Roger Brown wrote:PauloSoare wrote:Graham Banks wrote:Christopher Conkie wrote:I think you will find that free software like Arena and Winboard is much more popular with serious testers
Don't forget ChessGUI!
Sorry, but it's hard for me to believe that you think that
free guis are better than Chessbase or Aquarium. There is
a team developing Chessbase and aquarium
professionally.
I think the work done by free guis deserve my respect,
they are dedicated people who do.
Hello Paulo Soare,
I would like this discussion, which re-occurs ever so often, to be taken out of the realm of belief and put on some solid footing.
What makes a gui good or better?
What is a gui used for?
What features does Chessbase (I cannot speak to Aquarium) have that Arena or ChessGUI lack? The primary one is that proprietary Chessbase gui engines cannot be used in them but in this regards the players in that arena (pun intended) are shrinking. Those engines are now Fritz, Nimzo and the older Shredder and Hiarcs engines.
I am deliberately leaving out Winboard from this discussion even though that gui is superior to most in my opinion for reasons I am perfectly willing to go into if challenged.
Arena is sexy (yes I know this is a G rated forum but it is sexy) and very useful. ChessGUI is developed by the second by a developer who attempts to correct every bug and include any reasonable (and unreasonable ones too, I have asked!) feature.
Both correctly and natively support the Winboard and UCI protocols which means that 99% of the engines in existence can be used in them.
Oh, and Xboard natively supports Linux users, a seemingly forgotten class....
Yes, I would like to know what is behind this belief that Chessbase guis are necessarily better because they are developed by professional programmers. Amateur does not mean second rate.
H.G. Muller, Matthias Gemuh and Martin Blume (to name only three - the database side includes Pascal Georges with Scid) are really good programmers who produce a first class product and they respond to their users comments and critiques. Their guis are therefore always improving, adding more features, becoming more useful.
For instance, the next Arena will incorporate H.G.'s extension to the WB2 protocol as well as support the Gaviota TB's as Winboard currently does.
Before anyone asks, the above is a deduction based on recent posts by prominent members of the Arena team here on Talkchess....
Right now, ChessGUI supports the Gaviota TB's and the epd processing capabilities have been expanded.
Let's hear the arguments!
Later.