Re: [XBoard-devel] save position dialog box

[Chris Bannister]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 05:14:50PM +0100, H.G. Muller wrote:
> 
> Chris Bannister schreef op 1/28/2015 om 6:41 AM:
> >Hi,
> >
> >I've just noticed an annoying behaviour with Xboard 4.8.0
> >
> >When I choose save position from the file command, the dialog box that
> >pops up shows me a list of folders to choose instead of just showing the
> >list of filenames in the current working directory.
> >
> >I don't know when this changed, but I'm finding it a damn nuisance that
> >it doesn't remember the last folder.
> >
> >It even tries to second guess the fen name I want to save it as! Bloody
> >nuisance, as I have to alter that also.
> >
> >I'm running Xboard on Debian Jessie installed via the package manager.
> Is this the GTK build or the Xaw build? I cannot install that package
> because of an
> 'unsatisfiable dependency', so I have no idea what is in it.

It must be the gtk build -- depends on libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.20.0)

> If you are comparing the 4.8.0 GTK build with the Xaw build of previous
> versions,
> I am not surprised their could be differences. The GTK version uses the
> standard GTK
> file selector, while the for Xaw (which did not have such a thing) we wrote
> our own.

Yeah, I see the last xboard version I used was 4.6

> I must admit I don't understand exactly what the problem is. File browsers
> must show
> both folders and files, otherwise you could never save in other directories
> than the
> one you happen to start in. You might just happen to start in a directory
> where there
> are many folders, and few or no .fen files.

e.g. I start it in dir x/y/z, but when saving a position the dialog
seems to assume I'm in x/y and I keep having to choose z *each* time I
save a .fen file.

> From what I tried it seems the GTK file selector always starts in the
> directory that was
> current when you started up XBoard. But your complaint seems to be that it
> doesn't.

Yes that is my 'complaint'


> With 'second-guesss' you mean it proposes a file name based on the players?
> Why would that be a nuisance? For me the proposed name starts selected,
> so you can just start typing the name, and it will automatically replace the
> proposed
> one, like it had never been there. For saving you would usually have to
> provide a name
> of a not-yet-existing file, and typing is the only way to do that. And in
> the case you
> want to save on an existing file, you can just click it, and the proposed
> name will
> be replaced by it. So I don't see the annoyance.

This is a second issue. Previously, I have been using a separate file
for each position I save e.g. 6w-Bg5.fen. I have just tried using the
supplied name and having the positions appended to it. 


> In the development version I recently applied a patch that would keep track
> of
> a 'virtual' current directory for every file type (e.g. *.pgn, *.fen, *.bin,
> *.png).
> This remembers in which directory you last saved a file of that type through
> the
> file browser, and then starts the latter in that directory next time you
> browse for
> that file type again. They still all start in the current directory XBoard
> had at start up,

The save/open dialog box doesn't seem to think so. e.g even choosing to
open a .pgn I have to change into the child directory I started xboard
from.

> though. (Except that I provided a command-line option -positionDir that
> could
> change this for .fen files.)

Can this be put in the .xboardrc file? I'll try it out, could be a bit
cumbersome typing it on the command line each time I start xboard.

> >Is it an xboard problem, or something else.

So it it could be with GTK, then.

-- 
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people
who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the 
oppressing." --- Malcolm X