PilotGOne - view/record GO games (SGF) in PalmOS

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Mini-info in Listview, Open Old/New Game, ..., Gadgets

Mini Info in Listview

PilotGOne starts off in "list view" mode, which works like an enhanced Memo Pad, and gives access to all of the Memos in their categories in the normal way. There is more information about the features of "list view" mode, and what can be done in "list view" mode to manage files and games (thanks to Harry Fearnley).

The screenshot shows "list view", with Menu selected.

The menu options – Sort, Commands (Generate First Line ..., Erase all first lines ...), and Options ( Board Preferences, List Preferences, About), are discussed elsewhere.

You can use the PageUp and PageDown buttons to scroll the list. To view an existing game record: select a memo, and the record will be highlighted.

If you have not previously selected, in List Preferences, "Show mini info view" as your default, then you can go straight to viewing the game. Otherwise, you will see an extra mini-info window like thhis screenshot.

Note that the highlighted "First Line" is, in general, different from the Name field – this can be useful in managing your game records.

"Open" starts viewing/editing the game; "Cancel" to carry on browsing the list.

Open Old/New Game

This is an example of a an old game record - a professional game, between Yu Bin and Cho Hun-hyeon. We supply the SGF game record that PilotGOne is displaying.

If you want to record a game then tap the "New ..." button. This will open a dialogue that allows setup of various options for a new game – see the diagram below.

Enter the information -- you will automatically be in uppercase for the first character of the appropriate empty fields. You can also edit any of these items, at a later stage, by doing "Menu"/ "Game"/ "Game Info".

The fields "Name" (game name), "Date", "Size", "Black", and "White" can all be used for sorting/ searching. The value of "Komi" is used automatically in "Score" mode. Most fields (i.e. except Black/White Ranks, Times, and Game Comment) are used in the mini-info view in List view mode.

When finished, tap "New" to enter game view, and start recording.

At the start of a game, with "Menu" selected, the display will look like this screenshot.

When you hold the stylus on, or near, any stone or empty intersection, PilotGOne shows you what you have selected by showing a "cursor" – a reverse-video version of what you have selected.

The Gadgets

Once in game view, you will see a go board surrounded by various gadgets (see screenshot, above). Some of these gadgets allow you to do things – [button]; other ones just give you information – [info]; others do both – [button/info]. We will start at the bottom left, and go anti-clockwise. First, there are the gadgets along the bottom edge of the board - an example might look like this:

      Done   <<   <   (99a)   >   >>   K9   black play

Done [button]

Finish viewing this game and return to the memo list view.

SkipBack "<<" [button]

Move backwards to the previous branching node (i.e. beginning/end of a variation). This can also be mapped to a hard button.

Using "Next" crosses in View mode may be more useful for moving between variations.

Backward "<" [button]

Move back to the previous node. The PageUp button does this too.

Move Number/Description [button/info]

This is (a maximum of) four items – e.g. "(87c)". Shows the move number. A left parenthesis – "(" – before/after the number indicates that a variation starts before/after the node; a right parenthesis – ")" – before/after the number indicates that a variation ends before/after the node. There may also be a "variation letter" – e.g. "c", if this is the first move of variation "c". At the beginning of a new game, you will see "(0a)" – this shows that the last move number was zero "0", and that you are at the beginning ["("], and at the end [")"], of a variation called "a".

If you have got Goto Memo set to "on" (the default setting), then tapping on the move number drops you into MemoPad with this move selected. After doing this, to go back to the game, you have to tap on Home (Select Application), and choose PilotGOne again – you will return to the same node (i.e. the same point in the game record).

Forward ">" [button]

Move forward to the next node. The PageDown button does this too.

SkipForward ">>" [button]

Move forward to the next branching node. See "SkipBack", above. This can also be mapped to a hard button.

Move co-ordinates [info *]

Shows the move coordinates (e.g. "F13", or blank before start of game), or "pass". Normally this shows the co-ordinates of the most recent move. [*] If you hold the stylus on any point (with or without a stone on it), then you will see the co-ordinates of that point/stone, instead.

The co-ordinates have letters (A-H, J-T – "I" omitted) going across the board from left to right, and numbers (1-19) going up the board. The bottom left is therefore "A1", and the top right is "T19", while the middle of the board is at "K10".

Mode [button/info]

This is a pop-up trigger (an upside-down triangle) – on its right you will normally see the current mode – see the list of options, below. The mode controls what happens when you tap on the board.

When you tap the pop-up trigger, you will see a menu like that in the screenshot.

The options are

• black play : it is now Black's turn to play a move. Subsequent moves alternate in colour. If you want to delete/undo the previous (i.e. white) move then use backspace-delete in the graffiti area – it will then be White's turn to play. If you tap on an empty point, and you are at the end of the game (or latest variation), then a node is added with that move in it. If you are not at the end of a game (or latest variation), you will be prompted to choose from:
  • Cancel
  • Insert extra move : Beware! This inserts an extra move of a different colour from that of the last stone added to the display (by default, flashing). If the last stone is black, the extra move will be white. If this was the last move in a variation then there will not be any problem. However, if it was not, then – in normal game records – the effect will be to produce two consecutive moves of the same colour – normally not what you want!
  • Create new variation : the new variation will be started after the flashing stone. All further moves will be in this variation, until you change to another variation (or the main line) – see "Variation", below.
  • Change last stone position : the position of the flashing stone will be changed. Afterwards, use "SkipForward" to return to the end of the variation (or end of game).

    This can be very useful if you made a mistake in recording a game. If the mistake was very recent, then it may be quicker to ignore this facility, and simply to "undo" (backspace-delete) the last few moves, and then replay them all correctly. If the mistake was many moves ago, then there is a quick way to get to the move before using this facility – select "view" mode; tap on the problem stone to rewind the game to that point ( "Goto Move" has to be switched on for this to work); change to the correct colour (Black or White – the opposite colour to the flashing stone) Play mode; tap on the empty point where you want the flashing stone to be, before selecting "Change last stone position". This is easier than it seems.

  • Replace "NN" stones : deletes all "NN" later moves in variation (or game)

  Warning: If you use this to change who is to play next, then do "undo" repeatedly, the program may get confused!

• white play : it is now White's turn to play a move. Subsequent moves alternate in colour. See comments about "black play", above.
• add black : not intended for use in normal play, but for set-up only. Until the next change of mode, all stones added will be black. Tap on a point to add a stone; use backspace-delete (or Undo in Menu/Game) to remove the previously added stone. If you do add black on top of a white stone, it will change the displayed colour to black!
• add white : similar to "add black", above.
• add empty : similar to "add black", above. This is equivalent to the SGF's "AE[nn]" (Add Empty) command. If you tap on a stone (black, or white), then it disappears from the display, and that empty point now behaves exactly like any other empty point – you can play another stone there!
• add mark :

  

  Either tap on an empty point, or tap on a stone with no mark, or label.

  You can add a mark – you will be given a choice of Triangle, Square, Circle, and (diagonal) Cross – these 4 marks are always shown properly, as they are.

  You can also supply an alphanumeric character of your choice – this may be an alphabetic character (a-z, A-Z), or a digit (0-9).

  On large boards (13x13, and 19x19) all of these characters are normally displayed in the same way – as a "+" – see the top left of the diagram. To see what these alphanumeric characters really are, you have to "Zoom In".

  
  

  

  When "Zoomed-in", alphabetic characters (a-z, A-Z) will be shown in lower-case (a-z); all other characters, including digits (0-9), will be displayed as "?".

  This diagram is the Zoomed-in version of the top left of the diagram above.

  Note that, although you can enter "a" and "A", for example, as different characters in the SGF record, they will both display as "a". To avoid further confusion, PilotGOne will not let you enter characters other than alphanumeric ones.

  It is probably best to avoid numeric characters, because you will not be able to see them properly – better to use alphabetic characters, instead.
  

• score : shows the calculated scores for Black and White, which are also marked on the board. The White score make use of the value of komi in Game Info. If komi is not an integer – e.g. 6.5 – then White's score will clearly also include a ".5" – e.g. 22.5. There is often not quite enough room to display this in full, so it may look like "22.!", "22.", or even "22", instead!

  Naive Japanese style scoring is used - PilotGOne needs to be told which are dead groups, both to know which stones are prisoners, and to know which empty points can be counted as territory.

  To mark a chain of stones as dead, simply tap on one of the stones in the chain – all stones in the chain will now appear 'dimmed' on your screen. To undo such a move, tap another time on the same chain.

  Note that you will also have to give the program some extra help – e.g. if Black will eventually have to play a defensive move inside their territory, then you should do an "add black" on that point while in "score" mode. In any case, you can not mark points as being "neutral" points. This means that, in rare cases, there may be errors in PilotGOne's score. For example, in a "seki" with 2 one-eyed Black groups, and one zero-eyed White group, Japanese counting gives no points for either side, whereas PilotGOne counts this as 2 points for Black.

  The scoring information (which groups are dead) is not normally stored in the SGF file, so you will have to mark groups as dead each time you want to calculate the score. However, if you want to make this information permanent, you can use the menu command "Game"/ "Save Dead Groups Info", which will add DD marks to the SGF file (and remove previous DD marks if there were some).

• view : view, but do not change, the game-record. This is the default for existing files. When in "view mode" you can use "Forward", "SkipForward", etc. Tapping on a stone may take you to the move when that stone was played (see "Goto Move" choice). Guess next move: in "view mode", tapping on an empty intersection will always enter the 'guess next move' mode and show your "Got" score as two numbers – e.g. 55/66, meaning 55 hits from 66 guesses.

Now we look at the gadgets along the right side of the board. Here's an unlikely view -- with annotations:

    ^       Go up/back to Previous variation
    b       Variation label
    v       Go down/forward to Next variation
    [x]     Next/Marks - not highlighted, so "Next" is not selected
    Z       Zoom - capitalized, so zoom is on
    C      Comment - capitalized, so there is a comment at this node
    r        Remember Current Node - only available in view mode
    g       Goto Remembered Node (shown, so there is a remembered node)
    E       Annotation (very even!)
    B       # Black captures (value below)
    10
    W      # White captures (value below)
    5

Starting at the bottom, we have:

# White captures [info]

Number of black stones that White has captured (including komi). If necessary, the value of komi is rounded down to the nearest integer (e.g. 6.5 becomes 6), before being added to this total.

# Black captures [info]

Number of white stones that Black has captured.

Annotation (Only if an annotation exists) [info]

If present, there's an SGF annotation to this node or to this move (for now these are all mutually exclusive, and only one of them will be displayed): e - even, w - good for white, b - good for black, u - unclear, h - hotspot, t - tesuji, a - badmove, d - doubtful, i - interesting. If this letter is capitalised, the annotation was emphasised (see SGF specification for details). Although you can use PilotGOne to add Marks/Labels, you can not use it to add Annotations – instead, you will have to edit the game record directly using MemoPad – be careful!

Goto Remembered Node [button]

In view mode, and if there is a remembered node (see below),

Remember Node [button]

Available only in view mode. Remember the current node – can return there later with "Goto Remembered Node" – see above.

Comment [button/info]

This button is normally lowercase "c", but shows a capital "C" if there is a comment on this node. Tappping will open in lower/upper half if last move was in the opposite (upper/lower) half. You can view, or edit, the comment in the upper/lower half of the screen. In editing modes (i.e. add ... modes), the lowercase "c" allows you to create a comment on a node that doesn't yet have one. Once the comment window is open, you can switch its place by tapping the appropriate box – [Move Down] or [Move Up]. You can also access comments without using a stylus, if you remap hard buttons.

When creating a new comment, you will automatically be in uppercase for the first character.

When creating/editing a comment using PilotGOne, you are limited to 1024 characters. If PilotGOne finds a larger comment in an existing SGF file, then it opens an alert box, and warns you:

[Comment too large]
"The comment you're about to open exceeds the size that PilotGOne can handle (1024 chars). If you display it, it will be truncated, and if you edit it, the truncated comment will replace the original one in the SGF."
[Truncate] [Cancel]

Referring to points: it is easy to find the move co-ordinates of any point on the board. Alternatively, use Add Mark.

Maybe consider using direct annotation of the SGF, instead of using free-form text comments.

 

Zoom [button/info]

This button shows a (lower-case) "z" when you are in full board view (and the board size is 13x13 or 19x19) – tapping on "z" will zoom on the last stone played. It shows "Z" when you are already using the zoom – tapping on it will return to full board view.

To zoom-in on any chosen point, use the shortcut /Z (or Menu/ Zoom On ...) – the "z" will start blinking until you tap on the chosen point.

This is a zoomed-in view of the top-left part of the professional game that we saw earlier.

 

Next/Marks [button/info]

This button is shown as a diagonal cross in a box.

When this button is selected (reverse video), you have chosen "Next", and "next move" will be highlighted with a small diagonal cross – "x", but marks and labels will not be shown.

If the board is large-scale (zoom-in, 5x5, or 9x9) - below, then it will also Show Next Vars as Letters

If there are any marked/labelled points at that move, then this button will flash continuously – to see the marks, de-select the button.

If there is one, or more, variations at this move, then all possible moves are marked with a cross.

This can be useful in records of problems or joseki. For example, if you are looking at an existing game record, and you see several such "Next" crosses, then you can simply tap on any one of them. You will then go straight to that variation, without having to use Skip Forward, Skip Back, etc.

When this button is de-selected, you have chosen "Marks", and the "next move" will not be shown, but Marks/Labels will be indicated. See the notes on Mode/ Add Mark for more information on marks. In normal size mode (for large board sizes – 13x13, and 19x19) you will see Triangle, Square, Circle, and Cross, but labels using letters etc will be displayed as "+" (plus sign) – to see the actual letters, you will have to Zoom In. With 5x5, and 9x9, boards Marks are fully displayed, as if already in Zoomed-In mode.

Variation (Only if one exists – see screenshot, below) [button/info] – 3 buttons

These (maximum) three buttons – "previous variation"/ "variation label"/ "next variation" – are shown if this is the first move of a variation. The central button is a letter – "a", "b", "c", etc – that shows which variation it is.

In the screenshot we are at variation "b" – there are two other variations at this point ("a" = "^", and "c" = "v"):

If there are two or more variations, then you will see vertical arrowheads ("^", and/or "v") above and/or below the variation letter. Tap on arrowheads to move between the variations.

Tap on "^" to go "up" to the Previous Variation, and tap on "v" to go "down" to the Next Variation. Both "^" (Previous Variation), and "v" (Next Variation) can also be mapped to a hard button.

Using "Next" crosses in View mode may be more useful for moving between variations.

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