Bear-in/Bear-off Problems

[alterboy]

Hi, just registered on this site, so maybe I've just missed it in previous discussions, but are there any plans to deal with the bear-in/bearoff problems in Cocoa Fibs?  The software forces you to play the highest number first, which can lead to inefficient bear-ins and sometimes even unnecessary blots.  Also, sometimes when there is only one checker left, it will not let you complete the bear-off, insisting that you "move two pieces."

Unchecking the "highest dice first" preference sometimes fixes this problem, but not always.  I've almost lost a couple of matches as a result, and definitely annoyed opponents with delays caused by having to work around the glitch. 

I understand that development is halted for now, but is there any way to put in a quick patch to fix this issue.  Otherwise, the software works well and is a pleasure to use.  Thanks!

Michael Alterman
(alterboy)

[Mystyk]

Greetings,

You don't need to use the high number first, you can click and drag and so use either number first for your bear-in.

As for the bear-off, yes, it does require you to use both dice, what you need to do is again, click and drag.

[CosmicSlop]

I believe this is one of a few problems caused by using CocoaFibs on an intel mac. I just got a Macbook Pro a couple of days ago, and have experienced bugs that I never saw when playing on a PPC Mac.

I am having the bear-off problems as mentioned in this post, and sometimes certain moves can only be entered with the terminal window.

Another annoying bug is that every user who logs in is immediately gagged and blinded.

The quality of this app, and the lack of any alternative client on mac makes me want to learn some Objective C and help out ..

[padski]

Hi,

I understand from developers on the cocoafibs sourceforge project that they may be looking to resume development there.

You may find fixes and workarounds for these and other bugs in http://stepfibs.sf.net which is based off of the cocoafibs code.  Unfortunately the stepfibs tree does not build on OSX at the moment and I am still (I would guess) weeks away from a version that builds on both gnustep and OSX/Cocoa, although that is my main focus of development at the moment.

I am am more than happy to help you, or anyone else, fix these and other bugs in cocoafibs.  I don't have access to an Intel Mac, so someone who can test is fairly critical, and I not interested in publishing and supporting binaries of cocoafibs at this stage of the development of stepfibs, so you'd need to be happy building your own (which is almost as easy as falling off of a log, and something I'd happily help with).

The behaviour at bear-off is bizarre, but can mostly be worked around by using the drag-and-drop. There is a bug in the undo stack which can combine very nastily with this.  In the worst case you can politely explain to your opponent that you have hit a bug and need to leave and resume.

I'm surprised to hear that the gag bug manifests on intel.  I had the same problem on gnustep, and I thought it was a problem in NSKeyedArchiver (which the very nice GNUstep people have fixed), when I went to check this I had trouble replicating the original bug.  you can see my comments, and a simple workaround, here: http://stepfibs.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/stepfibs/stepfibs/trunk/StepFibsAppController.m?r1=33&r2=36&pathrev=36.
Perhaps this report does explain something though:  cocoafibs has been around on mac for a long time.  last year I was asked about new clients doing this and I explained that cocoafibs could do this in certain circumstances (based on my porting experience), so perhaps this one only manifests on Cocoa on Intel.  I will see if I can raise the cocoafibs guys to work on this and get a binary out, since this is a particularly nasty bug.

Thinking about it

sometimes when there is only one checker left, it will not let you complete the bear-off, insisting that you "move two pieces."

sounds a lot like undo stack breakage that can happen when there is NSKeyArchiver breakage.  You might find both of these bugs would go away if you rebuilt with the lastest xcode, since its hard to believe breakage there would have lasted so long.

Regards,
Paddy

[socksey]

Or, meanwhile, you can use javafibs.   

socksey




All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy. - unknown

[alterboy]

I use one of the new Intel Macs--it seems like that could be part of the problem.  The drag and drop suggestion doesn't usually work.  Unchecking "high dice first" in preferences sometimes works, but often you have to logout first and come back in.

I just noticed the blind and gag problem today for the first time too.  Bizarre.

Thanks to all of the programmers for taking this into consideration, and for any fixes they can provide.

[PolyphonicBrie]

I'm pretty sure this is an Intel Mac problem.

I've been using CocoaFIBS for a couple of years on an iBook G4.  I switched to a MacBookPro (Intel Core2Duo) this week and now I can't seem to finish a game.

Cheers
PolyphonicBrie

[PolyphonicBrie]

Update: I find the problem is reduced, although not totally eliminated, if I check the "Highest Dice First" option.

There are still instances where I cannot make the move I want, however.  For these, I have learned to resort to the terminal commands.

http://www.cybercom.net/~damish/backgammon/mike_quinn/cmds.htm#move

All a bit fiddly, but fortunately it means that FIBS is playable!

SL

[myshlev]

I use a Powerbook G4, which is a PPC model, and I have experienced the problem bearing off described below by:

"sometimes when there is only one checker left,it will not let you complete the bear-off, insisting that you ''move two pieces.'' "

I can always get around this however, by dragging the piece the smaller number first and then clicking it to complete the bear-off. If the smaller number would complete the bear-off by itself, then the problem does not occur for me. I have not experienced the gag/blind problem at all.

-Myshkin

[PolyphonicBrie]

I use a Powerbook G4, which is a PPC model, and I have experienced the problem bearing off described below by:

"sometimes when there is only one checker left,it will not let you complete the bear-off, insisting that you ''move two pieces.'' "

I can always get around this however, by dragging the piece the smaller number first and then clicking it to complete the bear-off. If the smaller number would complete the bear-off by itself, then the problem does not occur for me. I have not experienced the gag/blind problem at all.

That's not the same bug.  Arguably, it's not a bug at all - it's just CocoaFIBS (or FIBS itself, or both) rigidly enforcing the rules of backgammon: "if you can move both dice, then you must". 

[yasemin]

Hold down 'ctrl' then click the dice. This swaps the order of the dice.

[Großmaulfrosch]

Just make sure that toggle automove is on, then FIBS will automagically bear off your last checker.

[webrunner]

rightclicking also moves the smallest value first.