BBO Web-client Comments Thread 5

[TimG]

You can list "Interesting Tables" in a pop-up window.

How do you do that when you are kibitzing a table?

[1eyedjack]

You can list "Interesting Tables" in a pop-up window.

How do you do that when you are kibitzing a table?

Click on "BBO Now" on the menu bar. This pops up a menu including "Interesting Tables"

[1eyedjack]

I would like to have a more powerful filtering system for displaying forthcoming tournaments. Something similar to the Autofilter feature in Excel would be ideal, but some thoughts:

 

There is already some pre-filtering done by the interface, into (eg) Pending/Running/Complete, and then into ACBL tourneys, BBO master point tourneys, robot reward, robot race, free tourneys and all tourneys. Then within that selection you can sort by any one field if you want to narrow it down further.

 

When you click on a field heading it sorts the list by that field heading. So far so good. A useful feature but could be more so. Suppose you want to undertake a secondary sort, ie you want to review only tourneys of type "individual" but you want them to be listed in start-time order. Classically, in a spreadsheet program such as Excel, you would sort the entire spreadsheet by "start time" and then re-sort by "type". The start time would then remain sorted within each type. The problem with the current interface is if you sort by start time and then by type, the start time sorting gets randomised.

 

Running a secondary sort is really just a kludgy way of filtering. It would be preferred if I had an option to hide all tourneys other than individuals (or hide only the individuals if I wanted to, or some other custom combination), and then sort the remaining visible tourneys by (eg) start-time.

 

Using the interface at server end to pre-filter the tourney types by the categories outlined above is a useful feature provided that you accurately guess how most users would like it filtered. Most users are not particularly computer literate and may find the process of customising their view a bit daunting. So it is helpful for them. That said, providing a more powerful filter engine would be of value to the rest of us who could then use that alternative to filter the "All tournaments" listing according to personal preference.

 

Examples:

 

1) Suppose I wanted to view all "robot reward" AND "robot race" tournaments sorted by start time, but was not interested in distinguishing between reward and race?

 

2) Suppose I was only interested in playing in IMP tourneys that were not individual events?

 

3) Suppose I only want to play in clocked tourneys?

 

etc

[TimG]

I like to resize the panes and would like the resizing to become my default so that I don't have to do it every time I log in.

[1eyedjack]

I like to resize the panes and would like the resizing to become my default so that I don't have to do it every time I log in.

If you click on the "Log Off" button when leaving, as opposed to just closing the window, then it is better at remembering the current settings for the time that you next log on. At least, I think that is the way that it used to behave, and I have just tested it out and it remembers (on my machine) the pane size settings if I do it that way.

[TimG]

I like to resize the panes and would like the resizing to become my default so that I don't have to do it every time I log in.

If you click on the "Log Off" button when leaving, as opposed to just closing the window, then it is better at remembering the current settings for the time that you next log on. At least, I think that is the way that it used to behave, and I have just tested it out and it remembers (on my machine) the pane size settings if I do it that way.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Also, thanks for the pointer to "interesting tables" option under "bbo now".

[fred]

I like to resize the panes and would like the resizing to become my default so that I don't have to do it every time I log in.

If you click on the "Log Off" button when leaving, as opposed to just closing the window, then it is better at remembering the current settings for the time that you next log on. At least, I think that is the way that it used to behave, and I have just tested it out and it remembers (on my machine) the pane size settings if I do it that way.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Also, thanks for the pointer to "interesting tables" option under "bbo now".

Thanks for all the bug reports and suggestions. Sorry I have not been involved in this thread, but I try to stay away from my computer when I am supposed to be playing "serious bridge".

 

Now that the serious bridge is over, it rates to take me another day or 2 to get caught on on my e-mail. After that I expect I will get to work on fixing the bugs that have been discovered. Most likely there will probably be a new version within the next week or so that is mostly about bug fixes. After that Uday and I will do some thinking about the next major version and part of that process will involve reviewing the suggestions that have appeared in this thread.

 

I will try to respond to most of the issues raised in this thread by the end of the week.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[emma]

You can list "Interesting Tables" in a pop-up window.

How do you do that when you are kibitzing a table?

You can add your name on your friend's list.Your name will be visible in friend's color in the list of the kibitzers.

[fred]

The 'sound' options for the web client are limited, being either on or off.

 

And the number of features that produces sounds are limited.

 

In particular, my plea is for a sound when someone sends me a private message.

 

When playing or watching vugraph, this is the message that gets lost in the general chatter that happens.

 

Paul

There is already a sound effect that is played when you receive a private chat message.

 

I am sure at some point we will make it possible to turn on/off specific sound effects. Perhaps we will also add some additional sound effects one day.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[paulg]

The 'sound' options for the web client are limited, being either on or off.

 

And the number of features that produces sounds are limited.

 

In particular, my plea is for a sound when someone sends me a private message.

 

When playing or watching vugraph, this is the message that gets lost in the general chatter that happens.

 

Paul

There is already a sound effect that is played when you receive a private chat message.

 

I am sure at some point we will make it possible to turn on/off specific sound effects. Perhaps we will also add some additional sound effects one day.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

It must be very quiet as I've never heard it when someone chats. All I hear on the sound is the play of the cards.

 

I'll turn the volume up and listen harder :P

 

p

[paulg]

The 'sound' options for the web client are limited, being either on or off.

 

And the number of features that produces sounds are limited.

 

In particular, my plea is for a sound when someone sends me a private message.

 

When playing or watching vugraph, this is the message that gets lost in the general chatter that happens.

 

Paul

There is already a sound effect that is played when you receive a private chat message.

 

I am sure at some point we will make it possible to turn on/off specific sound effects. Perhaps we will also add some additional sound effects one day.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

It must be very quiet as I've never heard it when someone chats. All I hear on the sound is the play of the cards.

 

I'll turn the volume up and listen harder :P

 

p

If I turn the volume right up there is a sort of click for a pm, but not the ringing bell of the Windows client.

 

And the cards are much louder.

 

p

[fred]

If I turn the volume right up there is a sort of click for a pm, but not the ringing bell of the Windows client.

 

And the cards are much louder.

 

p

Actually it is a "pop", not a "click" :)

 

For me it is kind of a nice sound, especially compared to the one in the Windows client which could be rather shocking. I will consider changing it to something else if other people feel the same way as you. Any other opinions out there?

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[fred]

Is there a bug?

 

Partnership bidding practice-click to view

 

Explanation of the bid of 5H is not visible completely in the bidding practice.

When saved as hand viewer link then only, it is visible.

 

Further, the explanation not agreeing with the hand pattern and point count.

 

When undo is done at 4NT, the bidding explanation disappears.

===================================

When I try to load played hands in the option menu,

 

I click on recent tournaments, my hands, it loads board 1, it is not clear how to load the follow up hands.

Your post seems to imply (to me at least) that the possible bug relates to long explanations in the web-client (as opposed to the bug being in Handviewer).

 

In theory the web-client is smart about displaying long explanations, but Handviewer is not (yet). Can you please clarify where you saw the bug occur? If it was in the web-client and if you can send me a screen shot by e-mail the next time you see this happen, that would be appreciated. My e-mail address is fred@bridgebase.com.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[fred]

I find that, when in partnership bidding, when we finish bidding I can't see partner's hand.

 

?

Obviously this is not supposed to happen.

 

So far I can't replicate it. Has anyone else seen this bug?

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[cherdanno]

Yesterday I was kibitzing the Australian vugraph semi-final (3rd set I believe), and when I clicked on "My Results", the corresponding part of the window would just turn blank (completely white). I actually didn't try doing anything else (kibitzing a table in the main club), but the "Who is online" information was displayed correctly in the same space.

 

I am using firefox 3.0.7 on kubuntu intrepid, the flash version is the Adobe Flash Player version is 10,00,22,87 according to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.

[fred]

A thing that I don't find very intuitive is understanding which panes get updated "live" by the server, ie without requiring any action on my part to refresh, and which required me to refresh.  Just a general point.

If there's no Refresh button, it gets updated automatically. If there's a button, you have to use it.

I am not convinced.

 

I have just been kibitzing a table, and as an experiment I asked a "friend" also to kibitz the same table. My screen was set to display kibitzers. When the friend joined it did NOT refresh to show the kibitzer, although some aspects of that pane were being updated live, because above the displayed list was a count of the number of players online, which count was continuously changing without my prompting.

 

There is no refresh button to display the kibitzers. However changing the view to show stars or friends, and then back to kibitzers, did have the effect of refreshing the displayed kibitzers.

 

I then asked said friend to leave the table altogether, which he did. However he still appeared in the display of kibitzers. Until I navigated away to display friends, then back to kibitzers - and the name had gone.

I think the "Who's Online" lists may update periodically, not immediately. I'm watching the Vanderbilt Vugraph now, and I've seen the Stars and Kibitzers lists change occasionally.

Friends, Hosts, and Stars lists update in real time.

 

The Kibitzer list will never update itself automatically. In order to update this list you need to click the tab at the top of it again (but you don't need to go to another list and then back to the Kibitzer list anymore).

 

Probably Uday and I will be doing some thinking about issues relating to refreshing lists in the weeks to come. For now, Barry's suggested rule is pretty close to being accurate - if a "Refresh" button is present then you need to click it in order to refresh the list in question. A notable exception (for now - it will probably change at some point so that it follows Barry's rule) is the Kibitzer list.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[barmar]

Once yesterday, and just now, I was playing in a Robot Rewards tourney. When the tourney ended, the window that popped up with the standings was actually the results from the previous tourney, not the one I just finished.

[fred]

Once yesterday, and just now, I was playing in a Robot Rewards tourney. When the tourney ended, the window that popped up with the standings was actually the results from the previous tourney, not the one I just finished.

Thanks for the report.

 

We released a new version last night in which the bugs that were reported in this thread were fixed. Unfortunately I did not see this particular bug report in time, but I will investigate now and hopefully include a fix in the next release.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[awm]

Every time I start a tournament, BBO Flash seems to hang for a few seconds. This sometimes causes me to be red-dotted at the beginning of a tournament, or even to disconnect momentarily.

 

The problem is particularly annoying, because in the last year or two a lot of directors have gone to a set of policies where anyone red-dotted or disconnected is immediately replaced by a substitute (no grace period) and cannot be added back into the tournament upon returning. So it's not just a matter of having to wait thirty seconds or so before starting tournament play.

[Travholt]

I'm a novice Bridge player and a Mac user. Previously I have been using the Windows client (on other computers than my own) to practice with robots, so I'm really happy to finally be able to play on my own Mac!

 

But the biggest disappointment coming from the Windows version is hand legibility. I find that I really have to concentrate to tell cards apart in the Flash client.

 

I realize that the point probably is to make the symbols as big as possible, but for me everything just floats together in a lot of vertical lines.

 

So I have a few suggestions for what I hope will at least be an option for users who don't mind a bit smaller symbols:

• A bit shorter letters, that is, not as tall as they are now.
  
• A bit smaller cards, but spread as wide as the current ones, so there's more room between them.
  
• A bit more room between each suit, so suits are grouped together.
  
• The Windows client does one more thing to help read your hand better/faster: The cards are far enough apart that you can see just a few pixels of the symbols or pictures in the center of them, which also helps tremendously.
  

These are minor adjustments (a few pixels each), but I think they would help a lot when it comes to reading and judging your hands quickly.

[barmar]

Travholt, have you considered switching to hand diagrams instead of pictures of cards? They're not as pretty but very legible.

[Travholt]

Yes, I have considered, but not tried yet. :-) It feels too ... impersonal, sterile, mechanical ... I'll give it a try, but I still think the way the cards are designed now could use improvements anyhow. It's about small adjustments reaping big rewards.

[1eyedjack]

I can't log onto the web client when simultaneously running PeerGuardian 2. It doesn't matter whether I block or allow http.

It gets as far as the log on screen (User ID and password) but then comes up with a disconnected message when you click OK.

I can log on using the Windows client, no problem.

Not a big deal, but thought you might like to know.

[uday]

"I can't log onto the web client when simultaneously running PeerGuardian 2."

 

That is some sort of IP blocker - bbo needs to connect to "the server" in order to function. Presumably the BBO servers (or ports) are being blocked. The web version of BBO tries to connect to one of the BBO servers on port 3336

[paulg]

I'm a novice Bridge player and a Mac user. Previously I have been using the Windows client (on other computers than my own) to practice with robots, so I'm really happy to finally be able to play on my own Mac!

 

But the biggest disappointment coming from the Windows version is hand legibility. I find that I really have to concentrate to tell cards apart in the Flash client.

 

I realize that the point probably is to make the symbols as big as possible, but for me everything just floats together in a lot of vertical lines.

 

So I have a few suggestions for what I hope will at least be an option for users who don't mind a bit smaller symbols:

• A bit shorter letters, that is, not as tall as they are now.
  
• A bit smaller cards, but spread as wide as the current ones, so there's more room between them.
  
• A bit more room between each suit, so suits are grouped together.
  
• The Windows client does one more thing to help read your hand better/faster: The cards are far enough apart that you can see just a few pixels of the symbols or pictures in the center of them, which also helps tremendously.
  

These are minor adjustments (a few pixels each), but I think they would help a lot when it comes to reading and judging your hands quickly.

Just to say that I share Travholt's views on the hand legibility.

 

Paul