Banksia GUI released

[phhnguyen]

Thanks all for the suggestions, ideas, helps, and testing

[phhnguyen]

Version 0.56 (World Cup 2022 version) released

Besides some minor bug fixes, many small improvements and changes, there are some new things, including:

• Support Apple Silicone with a binary for native Apple silicone

• Opening books in the default engine folder (it is a sub-folder “engines” in the program folder): auto detect and install those books (for Polyglot and OBS only)

• Analyse anywhere: in previous versions, users can analyze a position only when it is being shown on the main board. Now users can analyze almost anywhere they see a board. In Fig. 1 when watching a game in a database, users could click on the analyze button under the preview board to start analyzing (analyze on the fly)

• Show engines scores with thinking arrows for better watching (Fig. 1 & 6)

• Coach: check blunders and display some information. A good tool for learners (Fig. 2)

• New design for Settings dialog box (Fig. 3)

• Support accessibility (Fig. 3): make moves by using the keyboard with announcements of the current square and piece; much more information could be read by screen reader/voice-over programs; White pieces could be changed colors to support visually impaired people

• Support variations (Fig. 4): BSG now can view variations (but it cannot add or edit them directly in this release)

Lichess bot:

• Lichess bots: improve the interface, and functions of logging and reporting; query Lichess servers to get the list of online bots. Now users don’t need to enter that list manually. With just a few clicks they can have a long list of bots to challenge them. Very convenient (Fig. 5)

• Lichess bot: new features: auto adjudication and offering draws and resigning

Databases:

• Databases could be shown as a popup (“original” way, Fig. 1) or a panel (Fig. 6)

• Database’s opening trees show WDL bars (Fig. 6)

• Could encrypt any databases with 256-bit AES in CBC mode (Fig. 7)

• Games in a database could be shown automatically one by one, move by move (Demo Database)

A note for Apple Silicon computers:
We have been struggling to notarise/codesign BSG with Apple. For this release, to run BSG on Apple silicone computers, users may need to tell Gatekeeper (the security feature) to ignore the program by running:

Code: Select all

xattr -cr /path/to/BanksiaGUI.app

For example:

Code: Select all

xattr -cr ~/Downloads/BanksiaGUI.app

More explanations:

• (Tech) Development library upgraded seriously: we have upgraded the development system (from Qt 5 to Qt 6). The new one requires higher versions of OSs that BSG could run: Windows from 10, macOS from 10, and Linux (Ubuntu) from 20. That also comes with the risks of having more bugs and crashes. However, we expect some rewards from having a better environment, and more abilities/features to add to the program. So far the most important gain/reason is to support Apple Silicone

• To encrypt/decrypt databases we use SQLCipher. It is an open-source library that provides transparent, secure 256-bit AES encryption of SQLite database files. It works well even with very large databases. We believe with the ability we have more choices with chess databases, say, sharing or even someone could make business/sell their databases and opening books in security ways. However, this feature is also new to us and we have been learning in building the full encryption ecosystem (such as locked databases into hardware). We are listening to your ideas/suggestions

• Coach: BSG runs an engine to check if a move is a blunder or not. Some other chess GUIs have that feature too. However, BSG makes it in a different and more useful way (Fig. 2):
  a) Users can control almost everything, from setting up the engine, selecting the threshold and which information to show
  b) It can auto-work when a move is made; users could run it for any move or even whole a game too (to verify a whole game)
  c) It has a new graph of blunders. I think it is a good tool for learners when they can easily check in a visual way how many and how bad blunders they have played

• Settings dialog box: Someone said the previous Settings dialog box was a big mess and we had to agree since it contained so many items located congested in some small pages. Because of lacking space many items are displayed in very short or small forms, harder to look out and maybe not enough information to explain themselves. Users can’t search nor filter them either and usually have to read/scan many of them to find the ones they need. Now we could solve that problem with the new design and implementation (Fig. 3). In the new one, each item could have as much space as it needed to explain itself, guide users as well as be well-organized, clear look, and be beautiful. More important and conveniently, users can filter to quickly narrow down the number of pages and items they need to look to find out an item, thus they can navigate quickly. That also serves much better for accessibility (by being clear/well organized and more readable information)

Frankly speaking, for this release, having the new design of the Settings dialog box gave us the most satisfaction!


Fig. 1 Analysing everywhere with the board. Database viewer could be displayed as a popup (the original way). The opening tree shows WDL graphs



Fig. 2 Coach panel with information and blunder graph


Fig. 3 New Settings look; Accessibility


Fig. 4 Display variations


Fig. 5 Lichess bots: easy to auto-load/create a list of hundreds of bot players (for challenging)


Fig. 6 Database viewer as a panel. The score is displayed with the thinking arrow


Fig. 7 Encrypt a database when creating

[Dariusz]

Pham, thank you for the latest Banksia GUI ! What a wonderful start to the day !!
I'm very happy that we got a version for Apple Silicon

Time to write a review.

[AlexChess]

Thank you Pham!

BSG 0.56 Windows build works fine on Windows 10 x64 and Windows 11 ARM64, and it is very nice and useful the new Config panel

The Mac intel build isn't anymore compatible with macOS 13.6 High Sierra , so if isn't impossible to fix I will continue to use 0.55c on it.

Kind regards, Alex

PS: Chess2U hasn't been hacked, The forum has been closed by the owner. Register to Banksiagui Forum that is becoming every day better!!!

[Magnum]

Thanks Pham

Apple Silicon + BanksiaGUI = Best by test

[alex67a]

It doesn't seem to work on older systems with windows 7
Problems with ntdll.dll
Can anything be done?

[bastiball]

I have also an issue, after I customize my settings in the GUI, then I close the application, then I can't open it anymore.

[Modern Times]

It doesn't seem to work on older systems with windows 7
Problems with ntdll.dll
Can anything be done?

He said in his post that Windows 10 is now the minimum requirement.

[Modern Times]

I opened it and chose File-Chess960-New Game, and it crashed. However, it has been a while since I looked at Banksia, and it has come a long way !

[Hai]

I love to use my Apple Silicon M1 MAX and Ultra devices with BanksiaGUI 0.56.