Great news! Any information on what specifically has changed (other than the bug fixes mentioned on the ChessX website)? Thanks for the post. :)
New Release of ChessX out 0.9
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A lot has changed, really too much to mention here, The last official release before this was around 2 years ago and the code has been updated quite a bit since then. Personally I have been doing development on ChessX in my spare time for the last several months. I added null move support and fixed the PGN parsing so we should now handle just about any legal PGN that is out there ( if we don't let me know ). Most all of the views have undergone some changes. The database list now allows you to select favorites which is a big improvement. I changed the default board to a nice mahogany one. I regularly update the Macintosh builds on www.box.com/chessX. I also update the windows builds but somewhat less often.
I downloaded the program (for Mac) last night and am very happy to see that copying and pasting PGNs is now supported! :D It seems like sometimes the game information doesn't carry through -- not sure why. It seems like the 'New Database' command is new as well..? If so, bravo for that as well.
I could actually select favorites databases using the previous version I got from the box.com site, though it was a heart icon rather than a star. Unless you're referring to something else that I haven't discovered yet?
A few more minor (i.e., not engine/analysis/annotation related) feature requests / bugs:
1. The PGN issue noted above.
2. The game information box doesn't seem to have a way to edit/add the ECO.
3. If I close a database with Cmd+W, the changes are not saved, and it seems that using File|Save (Cmd+Shift+S) doesn't actually save the database. The only way I've found to save changes to the database is to click the red X icon to close the ChessX window, at which point it prompts me to save changes to the database. Maybe I'm missing something?
4. I tried to use the opening tree feature, but nothing appeared in the opening tree window. After loading a couple different databases and clicking through the games, the opening tree window was still blank, and I couldn't find a way to generate any information in it. Perhaps a bug or perhaps just user error on my part.
Thanks again for your help with the update (and thanks to all who worked on it, if they happen to read this). :)
The Opening tree is based on the filter. Enable the Filter from the Find Menu. Then click through the games. We probably should automatically enable the filter if the Opening tree is open, We also need to support a non-PGN based opening tree model.
The changes I was referring to were from .8 to .9 on the official site, not versus my www.box.com site which I have been keeping up to date regularly ( at least the Mac builds).
On the www.box.com site the move indicator is now resizable.
As far as saving it is a two step process.
There is Game Save to save the current game into the database, and File Save to save the Current Database to a file.
James, some times ago you mentioned that you would add in your "todo list" the possibility to make a match analisys. Has by any chance already been added?
No, it hasn't and probably won't for some time. Frankly we need more developers. Right now there are only two of us, and I have a full time job and a pretty busy outside life.
Right now I am trying to make the current opening tree implementation less confusing as that seems to be a common complaint.
Hi James,
Thanks for the help with the opening tree. It works just fine -- my mistake, naturally. Not the most intuitive process, but it's certainly livable. (I saw that you uploaded a new .dmg on the box.com site, but when I try to install it, it gives me an error message [OSX 10.6.8], so I'm not sure if anything has been changed.)
Regarding saving: Thanks for the tip. It works if I remember to save twice, but I think it would be nice if there was a prompt to save changes when closing a database with Cmd+W. Right now, if I change a game in a database, save the game (Game|Save), and then close the database with Cmd+W, it simply closes the database without asking me if I want to save the changes. Closing the entire application in this scenario, however, does prompt me to save changes to the database.
If I don't first save the game with Game|Save, even if there are changes to a game, closing the database in any manner (Cmd+W, Cmd+Q, or clicking the red x) also doesn't ask me if I want to save the changes.
I think it the save process might be a good thing to change in the future (I'm sure I'm not the only user who would appreciate knowing that annotations/analysis/etc. won't be discarded without warning if I forget one save step).
Regarding developers: How hard is it? I've done some HTML/CSS work, and write code in SAS (a statistical analysis program) at work, but I don't have any software programming experience. Is it something that someone without a background in computer science could learn, or is it best left to the professionals?
At any rate, thanks again for your work on this (and whoever the other person is). :) Cheers!
I just uploaded another dmg, try again and let me know if you have any trouble
Finally the official release of ChessX 0.9 is out. The main ChessX website has been updated. Its been a long time but the results are worth it.
http://chessx.sourceforge.net