Scid vs. PC 4.3

[stevenaaus]

Hi , I've made quite a few changes in the last few months, so have made a new release.
Scid vs. PC homepage
Windows zip
My OSX contributor is a little busy, so help making an updated OSX App would be appreciated. Steve

4.3 Changelog
Clickable Variation arrows
Paste Variation feature
Database Switcher has been moved to the Gamelist Widget (and has some new icons)
Gamelist can now perform logical ANDs in the search widget using "+", and include the date
Gamelist now has remove-above and remove-below buttons.
FICs improvements, including a ping feature to indicate network health (*nix only), and player communications are saved as PGN comments.
FICs bug-fix: don't automatically accept rematches
FICs "Opponent Info" button
New Toolbar buttons: "Load First Game" , "Load Last Game"
Bookmark Widget has been overhauled
Analysis Engine's move history doesn't get spammed by "Mate in 1" (for eg) messages
An engine can now be run in the Statusbar
Allow engines to be reordered
Simplify the Bestgames Widget : Remove the PGN pane, nice-ify the widget, and enable graph and best widgets to remember size.
Several interface speed-ups from Fulvio
Other SCID C++ changes from Gerd and Fulvio, including "Don't decode games when copying games"
Some Tree Search optimisations from SCID
Sort by number of Variations and Comments from Gerd
Help Widget has a search entrybox
Help Widget font size (and Pgn Window) can be easily increased by control+wheelmouse
When pasting FEN directly, do a castling sanity check.
Bugfix: When user starts scidvspc for the first time, clipbase is left closed
Browser widget has a nicer button bar, and windows wheel-mouse bindings
Overhaul the Edit Menus
Numerous GUI fixes
Revert PlayerInfo to old format, but add a "Won Drawn Lost" header.
Tweak crosstable knock-out format

[Tom Barrister]

This is the only chess software (besides engines) that I use. Thanks for all your hard work.

[stevenaaus]

Ooops... last minute fix for a comment editor bug.
There's quite a few code optimizations from the Scid mailing list included with this release, so here's hoping there's no more bugs.

[Amstaff]

Thank you Steven for an excellent version. I have 2 questions.
How is the best way to print-out a list of games from the database?
Also, I have loaded a number of engines into the last version of Scid, can I just transfer those to this version's folder?

Many thanks,
Gerald

[stevenaaus]

Thank you Steven for an excellent version. I have 2 questions.
How is the best way to print-out a list of games from the database?

Just use the gamelist to select the games of interest, then press the gamelist "Save..." button. I think this is what you want.

Also, I have loaded a number of engines into the last version of Scid, can I just transfer those to this version's folder?

Under windows, the configuration files are in "Scid-vs-PC/bin/config", so just copy these files over from their previous location. The engines are stored in "Scid-vs-PC/bin/config/engines.dat". I should document this, cheers.

[frcha]

I have been using scid 4.3 and have actually liked the "docking" feature of scid. Especially since you can customize 3 layouts and have one of them open automatically every time.

I do think the gamelist is better organized in scid vs pc4.3 but there is still one problem :

Say I open a db with a bunch of games and search for Karpov and then want to sort by site/event but I am not sure if I want to order by site/event or maybe another column.

In chessbase light 2009 - i can do this quite easily filter and then sort by whatever column.
In scid - I have to search for karpov, copy the games from db to clipbase then sort the clipbase by site -- a whole bunch of clicking. And if I want to resort again - db maintenance - sort then choose column .

IN scid vs pc - I have to also copy the games to clipbase -- but here the sorting is now easier since i can just click on column names.

HOWVER even in scid vs pc I HAVE TO copy the games to clipbase or another db to sort on the results of search.


It would be nice if SCID vs PC would change this and allow the sorting to happen on the results of the search


In addition to the docking of windows, I LIKE the extra db flags of scid -- is it possible to integrate ALL the features of SCID with scid vs PC?



One thing I like about scid is the annotate with engine analysis -- it can be done for a bunch of game not just one -- Would be nice if this could be extended to Annotate all games in ORDER of current filter.
But even then this beats Chessbase which can only do one game.


I also find scid slightly faster than scid vs pc and it is much faster than the FULL versions of chessbase -- the chessbase light is however quite fast.
[/i]


I believe scid, or scid vs pc are excellent software especially if YOU are not so interested in the latest opening trends etc -- for that chessbase is preferable still. If you just want to keep your own games in a db with blunder check engine analysis annotation and a few flags/bookmarks etc. then scid is perfect...

[stevenaaus]

I have been using scid 4.3 and have actually liked the "docking" feature of scid. Especially since you can customize 3 layouts and have one of them open automatically every time.

Yes... docking is a nice feature when it works, but imho it has too many focus/resize issues/bugs that are best solved by the window manager.
Most window managers have multiple desktops, so power-users may try dedicating one desktop to Scid vs. PC since it doesn't have docking.

I do think the gamelist is better organized in scid vs pc4.3 but there is still one problem :
Say I open a db with a bunch of games and search for Karpov and then want to sort by site/event but I am not sure if I want to order by site/event or maybe another column.
...
It would be nice if SCID vs PC would change this and allow the sorting to happen on the results of the search

Everything you say is correct. This is a technical limitation of Scid that is hard to overcome. Perhaps some C guru will rewrite this in future. At the moment you have to sort *before* searching for Karpov.

In addition to the docking of windows, I LIKE the extra db flags of scid -- is it possible to integrate ALL the features of SCID with scid vs PC?

Implementing the flag features is not hard, and i might do it. The only real problem with custom flags is that they are not necessarily consistent across databases. So when copying files between DBs, they can take on erroneous meaning.

One thing I like about scid is the annotate with engine analysis -- it can be done for a bunch of game not just one -- Would be nice if this could be extended to Annotate all games in ORDER of current filter.

This is a powerful feature of Scid and I'm mindful Scid vs. PC lags behind Scid a little here, but it's not a priority for me. Because the programs are compatible, annotation can easily be done in SCID, then re-used by Scid vs. PC. Perhaps send your feature request to the mailing list ?

I also find scid slightly faster than scid vs pc

The latest version of SCID has delayed tree processing. Afaik this is the only area Scid vs. PC is slower than Scid (ie - when the tree is open).

One other point is that because it is easy in Scid vs. PC to sort (via the gamelist), sorting is done more often. I believe (but haven't tested myself due to not having a huge database) that after sorting, the database should be compacted/name-compacted(?) to achieve best speed again.

[frcha]

This is a powerful feature of Scid and I'm mindful Scid vs. PC lags behind Scid a little here, but it's not a priority for me. Because the programs are compatible, annotation can easily be done in SCID, then re-used by Scid vs. PC.

I just checked -- scid vs pc does it the same way as scid -- it can annotate from game #x to game #y in the db -- but not by order of filter ..

I was saying that both scid and scid vs pc could have this feature
- of annotating from game #x to #y in current filter rather than exact position in database ... no big deal though

I still wish scid vs pc would have all the features of scid including the new piece sets.

Also, the docking functionality does not seem buggy to me in scid -- when undocked its exactly as in scid vs pc -- great if you have monitor space but I have one 17' crt monitor !




Anyway -- congrats on a great program ..

[Paloma]

What's the difference between the _Old_ Scid and Scid vs PC ?

[stevenaaus]

Features