[Bug-gnubg] list of issues

[Mike Robinson]

I should first point out that I'm a big fan of gnu backgammon but there are a 
few small things that really irritate. I'm currently using version GNU 
Backgammon 0.90-mingw 20090421 and running on XP using MSI wind netbook.

My suggestions:

1)On the 3D screen I can't click the dice to say I've finished a move, instead 
I have to press ctrl F. This is a right royal pain.

2)There are two buttons for reject and resign but you only need one button 
depending on what situation you're in - if you're being doubled then show 
reject else show resign. 

3)I often hit resign (rather than reject) when I'm doubled and it then asks me 
whether I wish to resign a single, double etc. I then have to click again. It's 
bad enough loosing a game but can't it work out that resign and reject mean 
almost the same thing to users.

4)On analysing a match I need to hit analyse, then analyse match or session, 
then match or session statistics. This seems overboard - could it not 
continually analyse the play and cumulatively alter my score and continuously 
display it in the corner of the screen. This might stop the wild swings from 
advanced (1950) down to awful (1550).

5)After analysis I go back to look at any mistakes I may have made. Once I've 
seen them I tend to just quit the program. The program then asks me whether I 
really wish to quit a game in the middle. This is annoying and pointless.

6)When moving an isolated checker around the board I still have to be pixel 
perfect in selecting the checker, in these situations couldn't the program 
assume that because there's no other checkers nearby then I must mean the 
closest checker. It would save me a lot of time as the mouse control on these 
netbooks is far from perfect.

7)I like to play in the full screen mode however I then loose the buttons to 
double and reject or resign. There is also no match score shown or pip count. 
This means I have to continually swap between full screen view and normal view 
which is frustrating so couldn't these buttons and info be shown in full mode.

8)The appearance of the board is fine but could you perhaps make a deal with 
board manufactures to have copies of their boards and pieces as part of the 3D 
drop down. I currently would like to purchase a crisloid backgammon but the 2D 
crisloid set looks nothing like the real sets. The manufacturer could perhaps 
give a little towards the upkeep of gnu and in return potential buyers can try 
out their boards in real play! 

9)Occasionally I forget to use all the moves available to me (usually after a 
complex double) and after I hit ctrl F to finish my go I get the error "Illegal 
or unparseable move" - I suspect this message is gobbledygook for most users.

10)I joined this forum to post these issues but find the forum near impossible 
to use (perhaps I'm not using it right?). Finding previous posts is difficult 
and the general presentation of information harks back to the 1970's. The only 
way I can post issues is via replying an email - this can't be right. Can't you 
use any modern forum (shareware) software? 

Mike