Hi,
First of all, thanks for Hactar and GoWrite. IMHO are the best SGF editing tools out there.
In last weeks I was working more intensive both with hactar and gowrite and would like to share some suggestion for quality of life I think could be useful to have it.
- Remove analysis.
In hactar if you remove analysis you remove from all the game. In GoWrite it is removed only in the movement you are. You have to select all the movements of the game in the movement list, and once selected Edit->Remove Analysis. Could be interesting a "Remove all analysis" next to "Remove Analsysis" to keep both options.
GoWrite Shortcuts
- Clear selection.
I miss with ESC and/or clicking outside the board a fast way to clear selection from the board.
-Show Analysis.
Be able, with some free F key, to toggle show analysis.
Collections
I'm not sure if it's a bug or how it works, but when you try to add games to Collection, it allows to select several games, but only one is added. BTW, Collections doesn't works in Hactar, or I can't find how to change betweent games.
Save and lock undo
I will try to explain this. Sunday, I was playing a game and recorded it with Hactar. Later with my opponent were taking a look at the game, and I noticed the undo button was pressed by my friend several times after variations, and last game movements were deleted. Would be interesting to be able to save the file to disk and clear undo history, to only reflects what was modified since last forcing save. Not sure if I epxlained correctly,.
Thanks.
Suggestions for Hactar and GoWrite
Moderator: lpaatero
Re: Suggestions for Hactar and GoWrite
Thanks for suggestions!
Hactar and GOWrite are quite different things, so some of the difference comes from that.
GOWrite is meant for content production. IT also runs on PC, so there are no big limitations.
Hactar is mostly meant for review and study, not creating something to read or even store. In phone there is good rule for applications: Aim at 80% features that cover 99% of use-cases. In phone adding a new feature soon means removing some old feature, as it gets too packed with stuff. In tablet this limitation is not relevant, but so far Hactar is quite same in phone and tablet.
This is background for quite different approach to editing.
So the delete features in Hactar aim at fixing SGF for reading, not so much for making specific changes for later use.
Adding functions to SGF editing must have quite clear use-case for big fraction of users. Just matching GOWrite is not really a reason.
GoWrite Shortcuts
Both make sense, I will look at adding these at some point.
Collections
Collections are rarely used even in GOWrite, so bugs are likely. I will look at this.
Hactar can handle collections in SGF, but it does not offer any UI to those. Again, too few users are using so no point offering in phone ui.
Save and lock undo
If I understand this correctly, it is part of bigger problem: Users get lost on what they are doing, and damage the game record. This can be ending up with same move sequence multiple times, deleting game moves when thinking they delete variation or doing undo where should not.
General problem here is that it is not clear what is going on. Only real way to fix these is to make UI better at telling what is going.
I just do not know (yet) what would be good way to make editing more intuitive.
Hactar and GOWrite are quite different things, so some of the difference comes from that.
GOWrite is meant for content production. IT also runs on PC, so there are no big limitations.
Hactar is mostly meant for review and study, not creating something to read or even store. In phone there is good rule for applications: Aim at 80% features that cover 99% of use-cases. In phone adding a new feature soon means removing some old feature, as it gets too packed with stuff. In tablet this limitation is not relevant, but so far Hactar is quite same in phone and tablet.
This is background for quite different approach to editing.
So the delete features in Hactar aim at fixing SGF for reading, not so much for making specific changes for later use.
Adding functions to SGF editing must have quite clear use-case for big fraction of users. Just matching GOWrite is not really a reason.
GoWrite Shortcuts
Both make sense, I will look at adding these at some point.
Collections
Collections are rarely used even in GOWrite, so bugs are likely. I will look at this.
Hactar can handle collections in SGF, but it does not offer any UI to those. Again, too few users are using so no point offering in phone ui.
Save and lock undo
If I understand this correctly, it is part of bigger problem: Users get lost on what they are doing, and damage the game record. This can be ending up with same move sequence multiple times, deleting game moves when thinking they delete variation or doing undo where should not.
General problem here is that it is not clear what is going on. Only real way to fix these is to make UI better at telling what is going.
I just do not know (yet) what would be good way to make editing more intuitive.