On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Mike Robinson
<address@hidden> wrote:
I should first point out that I'm a big fan of gnu backgammon but there are a few small things that really irritate. I'm currently using version GNU Backgammon 0.90-mingw 20090421 and running on XP using MSI wind netbook.
My suggestions:
1)On the 3D screen I can't click the dice to say I've finished a move, instead I have to press ctrl F. This is a right royal pain.
Try upgrading your graphics driver, and report back if it doesn't help.
2)There are two buttons for reject and resign but you only need one button depending on what situation you're in - if you're being doubled then show reject else show resign.
The buttons are grayed when not needed. I think that changing them would be a disturbance.
3)I often hit resign (rather than reject) when I'm doubled and it then asks me whether I wish to resign a single, double etc. I then have to click again. It's bad enough loosing a game but can't it work out that resign and reject mean almost the same thing to users.
We could do that. Right clicking the offered cube is easier.
4)On analysing a match I need to hit analyse, then analyse match or session, then match or session statistics. This seems overboard - could it not continually analyse the play and cumulatively alter my score and continuously display it in the corner of the screen. This might stop the wild swings from advanced (1950) down to awful (1550).
Tutor mode may or may not be what you want here...
5)After analysis I go back to look at any mistakes I may have made. Once I've seen them I tend to just quit the program. The program then asks me whether I really wish to quit a game in the middle. This is annoying and pointless.
We could make it optional like other warnings.
6)When moving an isolated checker around the board I still have to be pixel perfect in selecting the checker, in these situations couldn't the program assume that because there's no other checkers nearby then I must mean the closest checker. It would save me a lot of time as the mouse control on these netbooks is far from perfect.
You may find click-moving easier (left/right click to use left or right dice, or high/low dice if you have set the option for always having the high dice at the left)
7)I like to play in the full screen mode however I then loose the buttons to double and reject or resign. There is also no match score shown or pip count. This means I have to continually swap between full screen view and normal view which is frustrating so couldn't these buttons and info be shown in full mode.
Doubling/taking/dropping is done be clicking the cube. Accepting a resignation the same way.
8)The appearance of the board is fine but could you perhaps make a deal with board manufactures to have copies of their boards and pieces as part of the 3D drop down. I currently would like to purchase a crisloid backgammon but the 2D crisloid set looks nothing like the real sets. The manufacturer could perhaps give a little towards the upkeep of gnu and in return potential buyers can try out their boards in real play!
Not a bad idea, if somebody wish to work on it...
9)Occasionally I forget to use all the moves available to me (usually after a complex double) and after I hit ctrl F to finish my go I get the error "Illegal or unparseable move" - I suspect this message is gobbledygook for most users.
This has to do with the flexibility of the program. Would "Unfinished or illegal move" be better?
10)I joined this forum to post these issues but find the forum near impossible to use (perhaps I'm not using it right?). Finding previous posts is difficult and the general presentation of information harks back to the 1970's. The only way I can post issues is via replying an email - this can't be right. Can't you use any modern forum (shareware) software?