[fred]

Bridgebum_, on Jan 29 2008, 11:53 PM, said:

Ok, I do not nor have I ever seen a table button.

on the top I see: Myaccount, convention cards, results, vugraph,help, logoff

at the bottom:leave table, director, NS cc, Ew cc, redeal, undo, leaders, claim

There are other buttons associated with viewing people's profile and joining
them, but, alas, no table.

If you look at the profile of a person who is at a table, you will see a "join table" button at the bottom of the profile.

In the version you are using, I think that is just about the only way to get yourself to a particular table. In the version I am using there are some other ways.

Sorry but I don't know when the version that I am using will be ready for public consumption. We are trying to get it ready for that now, but there are still some loose ends to tie up and plenty of internal testing that has to be done first.

But I think it is safe to say you will like it. BBOFlash has evolved to the point that it does just about everything that our average member does with BBOWin plus a bunch of new things. I am sure some of these new features will be a big hit. Also I think that the BBOFlash implementation of the "old things" is significantly better than BBOWin in most areas. I believe most people will find BBOFlash to be easier and more enjoyable to use than BBOWin.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Rain]

Er didn't read all the posts before posting these.

1) clicking on ads, if pop ups disabled, and you choose to enable, it DCs you for a while, and the seat isn't reserved for you so you can come back to seat. Clicking on ad also expands my window for some reason.

2) I still prefer bidding box to say names rather than NSEW. Most people play and see themselves as south always, rather confusing to think of yourself as south and be bidding East or West.

3) I think when someone is still using old bbo interface, you can't see the normal profile details (make a note, friend/enemy).

4) You can send private chat to partner when using bbo flash.

5) I was just trying to see results, but lots of weird things happen. Table area gets resized, etc. And chat boxes would disappear.

Haven't tried tourneys/gib yet, maybe i will when i get bored.

This post has been edited by Rain: 2008-February-01, 19:46

[onoway]

I liked the colour scheme on the front page but that was about it.
I don't like how restricted the choices are for where you can go. Often I do not know exactly who I want to play with or even if I do want to play, and very very often I do not want to kib only a table with lots of kibbers or lots of stars, but how do you see the table to know who you do want to kib? It looks like it will be much more cumbersome to move around in unless you are focussed on where you want to be.
Also, I absolutely loathe the teenytiny little chat space. It seems to say to me, SHUT UP AND PLAY BRIDGE< THAT'S WHAT YOU"RE HERE FOR . I kib a lot of lessons and the idea of trying to follow them with that chat window is depressing to say the very least.
Speaking of which, where are the places that right now cater to people who want to take lessons or play in TP tournaments or such. I didnt see anywhere to access such places. Are they all going to be axed in the interest of efficiency or some such?
I dont see the value of having the profiles on display all the time either. Right now, if you want to see someone's profile you can access it easilly, but most of the time it is totally immaterial and stays out of the way.this just takes up space and creates clutter.
A small point but why all the exclamation points? I may love the game but I am not going to be in a state of extreme hysteria every time I move or log on.
ALtogether it seems to me as though this is another example of something being improved to the point that it loses many of its advantages...ease of movement, freedom of choice, relaxed atmosphere...I am dreading when this comes into force.
Sorry to be so negative, I understand how very hard everyone has worked on it, but when your first instincts about how it should be were so good, why change the things that made it that way?

[wdeed]

client_v7 is working nicely in Firefox on a mac 10.5 (both intel and ppc)
When kibitzing it would be nice to view a single player's hand (and the dummy when exposed)

[fred]

onoway, on Feb 8 2008, 09:56 AM, said:

I liked the colour scheme on the front page but that was about it.
I don't like how restricted the choices are for where you can go. Often I do not know exactly who I want to play with or even if I do want to play, and very very often I do not want to kib only a table with lots of kibbers or lots of stars, but how do you see the table to know who you do want to kib? It looks like it will be much more cumbersome to move around in unless you are focussed on where you want to be.
Also, I absolutely loathe the teenytiny little chat space. It seems to say to me, SHUT UP AND PLAY BRIDGE< THAT'S WHAT YOU"RE HERE FOR . I kib a lot of lessons and the idea of trying to follow them with that chat window is depressing to say the very least.
Speaking of which, where are the places that right now cater to people who want to take lessons or play in TP tournaments or such. I didnt see anywhere to access such places. Are they all going to be axed in the interest of efficiency or some such?
I dont see the value of having the profiles on display all the time either. Right now, if you want to see someone's profile you can access it easilly, but most of the time it is totally immaterial and stays out of the way.this just takes up space and creates clutter.
A small point but why all the exclamation points? I may love the game but I am not going to be in a state of extreme hysteria every time I move or log on.
ALtogether it seems to me as though this is another example of something being improved to the point that it loses many of its advantages...ease of movement, freedom of choice, relaxed atmosphere...I am dreading when this comes into force.
Sorry to be so negative, I understand how very hard everyone has worked on it, but when your first instincts about how it should be were so good, why change the things that made it that way?

One of the main reasons that we put out a demo version so early was to get feedback. All feedback is welcome and negative feedback tends to be more useful than glowing praise. So definitely no reason to apologize and I personally appreciate your willingness to express such an honest opinion!

But please remember that the version you are using:

- several months old
- is meant to be a preview, not a demo
- has a basic navigational interface that was never meant to be anything more than a shell for exposing the small number of navigational options that were available at the time

The program has come a long way since then. I believe almost all of your concerns have been addressed already. There are also a bunch of great new features that are currently either completely unavailable or very hard for our average member to find and use in BBOWin.

I am hopeful that we will be able to release a true beta (ie a version that has all of the functions we expect to appear in our first official release) before the ACBL Spring Nationals starts in early March. Not clear that this will be possible or smart so please don't take this as a promise

In the mean time, please don't pass judgment on BBOFlash based on your impressions from the version you have seen. Since that time it has become a completely different program. Each day it gets a little better.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[helene_t]

When I receive chat from someone who is logged in invisibly, I cannot see who send the message. (And therefore cannot reply to it).

[barmar]

helene_t, on Feb 8 2008, 10:43 AM, said:

When I receive chat from someone who is logged in invisibly, I cannot see who send the message. (And therefore cannot reply to it).

Aha! Maybe that's the explanation for the chat messages I've been seeing lately that have no sender. I never made the connection to them being invisible.

[awm]

I'm not sure the "log out for inactivity" feature is working properly.

Just yesterday, I was logged out for inactivity while I was defending a hand.

It seems like there is some timer, and if you are inactive for a certain amount of time you get a warning, and then you get logged out some amount of time later regardless of whether you start doing stuff in the intervening time or not. But I can't tell for sure, just funny to be logged out for inactivity while playing.

[barmar]

See my earlier post about inactivity logouts

http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?sho...ndpost&p=246013

[fred]

barmar, on Feb 13 2008, 05:24 PM, said:

See my earlier post about inactivity logouts

http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?sho...ndpost&p=246013

Thanks we noticed.

This is a server issue and it will be fixed, but perhaps not in the near future. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Ant590]

How close are we getting to the next version of BBO flash?... I'm considering going out to buy PC emulation software pretty much solely for a fully-functional BBO and would hate to look silly if tomorrow BBO flash v3 is released

[fred]

Ant590, on Feb 14 2008, 02:47 PM, said:

How close are we getting to the next version of BBO flash?... I'm considering going out to buy PC emulation software pretty much solely for a fully-functional BBO and would hate to look silly if tomorrow BBO flash v3 is released

I am hoping that the next version will be released in early March, but I could easily be way off the mark.

In theory the next version we release will contain close to all of the functionality that will appear in our first offical release. In other words, it will be our first real beta of BBOFlash. Almost all of the necessary coding is done already (I think), but we have to be very careful with testing before we release any new client. In particular, we need to get to the point that we are confident that our servers won't crash and that BBO using BBOWin will not have their games messed up as a result of other people using BBOFlash.

Sorry I can't provide you with any definitive dates right now. If and when this changes I will post more details.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[gwnn]

fred, on Feb 14 2008, 05:08 PM, said:

Ant590, on Feb 14 2008, 02:47 PM, said:

How close are we getting to the next version of BBO flash?... I'm considering going out to buy PC emulation software pretty much solely for a fully-functional BBO and would hate to look silly if tomorrow BBO flash v3 is released

I am hoping that the next version will be released in early March, but I could easily be way off the mark.

In theory the next version we release will contain close to all of the functionality that will appear in our first offical release. In other words, it will be our first real beta of BBOFlash. Almost all of the necessary coding is done already (I think), but we have to be very careful with testing before we release any new client. In particular, we need to get to the point that we are confident that our servers won't crash and that BBO using BBOWin will not have their games messed up as a result of other people using BBOFlash.

Sorry I can't provide you with any definitive dates right now. If and when this changes I will post more details.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

Is there any chance that the new BBOFLASH gets through the trickiest firewalls?

[chicken]

what about the ability to load *.lin-files? about 3 months ago we had a thread concerning this feature might be gone. especially the teachers on bbo would be very sad about it.

[fred]

chicken, on Feb 18 2008, 04:21 PM, said:

what about the ability to load *.lin-files? about 3 months ago we had a thread concerning this feature might be gone. especially the teachers on bbo would be very sad about it.

BBOFlash understands simple lin files (like those a teacher would use or those created as BBOWin log files).

Eventually BBOFlash will contain facilities for:

1) Typing in hands
2) Saving hands in files
3) Uploading hands to tables
4) Understand fancy lin files (like those that appear in our educational CDs)

But not clear when. 1 exists in my latest development version, but until we can support 2 and/or 3 there is not much point in enabling 1. I think it is more likely than not that some form of 2 will be available in our first official release (and perhaps in our next beta).

We currently have no plans for 3 (or for various other aspects of teaching table support) for BBOFlash. Same goes for 4. I am sure this will happen before too long, but I am guessing that it will not be until the months that follow our first official release. Teachers like you will have to continue to use BBOWin until then.

This is more complicated than it may sound because Flash is not allowed to touch the local hard disk. That means all files must be stored on our servers.

This means that Uday and I have to do more programming work (and spend more money on servers) than would otherwise be necessary to create all the "hand management" facilities that we would like to see in BBOFlash.

The next beta will have a bunch of nice hand management tools (some of which are not available in BBOWin), but this rates to be one area in which we will intentionally not do "everything" before our first official release.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[helene_t]

Very frequently, teaching tables are shown without cards. Sometimes with the wrong cards but with the correct auction. (I told a teacher that his auction was absurd, but was embarrassed when I found out that I was looking at the wrong cards).

[chicken]

glad to here this, a lot of work would have been gone otherwise.

keep going

[bobjan]

HI,
I just noticed that in BBOFLASH there is wrong flag for my country (Serbia).
The country flag is OK in old Win version.

[helene_t]

Full Disclosure does not work. Am I really using the correct version? I use www.bbotv.com/v2/client_v6/embed_kiosk.html

When I am table host and someone asks for permission to sit, I don't get any notification, it just times out.

When having played a team match I cannot see the results of individual boards. I can see them during the match, though.

[Bridgebum_]

Somethings changed. I can no longer table-chat and all the lower buttons except convention
card are disabled. I also seem to lag all the other players so I think they haven't bid but
they think its my turn.