SCID vs PC

Is there an option to use numeric annotation glyphs instead of just plain ASCII in the comment editor? Obviously when using SCID to view SCID authored comments there's no issue, but other programs expect PGN standard compliance and will not do implicit translation (this happens for the very popular AnalyzeYourChess). As I'm a chess instructor this issue has become quite annoying. SCID is a fabulous program, but this issue is threatening to push me to ChessBase for annotating games. Not sure why just the basic numeric glyphs aren't supported in SCID.

So I just ran an interesting experiment. Using the ChessBase GUI I opened a SCID commented game. ChessBase does indeed recognize the plain ASCII instead of numeric glyphs. Better yet if one replaces a game using the ChessBase GUI the plain ASCII is replaced with the numeric glyph codes ($1, $2, etc.). So this yields a mechanism for correcting the PGN output by SCID. So then I used SCID to view this corrected PGN. To my amazement it correctly recognizes the numeric glyph codes!

Why is this so startling? It was unexpected because it makes no sense. If SCID understands the codes then why aren't they used in the comment editor?? Seems like an oversight.

Numeric glyphs are fairly well supported.

You can select this option in PGN->Options->SymbolicAnnotations,

and, moreover, when exporting to PGN,  in the export config dialogs.

In the comment editor, enter (for eg) $10 , for equality

I can't find any of the options you refer to. I just realized that in my previous post I abbreviated "SCID vs PC" as "SCID". Hope that's not causing the confusion. Regarding your last statement - what's the point of entering $ based values when there are buttons that should be doing this for the annotator? It shouldn't be necessary for the annotator to know the $ based representations - the software should handle this automatically.

@ Tiger-Oli - I have added the feature i think you are after. In subversion, The 'Opening' column has been renamed 'Moves', and if the tree is open and adjusting games, subsequent moves are displayed in the gamelist and in the best-games window. I think it's working, but please test it out. PS - right-click the gamelist and bestgames title row to add 'Moves' if it is missing.

Tiger-Oli wrote:

> When I create a game list for a certain variation or a player x, then all the games are displayed, but - SCID does not show the actual variations played. Everything else is there, name, rating, tournament, year, Black and White ELO, but no variations.

hi, i have a slightly different question -- is there a batch option to add custom player pictures? if yes, how can i use it?

having to manually encode images into base64 beyond small numbers would be a waste of time. i would like to build up a high quality image database for players.

thanks in advance!

Please read the help infos.

Player Photos : Custom gifs can be placed into a "photos" directory beneath the user dir. They should preferably be 100x100, with the file name being the same as the player it portrays. Eg - a photo for Magnus should be placed in 'photos/Carlsen, Magnus.gif'. These photos will override any found in the .spf files. 

i read that info.
that still means that i would have to keep the file with the default encoded images in addition to custom photos and i'm not sure how batch renaming would work when every player name is unique.

One of the nicest features of CB15 is the replay trainer.  Is there any way to duplicate that functionality with SCIDvPC, as I can see the usefulness of this function for improving game play, learning tactics & strategy, and understanding positional play of GM games.

Specifically, here are some of the key features of replay training (ie. guessing the next move for one side):

* works similar to covering up the next move in a chess book with an index card
* the program scores based on how well you guessed the next move
* key to the program is the Hints feature, where it would state things like "move a pawn" or "attach a pawn" to hint at the next move if you get stuck.  it can give progressively more Hints for each move if needed
* a smaller mini-board also can optionally display the position 3 moves ahead of the current position (I'm not sure how useful this is though)

You can see a repay of the functions at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bm1hjalLF4

I might have found what I'm looking for with Find Best Move (Play>Training).  Not quite giving hints, but half way there with special tactical databases.  I'll have to spend a little bit more time with this.

Mainline Scid has a Play->Training->Review Game feature. If someone is interested in coding/porting this to ScidvsPC, send me an email.

Someone else emailed me about this, but changed their mind i guess. I doubt i'll ever port it myself as we have enough convoluted training features already  imho.

Someone know if there is a way to find games by annotator?

Ok, I found a way: Search → General → PGN contains text → Annotator "Karpov

See "help->Index->DrawArrows". Help item is Comment Editor

Also, Shift+Click on main board colours square.

I know that there are nice ways to update the pieces and board, but is there a way to change the buttons?  I think having some updated flat icons, especially for the toolbars would make a more appealing interface.

I know that the power of this program is not in the looks of it, but if there's a way to update one of the resource files and recompile, it would be a nice change.

Yeah, you're right I've been getting ready to play around with some image filters to see if i can add a little "slick" to the current buttons, but havent got there yet.

I'm definitely receptive to adding new buttons if people would care to  send me some.. (maybe just mess around with some image filters on a screenshot of the button bar).. but it's a tough task because what you like may not be what i like.

If someone is thinking of making whole new buttons - first up - their intended use has to be clear ( so i guess this means we're stuck with having the 'V' somewhere in the variation buttons). Then, polish and  - all having the same theme of course - are important. Just send me the gifs/pngs and i'll convert them to Scids native buttons if i like them.

I realise it's currently tough to test your buttons/contribute. Maybe i'll make a version that sources use images. The short of it is, these buttons /images need to be redone. tb_flip  autoplay_off autoplay_on tb_trial tb_trial_on tb_start tb_prev tb_next tb_end tb_invar tb_outvar tb_addvar tb_windows

Their initialisation is done by "image create photo tb_start -data ...." (in tcl/main.tcl,tcl/board.tcl mostly).. but should users wish to make their own buttons, the images can be initialised wiith "image create photo tb_start -file FILENAME"

I'm not a graphics designer, but I did these quickly in PS as an example.

Hi, i have question about colours. Is it possible to change the normal text color in windows like the PGN window? In the PGN window i can change the background color and the color of the header, annotations etc, but i can not figure out how to change the normal text, either in scid.gui or options.dat. Not being able to change the normal text color is a bit of a nuisance if you prefer a dark background, as i do.

Yeah... tough to do these simple things properly in Wish.

Add these three lines to the scid.gui above the other lines and change "red" to whatever you like.

Maybe i'll try to implement this as a menu item.

option add *Text*foreground red
option add *Label*foreground red
option add *Button*foreground red
if {$enableBackground == 1} {
option add *Text*background $defaultBackground
option add *Listbox*background $defaultBackground
}

Thanks stevenaaus, your solution works wonderfully. It doesn't work everywhere but i'm very happy with the results so far. It works for the PGN, Analysis, Tree, Player Window, Comment editor and crosstable windows.

In the games list the text is still black. In the original Scid (version 4.7.0) i was able to change the text color in the games list by editing -selectfg (namespace eval ttk::theme:::efault {... array set colors { in file \Scid-4.7.0\lib\tk8.6\ttk\defaults.tcl). This affects the syle of the treeview in the same file. I haven't figured out how to accomplish this in Scid vs PC.

Also, the text in the dropdown menus is still black as is the text in some buttons and some of the static texts in some of the other other windows. Furthermore the tooltips have a white background (i haven't tried to change that yet) and now have white text also. Whether i can figure out how to change these, i'm not sure; i consider all these minor quirks

Implementing the text colors in menus would be a fantastic option.

Adding this one line makes the gamelist colour change... Its all very hackish, but it's probably getting there.  NOTE - remove/ignore the '_' chars below. B**y markup

if {$::enableBackground} {
::ttk::_style configure Treeview -background $::_defaultBackground
::ttk::_style configure Treeview -fieldbackground $::_defaultBackground
}
::ttk::_style configure Treeview -foreground red

And also add to previous

option add *Menubutton*foreground red
option add *Checkbutton*foreground red