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Subject: Re: Opening Book for Engine vs Amateur Training Games

Author: Mike S.

Date: 15:02:47 11/10/02

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On November 10, 2002 at 17:41:54, Bob Durrett wrote:

>(...)
>To start with, I want something which requires the absolute minimum in user
>smarts.  I want:  Software which does it all for me without any special
>knowledge (other than chess) at all.

You mean, like Windows? :o))

My experience is, the more stupid (or lazy) the software developers expect the
user to be, the more problems and the less usability and "controlability" of the
software will result. Like in Windows, where so much is either deeply hidden, of
defaults set to the most uncomfortable, etc.

I mean, if the user doesn't even want to read a few sentences of the docs then
and when, push one or two buttons and play around with the controls a bit to try
things out, it's really difficult for the programmer to provide a powerful set
of functions at the same time.

There's no one-button radio :o)

Probably not the number of the functions is a problem, but how the are organised
in menues and dialouge boxes (and documented). With the correct options in the
correct place, right-click menus supported properly with the most often used
functions etc., it shouldn't be a problem.

Actually I think, except for the really advanced options, the only chess device
easier to handle than Fritz is a wooden chessboard... :o)

(Or Fritz is even easier, when you replay a game with many variants and
sub-variants...)

Regards,
M.Scheidl



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