Banksia GUI released

[AlexChess]

@Eduard

You may just use Chessbase. Chessbase is the best in annotating games and managing databases. I don't think we should expect a single developer to do something better than Chessbase: it is not a big issue to add new functions, but the optimization (e.g. loading a pgn containing thousands of games) and stability (no crash, and can load a pgn where some games are broken) are not easy tasks.

btw: the thinking arrow is useful for me: I don't want to use the pv board and I am not good enough to think the line in my brain.

@Cornfed @matejst

I agree it depends on the author to make decisions. For me, I would like to have a GUI for engine testing (maybe not well-optimized like cutechess) but containing more options for users. For learning and managing databases I would just use Chessbase.

If you can't even copy a simple analysis, that's very disappointing, sorry. Also the impossibility to change fonts. I will not use 0.51, I will probably delete this GUI. Have fun with the many new arrows.

The engine info contains every information you need and I don't know what the ChessBase analysis can give you more.

It's your freedom to do anything but I don't think it polite to say something here. I am always fine with any idea you suggest but it seems you only concern your demands.

Those concerns can be shared by many other users. That's actually the most useful kind of feedback.

Thinking arrows are really useful. I can follow engines plans watching dedicated monitor occasionally, while I'm working.

[Uri Blass]

Some ideas:
1)I would like to know in advance what is going to happen in a match to avoid mistakes.

For example I played stockfish depth 10 against Dragon depth 14 from a pgn with swap sides
only to discover after the match started that black won most games because it seemed that black got depth 14 in all games and it was in one game stockfish and in one game dragon.

Another mistake is that I wanted to play the same opening with white and black but did not get it correctly and the engines swap sides but started from opening 1 and in the second game opening 2 and in the third game opening 3.

Another mistake is when I want one program to play white all games and do not get the correct one to play white all games

Seeing a picture of how the match is going to be seen before starting the match so if I have some mistake I can correct it can be productive

2)I would like to have an option for fixed setting for every engine so I can use the same setting with the engine for all games without changing things.

I may decide that I would like to have Stockfish14_depth_13_single_core as one of the players and in every game it is going to use depth 13 even if I do not tell the GUI that I want to use depth 13. The engine is going to be called Stockfish14_depth13_single_core and if I try to have it in some tournament it must use depth 13 and single core.

I may also like to have the option to have something like Stockfish14_nodes_1000000 single core as one of the players in every game
or Stockfish14_40_moves_to_40_seconds_4_cores as one of the players.

The idea is that the setting is going to be fixed after the engine start to play the first tournament and if I try to change them or change one of the parameters of the engine I get a warning that the setting are fixed and that it is better if I simply duplicate the engine in a different setting and different name.

It is not instead of normal Stockfish14 that can be used in tournaments if I decide about setting that is not fixed but additional option.

[shaoxinyu]

Those concerns can be shared by many other users. That's actually the most useful kind of feedback.

Don't miss my point. Every new feature has supporters. Many features also have many opponents of course. But probably people should express their thought in a proper way.

[Uri Blass]

I play matchs between wasp and other engines.
I made a new personality of Wasp and changed the default contempt from 0 to 200 but for some reason when I start a new match I see that the contempt got back to the default value that is 0.

I wonder if there is a bug of not saving changes to parameters in the gui

[Uri Blass]

Changes that I do after deleting WaspContempt200 to reproduce the problem:

1)I choose duplicate engine
2)I change the name of Wasp to WaspContempt200
3)I click duplicate
4)I replace Contempt 0 by Contempt 200 in engines options for WaspContempt200.
5)I close setting
6)I open setting again to see if my setting is saved and I find that they are not saved and WaspContempt200 has Contempt 0

Edit:I see that the problem is that the maximal value of Contempt for Wasp is 150 so it reject 200 but it does not tell me that there is a mistake.

[Damir]

Probably your Contempt value goes back to 0 because 150 Contempt is Max the engine can use, and hence 200 is illegal, your Contempt goes automatically back to Default 0. Try and put 150 Contempt value and see if the Contempt will go back to 0. I am sure it won't because 150 Contempt is max that the engine can use...

[Uri Blass]

Probably your Contempt value goes back to 0 because 150 Contempt is Max the engine can use, and hence 200 is illegal, your Contempt goes automatically back to Default 0. Try and put 150 Contempt value and see if the Contempt will go back to 0. I am sure it won't because 150 Contempt is max that the engine can use...

You are right that it is the problem and when I put 150 everything is ok but I think that it is better if the gui should tell the user that the value is illegal
and not allow the user to quit without asking him to fix it to a legal value(or alternatively warn the user that the value is going to be changed to the default value because the value is illegal).

[CMCanavessi]

Probably your Contempt value goes back to 0 because 150 Contempt is Max the engine can use, and hence 200 is illegal, your Contempt goes automatically back to Default 0. Try and put 150 Contempt value and see if the Contempt will go back to 0. I am sure it won't because 150 Contempt is max that the engine can use...

You are right that it is the problem and when I put 150 everything is ok but I think that it is better if the gui should tell the user that the value is illegal
and not allow the user to quit without asking him to fix it to a legal value(or alternatively warn the user that the value is going to be changed to the default value because the value is illegal).

Yeah, I had to deal with that very same issue and it took me a while to figure out what was going on. I suggested pham that he should print the max values for some settings (like hash for example) so we don't have to go and check the engine itself manually (Arena does this with a dialog box when you place the mouse cursor over each option).

[Wilhelm]

Hello, found a bug in 0.51.
When starting a new tourney I have no WB-engines in the right window to select.

[phhnguyen]

Version 0.52 (friendship version) released

Fixed bugs:

• Test positions (test suites) shows wrong answers from engines because of storing new results after satisfying

• Dialogbox of crew Tournament doesn’t show Winboard engines

Some minor bug fixes, small improvements/adjustments:

• Set font styles (Arial & Times) and sizes for Engine info and Move list

• Engine info: copy values into clipboard (using the pop-up menu or a button in the top right corner)

• Engine options spin type: show min/max values and auto set those limits for the spinner, auto correct if the value is out of the range

• Analysis on the fly: after stopping it keeps showing the current position with all arrows

• Tour edit: reset all opening, sort games by some conditions

• Tour opening: improve book management to easier enter, remove, turn on/off books. It can have unlimited books (instead of only limited to 3)

• Rearrange Settings to easier find items

• Test positions: show more information, more way to control, could remove items

Notes:

• We can’t freely select fonts for Engine info, move list but limited between Times and Arial fonts because BSG needs to support pieces’ figure fonts

• Games of a tournament could be sorted into some categories. It could replace the search function to help finding games easier