Re: [Scid-users] Scid status (dead?)

[pgeorges <pas...@fr...>]

I am really upset to see that some people try to develop an alternative 
to Scid. when the announce was made of a Java port I was 100 % sure it 
would fail : it has.
Now the target is Qt/C++ : it will also fail. Why ? Because :
- the amount of work is considerable to reach the same level of quality 
of Scid;
- Tcl / Tk is a fantastic library to develop a complex application in 
terms of time / efficiency, not Qt/C++.

About 2 years ago I made a patch to scid which allowed to play against a 
weakened engine (Phalanx) and giving a warning when a blunder was made 
like Fritz does (Crafty was running alongside Phalanx checking player's 
moves). Shane rejected my patch because he did not want to make scid 
dependant of Phalanx. The point I want to emphasize is that making a 
modification to current Scid is not hard and learning Tcl / Tk is really 
easy for any programmer.
I myself can't right now continue the development of Scid because this 
would mean to give up chess playing : I cannot do both. Sorry.

Scid is said to have an old fashioned look : is it important compared to 
  maintainability, functionality, stability ? Has everything been tried 
to take the most out of TK ?

There is some manpower available now : why waste it ?

Unfortunately ChessX is launched after newscid because of the joy and 
excitement of a new project start : I know what it is. But on Shane's 
sake, is this decision irrevocable ?

Pascal Georges