Interface options (backburner)

[FreeRepublic]

I have used several versions of Bookup and seen a lot of improvement. Occasionally, there is something I miss. So here are a few ideas to consider before a future release.

1) Selecting candidate moves from a list.
In the past you could click on any candidate move to make the move. That does not work now. One can option (right mouse or trackpad) click, or simply make the move on the board. But just clicking on the candidate seems simplest to me.

2) As before, one can name a position and later jump to that position. Once you've done so, the fist move you make is move 1. For example, if you jump to the start of the Marshall counter gambit in the Ruy Lopez, white's first move is 1exd. In an earlier iteration, this would be 9.exd, which better matches my intuition and chess books.

3) File color scheme. COW Professional has a friendly red piece on white color scheme. The COW Express has a sophisticated brushed nickel or red/black gradient (depending on what you are looking at). I'll grant you that this is not important. Anyone of any sense can go either way. I just prefer the brushed nickel.

FreeRepublic

[MikeAtBookup]

You might be seeing a bug that affects a small number of Windows 10 users. Build 90 fixes this problem for the few users who reported it. They can now click on any candidate move.

Yes, there used to be a way to manually choose the number of the starting move for any position that you jumped to. Named positions are really intended for endgame and tactics studies/puzzles. You might consider using the regular bookmark to keep track of play to a certain position rather than jumping to a named middlegame position and then matching up the move numbers.

The brushed nickel gradient icon should be used only for the older file format (.2MD).

[cfan]

You might be seeing a bug that affects a small number of Windows 10 users. Build 90 fixes this problem for the few users who reported it. They can now click on any candidate move.

Yes, there used to be a way to manually choose the number of the starting move for any position that you jumped to. Named positions are really intended for endgame and tactics studies/puzzles. You might consider using the regular bookmark to keep track of play to a certain position rather than jumping to a named middlegame position and then matching up the move numbers.

The brushed nickel gradient icon should be used only for the older file format (.2MD).

When will build 90 be available for download thanks.

[MikeAtBookup]

Builds 92 (Windows Pro) and 93 (Windows (Express) are now available for download.

[FreeRepublic]

Yes, build 92 solved my problem. I can now click on any candidate move on the list and it plays directly.

"You might consider using the regular bookmark to keep track of play to a certain position." You lost me there. I can't find a bookmark command in COW.

[MikeAtBookup]

Ah, ebooks keep track of the line played so that when you open the book later it reads the "bookmark" and restores the last played line.

There isn't a way to save individual bookmarks though. The app assumes that named positions are endgames or tactics puzzles that don't need a line of play from the starting position.

[FreeRepublic]

Using COW Pro, I regularly reduce the size of the window. Saving screen space allows me to open two windows at once, side by side. I reduce the width until I can just see the candidate pop-up button (downward facing triangle). Doing so cuts off some of the header: Opening name, certainty, Move field. It would be nice if the header information wrapped. It's not a big deal, but would be an enhancement.

[FreeRepublic]

Two more interface suggestions on an already great product:

I almost always set my COW Professional game file window so that it takes up nearly half the width of the screen. That way I can have two files open and visible at the same time. I also adjust panels within the COW window about the same way every time. If these adjustments could be captured in a "Set Window Defaults" command, that would be nice. Also, the initial COW Pro window is centered and large, so I always shrink it and move it to the side, placing it under a COW Pro game file window. It would be nice if the initial COW Pro window would open to the same place and dimensions as it was when last used.

The past moves pane seems to use half the horizontal space available. Sometimes that is not enough. For example a move like 110-0-0!? might have the evaluation truncated. This seems unnecessary as there remains a lot of white space to the right of black's moves. Wider move columns for white and black would be beneficial.