[XBoard-devel] Some suggestions for new features

[h.g. muller]

I bumped this to the xboard-devel list, because it had degenerated into a 
private
discussion when it was no longer about the original bug report, and I think it
would deserve a wider audience. I will address some more of the points later.

At 00:29 27-2-2012 +0100, Hans Aberg wrote:

> On 26 Feb 2012, at 23:31, address@hidden wrote:
>
> > Op Zo, 26 februari, 2012 9:40 pm schreef Hans Aberg:
> >> In Xcode, there are templates which can be used to create projects.
> >> Templates are normally not saved to, but there probably is some way to
> >> create them. Projects are what one normally works with, containing
> >> information about which files are included, how to compile, etc.
> >>
> >> So following that, one might have an option -template <file>, which looks
> >> for template files also in say ~/share/xboard/ and
> >> /usr/local/share/xboard/. Templates should not be saved to, but there
> >> should be a way to create them.
> >>
> >> Then an option -project <file>, which just looks for the file in a single
> >> location, and saves certain data when changed.
> >>
> >> Xboard might then have such templates in /usr/local/share/xboard/ for
> >> variants.
> >>
> >> This approach is also similar to that of Bison, which has skeleton files
> >> in /usr/local/share/bison/ for different output languages, etc. They are
> >> processed using M4.
> >
> > Well, XBoard already allows you to do such things with the -ini <file>
> > option. This is equivalent to the -project you propose, because it reads
> > the settings from the file, and then later saves them back on it.
> >
> > To achieve the effect of your -template option, one just specifies
> > different settings files for loading and saving:
> >
> > xboard -ini <template> -saveSettingsFile <project>
> >
> > The latter option only changes the name to save on, without reading the
> > file, and even does that when the file did not exist. The -ini option
> > reads the file, and sets the save name (but only if the file existed), but
> > the save name is later overruled. (Last option wins in case of multiply
> > defined settings.)
>
> It depends on what type of GUI behavior you want. If it should be possible 
> to run several main windows at the same time, only data common to those 
> should be saved in .xboardrc. The other stuff should be in project files.

It seems impossible to know what settings should be considered common, and 
which particular to the project. I expect it to be different for each user.


> But .xboardrc could contain all info it has now, which is used if one does 
> not open using a template or project file. If one opens using a project 
> file, then info special in that one should be saved to that one. If one 
> opens using a template file, Xboard should ask for a project file to save 
> the data in.

It seems this will require very complex accounting in XBoard for what 
option came from where, and it is not obvious to me there would be any user 
benefit. On the contrary, it seems annoying that when I am working on a 
'project' (say using XBoard for a Xiangqi tournament), and imported some 
template for that which came with the install for XBoard, that when I 
change some setting that did not happen to come with the template (e.g. I 
want to have 'Animate Moving' off because I happen to be only interested in 
Xiangqi bullet games) would now be saved in the common settings. (Where it 
would then be overwritten when I use XBoard for another project, so that 
next time I return to the Xiangqi project, I would have to set it again.)

It seems much more natural to consider any setting change the user makes 
while in a Xiangqi project to only affect future runs of that project.


> > I guess a text-edit in a menu dialog could be made to alter the save name
> > during the session. (e.g. in the save options dialog; this would just
> > require adding a line in the saveOptions array in xoptions.c). Then you
> > would only have to specify the template on the command line. (You could
> > also have specified it as "@<template>"; then it would not have altered
> > the save name to begin with.)
>
> That was also the idea in the before mentioned Hugs4Mac. If I remember it 
> correctly, one could create a .<init> file in the working directory by 
> making an explicit save in the program. The format was then made for 
> simple editing, but mostly, one would not need to use that.
>
> Some inputs:-)
>
> * If the main window is not the top window, then keyboard shortcuts do not 
> work. So other windows might pass key strokes they cannot handle to the 
> main window.
>
> * If one is editing a game, Mode -> Edit Game, say it it is white's turn, 
> and selects Mode -> Machine Black, then there is a pop-up window saying 
> "It is not Blacks turn". I would have expected it to accept it, and start 
> the engine when white has moved.
>
> * Similarly, if Mode -> Two Machines is selected, I would want to be able 
> to switch to Machine White/Black. If white is thinking, then selecting 
> Machine Black would simply cause white to stop, leaving it to the user; 
> selecting Machine White, would make it continue thinking, and stop when 
> white has moved.
>
> * When Two Machines is selected, the clocks are reset. I use to play a few 
> moves, let the engines play as single opponent or both engines to see if I 
> can produce some advantage and then let the engines decide the outcome. So 
> it is then more unclear what the clocks should be set to: sometimes they 
> should not be changed. Sometimes my thinking may take to much time, so 
> resetting or adding some time to some clock might be useful.
>
> * When Two Machines are running, then Pause does not pause the engines, 
> only allows one to move around in the past game. For the purpose of doing 
> some other CPU intense task, I would also like to be able to suspend the 
> engines and clocks when doing, and then continue with Xboard later.
>
> * I used to use Sigma Chess, which does not run on the OS X 10.7 I am 
> running.
>   http://www.sigmachess.com/
>   http://www.sigmachess.com/_screenshots/gamewin.jpg
> On the second link, the screen shot, you can see that it has under the 
> chess board a triangular button marked Go, in the location where you have 
> a "P" in Xboard. It causes the engine to start to make a move for whoever 
> is in turn. This is a very useful button. If one has several engines 
> available, one might want to be able to choose, to see what they think 
> about a position.
>
> * I tend to think that info about the 50 move rule (plies from the last 
> irreversible move) and  3 repetition draw repetition move should (also) be 
> displayed in the main window, as it is defines the state of the game 
> position (like probably castling and en passant, as well). Adding that 
> info might force another line below the line with past moves.
>
> Hans