scidvspc-users

[Scidvspc-users] dafs

[Igor S. M. <jos...@gm...>]

Hi,

first of all thanks a lot for having continued the development of scid.
You're doing a real great job.

I would like to ask whether it is possible to consider the following key
issues (or maybe there is already a solution I don't know):
1. pagedown/up to move for next game, etc.
2. if the game list is open in one dock and the user is at that moment
   looking at a game, is there a way to jump to the game list? If I
   press Ctrl-L the game list is closed (and then reopened with ctrl-l).
   Maybe it could be possible to check whether the gamelist (or other
   windows) are open and if yes, jump directly to them;
3. would it be possible to add a key shortcut for reset the filter of
   the game list?

many thanks in advance!


-- 
:: Igor Sosa Mayor     :: jos...@gm... ::
:: GnuPG: 0x1C1E2890   :: http://www.gnupg.org/      ::
:: jabberid: rogorido  ::                            ::

Re: [Scidvspc-users] Feature request: Play vs WinBoard engines

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

Hmm - It's just too easy and fun beating up Phalanx.
I'll probably just think about it somemore before i make any changes here.

I finally fixed our annoying filter issue,
(when tree is open, gamelist filter removes didn't work properly) and
we also have a Board Search bug-fix, so this is probably enough to warrant
a release shortly.

S.

On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 8:10 PM, Steve A <ste...@gm...> wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 6:56 PM, Dale Hards <dal...@go...> wrote:
>> Hi Steve, thanks for getting back to me. I'm not sure about removing the
>> tactical game idea. Not sure about Phalanx either.
>>
>> As for new Xboard engines, my vote is something that you can configure the
>> strength of easily. Some of us (me) have no idea how to configure hash
>> tables, move plys and whatnot. We just want to make it 1200 ELO, and correct
>> me if I'm wrong, that is available in Phalanx?
>
> Selecting the engine strength is a desirable feature, and it's why Phalanx was
> originally adopted... but it's ELO ratings are hugely inaccurate.
> Also - it has unresolved bugs in windows, and no maintainer, so that's
> one reasom i'd like to nix phalanx.
>
> Another is Scid's bloat. I really can't reconcile adding a *third*
> player vs computer feature.
> Of course we can keep the current "Fischer Chess/Random Pawns/etc" features of
> Tactical Game in the new Xboard Game feature.
>
> Currently, stockfish has a good "Skill Level" UCI Option.
> Perhaps there exists an Xboard engine with a similar option... though
> configuring Xboard Engines cannot (currently) be done through Scid's interface.
>
> Another alernative is to keep Tacgame and SeriousGame as-is, and just properly
> document how to use the Xboard/UCI adapter with the Serious Game feature -
> but i have no experience with such adapters, and as a rule, native
> implementations
> are generally a better solution.
>
> Having said all this , I quite enjoy playing Phalanx occasionally,
> so i'd probably miss it too.
>
> S.

Re: [Scidvspc-users] Feature request: Play vs WinBoard engines

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 6:56 PM, Dale Hards <dal...@go...> wrote:
> Hi Steve, thanks for getting back to me. I'm not sure about removing the
> tactical game idea. Not sure about Phalanx either.
>
> As for new Xboard engines, my vote is something that you can configure the
> strength of easily. Some of us (me) have no idea how to configure hash
> tables, move plys and whatnot. We just want to make it 1200 ELO, and correct
> me if I'm wrong, that is available in Phalanx?

Selecting the engine strength is a desirable feature, and it's why Phalanx was
originally adopted... but it's ELO ratings are hugely inaccurate.
Also - it has unresolved bugs in windows, and no maintainer, so that's
one reasom i'd like to nix phalanx.

Another is Scid's bloat. I really can't reconcile adding a *third*
player vs computer feature.
Of course we can keep the current "Fischer Chess/Random Pawns/etc" features of
Tactical Game in the new Xboard Game feature.

Currently, stockfish has a good "Skill Level" UCI Option.
Perhaps there exists an Xboard engine with a similar option... though
configuring Xboard Engines cannot (currently) be done through Scid's interface.

Another alernative is to keep Tacgame and SeriousGame as-is, and just properly
document how to use the Xboard/UCI adapter with the Serious Game feature -
but i have no experience with such adapters, and as a rule, native
implementations
are generally a better solution.

Having said all this , I quite enjoy playing Phalanx occasionally,
so i'd probably miss it too.

S.

Re: [Scidvspc-users] Feature request: Play vs WinBoard engines

[Dale H. <dal...@go...>]

Hi Steve, thanks for getting back to me. I'm not sure about removing the
tactical game idea. Not sure about Phalanx either.

As for new Xboard engines, my vote is something that you can configure the
strength of easily. Some of us (me) have no idea how to configure hash
tables, move plys and whatnot. We just want to make it 1200 ELO, and
correct me if I'm wrong, that is available in Phalanx?

Cheers for your reply
Dale



On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 6:38 AM, Steve A <ste...@gm...> wrote:

> Dale wrote
>
> > I have a feature request but I'm not entirely sure how feasible it will
> be.
> > Can we enable playing against WinBoard engines? I know WinBoard is a
> dated
> > protocol, but given the massive amount of WinBoard engines there are
> around
> > this could be a really useful function.
>
> Hmmm - I think it is time to have this feature.
>
> What i'll probably do is remove buggy Phalanx and the tactical game
> feature,
> and replace it with another xboard engine and a Play vs Xboard feature
> (possibly integrated with Play vs UCI)
> Should be able to do this for the next release (Scid vs PC-4.11) but
> it'll push it back a bit.
>
> Which Engine and which version should be included ?
> I'm guessing Crafty or Gnu chess, but suggestions are welcome.
> Crafty can be tough to build on Linux, and Gnu Chess has undergone lots
> of revisions which i dont know much about - so perhaps one version or
> another
> would be better to use. We *dont* necessarily need the strongest
> version/engine.
> Ease of build, integration with Scid, and code quality/integrity are
> much stronger prereqs.
> Some engines support the protocol better than others, so this is
> another consideration.
>
> Is someone interested in removing Phalanx and integrating a new Xboard
> engine
> into ScidvsPC's build process.
>
> Steve
>

Re: [Scidvspc-users] Feature request: Play vs WinBoard engines

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

Dale wrote

> I have a feature request but I'm not entirely sure how feasible it will be.
> Can we enable playing against WinBoard engines? I know WinBoard is a dated
> protocol, but given the massive amount of WinBoard engines there are around
> this could be a really useful function.

Hmmm - I think it is time to have this feature.

What i'll probably do is remove buggy Phalanx and the tactical game feature,
and replace it with another xboard engine and a Play vs Xboard feature
(possibly integrated with Play vs UCI)
Should be able to do this for the next release (Scid vs PC-4.11) but
it'll push it back a bit.

Which Engine and which version should be included ?
I'm guessing Crafty or Gnu chess, but suggestions are welcome.
Crafty can be tough to build on Linux, and Gnu Chess has undergone lots
of revisions which i dont know much about - so perhaps one version or another
would be better to use. We *dont* necessarily need the strongest version/engine.
Ease of build, integration with Scid, and code quality/integrity are
much stronger prereqs.
Some engines support the protocol better than others, so this is
another consideration.

Is someone interested in removing Phalanx and integrating a new Xboard engine
into ScidvsPC's build process.

Steve

[Scidvspc-users] Feature request: Play vs WinBoard engines

[Dale H. <dal...@go...>]

Hi guys

I'm loving SCIDvsPC, been using it since switching from SCID just under a
year ago and I do prefer it!

I have a feature request but I'm not entirely sure how feasible it will be.
Can we enable playing against WinBoard engines? I know WinBoard is a dated
protocol, but given the massive amount of WinBoard engines there are around
this could be a really useful function.

At the moment I'm using Wine and the Wb2Uci executable to hook in a couple
of Windows WinBoard engines on my Linux machine but it's very prone to
crashing. It'd be nice if we could just use WinBoard straight - it may even
be more stable.

I'm not a Tcl/Tk or C++ coder so a feature of this complexity is unfeasible
for me to tackle on my own - especially given I no nothing about either UCI
or WinBoard protocols either.

Is this something that is feasible for someone else to tackle?

Kind regards
Dale

[Scidvspc-users] Nov 2013 windows beta

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

Here is a beta release
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scidvspc/files/windows-beta/scidvspc_20131116.zip/download
To use them, replace scid.gui and scid.exe in the "Scid vs PC/bin/"
directory with these newer files.

New features for testing are
* Depth based engine annotation
* Larger board sizes
* Gamelist context menu (less button crowding)
* FICS tweaks, including over-riding takeback/abort request dialogs
when game ends
* New Greek translation
* Dock a few extra windows (graphs mainly)
* Add a low CPU priority check box to analysis config window.
(Many windows engines can hog the CPU and kill app)

thanks

Re: [Scidvspc-users] 2 questions

[eduardo s. <edu...@gm...>]

Dear Alex:
                My databse is located in The Art of Direct Mate in Two
Moves (https://sites.google.com/site/edusadier/theartofdirectmateintwomoves)
and there you can freely download it. I´m recovering from a Pc crush,
so the update will be arriving in the next 3 weeks, making it a
138.000 problems database.
              Thanks for you interest, best regards, eduardo sadier

Re: [Scidvspc-users] 2 questions

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

> 1) It´s any way to edit the database items, I say to change the "read
> only" characteristic?

Just incase your db is in PGN - you'll have to read the documentation
and start to use a native scid (.si4) database. It's well worth while doing.
Otherwise, the only problems are with file/directory write permissions.

> 2) It´s any way to eliminate some columns in the "game list" window,
> for example, not see the Eco or the Result column?

Not properly. All you can do is adjust the column widths by dragging
the edges of the column titles..
Maybe one day...

The next release should have a fix for the (my-bad) bug that stops the
gamelist column widths
from being remembered.

Today i coded a per-depth engine annotation feature, and squashed a
nasty bug in the
computer tournament feature, so i'm getting keen to make a 4.11
release in the next month.

S.A.

Re: [Scidvspc-users] 2 questions

[Aleksandar J. <jos...@gm...>]

Hi Eduardo,
Will be nice if you share that problems db  with others!? (via dropbox or
however...)

Alex.


On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 11:47 AM, eduardo sadier <edu...@gm...>wrote:

> Hello: From some time I´ve been using ScidvsPc for my chess problems
> database (137.000 chess problems, 30 M) and it is a super fast
> database, with good finding resources.
> But I can´t solve two things:
> 1) It´s any way to edit the database items, I say to change the "read
> only" characteristic?
> 2) It´s any way to eliminate some columns in the "game list" window,
> for example, not see the Eco or the Result column?
> Thanks for your advice. eduardo
>
>
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[Scidvspc-users] 2 questions

[eduardo s. <edu...@gm...>]

Hello: From some time I´ve been using ScidvsPc for my chess problems
database (137.000 chess problems, 30 M) and it is a super fast
database, with good finding resources.
But I can´t solve two things:
1) It´s any way to edit the database items, I say to change the "read
only" characteristic?
2) It´s any way to eliminate some columns in the "game list" window,
for example, not see the Eco or the Result column?
Thanks for your advice. eduardo

[Scidvspc-users] Fast auoplay scid wished?

[<is...@is...>]

Hi gurus,
I am asking an odd thing. A scientifical sudy in the background, not  
an ordinary user feature.

What would be very good for me:
(1)Autoplay speed not limited at all (now 0.1 s).
(2)New game autoplay starts from a multiple pgn file without user  
control (for ex. after 0.5 sec delay after previous autoplay)

These changes would be technically easy to progam for a person  
familiar with the src.

My current situation is not good:
-The current Scid autoplay works with my Windows my Linux scid-4.4  
autoplay do not work.
-I tried to compile scid-4.10 src on my Ubuntu 12
  and got an error message  "src/polyglot/board.cpp:6:18: fatal error:  
cstdio: No such file or directory".

My intention was to make the changes by myself, even it would take a  
lot of time for me (not familiar with the scid src and Tcl/TK).

Any help to science?

- Error message?
- The core snippets for the changes and places where to make the  
changes(files)?

Thanks in advance: Tuomo

[Scidvspc-users] Larger board sizes

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

Thanks to the Scid mailing list for giving me impetus to make this hack
(pic attached / subversion rev 1640) which doubles the largest board
size Scid can show  :-)

It's done using the photo image scaling feature... which may or
may-not be bug-free on different platforms, so testing would be
appreciated.
Hopefully, i can try it out on Windows and OS X on the weekend.

Scaling png images works suprisingly well, but if you don't have
TkImg, and are stuck with the three gif based piece sets, these look
quite average at large sizes. Also, some of the background textures
just don't tile well.

S.

[Scidvspc-users] Gamelist context menu

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

I've added a sane context menu to the gamelist window, and freed up some
space in the button bar. Right-click for context menu, middle-click
hide/unhides the buttons.

Maybe some work needs to be done with translations ?

S.

[Scidvspc-users] OS X Mavericks issue(s)

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

I have a Mavericks beta on a Macbook.

I had to change this line in start.tcl/scid
- set macApp 0
+ set macApp 1
for it to work properly, but otherwise i havent noticed any bugs.

This OS is very interesting! My beta seems very smooth compared to
Lion/MountainLion.

They coallesce some timer events so as to lengthen CPU idle periods to
reduce battery drain. So battery life is good, but performance
critical events/apps
are reporting bugs.

S.

Re: [Scidvspc-users] TkImg fix for Mint 15

[<gre...@gm...>]

Hi,

> Mint's interface is probably the best Desktop Linux i've ever seen :-) ,
> so here's hoping i don't find any major problems with the Ubuntu backend.

I fully agree. I prefer XFCE but Mint XFCE is beautiful and very functional as well. The Mint devs and designers really know how to implement a desktop environment. At the moment I use SUSE but I'm also planning to switch to Mint.

Unfortunately I can't get rid of this quite ugly TK interface design of scid. I'm aware of this Options -> Design -> clam entry in the menu bar but when I select it, nothing happens.

Cheers,
Andreas

[Scidvspc-users] TkImg fix for Mint 15

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

Looks like i've switched my desktop to the 32 bit KDE version of Linux Mint  :)

Sorry for the rant ... but two shitty releases of Fedora is more than
i can handle.
Gnome 3.8 (deafult Fed19 GUI) is some special kind of cr*p  imho,
and Fed18's installer was just broken.

Mint's interface is probably the best Desktop Linux i've ever seen :-) ,
so here's hoping i don't find any major problems with the Ubuntu backend.

Anyway - i had to make a fix to the TkImg source to get it to compile,
as Mint 15 has hit a typo in the configure script.
Here is the link for my source.
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/scidvspc/files/support%20files/tkimg1.3.scidvspc.tar.bz2/download

Hopefully all you'll have to do is
  ./configure --prefix=/usr
[omit the '-prefix=/usr' if you've done a custom installation of tcl//tk]
  make
  sudo make install
and after relaunching Scid you'll have the cool png pieces that
require TkImg  support.

PS - There is also some messgae about
  "Building .... without threads enabled, but building against a Tcl
that IS thread-enabled."
But it seems to not be an issue so far.

S.A.

[Scidvspc-users] Gameinfo and Greek translations

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

I've been doing a bit more stuff, filling in the missing translations
around the place. Notably - the Gameinfo window (at the bottom) now
has more translations for all languages.

And thanks to John Gioras for making a comprehensive Greek Translation  :)
.... Though maybe the piece letter translations arent quite finalised
for this language.

We have to use single byte ascii chars for them. John tells me it should be
  Pawn = Σ   King = Ρ   Queen = B   Rook = Π   Bishop = A   kNigt = Ι
But for Pawn and Rook i have (for the moment) used
  Pawn = S and  Rook = T (as this is what mainline Scid uses)

To test Piece translations, enable Options->Move->TranslatePieces, and
close and re-open the PGN window. Changes are in subversion.

I should menton - mainline Scid has the greek letter translations
listed as "to-do" and has two differing constructs.

Steven

Re: [Scidvspc-users] Question regarding the training feature (tree window)

[<gre...@gm...>]

Hi all,

> > 1. open a database and tree.
> > 2. make sure it is your move, and select the training option in the tree window
> > 3. Make a move - Scid will then play a move from tree.  If your move
> > takes out of tree, no move is made.
> >
> > Obviously , this feature is not too polished.
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > --
> 
> Isn't this method of training merely memorizing opening moves?

Yes, so you always need to know the strategical ideas behind every opening you learn, which means, that you clearly need to know _both_ (at least above ELO 1600), the best lines and the concept behind it.

Re: [Scidvspc-users] Question regarding the training feature (tree window)

[Alan W. <a.c...@gm...>]

On 10/04/2013 09:15 PM, Steve A wrote:
> Hi Andreas
>
>> I'd like to use the training feature in the tree window to practice my opening repertoire but the way to activate it seems to be a bit cumbersome. So to be sure I don't make anything wrong I describe the steps how I activate it:
>>
>> 1. open a database (as tree)
>> 2. select the training option in the tree window
>> 3. start a training game against an engine (?!)
>> 4. now, in the appearing chess clock window, I have to cancel the game to prevent computer moves (?!)
>> 5. start practicing
>>
>> I don't understand step 3 and 4 but without them, scid vs pc just doesn't answer when I make a move.
> I think your step 3 is wrong. This is how it works for me -
>
> 1. open a database and tree.
> 2. make sure it is your move, and select the training option in the tree window
> 3. Make a move - Scid will then play a move from tree.  If your move
> takes out of tree, no move is made.
>
> Obviously , this feature is not too polished.
>
> Steve
>
> --

Isn't this method of training merely memorizing opening moves?

[Scidvspc-users] Fw: Aw: Re: Question regarding the training feature (tree window)

[<gre...@gm...>]

Sorry, wrong address, my first reply went to Steve directly ...


> Hello Steve
> 
> 
> > I think your step 3 is wrong. This is how it works for me -
> > 
> > 1. open a database and tree.
> > 2. make sure it is your move, and select the training option in the tree window
> > 3. Make a move - Scid will then play a move from tree.  If your move
> > takes out of tree, no move is made.
> 
> Strange. When I follow your steps and I make my first move nothing happens. I use the Linux version by the way. This is why I desperately try to get it to work because there are no other opening trainers under Linux as far as I'm aware of. There are two or three for Windows, but they don't work with Wine.
> 
> > Obviously , this feature is not too polished.
> 
> I tend to agree but I'm not too disappointed anyway because scid vs pc is a great chess DB application. 
> 
> Thanks for your assistance,
> Andreas

Re: [Scidvspc-users] Question regarding the training feature (tree window)

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

Hi Andreas

> I'd like to use the training feature in the tree window to practice my opening repertoire but the way to activate it seems to be a bit cumbersome. So to be sure I don't make anything wrong I describe the steps how I activate it:
>
> 1. open a database (as tree)
> 2. select the training option in the tree window
> 3. start a training game against an engine (?!)
> 4. now, in the appearing chess clock window, I have to cancel the game to prevent computer moves (?!)
> 5. start practicing
>
> I don't understand step 3 and 4 but without them, scid vs pc just doesn't answer when I make a move.

I think your step 3 is wrong. This is how it works for me -

1. open a database and tree.
2. make sure it is your move, and select the training option in the tree window
3. Make a move - Scid will then play a move from tree.  If your move
takes out of tree, no move is made.

Obviously , this feature is not too polished.

Steve

[Scidvspc-users] Question regarding the training feature (tree window)

[Andreas E. <gre...@gm...>]

Hi,
 
I'd like to use the training feature in the tree window to practice my opening repertoire but the way to activate it seems to be a bit cumbersome. So to be sure I don't make anything wrong I describe the steps how I activate it:

1. open a database (as tree)
2. select the training option in the tree window
3. start a training game against an engine (?!)
4. now, in the appearing chess clock window, I have to cancel the game to prevent computer moves (?!)
5. start practicing

I don't understand step 3 and 4 but without them, scid vs pc just doesn't answer when I make a move. Furthermore, when I make a wrong move, scid vs pc just stops, without any message or hint and when I want to restart the training session, I have to repeat the steps above. This seems to be a bit odd.

Another question: this typical Motif design looks quite outdated to say the least, but when I select Options -> Design -> clam nothing happens. Any hints?

Thanks & regards,
Andreas

[Scidvspc-users] How do i list results from tournament between engines

[enrico t. <eto...@li...>]

Hi i try to speed stockfish changing compile options, after the 
tournament, between two different optimization, i dont know how to show 
results. In order to understand who's better.

ciao & thanks you!

[Scidvspc-users] Minichess 5x5

[Steve A <ste...@gm...>]

Mehdi has contibuted a hack to allow ScidvsPC to play minichess 5x5.

It's not very feature complete, but it is interesting, and he's also
hacked Stockfish to allow analysis (though it often crashes for me)

The new patch is in subversion and can be applied with
"svn update"
"patch -p0 <patches/minichess5x5.diff"
"make clean install"

The webpage is http://membres-lig.imag.fr/prost/MiniChessResolution/

Steve