Re: [Bug-gnubg] Bug in Windows version -- Tutor response window appears when not needed

[Jim Segrave]

On Mon 27 Jan 2003 (15:58 -0800), Billie Patterson wrote:
> Jim,
> 
> Thanks for your explanation.  But if that's the case, it's
> WAAAAYYY too subtle for a raw beginner like me.  I'm just
> trying to figure out how to move the checkers without
> making gross errors.

I know the feeling all too well.
 
> I have gnubg set to roll automatically, and the option to
> use the doubling cube is OFF.  "Cube decisions" is turned
> on in tutor options, but there's absolutely NOTHING on the
> tutor  screen that appears that tells me the tutor is
> trying to say something about a cube decision.

That's interesting (or more exactly, that's a bug)

> I'd like to see some change made here.  The way I see it,
> there are several options:
> 
> 1)  If you set "Use doubling cube" off in the options, then
> nothing ought to appear, ever, that has anything to do with
> the doubling cube.

Yes - I'm commiting a fix for that right now. It's wrong - the code
which checks for missed doubles in tutor mode assumed that the
routines which check the equity of not doubling would not flag this as
an error if the 'Use doubling cube' option is disabled. But it looks
like these routines assume that they'd never be asked if it's off.

> 2)  If the tutor window is indeed trying to tell you
> something about doubling, then it ought to say that.  After
> all, it IS the tutor window, NOT the hint window.

I'm not sure I agree. The idea of tutor mode is to tell you when you
are making a mistake before you have commited yourself to that
play. For cube action, this point is when you click on the dice to
start a roll - at that point, if you roll the dice, it's too late to
double. 

I think you'll find that this becomes natural as you gain more
experience. Having the tutor box pop up when you tell the program
to roll the dice can only mean one thing - you should have
doubled. I considered having the tutor mode not comment on missed
doubles until you had rolled, seen the dice and selected a move, so
that it would be less obvious what mistake the tutor mode was trying
to point out, but I decided that might be a bit too confusing and/or
annoying.

The other places where it comes up related to the doubling
cube are equally obvious - if you take/pass a double which you should
not/should have or if you did double when you shouldn't.

-- 
Jim Segrave           address@hidden