Banksia GUI released

[ydebilloez]

Thanks a lot for the report!

I have downloaded and checked with belofte64-2.1.3 for macOS. You may check what your engine really sent to BSG via the Engine log panel or Engine log file (below illustration, the Engine log file can be set in the bottom line of the Settings dialog box). The problem I have found so far is that belofte sent a prompt string (belofte>) with the id name (in the same line) thus BSG ignores that id name. All other info/options work fine.

Code: Select all

belofte> id name Belofte 2.1.3

Look like belofte64-2.1.3 doesn't have any feature option yet, isn't it?

I will check the feature option string of the XBoard protocol anyway.

You are most welcome.

Yes indeed, the feature option is added for the upcoming release and is not yet available in 2.1.3. I will make a build for mac os for the upcoming release and ping you when it is available.

The issue of the belofte> prompt should go away if you call belofte with the --uci command line parameter. If you issue the uci command, it should not appear in front of the id. This is probably a bug in buffering in between cin and cout in my program. I will try to fix it in my program. Thanks for the information on debugging the io.

BTW, the drop down on linux is correctly filled in, but the default value is not pre-selected. After adding the engine, I have to manually select one of the entries.

Regards,

[ernest]

Hi phhnguyen !

Any chance you can look into the problem with iPad/iPhone (since iPadOS 14.5/iOS 14.5) ?
Thanks !

...The bug was fixed... Perhaps, I will stop upgrading some of them thus I can do a quick/minor release first.

Great !!!

[phhnguyen]

Thanks!! I had things configured differently and could not find it until your last graphic.

Thanks for the feedback. I took your idea about how difficult to find some functions. I will add some more functions to the main menu thus users can find them easier. I have tried to keep BSG looks simple but that is not always good.

[phhnguyen]

Bug Report:

On The Fly Analysis will not let you select new engine if you start On The Fly Analysis select say 'Stockfish' then stop the analysis and do a On The Fly Analysis again, it you just use the last engine you selected previously and not give you the option to select new engines.

Thanks for the report!

The function Analysis on the fly is redesigned/changed a bit thus users need only one-click to run it anywhere they want. Thus, it pops up the dialogbox to select engines only for the first time, then remember them for other times. The button Analysis on the toolbar now is changed to Analysis-on-the-fly for that one-click too.

If you want to change engines, just use the function Analysis (on the menu) to pop up that dialogbox again.

I have changed the menu item “Analysis” into “Analysis/Analysis on the fly” to help users a bit to vs confusing.

[AlexChess]

Dear Pham,
remember to fix also "add new engine" (maybe a specific button would be better than selecting it and then pressing "add new games") Actually it adds 1 game of each random-already-replaced unwanted engine. Removing them one be one, the number of games of the wanted new engine matches)

With this workaround I managed to play a roundrobin of 61 engines and there is still room for others
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-a ... e-fritz-17

The button to take a snapshot of the crosstable doesn't include all (there are borders on the sides) maybe you could make a "virtual snapshot" in some way, including all rows and columns for very big tournaments like mine.

Best regards, Alex

[Chessqueen]

Hi all,

I am glad to release my new program: Banksia GUI - a chess GUI. It is totally freeware and can run in almost all major operating systems, can do almost all typical tasks of a chess GUI.

Just list a few features:

• Support both UCI and WinBoard protocols

• Can play all types of games (human-human, human-computer, computer-computer, engine tournaments), support all popular tournament types

• Good and high customizable graphics

• Support databases, popular book formats (PGN, EDP, Polyglot)

• Supports some new chess techniques/trends. For examples, it supports:

• [+] Lc0: understand and show its stats in multi visual ways: tables (all columns are sortable), bubbles (customizable for sizes, colors and contents/which stats to show)

• [+] chessdb.com: query for both opening and endgame positions

• [+] syzygy: users can exam endgame positions

• Engines, databases, books could be auto-downloaded and configurated

• Easy to use. Many tasks could be done much easy and fast, such as auto-detecting engines, making/reusing tournaments

Home page: https://banksiagui.com

Download (temporary for alpha versions) pages: https://banksiagui.com/preview-versions

Current releases are alpha versions and just for computer chess enthusiasts. At the moment there are binaries for Windows 10-64 bit and macOS only. Other binaries (for Win 7, Linux) will be released later.

Banksia GUI is built based on our open-source Banksia - a chess tournament

Thank you a lot for downloading and using. Feedbacks, bug reports and ideas are warm welcomes



Some screenshots:

Easy for playing and for running tournaments:


Support deeply Lc0:


Simple:


Query chessdb.cn:


A friend sent me a screenshot when he was testing with 18 concurrent games:

Does Banksia support No castling chess, and how can I set it to show the last move made ?

[phhnguyen]

Dear Pham,
remember to fix also "add new engine" (maybe a specific button would be better than selecting it and then pressing "add new games") Actually it adds 1 game of each random-already-replaced unwanted engine. Removing them one be one, the number of games of the wanted new engine matches)

With this workaround I managed to play a roundrobin of 61 engines and there is still room for others
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-a ... e-fritz-17

The button to take a snapshot of the crosstable doesn't include all (there are borders on the sides) maybe you could make a "virtual snapshot" in some way, including all rows and columns for very big tournaments like mine.

Best regards, Alex

Thanks for suggestions, I added them to my todo list!

At the moment my tool (Qt) supports to take images of what is displayed only, thus it can’t take images of hidden columns/rows. For larger tables, I guess you need to buy a larger screen. Hope the screen with that size maybe available for the next few years

[phhnguyen]

Does Banksia support No castling chess, and how can I set it to show the last move made ?

No, not at that moment, sorry. I planned BSG won’t support any variants except standard chess and chess960 until I satisfy with its status and run out of complicated functions/features in my todo list (the list is still so long ).

BTW, you can easily run games/tournaments of No-castling chess with BSG. Just use a simple PGN or EPD opening books with all no-castling positions thus all games will be in that variant.

The last moves are auto displayed. If you want to change colors/styles, go menu -> Settings -> Move/Stats, tick or untick "Move highlight", "gradient" and click on two boxes next to the gradient to change colors.

[AdminX]

Bug Report:

On The Fly Analysis will not let you select new engine if you start On The Fly Analysis select say 'Stockfish' then stop the analysis and do a On The Fly Analysis again, it you just use the last engine you selected previously and not give you the option to select new engines.

Thanks for the report!

The function Analysis on the fly is redesigned/changed a bit thus users need only one-click to run it anywhere they want. Thus, it pops up the dialogbox to select engines only for the first time, then remember them for other times. The button Analysis on the toolbar now is changed to Analysis-on-the-fly for that one-click too.

If you want to change engines, just use the function Analysis (on the menu) to pop up that dialogbox again.

I have changed the menu item “Analysis” into “Analysis/Analysis on the fly” to help users a bit to vs confusing.

Thank you for the response, It worked!

[AlexChess]

Bug Report:

On The Fly Analysis will not let you select new engine if you start On The Fly Analysis select say 'Stockfish' then stop the analysis and do a On The Fly Analysis again, it you just use the last engine you selected previously and not give you the option to select new engines.

Thanks for the report!

The function Analysis on the fly is redesigned/changed a bit thus users need only one-click to run it anywhere they want. Thus, it pops up the dialogbox to select engines only for the first time, then remember them for other times. The button Analysis on the toolbar now is changed to Analysis-on-the-fly for that one-click too.

If you want to change engines, just use the function Analysis (on the menu) to pop up that dialogbox again.

I have changed the menu item “Analysis” into “Analysis/Analysis on the fly” to help users a bit to vs confusing.

Thank you for the response, It worked!

Nice that each of us BSG fans covers a different feature, helping Pham to fix issues. It will became a masterpiece

Kind regards, Alex