Re: [Scid-users] hello

[Alexander W. <a.w...@ph...>]

Alexei Kovalczuk wrote:

Hi!

> - A way to add commentary to a move in SCID. I simply can't find the so 
> called "comment editor" in the interface,

Windows / Comment editor. Or most easily as Joost pointed out Ctrl-E.

> nor in any file menu.

Windows is the way you want to go here. In classic Scid mode
you get a lot of windows, most of them are collected in the
Windows menu with an open/close toggle. (To get independent
windows use Options/Windows/Dock windows, uncheck the latter
and restart Scid.)

> I even tried the shortcuts for ! and ?, but they didnt
> work either.

They do as long as the main window (ie. the board) has the
focus. Enter somthing like

!<enter>
?<enter>
!?

and so on. IMHO the behaviour is easier to understand if you
use undocked windows as you can then see which window has
the focus. (But I'm knows as one of the defenders of classic
mode ;)

> I tried both in a pgn file as in a Scid-format file (.si4,
> etc.) without any success.

You can not write anything ot PGN files. Scid opens them in
Read only. You'll always want to import them into a Scid DB.

> I want to add symbols and text commentary to moves...

For all of them use comment editor window.

> - How do I make the books work. I managed to open the book
> window from the menu tools-book tuning, but it only shows
> the bin books that come with scid. I downloaded a book
> from the sourceforge files in the .sbk format, but can't
> open...

Scids opening books are actually the same as those used by
Polyglot or Fruit or Toga II and so on. Scidlet (Scids own
historic engine) uses it's own book format and they're not
supported form Scids book menue. This has historic reasons:
scidlet is a xboard engine, and each xboard engine has
to have it's own books. Scid works around this issue in
recent releases with introduction of UCI and internal book
support.

> - About engines: is the toga version that comes installed
> reliable? I mean, that 2600 mark attached to its name in
> the engine menu, is that trust worth?

It is, as Joost pointed out, surely not the strength of the
engine on your machine, I think it results from SSDF or
something the like. Still, an engine with 2600 should be
stronger than one with 2000 regardless of the computer you
use. Therefore it seems wise to me to use SSDF ratings.
Still it's only meant as a rule of thumb.

> I'm going through some games and sometimes it looks really
> odd. Maybe its just some computer configuration I need to
> deal with?

Depending on the configuration some engines need quite some
time to settle on the best move. The time required of course
depends on many variables like your memory, your cpu
equipment the engine to use and so on. Therefore, take it as
a rule of thumb for an idea about the relative strength of
the engines you install. (Scid can use any UCI and xboard
engine.)

-- 

Kind regards,                /                 War is Peace.
                             |            Freedom is Slavery.
Alexander Wagner            |         Ignorance is Strength.
                             |
                             | Theory     : G. Orwell, "1984"
                            /  In practice:   USA, since 2001