[Bug-gnubg] Losing rollout results

[Ian Shaw]

1. Analyse a game.
2a. Rollout cube action from Analyse menu on main window.
3a. OK the rollout.
4a. Aargh! The results do not update the Annotation window.

2b. Rollout cube action from Rollout button on Annotation window.
3b. OK the rollout.
4a. Joy! The results update the Annotation window.

I've fallen foul of this a number of times now. There is no intuitive reason 
why the behaviour should be different.

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To expand the discussion somewhat, GnuBg works great for playing and analysing 
games, but I find the whole issue of studying miscellaneous positions quite 
difficult. 

Firstly, you have to start a new game & deal with the initial roll before you 
can start. (I think this has been mentioned by others, and is already on the TO 
DO list.)

If you don't analyse a game, the hints, rollouts, evaluations etc are lost the 
moment you click the OK.

You can't just set up a position and Analyse it. You have to make a play.

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I'll give an example of how I try to use GnuBg, and the behaviour I'm 
intuitively expecting.

I open GnuBg and edit a position. No need to start a game. (Could GnuBg 
automatically start a game if you click Edit?)

I unclick edit, and the position is recorded in the game record window. (This 
is the current behaviour.)

I continue editing several positions, setting up, for example, similar 
positions so I can examine related cube actions. 

If I ask for a hint, evaluation or rollout, the result should be stored in the 
Annotation window so can refer back to them.

If I Analyse Game/Match/Session, the positions should all be evaluated and the 
results stored in the Annotation window, even if I haven't made a chequer or 
cube play. At present, nothing is evaluated.

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To summarise:

I shouldn't have to make a play in order to get an analysis.

Any hint, evaluation or rollout should update the Annotation. There would have 
to be some rules about whether a prior entry gets overwritten, based on the 
plies, rollout settings, etc.

Hint and Evaluate do very similar things. Are both required? Hint seems 
generally more useful, though Evaluate does do funky things like show the 0, 1, 
2-ply evaluations and the net inputs. I imagine the choice is potentially 
confusing to users. Perhaps the Evaluate could be moved to a "Detail" button on 
the Hint window.

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I know that rolling out whole games is on the To Do list, so I won't go on 
about it ;o)

To rollout a series of positions, I currently set them up and paste them into a 
text file, then add the commands to perform the rollout.

I have to run the text file in gnubg-no-gui. If I run it under the gui it halts 
at the end of every rollout or evaluation, waiting for OK. Could this be 
suppressed if you are running from a command file?

I see Holger has added file associations for matches under windows, but I've 
not tried it yet. Would it be a good idea to do the same for command files and 
agree an extension, e.g. .gbc (GnuBg Commands)? This would allow us to easily 
launch different environments for board settings, tutor modes, rollout 
settings, etc.
I've rambled enough. I hope you find some of it useful.

--Ian