RE chessbase light

[Albert Silver]

Ah yes..... What would one pay for a program that -'did it all' ? One where the program could be configured freely in terms of automatic analysis as you describe and everything else too! Such as ribbon or no ribbon etc. ? Configurable to every way imaginable? The best of Chessbase with the best of Aquarium and Chess assistant. Which features would one want most? I personally like a lot of eye candy. Hate the ribbon. Like the Idea analysis feature. Like Monte Carlo. I would like a configurable Turk like figure. One that would use voice and that I could import voice statements and record my statements. Then we could trade our composed 'turks' and make ones like Nimzo et. al. One that with a 'one clik feature' would post your favorite game plus diagrams with your commentary to your favorite Internet site. Can not stand the Magic Eye. What on earth does that thing accomplish? Deep wishful sigh..... I must live another 20 years to see that program.

Most people don't want this, I should tell you. A program that does and has it all. Because usually people want a small subset of functions, and already use ... 10 functions out of the 150 they see in menus and other. They don't want a choice of 300 options. They want simplicity. Less is more. The ribbon is actually an option you know, just as in MS Office.

I find that between Chessbase, and Shredder GUI I get pretty much everything I need. What do you mean that the ribbon is an option? Can you switch back to a normal looking windows program? If so I might actually get Fritz 12. I hate the ribbon!

You can minimize it so it doesn't take up real estate. Just right-click on it, as you would with any ribbon interface, and select Minimize the ribbon. Personally I prefer it as it avoids navigating through endless menus.

[Nimzovik]

Yes... you can indeed minimize the ribbon -to the point it disappears! It needs to be able to be resizeable like any window! Unfortunately the Ribbon when not minimzed takes up about 1/4 th of the Screen! IMHO I prefer a larger board to play on than a ribbon to gawk at.

[Albert Silver]

Yes... you can indeed minimize the ribbon -to the point it disappears! It needs to be able to be resizeable like any window! Unfortunately the Ribbon when not minimzed takes up about 1/4 th of the Screen! IMHO I prefer a larger board to play on than a ribbon to gawk at.

That must really be a very low resolution you use to take up 1/4 or any significant proportion. On mine, it is about the size of the browser bar, or roughly 1/10 the vertical height.

Anyhow, when it is minimized, if you click on one of the "menus", the ribbon appears for that menu, and minimizes again once your cursor leaves it.

As to resizing it like any window: it is not a window.

[Nimzovik]

Yes.... That is my lament. It is not a window as such. I for one would appreciate that kind of flexibility.

[Albert Silver]

Yes.... That is my lament. It is not a window as such. I for one would appreciate that kind of flexibility.

It is still a better system. The old system would have at the top, for example:

File - Edit - Database (or whatever).

You would click on one, and a long menu would appear under the word (also covering the board BTW) and each item would activate a function, or have an arrow leading to even more sub-menus. One could easily have 2-3 menus, each next to the other, covering a large portion of the screen. To make things worse, if you accidentally move the mouse away while navigating a submenu, the whole thing could disappear, requiring that precise menu, to sub-menu to sub-sub-menu process again.

The ribbon interface design involves replacing those menus with a layout of the functions on a ribbon. If the ribbon is minimized, then you see the same menu items you would in the older GUI design, and when you click on the menu choice, instead of a long downward list, you get the ribbon with the same choices. Let go of the menu item, and the ribbon disappears, just as it would with a classic menu system

[tomgdrums]

Yes.... That is my lament. It is not a window as such. I for one would appreciate that kind of flexibility.

It is still a better system. The old system would have at the top, for example:

File - Edit - Database (or whatever).

You would click on one, and a long menu would appear under the word (also covering the board BTW) and each item would activate a function, or have an arrow leading to even more sub-menus. One could easily have 2-3 menus, each next to the other, covering a large portion of the screen. To make things worse, if you accidentally move the mouse away while navigating a submenu, the whole thing could disappear, requiring that precise menu, to sub-menu to sub-sub-menu process again.

The ribbon interface design involves replacing those menus with a layout of the functions on a ribbon. If the ribbon is minimized, then you see the same menu items you would in the older GUI design, and when you click on the menu choice, instead of a long downward list, you get the ribbon with the same choices. Let go of the menu item, and the ribbon disappears, just as it would with a classic menu system

I don't use Aquarium because of the ribbon. It is too hard to search for things in other areas. With the menu system EVERYTHING is right there. I tried the new MS Office as well and trying to print something was a nightmare.

I think Microsoft tried to reinvent the wheel with the ribbon. I now use Open office because it has no ribbon! If everything becomes ribbon oriented I might have to switch to a Mac.

[Albert Silver]

Yes.... That is my lament. It is not a window as such. I for one would appreciate that kind of flexibility.

It is still a better system. The old system would have at the top, for example:

File - Edit - Database (or whatever).

You would click on one, and a long menu would appear under the word (also covering the board BTW) and each item would activate a function, or have an arrow leading to even more sub-menus. One could easily have 2-3 menus, each next to the other, covering a large portion of the screen. To make things worse, if you accidentally move the mouse away while navigating a submenu, the whole thing could disappear, requiring that precise menu, to sub-menu to sub-sub-menu process again.

The ribbon interface design involves replacing those menus with a layout of the functions on a ribbon. If the ribbon is minimized, then you see the same menu items you would in the older GUI design, and when you click on the menu choice, instead of a long downward list, you get the ribbon with the same choices. Let go of the menu item, and the ribbon disappears, just as it would with a classic menu system

I don't use Aquarium because of the ribbon. It is too hard to search for things in other areas. With the menu system EVERYTHING is right there. I tried the new MS Office as well and trying to print something was a nightmare.

I think Microsoft tried to reinvent the wheel with the ribbon. I now use Open office because it has no ribbon! If everything becomes ribbon oriented I might have to switch to a Mac.

You'll have to explain that to me. With menus nothing is right there. Everything is hidden in deeper and deeper submenus. Give me an example where the menus had something that was easier to access than a ribbon. As to printing in Office 2007: how exactly was it harder than Office 2003? Both require two clicks if using the mouse, and both use Ctrl-P as a direct shortcut.

[Nimzovik]

When I am playing chess -especially bullet- the only thing that matters is the board. After the game I do not want to have to reactivate the ribbon just to access my menus. Not only do I have to reactivate the ribbon but then I have to search thru the silly ribbon to find the feature I am trying to utilize. It is cumbersome. Hisorically I could have a minmized (Read sized to my liking like a window) tool bar that workded just fine IMHO.

[tomgdrums]

Yes.... That is my lament. It is not a window as such. I for one would appreciate that kind of flexibility.

It is still a better system. The old system would have at the top, for example:

File - Edit - Database (or whatever).

You would click on one, and a long menu would appear under the word (also covering the board BTW) and each item would activate a function, or have an arrow leading to even more sub-menus. One could easily have 2-3 menus, each next to the other, covering a large portion of the screen. To make things worse, if you accidentally move the mouse away while navigating a submenu, the whole thing could disappear, requiring that precise menu, to sub-menu to sub-sub-menu process again.

The ribbon interface design involves replacing those menus with a layout of the functions on a ribbon. If the ribbon is minimized, then you see the same menu items you would in the older GUI design, and when you click on the menu choice, instead of a long downward list, you get the ribbon with the same choices. Let go of the menu item, and the ribbon disappears, just as it would with a classic menu system

I don't use Aquarium because of the ribbon. It is too hard to search for things in other areas. With the menu system EVERYTHING is right there. I tried the new MS Office as well and trying to print something was a nightmare.

I think Microsoft tried to reinvent the wheel with the ribbon. I now use Open office because it has no ribbon! If everything becomes ribbon oriented I might have to switch to a Mac.

You'll have to explain that to me. With menus nothing is right there. Everything is hidden in deeper and deeper submenus. Give me an example where the menus had something that was easier to access than a ribbon. As to printing in Office 2007: how exactly was it harder than Office 2003? Both require two clicks if using the mouse, and both use Ctrl-P as a direct shortcut.

With menus everything is there. I never have to look hard to find anything on any program. Shredder Chess GUI vs. Aquarium is my example! The menus are easy to navigate in Shredder chess. The ribbon in aquarium makes nothing easy.

In Office 2007 I couldn't find the print button. So yeah Office 2003 with menus is easier.

The ribbon in my experience is very counter intuitive. I really am not looking forward to the ribbon being the standard format. I will jump on the Steve Jobs bandwagon if that happens.

[Nimzovik]

Yah! What he said!