Version 1.47w - please post feedback and suggestions here

[1eyedjack]

As far as BBO is concerned, when you're using the Windows 8 tablet, it's just a web browser.

Umm yes, well there is a lot of stuff that happens on BBO website that is programmed in by you guys over and above the functionality built into the browser.

 

The web version of BBO is designed for desktop/laptop computers.

This is promising. The term "designed" implies a "designer". Designers make choices. One choice that they MIGHT make if so minded and if possible (depending on benefit to effort ratio), is to make the interface easier to use on a Windows 8 tablet

 

If you're running it on a mobile device with no mouse, it's up to the OS to emulate the mouse's features.

This is discouraging, implying that it is beyond your capabilities to overwrite this behaviour within the Flash app (a bit like logging chat locally). It is not absolutely clear that this is what you are saying. If it is simply impossible to implement, then you could say so and that is the end of the matter. I just find it very surprising, if that is the case. I would expect the OS to be responsible for detecting whether you have clicked on a button or long-pressed on a button (or right-mouse-clicked, or hovered over it), but it would be up to the designer within the app to specify what action ensues from that click. How, for example, could the OS possibly predict the content of a popup menu?

 

All our touch-specific features are in the mobile app, not the web app, and this is only available for iOS and Android.

I am aware of this. But this sub-forum is meant to be a wish-list for the future, for which purpose a statement of the current status is of use only in highlighting its room for improvement.

 

In summary, I am not a programmer, and generally I am not competent to comment on whether something is possible or how hard it would be. To some extent I can comment on what is possible, ie where I have seen it implemented elsewhere. In other apps I have witnessed the effect of long-presses on buttons, clicking on buttons, hovering on buttons and so forth. These behaviours are personalised to the app and can only have been programmed by the apps' designers, perhaps taking advantage of tools provided by the OS.

 

It does seem to me that turning the Flash "desktop" app into one that doubles as a "Windows 8 tablet-friendly mobile" app may not require a substantial re-write. "Simply" :) implementing the above suggestion (if possible) would take you the vast majority of the way there, and that is what this suggestion is all about. If you have the capability to do so but choose not to do it, then that is your decision, Perhaps the resources required would be prohibitive. That would be sad, because I think it will benefit a large number of the site's users, as touchscreen windows devices grow. Well, maybe they will wither rather than grow, but as the Flash interface is so bound to Windows in the first place it seems an inconsistent approach to continue to rely on Windows dominance but not to embrace the onward march of touchscreen technology.

 

So in my opinion it is all down to how difficult it would be to implement, rather than on whether it is possible, and I cannot comment on that.

[barmar]

This is promising. The term "designed" implies a "designer". Designers make choices. One choice that they MIGHT make if so minded and if possible (depending on benefit to effort ratio), is to make the interface easier to use on a Windows 8 tablet

More to the point, when it was designed there was no such thing as a tablet computer, so there was no reason to put in code to accomodate them.

 

I don't know much about Flash, so I'm not even sure if it has methods to handle things like this -- Fred could confirm or deny.

[1eyedjack]

Thanks for taking an interest, anyway. Certainly there may be a bit of work involved to define a long-press on a touchscreen to simulate a hover with a mouse,

 

But on the subject of resizing the display by spreading or pinching fingers on the display surface you are already ALMOST there. Clearly as you have done nothing to program it this is entirely down to the OS. Nevertheless it may be instructive to explore this a bit further because it is frustratingly short of being all the way there. If there is something that you can do at your end to go the extra mile then it would be worth it. What I mean by all this is:

 

As mentioned earlier, if you open the results of a completed tourney, then with that window open, full touchscreen expand and shrink capability is there. Even if you close that mini-window having first expanded the image, you can then continue to expand shrink and scroll, although once you stop doing so, so the facility to repeat the process is denied. But I also find that this effect is not just limited to reviewing results of past tourneys, but also works if you open a news item window.

[barmar]

Those pop-up windows are ordinary web pages overlaying the BBO window using iframes. For that we're using a third-party library (called jQuery), and it handles this stuff automatically if the browser doesn't.

[1eyedjack]

This may seem (probably is) a trivial point, but I find the some of the system popup messages irritating, such as:

 

"Fetching deals, Please wait" (when starting an Instant Tourney)

"Chat is now being displayed on a tab at the right of the screen" (after dragging the horizontal chat border to the bottom)

"Switching seats so that player can declare" (during robot tourneys where human would otherwise by dummy)

 

There may be other examples that I have not thought of

 

My objections to these messages are:

 

They take too long to disappear

There is no option to close the message prior to their fading out automatically

While they are displayed they obliterate my cards displayed behind the message.

 

The "Fetching deals" message is utterly superfluous, as the deals have invariably already been "fetched" by the time that the message is displayed.

 

The "Chat is being displayed on a tab at the right" message is arguably of value the first time that you do it (although it is pretty obvious anyway). Certainly the message is superfluous the second and subsequent time (and perhaps the setting should be remembered anyway).

 

The "Switching seats" message arguably has some enduring benefit to the idiots for more than just the first occasion of display, but for me it is a net irritation, because it causes my Diamond holding to be concealed and I have enough experience in robot tourneys to know that this has happened.

[alanrick]

"Chat is being displayed on a tab at the right"

 

My partner complained that his chat has vanished to the tabs and I could help him get it back to normal again. Does the message say how to revert to normal?

[diana_eva]

....

They take too long to disappear

There is no option to close the message prior to their fading out automatically

While they are displayed they obliterate my cards displayed behind the message.

...

 

Click or tap the message and it will go away right away, you don't have to wait until it fades.

[barmar]

Click or tap the message and it will go away right away, you don't have to wait until it fades.

That's true in the web version, are you sure it also works in mobile?

 

I usually use mobile in potrait mode, and the message doesn't cover the cards, it just covers the buttons at the top.

 

The messages about loading hands and switching positions aren't specific to the moble version, they're also in the web version. I made the same suggestion to Fred and Uday last week that the "switching" message is pretty useless and tiresome to anyone who has played in more than a handful of robot tournaments.

[alanrick]

That's true in the web version, are you sure it also works in mobile?

 

I thought this thread was about the Web version. And unfortunately there is no help about how to get back when you accidentally move the chat to the right hand tabs.

I've just moved chat to see what my partner did... and now I'm stuck with chat on the right *cry*

[1eyedjack]

I thought this thread was about the Web version. And unfortunately there is no help about how to get back when you accidentally move the chat to the right hand tabs.

I've just moved chat to see what my partner did... and now I'm stuck with chat on the right *cry*

 

Drag the bottom border back up to about a third of the way up the screen, and the chat reappears on the bottom

[1eyedjack]

Click or tap the message and it will go away right away, you don't have to wait until it fades.

 

Thanks, I had not thought to try it

[1eyedjack]

That's true in the web version, are you sure it also works in mobile?

 

I usually use mobile in potrait mode, and the message doesn't cover the cards, it just covers the buttons at the top.

 

The messages about loading hands and switching positions aren't specific to the moble version, they're also in the web version. I made the same suggestion to Fred and Uday last week that the "switching" message is pretty useless and tiresome to anyone who has played in more than a handful of robot tournaments.

 

The fetching hands message is even more futile, as the hands are always already fetched at the point that the message appears

[diana_eva]

The fetching hands message is even more futile, as the hands are always already fetched at the point that the message appears

 

For me the message always appears before the hands are dealt, but my net is sluggish.

[alanrick]

Drag the bottom border back up to about a third of the way up the screen, and the chat reappears on the bottom

Now that would have been a useful message to display.

Thanks for the tip.

 

 

[barmar]

The fetching hands message is even more futile, as the hands are always already fetched at the point that the message appears

It depends on how fast the server is. It displays that message when it sends the request for hands to the server. If the server is fast, the hands may arrive while you're still reading the message. But if the server is sluggish, there could be a delay, and this message explains what's going on. It's a "just in case" message.

 

Instant Tournaments are different in this regard from ordinary tournaments or MBC hands. In the latter cases, the server creates the hands ahead of time, and it always has a pool of hands ready to hand out, so there's never any delay to warn about. But with Instant Tournaments, it has to perform a database search to find an old tournament that you didn't play in, and this could take a few seconds depending on the load on the database and the network.

[1eyedjack]

Turning the mouse pointer into an hourglass may be less intrusive? That is the industry standard method of advising the user to wait.

 

Really making a mountain out of a molehill. Not that big a deal. But all of these messages have one thing in common: They have some benefit to the new user but after you have seen the same message half a dozen times, that is enough.

 

 

 

 

 

[lycier]

I can't find the team matches lists at bbo client,hoping it can be seen,just like bbo old windows programm.

[barmar]

Click on "List All Tables" then "Team Matches"

[lycier]

Now I know I can creat scheduled team matches with blank tables in advance at bbo,but the problems are others players are competing for a seat while TM for some appointed players,so hoping that I can creat scheduled TM inside my club.