Handviewer Kibitzer Comments Thread

[fred]

It is now possible to kibitz on BBO or to watch vugraph through any device (including several types of mobile phones) that can run a Javascript-enabled web browser.

 

Click the following link for more information about how this works:

 

Link

 

If you have any comments or suggestions or if you would like to report a bug, please post to this thread. You can also send me an e-mail if you prefer: fred@bridgebase.com

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[kfay]

I'm having the same problem I've had with the handviewer program in the past.

 

I have a blackberry pearl 8100.

 

When I go to the page I see 6 buttons at the top of my screen (Shuffle, Rewind, Previous, Next, Options, GIB) and the BBO symbol, then blank screen below that.

 

I know that on my normal computer the hands usually display above these buttons.

 

I have java enabled on my phone.

[fred]

I have java enabled on my phone.

Do you have Javascript enabled? That is something very different from having Java enabled.

 

The symptoms suggest that the Javascript program is not starting (which suggests that either your browser does not support Javascript or that Javascript is not enabled).

 

A quick web search suggests that Javascript is disabled by default and that you can enable it through Menu, Options. Not sure if the source this came from is reliable or not. If that doesn't help then I suggest you do your own web search (I searched for: Blackberry Pearl 8100 Javascript). I am pretty sure it can be done - it is just a question of how to configure your Blackberry.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[se12sam]

Tried kibitzing a random table from the list available using my Nokia E90 (from the UK). Works nicely... :)

 

Any possibility of kibitzing specific tables? (e.g. a known friend is playing but there are no kibs at his table)

 

Thanks

[fred]

Any possibility of kibitzing specific tables? (e.g. a known friend is playing but there are no kibs at his table)

In principle we think we could use this technology to create a program that does just about everything that you can do through one of the existing BBO clients.

 

However, at this point in time it is very much unclear how far we will go with this and what time frame rates to be involved. I am guessing that you will not see any major developments during the next month or two. Whatever time and effort we put into this project in the near future rates to be dedicated to fixing bugs, making the server end more robust, and improving the interface for mobile devices (where screen size considerations result in a bunch of issues we have never had to face before).

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[JLOL]

This works very well on my iphone, good job!

[nickf]

you're in a lot of trouble now. Already my wife complains I waste too much time playing with my iPhone.

 

nickf

sydney

[A2003]

How about a table with GIB in all 4 seats for viewing purpose?

or

Watch 3 seats GIB and a player who rents and plays that in one seat.

 

Some can learn bidding by GIB, because bids are annotated.

Some can learn play from GIB.

[gwnn]

if I click on one player, I will kib only him. How do I go back to kibbing everybody?

[fred]

if I click on one player, I will kib only him. How do I go back to kibbing everybody?

Click the name of the player you are kibitzing to show all 4 hands again.

 

I suspect that eventually this will be controlled through the Options button. Sorry that the current method is not obvious.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[gwnn]

I think it's obvious enough that you don't need to change it. I'm just dumb.

[mycroft]

Wonderful tool, Fred!

Is there a way to get names/profiles of the players?

I also was confused on how to get back to "view all" - of course, since I got into "kibitz one" mode by touching to avoid lock and didn't know where I had touched (at least the first time). Bailout the same way makes sense, but I just tried everything else (click the table, click the auction, click the play area,...

[markleon]

I have a Blackberry Storm. "Support JavaScript" is enabled in the browser configuration. When I click on a table from the "Interesting Tables" screen, the result in a blank white screen in the browser.

[barmar]

I have a Blackberry Storm. "Support JavaScript" is enabled in the browser configuration. When I click on a table from the "Interesting Tables" screen, the result in a blank white screen in the browser.

Same for me on a Kyocera TNT.

[Echognome]

I have a Blackberry Storm.  "Support JavaScript" is enabled in the browser configuration.  When I click on a table from the "Interesting Tables" screen, the result in a blank white screen in the browser.

Same for me on a Kyocera TNT.

Same for me, which is a shame as it's something I would definitely enjoy viewing. If anyone finds a fix, please let us know!

[fred]

Sorry for those of you who are seeing white screens. I have no idea what is going on. If the problem is with our software it may not be easy for me to figure this out unless I go and get a Blackberry of my own. Since I am one of those weird people who have never had a cellphone before, I am not exactly inclined to do this :)

 

Not sure what to suggest, but maybe I will put together a trivial Javascript application and post a link so that some of you can try it. My instinct suggests that it is not our application that is the source of the problem and perhaps a test like this will confirm whether or not my instinct is correct.

 

Have any of you tried Handviewer on your phones? If yes, does it work?

 

Probably I won't have a chance to do anything on this front until next week. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[akhare]

This is excellent -- the ability to bypass the firewall at work makes it especially nice.

 

Now if only we could add a few buttons that allow us to bid and play :)...

[fred]

I modified the application so that it will try to detect whether or not Javascript really is enabled and display a message (instead of a blank white page) if it is disabled.

 

If any of you who had the white screen problem feels inclined to try again and let me know if you see this message, I would appreciate it. I don't think you will need to clear your browser's cache, but if you know how to do this then it can only help to do this before you try again.

 

By the way, I believe you when you say that you have set things up so that Javascript should be enabled, but for some browsers running on some mobile devices it appears there may be more to it than that.

 

Thanks,

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[Echognome]

I know this isn't conclusive, but I tried again and still had a blank white screen (i.e. no message). I know that isn't too helpful, but it's what occurred. Note that before I tried I went into the options and under "Cache Operations" I clicked on "Clear History". It erased my browser history.

[fred]

Thanks for letting me know. I will see if I can figure it out next week.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[Mike_P]

Just in case folks here haven't seen the other thread, the javascript enabled browser from www.skyfire.com allows me to kibitz with my Sprint Touch Diamond (Windows Mobile 6.1) smartphone. May be the answer for many of you for whom a downloadable version is available.

 

-- Mike

[uday]

from the skyfire website

"

Skyfire runs on Windows Mobile (smartphones and PPC) and Nokia N and E Series (Symbian S60, 3rd Edition) phones.

"

 

One of my New Yorker pals has a Blackberry Curve. He says he uses "Opera Mini" as his browser instead of the browser that comes with the Curve. I have not tried Opera Mini but I'm guessing it is a full-featured browser.

 

Anyone who can't get the handviewer working interested in trying Opera mini and letting us know how that works out ?

 

http://www.opera.com/mini/

[kfay]

I modified the application so that it will try to detect whether or not Javascript really is enabled and display a message (instead of a blank white page) if it is disabled.

 

If any of you who had the white screen problem feels inclined to try again and let me know if you see this message, I would appreciate it. I don't think you will need to clear your browser's cache, but if you know how to do this then it can only help to do this before you try again.

 

By the way, I believe you when you say that you have set things up so that Javascript should be enabled, but for some browsers running on some mobile devices it appears there may be more to it than that.

 

Thanks,

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

Fred-

 

I was able to see the message. I went to options and checked 'support javascript' and 'allow javascript popups.' The message went away but I still only see a white screen with the 'shuffle, rewind, previous, next, options, GIB' buttons.

 

I also switched my browswer to different emulators but nothing seems to work.

 

Kevin Fay

[bhallak]

from the skyfire website

"

Skyfire runs on Windows Mobile (smartphones and PPC) and Nokia N and E Series (Symbian S60, 3rd Edition) phones.

"

 

One of my New Yorker pals has a Blackberry Curve.  He says he uses "Opera Mini" as his browser instead of the browser that comes with the Curve.  I have not tried Opera Mini but I'm guessing  it is a  full-featured browser.

 

Anyone who can't get the handviewer working interested in trying Opera mini and letting us know how that works out ?

 

http://www.opera.com/mini/

I have tried it on Nokia 5700 (Symbian S60, 3rd edition). It works using native browser(works better) as well as Skyfire. However it does not work on Opera Mini. Opera Mini has emulator to test it out.

 

Able to launch flash version on Skyfire but could not login because of Skyfire's flash input bug. Hope Skyfire fixes flash input soon.

[fred]

Thanks to all the people who have tried this thing on various devices and with various browsers and reported the results.

 

I am not sure what (if anything) I am going to be able to do in the short term to solve the problem of some device+browser combinations not being able to run our application. There already seem to be a sizable number of these combinations (some work, some semi-work, and some don't work at all) and this number is sure to grow quickly as more and more types of mobile devices that can run web browsers are produced and as new browser software is developed.

 

The annoying thing about this is that this is not supposed to be my problem. Javascript is a well-defined language and programs written in that language are supposed to have well-defined behavior regardless of the environment that the program is running in. That is the main reason we wrote this thing in Javascript in the first place. An alternative would have been to create custom applications for each popular type of device (an iPhone "app" for example).

 

Unfortunately it seems to be the case that, at this point in time, some of the browsers that run on some of the popular mobile devices do not do a very good job of supporting Javascript.

 

The same was true of PC browsers for a while. To some extent it still is true for Internet Explorer - our application has some "custom code" that only runs if the IE is being used. That isn't such a big deal, both because IE comes close to getting things right and also because so many people use IE that is is easy to justify writing custom code for these people. But PC browsers have been around for several years now. Nowadays all of the popular browsers contain strong support for Javascript.

 

However, it is a different story when it comes to mobile devices that claim to run Javascript-enabled web browsers. This is partly because some of these claims seem to be grossly exaggerated. It is partly because there appear to be several of these device+browser combinations each of which would likely require their own custom code to make our application run properly (if it is even possible to get the thing to work at all). It is partly because I expect these browsers will improve in the months and years to come (so that any custom code I write will at best become unnecessary and at worst will result in new bugs once these browsers develop to the point that they work as they should). Finally, it is partly because this application (for now at least) is mostly just a fun thing that (for now at least) we have no plans to turn into a source of revenue. That makes it hard for me to justify spending a lot of time trying to get it to work on all device+browser combinations.

 

Sorry if it sounds like I am passing the buck here. Perhaps I am, but hopefully the above will help some of you to understand the issues that are involved.

 

I am not giving up yet, but it appears likely that I will not be able to provide a solution for all of you in the short term. More likely you are going to have to depend on the developers of the browser software you use to do that.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com