RE: [Bug-gnubg] USE_OLD_LAYOUT flag replaced with menu option

[Ned Cross]

I've tested the unified build quite a bit and it's really a great
improvement!  Here's a few comments/suggestions/wish list items (build CL
1.1525 on Win2000):

1) Error messages seem to be greatly reduced, If not gone entirely now.  The
only issue I've seen with 2d/3d boards is that 3 of the predefined styles do
not have a 3D board: espana, 30's board, easygoing.  Also Zox/vegas 3d board
and Nature 3d board gives error: failed to load texture hinge2.bmp

2) If I create a new design (color scheme) in 2D, then switch to 3D, the new
board scheme is lost and replaced by the default 3d scheme.  Is it possible
to add a default set of textures, light, & whatever to the newly defined
color design in 3d? Or do I have to always create separate designs from
scratch in 3D and 2D?

3) Minor preference issue:  My default setup is panels not docked, 2d board,
game record and analysis windows open, message window not open, toolbar
icons only, not full-screen.  It took me 3 iterations of resetting
everything to my default preferences and saving settings to my autorc file,
but now it all works reliably. When GNUBG opens, the game record,
annotation, and main windows open. The order of these items on the windows
task bar has become reversed (game record first, then annotation, and main
window last.  It was more intuitive before, with the main window being the
first GNUbg item on the taskbar. Can this be restored?

4) Menus no longer activate from the game record window.  In the old 2d
build, one could highlight a move in the game record window and the program
would respond to a menu command (ie - keyboard shortcut like "play computer
turn" or "analyse move", or "import new match").  Now the program will not
respond to those inputs with the game-record window in focus, but only with
the Main window in focus.  This requires the user to select the interesting
position in one window, then switch windows to execute the menu command. Is
it possible to restore the ability to accept menu commands from the Game
Record window?

5) Navigation Problem: Game Record window.  After setting up a position in
the edit screen, it's now very difficult, if not impossible, to get back to
the place where the position is shown with the dice on the board.
Navigating with the arrows seems to skip either to the position before the
edit, or to the position after the move. Try it and if it's not clear what
I'm talking about I'll try to explain in more detail.

6) Minor preference: Windows task bar buttons.  Since when panels are not
docked, there are multiple GNUBG windows open, and multiple windows taskbar
button for the GNUBG program.  All the buttons have the same GNUBG icon, and
say "GNU Backgammon" - "GNU Backgammon - Annotation", GNU Backgammon -
Rollout" etc.  The minor usability issue is that since all buttons have the
same Icon and same first 14 letters of text, there is no way to distinguish
which button leads to what window.  Would it be possible to re-order the
text of the heading to something like "Board - GNU Backgammon":
"Annotation - GNU Backgammon"; "Game Record - GNU Backgammon"; "Rollout -
GNU Backgammon"; "Message - GNU Backgammon", etc.  That way when looking at
a taskbar full of GNU buttons, it would be possible to tell at a glance (by
the first letters) which button would pull up what window.

7) 3D board inconsistency: when playing with the 3D board, the board shifts,
and tilts when the doubling cube goes to the top-players side.  Presumably
this is because the height of the cube extends beyond the border of the
board in that situation, so the whole board has to "shrink" to still fit in
it's defined space.  It's a bit unnerving so perhaps it might be possible to
define the board boundary to include the space required by the cube in the
top position. The problem exists even if the board is not filling the entire
vertical space of the window.

8) Minor feature request: Board appearance.  A friend of mine has a
beautiful Taki wooden board with nice color scheme.  In addition to
beautiful colors, the Taki boards have a point shape that makes them look a
bit like feathers.  They look like standard triangular points, but the
bottoms, instead of being flat at the edge of the board, are rounded in a
semicircle with the arc just touching the edge of the board.  Would it be
possible to create an option under "Appearance/Board" of "flat points" or
"rounded points" to enable creation of Taki style board designs?

9) Minor feature request: toolbar Icon.  There used to be a toolbar button
for "Play computer turn".  Could this be restored?

10) HTML export:  I don't know if it's me and my installation or something
else but I can't get my html export to show board diagrams anymore.  I saw
the post about 344 vs 346 images and I have the same error message which
crashes GNUBG.  I can't view any positions I'd previously exported in html,
and new ones don't work either. My settings/export/URL to pictures is
C:\backgammon\gnubg\Images, and I have a directory at that location with the
.png files, so I'm not sure what to do from here.

11) File/New:  Is it possible to have the ability to set a direct keyboard
shortcut for "start new game"? right now ctrl-n only gets the "New" dialog
box with no way to go further except with the mouse.  Also the selection for
new position is "active" (not greyed out) but does not do anything yet, as
far as I can tell.

-- Ned

-----Original Message-----

I'll download the new version when it becomes available and test it out.