> Is there any reason why you started so complex changes before to release a > version with minor but still very important changes, like the opening tree > reader?
The main reason for the complex changes is the ECO file. This file will contain more than 70.000 lines, and this is a huge work. This file has to be normalized and consistent (in the mathematical sense), and is a base for the new opening tree search algorithm. I'm still working more than 9 months on this file, and I need about 4-6 weeks for finishing. After this I have to test the new search algorithm. Because I cannot work day for day only on this file, this would drive me crazy, I'm implementing other tasks concurrently. But without completion of this file the application is not running. I already did the changes for the new algorithm - this was part of my concurrent tasks - and in this way I could do preliminary testing. I did not expect that this ECO file costs so much time, but I cannot shorten this file, because some lines are basic, and many other lines are required for the completeness, otherwise this set of ECO lines would contain holes, and this would cause a slow down of the opening tree search. The lines are the result of an analysis of about 7.5 millions of games. The release date of the next version cannot be done before the ECO file is completed and the tests are successful. Software development is a very complex task, I'm the only contributor (except translation files, and the preparation of packages), and I'm doing: software design, software implementation, graphic design, GUI design, Web design (Scidb's homepage), developing new algorithms, writing help files, translations from German to English (or vice versa), and much more. And some features in Scidb are a novelty, developed from the scratch, for example the new opening search algorithm, the graphical design of the chess boards with a self- developed technique (SVG combined with Truetype), and much more. And I already prepared some features which will also be novelties. Developing Scidb is a very time consuming task, and I will do all these things right. I'm optimistic that the frequency of releases will increase as soon as the next version is ready, I've already prepared so much stuff which is not yes used. After the next version is released the main topics will be: 1.Opening classification dialog (a by-product of the new opening tree search algorithm) 2. Flexible window layout 3. Search and filter functions This is the basis for an alpha version.
