Myracle GUI

[vencenda]

build 70 is up:
- fix: kbkb endgames now adjudicated as a draw by insufficient material if all bishops are the same (all light/all dark)
- user adjudication for comp-comp games and resign in human-eng games
- new game can be started from actual position in actual tab (possibly including move history)
- basic support for jpeg logos (only baseline dct with huffman)
- epd suites: time to solution and depth reported matches the first time move was found (after a change of mind)
(note that multipv is now force-disabled for UCI engines as it would interfere with the above)

Really nice additions, thank you! Continuing a game from current position can be very useful at times. Also, I think that many people (including myself) like to have logos, even though they aren't strictly necessary, so thank you for that too.

I'd like it if it was possible to paste a FEN/PGN or setup a position in a new tab so you could analyze more than one positions at the same time, not necessarily in parallel, but having them both loaded in the GUI and switching between them (I sometimes do this when watching human tournaments). IMO, "new tab" option is not very useful as it is right now, because you can't really do much in that new tab, other than move the pieces around. If I'm not mistaken there is no way right now to load more than one positions in different tabs, unless you reach them by playing the game move by move. Sorry if there's a technical or other reason behind this choice, but from a user's perspective, I think it would be nice to have.

[mar]

I'd like it if it was possible to paste a FEN/PGN or setup a position in a new tab so you could analyze more than one positions at the same time, not necessarily in parallel, but having them both loaded in the GUI and switching between them (I sometimes do this when watching human tournaments). IMO, "new tab" option is not very useful as it is right now, because you can't really do much in that new tab, other than move the pieces around. If I'm not mistaken there is no way right now to load more than one positions in different tabs, unless you reach them by playing the game move by move. Sorry if there's a technical or other reason behind this choice, but from a user's perspective, I think it would be nice to have.

this was asked before, I could probably add menu options to either paste into active tab or paste into a new tab (and the same for for position editing),
I'll think about it, the default will be paste to scratchpad as it is (especially important for the auto-paste FEN feature),
but I see nothing preventing me to add special paste modes for FEN and PGN targeting either active tab or new tab

you're right that new tab is really just for testing moves quickly (I also used it in initial phases for debugging)

[vencenda]

this was asked before, I could probably add menu options to either paste into active tab or paste into a new tab (and the same for for position editing),
I'll think about it, the default will be paste to scratchpad as it is (especially important for the auto-paste FEN feature),
but I see nothing preventing me to add special paste modes for FEN and PGN targeting either active tab or new tab

you're right that new tab is really just for testing moves quickly (I also used it in initial phases for debugging)

I haven't used auto-paste FEN feature yet (not sure what it does tbh), so I hope this makes sense: what if auto-paste FEN had scratchpad as default, since it's important there, and the rest (paste FEN/PGN/setup position) had the active tab as default? From a user's point of view, that's the expected behavior, I believe. When you have a new tab open and you're looking at it, and then click on "paste FEN/PGN" etc, you expect the position to be pasted in the active tab you're looking at, and if it gets pasted in scratchpad, there's a risk to lose a previous position you may have already loaded there.

[mar]

I haven't used auto-paste FEN feature yet (not sure what it does tbh), so I hope this makes sense: what if auto-paste FEN had scratchpad as default, since it's important there, and the rest (paste FEN/PGN/setup position) had the active tab as default? From a user's point of view, that's the expected behavior, I believe. When you have a new tab open and you're looking at it, and then click on "paste FEN/PGN" etc, you expect the position to be pasted in the active tab you're looking at, and if it gets pasted in scratchpad, there's a risk to lose a previous position you may have already loaded there.

yes that seems like a great idea until you overwrite a game you have opened from a PGN or if you accidentaly paste into a game you're playing against the computer - sure I could ask for overwrite if the tab isn't empty, but that feels too slow to me

I wouldn't mind pasting into a new tab, however - so either the default will be paste into new tab (unless autopaste FEN is enabled)
and having special paste into scratchpad commands or something like that => however my use case is I often want to paste into scratchpad rather than having tons of new tabs floating around, so YMMV I guess
or maybe a simple checkbox in edit menu whether paste targets scratchpad or new tab, perhaps

[mar]

I haven't used auto-paste FEN feature yet (not sure what it does tbh)

ah yes, this is a little ad hoc feature I made primarily when watching ccr.live, where you can copy FEN to clipboard with a single click.
what it does is it constantly monitors clipboard and tries to paste it as a new position (into scratchpad) if it changes

so my use case is start ccrl.live on one monitor and myracle on another and start analysis engine
then I simply click the FEN in ccrl.live window and it immediately gets analyzed in myracle - sort of a manual kibitzer that only costs
a single click in the ccrl.live window.
it would also work if you copy a fen on some webpage too, like if you have a webpage open with several puzzles with FEN, it'll work
just as well, except you need to select and copy the FEN manually too, of course

[vencenda]

yes that seems like a great idea until you overwrite a game you have opened from a PGN or if you accidentaly paste into a game you're playing against the computer - sure I could ask for overwrite if the tab isn't empty, but that feels too slow to me

Yes, that makes sense too. I guess both "pasting into current tab" and "pasting into scratchpad" have some risk of overriding something accidentally. Only pasting into a newly created tab doesn't have that risk.

I wouldn't mind pasting into a new tab, however - so either the default will be paste into new tab (unless autopaste FEN is enabled)
and having special paste into scratchpad commands or something like that => however my use case is I often want to paste into scratchpad rather than having tons of new tabs floating around, so YMMV I guess
or maybe a simple checkbox in edit menu whether paste targets scratchpad or new tab, perhaps

Both options seem perfectly fine to me as a user. Or maybe a settings entry like "always load new positions in new tab" or something.

Also nice to know about auto paste FEN. I figured that it must be something like that from the name but I wasn't sure. And yes, it makes sense why this needs to always paste into scratchpad.

[mar]

I think I'll probably do two things:

1) merge paste FEN and paste PGN into one paste command - it's easy enough to detect which one is present automatically
and I may even extend it to paste epd
2) add extra menu option paste into new tab

I don't like extra options that override default behavior, this could be misleading while a separate command is always clear

everything else will remain the same, defaulting to scratchpad

[chessica]

Hi Martin, I have a large folder containing a huge number of engines, and I always have to navigate through the menu in a cumbersome way to add engines to the tournament. Isn't there an easier way to do this?

[Elorejano]

Hi, Martin
My unique wish
It would posible to asign a book to each engine? the place can be in the dialog box "Basic" in "Engine details"? a book could be designated for matches or tournaments
Thank in advance. Your GUI is getting and getting

[chessica]

Hi Martin, I have a large folder containing a huge number of engines, and I always have to navigate through the menu in a cumbersome way to add engines to the tournament. Isn't there an easier way to do this?

I had already noticed that you can set a path, but it isn't always the same one. So, if you’ve selected a storage location for engines, it would be great if the GUI remembered it automatically.