add those to the tracker as well.

Ok, since you asked...

I managed to dig up my old TODO file dating back to the times when I was 
maintaining Scid during the first of Shane's disappearances. 

Some of the items are most probably obsolete now, others may be too cryptic 
(these were just my notes). 

Sorry, I cannot clean the list now, but if something is not clear, feel free 
to ask.

Here it is:


Categories:
bug: bug to be fixed
cmd: command to be added
opt: option to be added
fea: internal feature to be added
ide: larger feature, idea or new concept
usa: improve usability, clean interface

GAME EDITOR
* bug: adding move at the end of variation deletes previous comment
* bug: with comment editor active browsing the game 'modifies' it
* cmd: [~] and [~=] buttons in Comment editor
* cmd: "Save/Replace" option for "Current game has changed" dialog
* fea: automatically delete empty comments
* fea: automatically replace conflicting NAGs (f. e. ??/?/?!/? or =/+=/=+)
* fea: merge game ignoring move sequences (use last matching position)
* fea: merge game into variations too
* fea: properly detect that game was modified
* fea: warn user when replacing large portions of game comments
* ide: any NAG in Comment editor (combo box?)
* ide: better editor (best: merge Comment Editor and PGN Window?)
* ide: allow merging two commentaries of the same games (f. e. we got
  (Annotator: Fritz    15. Bg5 ( {better } 15. Ng3) )
   Annotator: Crafty   15. Bg5 ( {with equality} )
   =>
   15. Bg5 ( {Fritz: better } 15. Bg3 )
           ( {Crafty: with equality} )
* usa: improve Save/Replace game window
* usa: improve adding specials (arrows, 

BOARD
* bug: GoTo game ignores changes to cuurent game (-> Game Editor bug)
* fea: ignore Right arrow at the end of the game/variation
* fea: update board after every move when Right/Left arrow is pressed 
(possible
  by adding "update idletasks", but it causes flickers
* ide: when brownsing, show box with main move and variations (as in CB)
* ide: swap board depending on player (your) name 
* ide: make Home/End go to the end of the variation, not the game?
* ide: use fancy graphics for pieces and background

GAME LIST
* fea: highlight current game in game list by default
* fea: mark that there are no matches instead of showing 1st game

CROSSTABLE
* bug: some round robin tournaments are not detected
* bug: combo box uses small font
* fea: support larger swiss tournaments (such as Olympiad)

PGN WINDOW
* bug: adding pre-comment in variation doesn't scroll PGN window
* cmd: print game
* ide: better PGN display (figurine font?)
* opt: display 'strict' PGN
* opt: strip spaces after/before brackets for variations in PGN window

SEARCH HEADER
* bug: game count in search windows is sometimes incorrect
* bug: searching for ECO shouldn't find non-standard positions (disable?)
* usa: improve Header Search window (use tabs?)

SEARCH MATERIAL
* bug: fix font in Material search
* bug: starting position isn't sought (bad for non-standard games)
* fea: find symmetrical patterns (pawns a,b,c = f,g,h)
* fea: search by white/black/all piece count
* fea: find certain moves, specially captures (f. e. BxPe6 or RxNc3)
* fea: 'any white(black) piece' in patterns
* usa: Material Search window (use tabs)

DATABASE
* bug: cancelling Open Database command causes instability
* bug: some entries in Recent Files contain ./
* fea: reopen last databases/games
* ide: datasets (you define current filter to be current database subset)
* usa: improve Maintenance usability

TREE
* opt: configurable number of moves for best game
* bug: selecting tree move replaces current game move (-> Game Editor bug)

INTERNATIONALIZATION
* bug: correct charset support in Tcl 8.3.x and Tcl 8.4.x
* bug: convert from current encoding to UT8 on import
* bug: convert from UTF8 to current encoding on export
* bug: GUI is not updated automatically when language is changed

PLAYER INFO
* bug: incorrect photo positioning (sometimes text is hidden behind photo)
* fea: filter games selectable in Player info

PLAYER BROWSER
* cmd: popup menu to load All/White/Black games of a player
* opt: incrementally match player name

ANALYSIS WINDOW & ENGINES
* bug: cancelling move added by Analysis/Training
* bug: Comment button doesn't work ('window grab failed')
* bug: Phalanx sometimes doesn't see last move
* bug: sometimes wrong position is send to engine
* bug: Yace gets lost when current game is changed
* cmd: blunder search
* cmd: restart engine (specially if above-mentioned bugs are not fixed)
* fea: chess engine output in main window
* opt: option to always start engine in "low cpu usage" mode 

OPENING REPORT
* bug: some options are ignored 
* usa: configure Opening Report _before_ creating it (it is too slow now)
* fea: optimize opening report (rewrite Tcl code in C++)
  
TOURNAMENT BROWSER
* bug: tournament browser ignores EventDate

SPELLCHECKER
* fea: don't match partial name for surname

SCID DATA
* fea: update ratings
* fea: more pieces (convert from TTF?, fix outline)

INTERNAL GAME HANDLING 
* bug: in PGN export, comment before first move written before header
* bug: truncate games strips comments
* cmd: remove verbal comments (leaving NAGs)
* fea: in non-strict PGN view, convert all $ NAGs to symbols/words
* ide: datasets (allowing to work on current filter as on the whole database)

CLIPBOARD
* cmd: remove game(s) from clipboard
-- 
Michal Rudolf

Re: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs

[Warren L. <war...@mi...>]

che...@li... wrote:
> Send Chessdb-users mailing list submissions to
> 	che...@li...
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> 	https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/chessdb-users
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> 	che...@li...
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> 	che...@li...
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Chessdb-users digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Scid bugs (Michal Rudolf)
>    2. Re: Scid bugs (Dr. David Kirkby)
>    3. Please check content negotiation of web site. (Dr. David Kirkby)
>    4. Re: Please check content negotiation of web site. (Michal Rudolf)
>    5. Re: Please check content negotiation of web site. (Jeremy White)
>    6. Comments on ICC/FICS interface under development.
>       (Dr. David Kirkby)
>    7. Re: Comments on ICC/FICS interface under	development.
>       (Dr. David Kirkby)
>    8. Re: Please check content negotiation of web site.
>       (Dr. David Kirkby)
>    9. pgn.zip (Stu Owen)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 00:22:08 +0100
> From: Michal Rudolf <mr...@kd...>
> Subject: [Chessdb-users] Scid bugs
> To: che...@li...
> Message-ID: <200...@kd...>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="us-ascii"
>
> I promised to sent a list of Scid bugs. I could not find my notes, so here is 
> (incomplete) list:
>
> Bugs
> 1. Go to any move. Go one move back. Add a comment, let's say "Good move". 
> Make a move, choose "Add New Variation". The comment will be repeated.
>
> 2. Open any game via Finder. In Recent files, paths contain /./ making it 
> possible to have the same file listed twice.
>
> 3. Header search. 'Defaults' does not reset 'Side to move'
>
> 4. Edit any game (add variation or comment). Open ECO Browser and click on any 
> line. It will replace your game without asking. Compare it to (correct) Tree 
> clicking behavior.
>
>
> Possible improvements (perhaps not bugs, but awkward)
> 5. Empty variations are not deleted when last move is deleted)
>
> 6. It is possible to add NAG before the first move of the game/variation. For 
> variations, it is not even visible.
>
> 7. When file from Recent files list is no longer available, it is not removed 
> from the list.
>
> Other items are mostly feature requests, so I omitted them for now.
>
>   

Thanks for posting these. I think it is very important to tackle these
types of bugs so that chessdb continues to improve from release.

I'll enter these into the chessdb bug tracker. Michal, please post the
feature requests and I will add those to the tracker as well.

cheers - Warren

Re: [Chessdb-users] pgn.zip

[Michal R. <mr...@kd...>]

Stu Owen,  =C5=9Broda, 7 lutego 2007:
>Currently pgn.gz is supported, but there doesn't seem to be any
>support for pgn.zip - I'm sure the more common format on the web.
>Ideally I'd like to associate chessdb with my browser so when I click
>on such a file it automatically opens up. E.g. the files at
>http://www.gmchess.com/bases/
>
>Failing this it would be nice if I could download it and then open
>manually in chessdb without unzipping it. The filters on the open
>database doesn't include pgn.zip so the file doesn't show up.

The slight problem is that while gzip or bzip2 are used to compress single=
=20
files, zip is usually used to compress more than one file.

So, you will need to somehow determine number of files in zip archive and i=
f=20
there is only one, use it. Also, sometimes PGN is there, but in subdirector=
y=20
(that was the case for a few older TWIC archives).
=2D-=20
Michal Rudolf

[Chessdb-users] pgn.zip

[Stu O. <st...@go...>]

They may already be possible, but doesn't seem to work for me as far
as I can tell.

Currently pgn.gz is supported, but there doesn't seem to be any
support for pgn.zip - I'm sure the more common format on the web.
Ideally I'd like to associate chessdb with my browser so when I click
on such a file it automatically opens up. E.g. the files at
http://www.gmchess.com/bases/

Failing this it would be nice if I could download it and then open
manually in chessdb without unzipping it. The filters on the open
database doesn't include pgn.zip so the file doesn't show up.


Stuart

Re: [Chessdb-users] Please check content negotiation of web site.

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Michal Rudolf wrote:
> Dr. David Kirkby,  =C5=9Broda, 7 lutego 2007:
>=20
>>If anyone is willing to take a look over the web site at
>>
>>http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/
>>
>>I would be interested in comments. The information displayed to everyon=
e
>>will *not* be the same.
>=20
> Just a question: what do you think about making main page screenshot sm=
aller?=20
> I don't think it fits in standard browser window for many people, speci=
ally=20
> those using notebooks. Maybe larger screenshots can be put on separate =
page?
>=20
>=20

Yes, I will do that. Perhaps not in the very near future, but I will do=20
it. That criticism could be directed at other pages too, such as

http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/tutorial/t_intro_start.php

The best way will probably be to make the page loaded half the size=20
(half or smaller??), but one click an image to get a larger version.=20
That is not difficult to do.

I've just noticed one problem with the web site at:

http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/Scid/

That page is actually translated into Spanish and Swedish too, but there=20
are no flags on the English page.

Re: [Chessdb-users] Comments on ICC/FICS interface under development.

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

Dr. David Kirkby wrote:

> Anyway, so some questions.

Andther one - does anyone make use of other chess servers? If such servers:

1) Support a history facility
2) Accept logins via telnet
3) Have a published command set
4) You can connect without the use of closed source code

then adding support is possible. If the history outputs PGN directly (as 
does ICC), then adding it would be quite easy. If, as in the case of 
FICS, the ouput from the history is not standard PGN, then it would need 
to be converted. That would require the effort of someone else. Warren 
Lewis wrote the FICS -> PGN converter, but others could be written.

Oh, by the way, FICS suport will currently require a resonably fast 
machine, as the FICS -> PGN conversion in Tcl is slow. This code be 
re-written in C though, which would speed it up a lot.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some ideas and get some feedback.

[Chessdb-users] Comments on ICC/FICS interface under development.

[Dr. D. K. <dav...@on...>]

I, along with Warren Lewis, are adding adding to ChessDB the ability to 
download games from the chess servers ICC and FICS - other similar sites 
could be added, but since I don't have any accounts elsewhere, there are 
no immediate plans to do so.

I see the main uses as:

1) To find the sort of openings other players (such as those you will 
meet in a competition) will play.

2) To find common blunders that people at lower ratings play.

3) A quick way to download games of strong players like GM's. Just 
include their FICS/ICC handle on the list to be collected.

4) If you teach chess, this will allow you to find games played by 
players at the levels of your students. Often, there are good reasons 
for people to study games played at their own level, and not those of GMs.

Basically this part of ChessDB will:

1) Log onto the chess server, using a sever names you choose (defaults 
for ICC is chessclub.com and for FICS freechess.org), user name (default 
on FICS is guest) and of course a password.

2) Retrieve all games in the 'history', 'liblist' (ICC) or 'journal' 
(FICS) or any player(s) you choose and stick them into a database.

You can select what of the history, liblist or both are downloaded.

3) You choose the players from a list you type in, or a text file.

4) You can send arbitrary commends to the chess server and get back 
responses, but it will be automated for downloading games.

A screen shot of the current implementation under development is at

http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/tutorial/img/proposed-ICC-FICS-interface.png

You will enter your user name / password for ICC and FICS in a window 
like this

http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/tutorial/img/FICS_ICC_proxy-server.png

(The proxy server support is only for HTTP downloads from TWIC, not for 
the connection to the chess servers. Is there anyone who must use a 
proxy server to connect to ICC or FICS? I know Blitzin supports the user 
of a proxy server)

If anyone wants to look in more detail, install Tcltelnet

http://tmartin.org/tcltelnet/

and build ChessDB from CVS. The current version in CVS will connect to 
the chess server, but does not do anything very useful at that minute. 
(I doubt it would work under Windows at present, but that is simple to 
fix).

Problems - how serious are they??

1) You will have to either type the ICC password each time you start 
ChessDB and use this feature, OR save it in an unencrypted format in the 
options file. I could add some weak encryption. But such encryption 
would have to remain weak, as there is no way to encrypt the password in 
a way that can't be quickly decrypted by looking at the source code of 
ChessDB. I could do something simple like shift all the 
numbers+characters around one, so for example:

password = "hello23"
would be saved as "ifmmp34"

but anyone looking at the source code could quickly see how to decrypt 
"ifmmp34" to get back to the real password "hello23". Hence acing the 
password is optional. On FICS this is not an issue, as you can retrieve 
games as a guest.

2) There is not likely to be support for proxy servers in the near 
future. Hence my question about how many need to use them.

3) On ICC you must have a paid for account, not a free-week, as the 
free-week will only support connection via Blitzin or telnet and not 
ChessDB which will use a telnet client. Of course, this is nothing I can 
do about this - short of trying to fake being Blitzin, which I have no 
intension of doing at all.

Anyway, so some questions.

1) Would you feel such a feature is useful? If so, in what ways - any 
others to what I have listed?

2) What do you think of the interface for this as shown?

3) It is proposed to import the games into the currently open database - 
is that OK? Sure one could add support for any database on disk, but it 
is just more work.

4) Any other thoughts on this?

5) Given ChessDB can connect to ICC / FICS, is there anything else 
useful that could be done that is related to the roots of Scid. Adding 
support for playing online is possible, but it does rather get away from 
Scids roots as a chess database.

I'll make a release. probably by the end of the month which will 
incorporate this and other changes. I've decided not to make releases 
more frequent than about 1/month, so don't think development has 
stopped, just because I've not made a release in the last few days !!

Dave

Re: [Chessdb-users] Please check content negotiation of web site.

[Jeremy W. <jw...@co...>]

Michal Rudolf wrote:
> Dr. David Kirkby,  środa, 7 lutego 2007:
>> If anyone is willing to take a look over the web site at

First, I'd just like to stop and thank you for all of your
hard work on this - it's fantastic that you're putting in the energy!

>>
>> http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/
>>
>> I would be interested in comments. The information displayed to everyone
>> will *not* be the same.
> Just a question: what do you think about making main page screenshot smaller? 
> I don't think it fits in standard browser window for many people, specially 
> those using notebooks. Maybe larger screenshots can be put on separate page?
> 
> 

That was my only reaction as well, except that my question was:
why don't you have the basic description text flow next to the main
screenshot, instead of below it?

(Otherwise, I think it's quite good).

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: [Chessdb-users] Please check content negotiation of web site.

[Michal R. <mr...@kd...>]

Dr. David Kirkby,  =C5=9Broda, 7 lutego 2007:
>If anyone is willing to take a look over the web site at
>
>http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/
>
>I would be interested in comments. The information displayed to everyone
>will *not* be the same.
Just a question: what do you think about making main page screenshot smalle=
r?=20
I don't think it fits in standard browser window for many people, specially=
=20
those using notebooks. Maybe larger screenshots can be put on separate page?


=2D-=20
Michal Rudolf