Re: [Bug-gnubg] New fuctionallity for batch operations, opinions wanted!

[Joern Thyssen]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2003 at 11:29:10AM +0200, Øystein Johansen wrote
> Hi, all!
> 
> I'm working on a simple feature for gnubg for doing batch analysis and 
> other batch operations.
> What I'm think of is simply a feature that does analyse multiple matches.
> 
> Example:
> batch analysis mat *.mat
> 
> will find all files in the working directory with the matching pattern 
> of *.mat, import them as .mat files, analyse them at the current 
> analysis setting, and save them as SGF files with the default file name.
> 
> Another example:
> batch export html *.sgf
> 
> will export all file with the sgf extension to html files.
> 
> Now? What else do we need? Opinions please.

I've not sure it's necesary to add new commands for this. For example,
your "batch analysis mat" is equivalent to

import mat blah.mat
analyse match
save match blah.sgf (possibly)


Maybe it's possible to construct self-containing program (or a "wizard"
for gnubg) that can help the user build a command file for gnubg, and
execute it using gnubg-nogui.exe or gnubg with the Window->Message
window open.

The user should have some building blocks available, such as "Import
Mat", "Save to sgf", "Export to html", "analyse match", "add to
statistics" etc. By clicking them he can construct a command file. By
using a multi-select file dialog he can select the files that he wants
to run this particular script on. This should be a very general way of
doing this. 

Here is how such a wizard could look like:

-------------------------------------------------------
Tasks for batch job
-------------------------------------------------------
Tasks (list)                     Selected list of task

Analyse match                    Import mat
Export to html                   analyse match
Save to sgf                      save match
Import mat
...



[Add task]                       [Remove task] [Up] [Down]

                  [Cancel] [Next > (select files)]
-------------------------------------------------------


-------------------------------------------------------
Files for batch job
-------------------------------------------------------
[Add files]                List of files:
                           yuck.mat
[Add files by pattern]     ...


                           [remove file]
   

                  [Cancel] [Next > (submit job)]
-------------------------------------------------------



-------------------------------------------------------
Submit job
-------------------------------------------------------
[Modify Analysis Settings]

[Add commands to be executed before script]

                  [Cancel] [Submit job]
-------------------------------------------------------


This approach has the advantage that it's very general, i.e., you can
construct scripts that do most things a user would like to do in batch.
The drawback is that it's not possible to construct a script that loads
both tmg files and mat files (until we've made a "import magic ..."
command). Still, if you want to import 10 mat files, analyse these, and
export to html and import 20 tmg files, analyuse there, and save to SGF,
my approach will not be able to do this (well, it can, by introducing a
loop....)

Just my 2 øre :-)

Jørn