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Subject: They say, "Beauty is skin deep", I say, "Nay, not when it comes to..."

Author: Laurence Chen

Date: 10:40:03 01/25/00


They say, "Beauty is skin deep", I say, "Nay, not when it comes to have to stare
at it all day or all night".  I'd really like to know how many of you have a
monitor less than 17 inch in size.  Really, after using a 17 inch monitor or
large it gets really difficult to go back and use a 14 inch monitor.  So what's
the point of this post, you probably wondering. GUI in chess interface.
To a lot of hardcore chess computer users, they would say that engine strength
is everything, and they probably would not care if the GUI was ugly. But, I
care.  How many of us would choose a very beautiful woman and not very smart
over an average looking woman who happens to be very smart?  Seriously, I would
prefer to have both. Some of you may think that I am spoiled after using
Chessbase and its GUI is in my opinion very high quality.  Okay, you may say
that it sucks in 3D, I say so what, no matter what you do, I don't think one can
create high quality 3D pieces images without sacrificing CPU power and RAM in a
computer.  Besides if I need to stare at a 3D board, I would prefer to set up my
chessboard and use my wood chess pieces.  Nothing can beat that.
The point is that Chessbase has set up a standard for GUI and chess engine
strength.  And a lot of chess users will always compare it to Chessbase. That's
the way it goes in business nowadays, it's like Intel setup the standard for
CPU's.  Let me ask how many of you would by an AMD K-1 chip over the Intel
Pentium 1 chip?  If such standard did not exist, there would be a lot of chaos.
For example if IEEE did not exist, we would have problems playing our audio and
video devices, because different manufactures would set whatever standard they
like. And that's not acceptable, so why should it be different for chess GUI.  I
stare at the computer day and night, and for me if the GUI is very ugly or
unacceptable, the probability of me using the chess program decreases. Thus,
beauty does matter.
I hope that Ed Shrodder will take this in consideration when he introduces the
new Rebel Century for Windows, and that new improvements in the GUI will be made
by Chesspatner.  Even if it means revising and designing a total new interface.
I have no complaints with the Rebel-Tiger engine, but when it comes to not
working properly in a GUI, that makes me roar like a tiger... GRRRRR!!!
Laurence



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