Pascal Georges wrote:
Hi!
> The question is where you want to keep the data handling the best line
> for several positions. You can use :
>
> - Book (limited functionality, no comments, no evals)
> - game(s) (in an ordinary Scid base)
> - Tree with mask.
>
> The last is my preferered because it handles
> transpositions in a transparent manner, and can keep track
> of comments, evaluations, etc.
IMHO Masks are very good already, but I feel they should
blend in a bit better with the rest. I feel the current
questions from Marcel have their roots in this fact.
Some points I have no real good solution at the moment
myself (maybe I miss something, then I'd like to get a hint
on how to improve my usage), but where I stumble upon
frequently in daily practise:
- Currently you can not add the evaluation from an engine to
the mask. Evaluation means a continuation or even an
evaluation value. Also, NAGs are possible for a move but
commenting on the position as such is limited to the text
box. (BTW: The latter is much too small, IMHO ;)
- Mapping of "lines" to masks is a bit difficult right now,
ie. in a Mask currently I can only see "my first move from
this position". For some points it might be helpful to see
several moves to express a plan or idea even _at_ the
position. This is a general restriction of current tree,
that one only sees one move ahead. Some sort of
"unfolding" to give sequences "from this point onwards"
would IMHO be desirable. Seems like some company in
Hamburg was able to come up with a solution to this.
Here, one could IMHO also pull in the contents of some
opening book(s) for display...
- I've the problem with a bit longer textual annotations as
the tool tip is not really perfect here. I'd suggest a
text entry within the tree that is resizeable vertically
e.g. Similar for some type of comments like "Points to
remember" were I'd like to add an unnumbered list
(<ul><li>...</li></ul> kind of thing).
Usually, my textual comments for critical positions
always contain (additional to some short descriptive text)
the points: Good for White/Black, Bad for White/Black,
Plan for White/Black, Points to Remember, Bibliographic
References ;). Its a bit difficult to map this into the
position comment. Using the usual square/arrow commentary
from within a mask IMHO wold be great.
BTW: it would be great if the input boxes could stay open
and also used as display boxed e.g. similar to comment
editor window. Just if inline editing fields are not
possible for some reason.
- I'd like to link to theroetical important game(s) in a
given, well, "line" of an opening or from a given position
onwards. (IMHO both ways to see a game have their right of
existence.) The problem here is, that even if I take my
RefBase underneath the mask, the theoretical important
game does not have to be what Scid consideres "best
games". It could even be another, but heavily annotated
game, or a game I played myself where I added my marks and
comments or a game I stored in a specific DB for whatever
reason. Here, a "copy game comment to Mask" would come in
handy.
- Searching of new games for ones openings: IMHO it would be
good to have some sort of "search within mask" or a
bookmarking for interesting positions. Right now I can add
a flag via move NAGs of the mask (great!), but I can not
find it again, easily. Say, I go through a game and find a
position that should be studied, I can mark this by a nice
symbol. But there's no way to get a list of all
"bookmarks" or "to verify" and so on points from the Mask
except if I go to the very postion again. Say, you tend to
loose your games in the French Steinitz all the time as
you do not know how to handle the position after 7.f4
correctly. Now you get a nice game collection for the
French and want to jump to your problem position.
> Only games will allow the add of a complete line.
This is a major drawback of the current masks, IMHO. I do
not know if it is technically possible to go to a given
position and get some "and what are the lines in my mask
from here onwards" in a tree like fashion. Or an "how was
this position reached". However, this would IMHO be a very
nice thing, indeed.
> With others you have to enter all moves manually. I did
> not mention the repertoire editor, because I never got
> accustomed to it.
Well, it has a bit a strange input GUI and to really use it
one should forget about this, enter the lines by means of vi
(or the like) and use it as a shortcut for position
searches. Anyway, I admit, that I liked the tree display of
"lines" in repertoir editor, and I really miss this a bit
using Masks today.
Especially this: what are the main lines from here onwards
to get an idea about plans is a drawback in Masks. My
currently far from perfect solution is to use "best games"
and open a bunch of "browse" windows. The drawback of this
is that "best games" is not sorted by the continuation
lines. Say, you have two usual moves from a given position,
best games will not care about this but mix them. However,
usually I'd sometimes like to explore some games in
continuation A to see what unfolds there and then in
continuation B.
--
Kind regards, / War is Peace.
| Freedom is Slavery.
Alexander Wagner | Ignorance is Strength.
|
| Theory : G. Orwell, "1984"
/ In practice: USA, since 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial
Check out the new simplified licensign option that enables unlimited
royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing
server and web deployment.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects
_______________________________________________
Scid-users mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scid-users
