My questions relate to using Quackle as a tool for playing through recorded games rather than using it as an opponent, as one of my projects is to expand the library of what is available by capturing past games from magazines etc. The American scene is already well served in this area thanks to the Cross-Tables site, but the British Centre Star site, though it has great potential, is relatively less well-developed in terms of the number of recorded games available for download.
Apologies if Quackle can already do these things and I just haven't figured out how, or if they are already on the burner. 1. would it be possible to have some convention into the .gcg file (e.g. a #lexicon token) that told Quackle what lexicon the game had been played to, such that Quackle could automatically switch to that lexicon rather this having to be done manually? In the absence of such a line Quackle would assume the user's default setting. 2. at present one can put #note or #comment lines in the .gcg file but Quackle seems to make no use of these. There is a box in the bottom left corner where they could conveniently appear, associated with the play that preceded them. 3. I don't suppose anyone has in electronic form the lexicon(s) that were used for e.g. World Championship games before the first incarnation of SOWPODS, that has itself now been superseded by CSW? I think I mean WSCs before 2003, but this was before my time so I'm not on firm ground here. This is not very important, as I suspect few people will want to play over games that old, but if they were available they could perhaps be issued as part of the Quackle set, just for completeness. 4. I've already mentioned to Jason that it would be very nice to have the ability to step through a recorded game in 'quiz mode' i.e. showing rack followed by play rather than rack and play together, and so giving the user the chance to think about what they would play. So this is just a reminder! Keep up the great work, guys. -- David Sutton
