SCID vs PC

I've a question for you, mr ed, when playing a setup position against an engine, the engine always wants to move 1st. How do I tell it it's my turn?

Hmmmm... I don't seem to have this problem.

First I set up a position, with White at the bottom (me), and with White to move.  I then selected PLAY - COMPUTER - UCI ENGINE, checked the Start From Current Position box and clicked PLAY.  The engine didn't move, and waited for me to do so.  (I then made a few moves and then aborted.)

THEN I selected another position, with White at the bottom (me), but this time the position was set up for Black to move first.   No problems here either... after the same steps to play against an engine, the engine then made the first move, as it should have.

I then swapped the board so that Black (me) was now at the bottom of the screen.  I then set up a position with Black (me) to move.  No problems here, either.

Finally, to make the test complete, I kept the board so that Black (me) was at the bottom of the screen, but now set up a position with White to move.  Again, no problems here, either.  The computer made the first  move.

What engine are you using?  (But that shouldn't matter, unless it's not corectly handling the data that ScidvsPC is sending to it.)

However, I did find a bug:

With me, as Black, at the bottom, and with the position set up for it to be MY (Black's) move, it's WHITE'S clock that initially starts ticking down, not Black's clock!  Whoops@   And after I make a move as Black, it's now White's move and his clock then continues to tick down, so after this first move all is well.

hmmm, ok, I have SCID 4,4, mabe it's different from SCID vs PC

I dont get the option to choose colour

The side to move is part of the position that is set up.  In other words, anytime you are setting up a position, part of the setup includes whose side it is to move.

Correct.  Furthermore, with Scid vs. PC, if you setup the postion with BLACK at the bottom, you will be playing the Black side.  (And if White is at the bottom, you will be playing the White side.) 

There is no other method I know of to choose what color you wish.  But this method is simple enough and intuitive.  Normally you always play with your color at the bottom of the screen.

Thanks Lads. I copied the stuff over.

When saving the database what is the advantage of saving it in Scid format over saving it as Pgn.

I have saved some games in Pgn by going to Tools and choosing Export all Filter games to pgn.

Should I be using Scid format instead.

Also i would like to know how to design these databases. can someone give me some tips as to how to proceed and what things I need to learn.

btw I found that you can search for openings you played and get a statistical report In Player report in Tools tab. u probably know this but i found it useful

Scid database is better, if ou are going to use Scid. It allows database maintenance (compression, looking for duplicates etc)

Searching and all basic operations are MUCH faster when using SCID format.  File size is also smaller.

Thanks.

When saving in Scid format what folder are the files saved to. i have saved files but cant find them in scid format.

When I save files in scid format I dont get an option to save to a Folder or drive location. It just saves the file but i dont know where it saves it to.

ive tried looking in scids bin folder but no luck

You choose the folder when you create the database itself.

I'm using Linux Mint 15 and can't find the scid.gui file to add fonts to. Does anyone know where this is located in Linux? Or do I need to edit some different file?

Thanks.

I think the file is just called scid in linux.

Hm, can't find anything like that either, in ~/.scidvspc. Maybe Steve can answer.

i mean saving the clipbase.

do u have to create a new database each time or can you not just save the files in the clipbase itself as a database

You need to create a database and copy the clipbase game to that to save it in scid format.

U have to create a database and then only u will b able to save the games.

Cannot save the clipbase. But copy the games in it to database and save.

I found the answer to this on the Scid vs. PC mailing list and thought I'd share if anyone else may need to know. It seems that version 4.10 searches for a directory in ~/.scidvspc called "pieces", and if found, loads chess fonts found there. They should be saved as text files containing the base 64 strings- like DunnoItAll has been posting.

Nice, didn't know that, thanks!

Thank you. 

I have and use the Windows version (version 4.11) and in my BIN folder I also have a PIECES folder.  In this folder are currently 15 different font.txt files.  (font_alphat.txt, font_fritz.txt, font_uscf.txt, etc.)  Upon startup, the program loads these fonts, as evidenced by the startup information:

User Pieces: reading C:\Program Files (x86)\Scid vs PC-4.11\bin\pieces
Loaded file font_adventurer.txt
Loaded file font_alpha.txt
Loaded file font_alpha2.txt
Loaded file font_burnett.txt
Loaded file font_chesscube.txt
Loaded file font_fritz.txt
Loaded file font_habsburg.txt
Loaded file font_habsburg_OS.txt
Loaded file font_hastings.txt
Loaded file font_kingdom.txt
Loaded file font_merida1.txt
Loaded file font_merida2.txt
Loaded file font_uscf.txt
Loaded file font_uscf_gold.txt
Loaded file font_zurich.txt