[Bug-gnubg] FEATURE SUGGESTION: Starting in Edit mode vs. Starting a new session

[Ian Shaw]

I have a suggestion I would like to discuss. Many of us use gnubg to analyse 
positions that aren't part of a match. We like to simply start gnubg and get on 
with it. At present we have to start a match or game to do so.

What would be the effect if gnubg started in edit mode by default? 

I don't think it affects the case where you want to play. You still click on 
New, as before. 
People who want to analyse would be better off because they don't have to start 
a game. I suggest that gnubg automatically starts a money game session 
(suppressing messages) and enters edit mode. 

The pieces should be in the bearoff trays. This is analogous to opening a real 
board. In fact, this is a visual cue to the user that something needs to be 
done, and should lead the new user to find the New button more easily. At 
present it is not immediately obvious what to do to start a game because the 
board looks ready - it is easy to spend some time clicking randomly to try 
getting a game started. 

Thinking about the mechanics of starting a match a bit more...

I think the New dialog window should do a bit more in the way of automatic 
setting up player names.

I suggest that when Gnu Backgammon is one of the players, that player should 
automatically be named Gnubg Expert or Gnubg Supremo, etc as appropriate.

It may also be a good idea to change the "vs. Human" static text to a data 
entry field, pre-filled with the appropriate name from the saved settings.

This may well lead us to playing with the "correct" names, which will be more 
satisfying than settling for the names we happened to be using the last time we 
saved settings.

-- Ian