HGIYC Notation (General)

by Odd Gunnar Malin, Wednesday, April 13, 2005, 14:40 (7312 days ago) @ stanr

? What I don't understand is why the powers that be on this site decided to
? reinvent the wheel by developing this software. I'm sure there are
? programs out there that do what this program is supposed to do. And even
? if you have a good reason to develop your own software, why not design it
? to have the features that make other chess playing programs successful?
?
? Stan

I think this program is quite unik in its way of working. From a file you can instruct the program to go forward/backwards etc. and ask quiz. Only Chessmaster have something similar but in it you have no free guesses but get a list of moves to select from. I like the approx of free guesses like in this hgiyc program better. And of course any method is better than the old one with covering the book with a piece of paper.
It isn't more than 4-5 years ago since long algebraic notation was very common so I don't think many people have problem with it. But maybe it could help to have separated the comment and the movelist, and only showing the actual comment for current position. Then they also could add a feature to go over the game after you are finish with the quiz.
My belive is that it is better to play out the moves on a normal chessboard in addition to the program. Not because you think better then (it should be the same), but you get in a mood like playing a real game. At least for me, I move/play a lot faster on the pc screen, maybe too much blitzing on ICC and against computers. So to get into a mood where every move counts, I need a real board.
There is of course bugs in all new software so if you find any you should describe a way to repeat the bug and send in a bug report. It will help us all.