KGSWishlist/Rejected

This page containt wishes that have been rejected by wms.

Rejected Wishes

Note: Unless stated otherwise, all replies are from wms, explaining why a feature has been rejected.

Preferences: font-selection dialog, X11 fonts (REJECTED)

• geno: Let CGoban2 use X fonts (as opposed to "They must be true type (.ttf) fonts."). Add a font-selection dialog to choose fonts for Japanese, etc. (Strangely, Russian works out of the box, but not Japanese.) Make everything an option: "Any feature that can`t be turned off is a bug."
  • wms: I can't disagree more strongly about "any feature that can't be turned off is a bug". I feel, "any feature that people need to turn off with an option probably shouldn't be there in the first place - and any option that needs more than 5 seconds to understand definitely shouldn't be there." If a non-computer expert was shown a "Use X fonts or java fonts?" option, do you really think there's a snowball's chance in hell that they'll figure out what it means?
  • geno: Perhaps not, but couldn't options for advanced users be in, for instance, an "Advanced Options" dialog? I understand that most people don't want lots of options, but no one is better placed than the designer to add these things somewhere, anywhere.
  • geno: I still haven't gotten CGoban to display a monospaced font in the main window for NNGS without borking up the other windows, and I have spent the bulk of my free time over the last three days trying to get Japanese fonts into CGoban2. I have some experience, but I've never needed to learn font configuration.
  • geno: Or to approach things another way, why ever ask anyone to choose between X fonts and java fonts? Can't we use both? As for "probably shouldn't be there in the first place", different users like different features. One's not better than the other, it's a preference.
  • wms: Advanced preferences is no better. Besides the UI complexity, it makes maintenance a nightmare; when somebody reports a crash, maybe it only happens if (for example) they have X11 fonts, with Japanese characters from the Mincho package, and have "show comments in game" shut off, and the board set to a custom color. Ugh. As for X11 fonts, that's not possible anyway as a stock checkbox - there are dozens of different font arrangements used under X11. I use the fonts that your java config has. If you want to use your X11 fonts, you can just reconfigure java. Believe me, X11 fonts are such a mess, that for you to reconfigure Java would be 100 times easier than for me to get a reasonable way of pulling X11 fonts into CGoban 2 (plus, of course, the X11 thing would be totally stupid for Windows and OS X).
  • geno: Ok, I understand now, thank you.

Database access

genix: Access to Database, so i can get Infos for the webpage from an User: Name, Rank, Email, Infotext, Homepage, Last Seen, Client-Language, Nickname.

No. Much of this is private information. I am always worried about people harvesting email etc. info, and I'm not going to do anything that makes it too easy.

XML file for all game records

It would be nice if you can have some XML file for all the game records. that way you do not have to give access to the database but all go-lovers can make programs to download and organize their game records from KGS.

This file is huge and changes every few seconds. Having a static list of all games in not practical, when people have a real use for all games I am willing to give them the files but it isn't easy because of the volume.

Interface with other Go servers

eng60340: allow kgs to interface with igs (for >6d players). so that high dans can still play with good opponents on kgs and we can still kibitz.

So many reasons not to do this, I don't even know where to start. Just let it stand, KGS and IGS will not become interconnected any time soon, and no IGS-related features will be added to CGoban2/3(.../4).

Setting ? ranks

wms:Don't plan on ever letting people set their own "xx?" ranks. I have seen it happening on IGS and NNGS, and I think it causes more problems than it solves. KGS will give you an "xx?" rank after just one win, so it is still fairly easy to get. The problem is that nobody wants to play a "[?]" player on KGS; letting people call themselves "[4d?]" will just mean that the 4d? ranks will be looked down on as much as "[?]" ranks are today.

Fischer timing

wms: There has been a lot of discussion on Fischer. Some people love it. But at this time I think it would be a mistake, and I do not plan on implementing it. See the fischer discussion page for why.

Dave: Please see additional analysis on Timing Systems - Redux wms. I have added a reference on KGSIssueFischerDiscussion as well. I hope that you will find enough of interest to move this off the rejected page and back onto the wishlist.

Implement an XGF export/import interface (REJECTED)

• bojo: How about implementing an XGF export/import interface as a beta feature? It's sad that this format will never get used unless people start implementing it, so let's take the initiative :)
  • PatrickB: Well, it's important to note that the top of the linked page says: "Do not use this in real applications!" I think CGoban2 qualifies as a real application...
    • bojo: Thus the term 'beta feature'. It's the "real applications" that might actually get the spec pushed forward to production ready in the first place, not the half-baked sgftoxgf command line parsers people roll just for fun.
  • wms: I don't plan on implementing this. I just don't see much gain. KGS saves and loads SGF fine. It effectively shares files with other applications by this method. Why add a second file format that hardly anybody else uses? It wouldn't help me, it wouldn't help KGS users, it would only help people who want the XGF spec to be pushed forward, and that just isn't what I'm trying to do.

Games you uploaded from hard disk can be saved in your game list (REJECTED)

• ivoSF? : I hope games you uploaded from hard disk, such as tournament games or any other SGF you have on your hard disk can be saved in your game list. i dont see why this isnt so already. as it is now i got to manualy imput moves in a demo i start on the server.
  • wms: There are two reasons why this isn't so. One is the issue of people uploading copyrighted information. Now, an admin can kill the game. If uploaded games were saved, I would have to also add a way to go into the archives and remove files - there currently is no way to do this short of hacking around in files with a shell. Another reason is disk usage. If somebody were to upload Kogo's dictionary 20 times a day, my disk would get eaten up very fast. Between the two, I can tell you that this feature will not be implemented.
    • Oloril?: There is a possible work around where with 2 accounts you can upload an sgf and then with the second account clone it and save the clone. If copyright and disk space are a concern perhaps this should be fixed.

Name of the saved game could contain rank of the players (REJECTED)

• chrpa : It would be nice, if the name of the saved game would consist of the names of the players and their rank, for example chrpa_8kyu-leia_8kyu.sgf. Hope it helps. :) With regards chrpa
  • wms: Everybody wants the saved name longer, but everybody wants different things added. I've got requests to add the date to the name of the file, the ranks of the players, the size, etc., etc. In general I think the current names are just right - the names of the players, with an optional ID at the end so that two games from the same day will never have the same name.

About this page

wms: Over time people have often complained that this list (KGSWishlist) is irritating to them because it is too big. I am beginning to reconsider my "I will never remove an idea here" policy. What if we make another page, "rejected suggestions" or maybe something nicer if people can think of such a name, and any suggestions that I am sure I will not implement I will delete from the wishlist, put in the rejected area, along with my reason for not wanting the feature. Then we will have the "Status" page (features that are going in very soon), "Plans" page (features I definitely want to implement), "Wishlist" page (features start here when somebody adds them), and the "rejected" page for features that I deleted from the wishlist page. Anything on the "rejected" page will be simply deleted when somebody notices it is already rejected. Would that be an improvement?

nachtrabe: I'd consider this a major improvement. There still will be a lot of clutter, but it would certainly help.

axd: Sounds like a good idea, but (1) how about moving this text to this page's /Discussion subpage? I'm not sure I fully understand the last phrase ("Anything...is already rejected"). I assume you will simply move the rejected text to the Rejected page, without caring if it is already on that page or not. Isn't there a danger that people will not understand WHY something has been rejected? You will know, but they will have to scan the entire page before knowing. So (2) IMO at least you should group rejected features.

axd: added the authors (whenever possible - but wms will not have the time to do so for every unsigned rejected wish) so one can find back one's own contributions; unless more structure is applied, this page will become a huge unmanagable and unreadable pile of rejected stuff. People need to/should check it otherwise they will continue to generate rejected wishes (which will be more probable if this page is too difficult to go through).

tapir: Good idea.