CPT Community

Just an idea, and if it seems difficult it could easily be pushed back to a later release, but how about a module that allows "photo reading" your opening repertoire to be your screensaver?

You are making great progress! Do you have a release date yet?

Stefan: Did you see the move 'A beautiful mind' (something like that) about a mathematician's mental breakdown? One part of the movie tried to illustrate his ability to see patterns everywhere: in newspapers, lists of numbers, etc. The patterns didn't mean anything, but the mathematician thought they did. Anyway, the film director tried to convey to the audience this ability by highlighting (in yellow, I think) pattern after pattern as the mathematician scanned the material. Maybe this could be a training feature - CPT flashes up a position from a game then highlights the pattern (mating, tactical, whatever), then fades the highlighting for a few seconds to allow the viewer to rehearse the pattern mentally, then highlights it again. Just an idea.

Both this and the statistics module look great!

I can hardly wait for the CPT 4 release now, especially since I've had big problems running CPT 3 under Vista despite trying all the recommended tricks.

One suggestion (though really for me an early release date is the best "feature" so maybe delay it to a later version): Make it possible to <copy> and <paste> (or even "drag and drop") moves and variations, and maybe including text comments, into CPT repertoires via the Windows clipboard. Chessbase already does this if the content to be copied looks either like a straight move list or a (more or less) correct pgn string. An "undo" button would also be handy for this in case the copying doesn't work in individual cases. The point is to don't have to import analysis via pgn or enter it by hand every time.

Keep up the good work, we really value your efforts!

Thanks for all your suggestion guys, appreciated! I will see what I can implement in future versions.

@PsyMar: Interesting idea. Though, I have to admit, I don't watch the screensafer usually. But in the same spirit of your idea would be a general "interrupter". There have been TV experiments already where they incorporated some pictures into the normal TV picture and you didn't notice them, but they worked on you. It will be difficult to implement such a feature which interruptis programs outside of CPT scope, but maybe I get another idea.

@Alastair: Yes, I saw that movie and I like it very much. Interesting idea although I fear we need some ebook creating feature for this first (which is on my list, but not for version 4). I can see how powerful this will be!

@Stig: I will see how easy it is to implement this feature. I got your point!

Another idea: I confess I have not memorised the alpha-numeric identifiers of the chessboard squares. Some pundits advocate learning these by heart. Would it be possible to include a feature where one could be confronted by an empy board without the coordinates, and by hovering the mouse over any particular square see its identifier appear? One could first guess, then hover to get feedback. Possible? Desirable? (It's great fun being able to make suggestions without having to implement them!)

Good news. Looks like the vacation gave you a boost of energy!

I get the impression that the basics of the program are (almost) complete and you can now build on that with new features. My suggestion is to release the program into the wild and let the users play with it (lord knows I want to). That way we can come up with suggestions, bugs, etc. When a new feature is added you can just release an upgrade or newer version. As long as the basics (file formats, etc.) stay the same this should work...in theory :).

On an other note, I like Stig's and Alastair's ideas.

You are right Matsu: I came back with a real energy boost and at the same time made quickly progress which ultimately lead to high motivation. I'm working on CPT every single day for some time now.

I'm no longer only adding (missing) features, but fine-tuning and fixing bugs as well. It should not take much more time till I will release a beta, but a few weeks though.

Mike Leahy at Bookup.com relased his new Chess Openings Wizard software a few months ago. The high end version includes "photo reading" and I don't know if he is trying to trademark that for chess use. But since it already exists on his commercial software, I want to caution using the same feature name and also method.

I found his implementation lacking sophistication. I think he threw it in there for the "wow" factor to justify the $100 cost of the "Professional" version.

I tried the trial version and the problem with it was that there was no information to tell you if it's working well. What speed should the cards flash? How long should each session last. I flashed them 1/sec for 60 seconds and then when tested, i remembered less than 5%. After 3 passes, I was still less than 10% retention. But maybe that was good! who knows because they provide no infomation on what should be happeneing and how to make speed/time adjustments for improved learning. I figured it was just another gimmick to entice sales.

Great work Stephan. You are loved here in Los Angeles!

rj

Thanks for your hint! The term photo reading exists for many years already and was invented in the area of reading books. Actually the software you mention uses a different term for this metholodoy and does not use photo reading.

Regarding trademark: CPT invented the flash-card concept to chess in 2004 (before any other chess software), but there was no way to trademark this either although it was a game changer.

Anyway, like you I'm not yet convinced either, but I have read a little bit more about the theory behind this (the original concept). It's something I might invest a little bit more in the future.

I consider this feature more like a gimmick for the moment, but this might change in the future.

Btw. I have been been in LA on vaciation a few years ago. Great place you guys are living!

Stefan

Nice work StefanR

When you think the CPT4 will be completely finished my friend??

Thx in advance, keep up the good work.

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