I am in the process of trying to make significant
improvements in my game, and apart from reading theoretical material,
the single best way is to review one’s moves with the help of a top bot
such as GNU. Therefore, I import all my matches to GNU and review my mistakes
AND correct moves. The reason for the second choice is that I completely agree
with Heuler, who wrote an article on studying with Snowie that applies very
much to GNU as well. He noted that seeing where we went wrong is of course
important, but that seeing where we went right when choosing between tough
moves is also important, reinforcing our future choices. My point is this:
It is VERY tiresome to do this with GNU. The single biggest
reason isn’t the floating windows, it is the
cube decision information in particular. I realize that a significant change in
the GUI’s construction is not an easy task, nor quick, so I am going to
suggest something I hope will be possible in the not too far future and will
make using GNU much much easier. My biggest problem is that to see the analysis
I must *always* have the cube
decision information covering the board. There is simply no possible way to see
the analysis (even one line) and the board at the same time. I must see the
analysis, then drag the window down all the way, then
see the board, then drag the window back up all the way. If however, the cube
decision information were not visible, I could do this, and reviewing my moves
would not involve dragging the Annotation window up and down for EVERY SINGLE
MOVE. If you don’t believe this, just try reviewing the
analysis for every move and seeing the result on the board. If you do
this experiment only once, I am sure you will be convinced.
How about adding a button that either hides or displays the
Cube analysis? Of course, a small logic to determine cases where the program is
showing a cube error, or when the hint requested is a cube decision would be
necessary, but this would go miles….sorry, I mean this would go…. kilometers
towards making GNU a more user-friendly tool.
Albert