Author: Bob Durrett
Date: 18:25:41 09/13/03
Go up one level in this thread
On September 13, 2003 at 16:16:13, Alastair Scott wrote: >On September 13, 2003 at 15:05:12, Christophe Theron wrote: > >>On September 13, 2003 at 13:32:51, Alastair Scott wrote: >> >>>On September 13, 2003 at 09:05:27, Bob Durrett wrote: >>> >>>> >>>>There has been much discussion here about handhelds. >>>> >>>>Would someone please summarize "the bottom line" on this topic? Has this forum >>>>reached a consensus on which handheld and chess software is best? >>>> >>>>What about the latest and greatest Dell handheld? Palm? Whatever? >>>> >>>>I have been toying with the idea of having something to assist me while reading >>>>hardcopy chess books away from home. The idea is to load [before leaving home] >>>>the games being discussed in the hardcopy book from a large database and then >>>>experiment with different ideas against the computer while away from home. >>>>[Playing my own chess games against the computer does not interest me at all.] >>>>Obviously, at home there is no need for a handheld. >>> >>>1. There is no consensus, fortunately, because the two principal platforms are >>>so different. >>> >>>2. For your use a handheld is a bad idea because the screen is much too small >>>for viewing and choosing from text. Despite all the desperate attempts at >>>marketing it, email on a mobile phone or handheld is almost unusable for the >>>same reason. >> >> >> >>That is YOUR opinion. >> >>A handheld is very useable for playing chess and even for reading and writing >>emails. >> >>A mobile phone screen is too small, yes, and this is why I believe the >>convergence between handhelds and phones should not result in a phone with the >>features of a handheld, but should result in a handheld equipped with a phone. >>Because a handheld's screen is big enough. >> >>Or this convergence should simply not happen: I have both a phone and a >>handheld, I can use the phone as the modem for my handheld (by Bluetooth), and >>this works very well. >> >>Anyway, chess on a handheld is a very pleasant experience. > >As a registered owner of Chess Tiger for Palm I am not going to argue with that. >However, something like the database views in Chess Assistant or scid ... no >way! I see now that my bulletin in this thread was misleading. I would use my regular PC to obtain a collection of games and put it into a named database. I would then simply COPY it into the handheld's memory storage element [which takes the place of a hard disk or floppy]. I would never attempt to perform database management on a handheld. Consider Kasparov's new book, "Gary Kasparov on My Great Predecessors Part I." This book is a collection of annotated games. Almost all of those games are in Chessbase's Megabase 2003. In preparation for the study of this book, I copied these games into a small database just for this hardcopy book. Then, when I read the book, I simply call up the game and follow it on the monitor as I read the book. This allows me to evaluate my own ideas using a chess engine. Doing this evaluation of my own ideas helps me to understand the inner workings of those games. Typically, I say to myself: "Why didn't White play XX-XX?" I play it on the computer and the engine quickly lets me know whether or not my idea is any good, and if not why not. That is what I would propose to do on the handheld. I would not do any database management on the handheld. Who would? Bob D. > >From the 3G phones I've seen it looks as though things are going in the opposite >direction from your suggestion (and my preference); they are definitely "phones >with handheld features". I read somewhere that Motorola's first (relatively >large) 3G phone was very much a first cut and it wanted to make subsequent ones >smaller :( > >Alastair
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.