New free chess database is out - ChessX

[whp]

I'd like to ask for help in testing and improving ChessX - new free chess database written in C++ using Qt 4 library and thus is cross platform (builds are ready for Windows, Linux and MacOS X). You can download it from here.

ChessX needs users and developers read more on the website. If you have any comments, bug reports or enhancements requests - sourceforge.net ChessX project page welcomes you.

[AdminX]

Wojciech Halicki-Piszko,

Very cool, look forward to testing it under both Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Much!
Ted Summers

[whp]

Good to hear from you Ted . I hope you like ChessX and please don't hesitate to give feedback to developers .

[AdminX]

Nice interface and I think a very good point in development to start adding features. GUI looks very clean and thought out. Under linux I think this app can become a real powerhouse once it has developed alot of the same features as scid, chessbase, or chess assistant. I for one like this interface better then scid. However right now under linux as far as chess databases go I think Scid is number one, with Jose in the number two spot when it comes to features.

What are your plans for ChessX? Do you plan to link to TWIC? Engines? Search Filters? Playerbase? Would like to know more?

[Dann Corbit]

The installation program forces installation in:
C:\Program Files\ChessX

I absolutely hate that. Let me put it where I want to. I don't care that MS thinks all program files should go there.

[Dann Corbit]

It takes 50 minutes at 100% CPU to load a 1.6 GB database (it's an extrapolation -- so far 20 minutes to read 600 MB of it).

My largest PGN database is 5 GB, so I would estimate over 3 hours to open it, during which time my computer would be basically locked up.

Marcel van Kervinck has a PGN database many times this size. It might take 24 hours to open it.

I guess that you need to work on your parser and maybe also your storage format. I usually use the more compressed formats like CA or SCID because it saves lots of disk space. And after you have loaded into the compressed formats, loading the database is very fast ( a few seconds ) and so you have some catching up to do there.

[Dann Corbit]

After 35 minutes reading the 1.6 GB database, ChessX crashed.
Well, it is a beta.

[Dann Corbit]

After 35 minutes reading the 1.6 GB database, ChessX crashed.
Well, it is a beta.

I was wrong, it did not crash. Apparently, it was running in the background and eventually finished several hours later.

Here is the entry from the bottom pane:
Game 1181900: Garey, Arthur L 2030 - Schakel, Corky 2386
1/2-1/2(26) A99
1. WS USCCC-P05, ICCF, 2005.04.17, round ?
Last move: (Start of game) Next: 1.d4

Even so, it could use a little boost, if you know what I mean.

[whp]

Thanks for your input. You can file feature requests or bug report (I think slow parser is definitely a defect). If you don't like feeding bug-tracking-monsters I can take of passing the problems you described to developers (who I am not - just a promoter ). Nice you tried it. New 0.2.0 release is out. Download from here.

[whp]

Well, I've just talked with one of developers his words are:

"The parser is not that slow, it is not much slower than Scid one. Reading was awfully slow on some computers due to problems with chosen Qt I/O class. It was fixed in 0.2.0"

So problems you described are already addressed. Hopefully.