Version 3.6.2 Available for testing

[fred]

You can download the whole thing:

 

BBO 3.6.2 Setup

 

(this will wipe out your settings)

 

or just download the files that have changed:

 

BBO 3.6.2 Update

 

In either case please make sure you have exited

the BBO program COMPLETELY before installing.

 

3.6.2 is being released a little sooner in the

development cycle than usual. As you will, see

there are some radical changes. We thought it

was important to start getting feedback from

our members before going too far down the

path that we are on.

 

Changes include:

 

- Basic site navigation completely changed (sorry JRG!).

Our goals in this area were to make the Lobby and

Main Bridge Club lists more usable when there are a

lot of people logged in and to make BBO easier to

understand for new members.

 

As a result of these changes, there are times in which

you have to click twice instead of once. Sorry.

 

- "View" button in Lobby and Main Bridge Club allows

you to customize which members/tables will be

displayed in various ways. This is an extremely

powerful tool - play around with it!

 

- View button also contains a "Change view" command

(this can be activated with Control-V from either the

Lobby or the Main Bridge Club). There are now 2 "views"

in the Lobby and 3 in the Main Bridge Club. You can

cycle through these using Control-V or the Change View

command on the View button.

 

- Choice of chat fonts. Right now there are 2 of them.

Using Control-F to change the chat font.

 

- There is almost always a chat window now at 800x600

resolution. No more chat bubbles in the Lobby or Main

Bridge Club anymore. The default chat font for 800x600

is small (use Control-F to change it).

 

This version of BBO represents the most dramatic changes

to the interface since day 1. Changes this major always

result in new bugs. Sorry in advance for these and thanks

in advance for reporting them to me (fred@bridgebase.com)!

 

We have put a lot of thought and energy into version 3.6.2.

Hope you like what we have done!

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[emelnl]

Looks fine 2 me. Good Job. Overall its looking good, especially for me, running 800*600. (Cant see on higher res.)

[keylime]

Fred,

 

The beta isn't remembering the preferences I opt for - it's defaulting to a set standard and I've having to reset them back to normal. It also has the effect of turning on my chat bubbles in the other client even though it's in a different directory!

 

On the other hand, I think it might grow on me in terms of interface, we'll see.

[Rain]

Interesting change, hehe. I have a few thoughts.

 

1) I'm not sure vugraph theatre should be so hard to access, hidden in Learn Bridge section. Maybe make it a main button out front?

 

2) Would also like to have those side buttons "chat" "table" "lobby" type in chat rooms.

 

3) Are the colours in the "Learn Bridge" section significant? Random thought :P

 

4) In the main lobby, when I select "show champions" or deselect it, what does it do? The "friends" button shows or unshows friends unless they belong in another catagory too, but champions seem to have no effect..

 

5) The no. of invis people are no longer displayed, one has to subtract now :rolleyes: is this on purpose?

 

Thanks, I think this change is good for the private clubs.

 

 

Rain

[mink]

Hi Fred,

 

I like the new layout a lot! Thanks for this improvement and the many others in the past.

 

I tested with 1024x768.

 

Only one bug found so far: in order to chat with a person privately, I could click on the name in the chat area when I was at a table or in the "play bridge" section. However, when I was in the lobby or in the main bridge club, clicking at a name in the chat area had no effect.

 

In the main bridgeclub, when selecting tables according to skill level, tables with all seats empty were always displayed. This is correct according to the algorithm but maybe it is not really what most users want.

 

Karl

[tenbrvc]

Hi. First impression great. I like being able to see more on a screen. My question is do you have a list of all the hot keys available? You've already mentioned ctrl-V to change the view, and ctrl-F to change the font size. Playing around, I know ctrl-B asks if you want to exit BBO. What are some of the other hot keys? Thanks!

[csdenmark]

Looks to me like the new client is running full screen as default only giving room for task-bar. I would like to ask how to reduce width to size which allows other applications to be running without shadowing them(the size which has been used until now). On my screen the button running windows style seems disabled.

[uday]

You can resize via the client 'View' button, but control-W will toggle thru a couple of widths

[breb]

Nice Version!

 

I got just some observation:

- 1280x1024 works fine

- I can?t find the re-sort order in the table list from the Main Bridge Club, you can see up of the screen the tables that have free places (in 3.6.1. this sort is still available)

- when I?m kibitzer, using the chat is automatic direct to "Kibitzers" if I begin to write the text, it send it to "This room" if I?m using the "chat" button. Directing the chat screen for "this room" is maybe interesting (that work like that before 3.6.1)

 

Congrats!

 

Serge aka Breb

[blackest_k]

Dear Fred,

I have given the new Beta a brief try and I dislike it intensely!

 

1) it insists on taking all my screen space with no ability to resize. I much prefer to give bridge base a corner on my screen and leave me some space for my other activities. which could be watching tv playing music file transfer or chatting to friends.

 

The only reason i can see for making it full screen is to try and avoid cheating if it is for this reason then it is flawed in the extreme.

a)Cheating in Bridge is totally against the spirit of the Game, Bridge is played by Gentlemen and Ladies.

b)those who wish to cheat still can and there is no way you can stop a networked user cheating if they wish (I could for example login on msn on one pc and play bridge on the other ... ).

 

2)Filtering by country / skill level this is a double edged sword.

 

a) for this arguement it makes it easy to find opposistion/ partners from the same background / skill level as yourself.

b)against its very cliquey is it a good thing to say allow arab players to automatically filter out all jewish players by choosing not to display players from israel.

 

I think one of the biggest plus points of bridgebase online is it is a worldwide community of bridge players and as well as the bridge it fosters friendship around the world, lets us see us as one race called humanity, filtering by country automatically is a really bad thing.

 

filtering by Skill level again isnt such a good Idea either very judgemental.

when I joined i said advanced discovered the drawbacks to acol changed to beginner and learnt sayc and then changed to intermediate which probably is my skill level. now skill level is generally a matter of Ego (excluding world class players who earn their ranking) bridge is a social game excluding people on their perception of their own skill is a bad thing to do automatically.

 

what is wrong with the existing systems? I like the friends enemies buttons

you might also expand it to allow you to mark too slow or too fast playing (although that may depend on computer power and speed of connection at that time). It is great to be able to mark up as friends enemies expanding that to a personal ranking could be a good thing too or adding a class "prefered" player.

 

If I come on to bridgebase online first i look for friends then i look for an existing table I hold my mouse above my prospective partner and see his basic card his system and skill level now if i take to long somebody else jumps into the empty seat but i find it worth while to spend a little while looking. To be honest I dislike playing with so called experts ( they seem so stressed all the time, not just when partnering me, and make other players uncomfortable). I also admit there are experts who are fun to play with too. So yes i too apply some filtering but its on an individual basis and I have occasionally marked the odd enemy but the majority will be left as neutral or as friend I would love to see an individual marking for prefered.

 

of course there are times when I take pot luck and I have met many fine individuals this way.

 

one thing i do dislike is when an experienced player decide's to go beat up on novices and i have seen that happen a few times these are usually candidates for enemy for me :rolleyes:

 

If a user wants to play with experts for example i am sure there is a public or private club to accomadate them but lets not have this in the main bridge club.

 

thanks for reading I hope many more give feedback on the beta version and where they would like to see it go.

 

I hope this beta is reconsidered although It may mean abandoning a lot of work it

is radical and i feel too radical it will be hard to withdraw a feature once it becomes

part of the current release.

 

Regards

 

John

 

thank you for listening and all the hard work.

[spwdo]

hi,

 

 

 

just downloaded new version, did had to adjust to new settings but great improvement, less buttons to misclick on in the lobby lol, once u get use to it its great, finding my way much easier now, as for the the new list of preferences of countrys and so(skill) i `m not going to use it much, and if their are members who filter on nationalty , well its their lost, not mine, i think i starting t make friends here in almost every country, and as for two of my dearest friends, we like to change flags on a daily basis , we wanted to ask uday to get vatican city also, but we expect uday to see us as ex-communicated lol, aslo i think i m close to having a listen player(black) from every country , well when u host several times a day u cant work around that i`m afraid . uday fred , keep up the good work, maybe one suggestion, if and when a live vu-graph is on , instead of beeing hided alittle, let moving display in the lobby run somewhere somehow, so easy access to that, rest is excellent, still looking for some bugs :P when found we`ll report. as for the screensize i think its same as before, control+w and minimise and maximase will result in 3 diffrent sizes for your screen.

 

 

greetings marc

spwdo on bbo :rolleyes:

[fred]

Interesting change, hehe. I have a few thoughts.

 

1) I'm not sure vugraph theatre should be so hard to access, hidden in Learn Bridge section. Maybe make it a main button out front?

 

2) Would also like to have those side buttons "chat" "table" "lobby" type in chat rooms.

 

3) Are the colours in the "Learn Bridge" section significant? Random thought :P

 

4) In the main lobby, when I select "show champions" or deselect it, what does it do? The "friends" button shows or unshows friends unless they belong in another catagory too, but champions seem to have no effect..

 

5) The no. of invis people are no longer displayed, one has to subtract now :rolleyes: is this on purpose?

 

Thanks, I think this change is good for the private clubs.

 

 

Rain

When a vugraph broadcast is going on the "Learn Bridge!"

button displays a scrolling announcement.

 

I am not crazy about the name "Learn Bridge!" as it does

not really capture the nature of everything there. I am not

crazy about the colors in that room either. Any suggestions

about how to improve either would be appreciated (especially

if you send artwork!).

 

The filters on the view menu are combined for the most part

using "or". If you only want to see Champions then turn off

friends, hosts, neutrals, and enemies.

 

Filter by country and filter by level take priority over the

other filters.

 

Sorry if the above is too abstract for some. Do some experimenting

with the View button and you will work it out.

 

Look how the number "displayed" changes when you play with

the View button. I think it is better that we do this than that we

display how many are invisible (do you really care anyway?).

 

Eventually we will add "tables", "lobby", and "tourneys" buttons

to the chat rooms.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[inquiry]

First impressions....

 

I like the new options very much. To be able to show, for instance, only open tables which are playing matchpoint (or imps if I want to go that way is great).

 

To show only champions (gold stars) solves a small problem I fixed already... I simply marked all gold stars as "friends" so I could find them quickly if I wanted to find a good game to watch, or opponent to play.., now I can mark only my friends who happen to be gold star. Not so sure the display table format, ala MSN Zone is very helpful...but at least you can see EW if you want.

 

Migration from one area to the other was painless... now hopefully no bugs....i dd not that the chat room bug I reported in 3.6.1 is fixed... nice.... however, if you send a hand to the chat room, and then exit the chat room, an interesting affect happens to the hand in the chat window... it becomes just one line of text... .with green backround instead of a table... Open the chat room again, and the table (and auction) looks normal again... doesn't matter what resolution it is.

 

Ben

[Resaz0]

Hi all

 

I like the new version alot but with 800x600 I still have bubbles in addition to the chat area on the bottom.

 

Do I have do adjust my settings?

 

Thank you

 

Patrizia

[csdenmark]

Thank you Uday - I have now resized back to normal windows size.

 

I clearly see the reason for several of the new show/unshow mechanisms - and I wish you luck with that. The future for multinational/multilingual web-sites is likely to be an uphill struggle.

 

I have nothing to use the new mechanisms for. The sorting groups are too unhomogenious to me. I also like to preserve my options and due to that I prefer highlightening rather than exclusions. As an openminded person I have friends with all kind of skill levels and speaking many different languages. From people with poor skills in english I have fun now to have adopted a basic understanding of italian, bulgarian and polish language - a bit chinese too. - Really an experience I am fond of.

 

I would like to have better communication option, fx. divisons of friends into a group to be informed of login and one without that notification. I would also like to open for lobby chat - but that would require lobby chat automatically to be disabled by play at table.

 

With approx. 75% of the users as computer-illiterates I think it is not wise to make basic functions more complicated. I think you will need to carry over the present performance of "Main Bridge Club", especially the easy sorting mechanism of free tables on top.

 

I think the complexity for use now has been so that help information is needed. That kind of help you have in "Windows Control Center" I would prefer.

[Rain]

Csdenmark

 

I would like to have better communication option, fx. divisons of friends into a group to be informed of login and one without that notification. I would also like to open for lobby chat - but that would require lobby chat automatically to be disabled by play at table.

 

 

 

 

As long as you are sitting down in a table or are in a chat room, you won't receive lobby chat, whether or not you have enabled it. So feel free to enable lobby chat.

 

 

 

Rain

[etherwiz]

A Lot of Blue and Purple.

 

One thing I did notice - going to any place where I page Up/Down (Tournamant Conditions, general reading) ending in a Termination of the BBO Client program.

 

Now I do run a few things at the same time, but they never bothered anything before. But the first night I used the new version I had three unexpected terminations in a Row (reading Rules of Contest for Team Matches).

 

The next day I had two simular occurances. It may mean nothing but I thought I would say something.

 

I do miss a lot of the buttons, and I also miss the colors Yellow and Red for buttons too. But it is easier to get around.

 

When it first comes up the Letters are small size. Theer are a lot of people that will frighten because they do not see easily. MIght be beeter to start with the larger displays (at least in Chat).

 

Thanks,

_*_Dave

[spwdo]

hi,

 

 

think there is a problem to see at the result after playing a tournament to get the overall results showing, this happens when u played in it not for other members , they can access tournaments results and standings after, heard this from several players now and happend when i played also , maybe this belongs to software corner of this formu but as this is hot topic now, i hope uday or fred gets it faster

 

 

 

 

 

 

thx greetings marc

spwdo on bbo

[fred]

hi,

 

 

think there is a problem to see at the result after playing a tournament to get the overall results showing, this happens when u played in it not for other members , they can access tournaments results and standings after, heard this from several players now and happend when i played also , maybe this belongs to software corner of this formu but as this is hot topic now, i hope uday or fred gets it faster

 

 

 

 

 

 

thx greetings marc

spwdo on bbo

Sorry - this is a bug. If you play in a tourney there is

now way for you to see the results.

 

I have fixed this and I will release a new beta within

the next day or so.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[uday]

In the meantime, you can get to the leaderboard from

 

www.bridgebase.com/myhands

 

Bit of a nuisance, but best we can do until next beta rolls out.

 

We also understand there is an issue with the CHAT rooms - the YOU HOLD button does not work . This may or may not be a 362 issue (more likely a consequence of some new server code)

[Gweny]

Maybe you please give us option of seeing lobby chat when at tables? this way we turn it off/on depending on preference?

[inquiry]

when kibitizing in tournment room, with some restricted viewing options turned on, and click on the "lobby" button, some unexpected combinations show up.

 

For instance, I had view only enemies and friends and yellow turned on. In the lobby I see enemies and firends.. in tournment room, I see all friends, and a row and half of neutrals, but no enemies.

 

Turn on see champions and yellows only. I see the champions, and some but not all of my friends when kibitizing, but from lobby only the champions.

 

Normally I show everything, but was just checking behavior...

 

Ben

[inquiry]

kibitizing a tournment with 9 active tournments, only 6 of them showed up in the scrollable window... i #581, #137, and #140 which were active at the didn't show... I jumped in and a few times to be sure... There were 12 yet to starts, and they were all shown...

 

Ben

[spwdo]

hi,

 

another thing i noticed trying the filter options, enemies can only be displayed with combined with one other choice, when alone enemies is highligted u get zip, not much will use that lol but i noticed it

 

 

greetings marc

[Deanrover]

Hi,

 

one very annoying feature of BBO. If you are at a table and want to look at the list of other tables you have to scroll down one table at a table, which can be a very laborious procress when there over 300 tables!

 

D