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I abominate this aspect of Scid.  The other only open source software of which I am aware that has this problem is "The Gimp."  But it has more justification in such a graphics package, since mouse movements are more or less unavoidable there.  I would like to have chess software with a more keystroke-drive interface, like the window manager Ion or the One True Editor, Emacs.

See here: http://www.modeemi.fi/~tuomov/ion/

GMTonyKosten wrote on 08/12/06 at 10:54:56:

Will control-alt-delete bring this up?  Is there a better way?

Greetings Tony,

Does CB generate any Microsoft error messages - in Event Viewer, for example?

As regards playable ebooks...

Can they not be converted into PDF or Word DOC formats?

I confess I don't know how playable ebooks are made.

Is there anything on playable ebooks and how they work - I mean, how the moves are incorporated into them?

Kindest regards,

James

Greetings,

As promised - or threatened!   - I just wanted to update all on my progress so far with the various offerings.

First off, CBL didn't install - and I can't get it do so.

It keeps hanging whilst attempting to copy a TTF file to the C:\Windows\System32 folder - I can only assume that one of my security applications isn't happy about it attempting to do so.

And I don't particularly feel like hunting it down - if the Light version of CB is having this much difficulty installing, I shudder to think what the full package would do!

Is it really worth going through all that just to play through "playable PDFs"? Surely, someone can develop something suitable to enable other applications to make use of these?

So, I installed SCID - which went without a single hitch.

It seems a powerful program, if one can get used to its various features opening up in their own window, which I don't mind. (As a former programmer, I'm well used to seeing this sort of thing in Open Source/GPL software.)

I also downloaded Crafty and installed it under Winboard, which I also have, along with GNUChess.

Having assured myself that Crafty worked in Winboard and was superior to the latter chess program, I then set it as the primary engine for analysis. The Engine feature is powerful - I left it overnight analysing a position from one of my older games and it had gone down to some twenty-odd moves by morningtime! (On a 600MHz machine I have to add!)

The Tree feature allows you to explore an opening by playing each move - the possible replies diminish until one is following whatever game is left in your database, in which it occurred.

There are a wealth of reports/graphs which can be displayed along with tournament searches (depending on what actual PGNs you have in your database).

Most importantly, it appears to be transpositional - like Chess Assistant (and BookUp) but not like ChessBase - which in my book is a must!

Having created a few different databases, I've downloaded games, etc., from TWIC and other sites and been able to see how the games developed from the same or similar positions.

One can use Pattern searches to filter (include/exclude) various games based on positions, etc - IQP (various), Rook sacrifices on c3(!), castling (same/opposite sides), etc., with further ways to refine the filter.

A very useful feature for d-pawn and Sicilian players!

The filter then enables you to show any of the filtered games which automatically open at the matching position - IQP, rook sacrifice, etc.

I will have to try BookUp next - it will be interesting to see how well it works in tandem with SCID. Amongst the PGNs I downloaded was various ECO openings, which I want to check/train upon in BookUp.

Thanks again, katar  

Kindest regards,

James

Scholar wrote on 07/02/06 at 18:54:34:


Bookup will import (or export) pgn files, even immense ones that would be very difficult for a human being to make sense of.  So it's quite easy to transfer data between Bookup and other programs.

However, I don't think it's exactly a question of switching from a chess data base to Bookup.  Bookup does not attempt to provide the functionality of a chess data base.  It's a sort of spreadsheet for storing, manipulating and reviewing variations -- a task which, in my opinion, it does much better than CA, CB or SCID.

Alias wrote on 06/30/06 at 04:48:47:


Yes.

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Yes, although it helps that you can merge pgn files into a Bookup "book."  Also, Bookup.com sells a number of very useful sets of variations for Bookup, including some endings.  One of the best things about having my personal bookup files is that it's very simple to enter new variations into them, then backsolve the book so that the judgements of my newer theory are reflected back to the start of the book. 

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Yes, indeed.

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Yes, and it's very simple to attach a comment to the end of a given variation to show where it came from (in fact, it's easy to add a comment to any move.

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Yes.  So is recognizing transpositions.

ChessBase is the better option.   
There are more options offered for it than for Chess Assistant.   
Since it is the standard, more people will continue to produce new software/expansions for ChessBase rather than ChessAssistant.

As for the engines, download the free version of Rybka and use Arena as interface (if you need to).   
They are better than Crafty/GnuChess.

By the way, if you are worried about CB9 being really horrible (as per GM Kosten's warning), you can always buy CB8 for very cheap and have everything you need.  CB8 has gotten quite inexpensive and is completely reliable and more than useful.
Also, you would't really be saving a lot of money by going with CA but would be missing a lot of "extras" around the net.


As for Bookup....download the free version, or I would suggest you just buy it. 
Its excellent and has greatly improved my opening prep.  It looks very basic, but it has great features.
I have come to use Bookup a great deal.
If you do decide you don't like it Mike Leahy (the programmer) offers a full refund on your money.

By the way, Mike mentioned that a new version is coming out around the end of summer, so you might consider using the free version for awhile and buy the new one in a couple of months.

Hope this helps,
Nietzsche