Single Comment

| There's me for one. 

The keyword in this phrase is 'one'... :-)

| I don't use Winboard, because it has poor graphics, and I don't think
| it yet supports any games I'm interested in well-enough that I can't 
| play with another program that has better graphics. 

Well, if that is your opinion then I am happy you do not use it. If there
are other programs with graphics that you like better, then I could only
win you over by providing similar graphics. That would be a total waste of
time, as I would be making something that apparently exists already.

I have absolutely nothing to gain by competing with other programs in
their own niches through mimicry. WinBoard is not a commercial program,
and I therefore don't care how small it user base is. What I care about is that it provides opportunities to its users that they cannot find anywhere else.

| For now, I prefer to use ChessV, which plays many games well and 
| includes some of my own graphics with it. 

I have no experience with ChessV, as it does not support automated play
against other engines. In the Unspeakable World Championhip 2007 it ended
well below Fairy-Max, but Gregory told me that this was an obsolete
version used without his permission, not representative of the strength of
current versions.

| I have a good Shogi program that came in a commercial suite that also 
| includes Chess and Xiangqi, though I prefer other programs for those 
| games, such as Chessmaster and Coffee Chinese Chess.

Well, nice for you. Just play the Kamikze Mortal Shogi with that one, then. But it is of no use to me, as the Shogi program is no doubt not capable of automated play against, say, TJshogi or GNUshogi, or to the Shogi engine I will be developing.

| Yes, probably because the poor graphics turn off those who care about 
| such things. My point is that you can expand your user base by allowing
| easier customization options for graphics.

Well, I have never heard any complaint about this before, and current
users are eager enough to complain about many other aspects they don't
like, so it doesn't seem to be true in general that perceived
shortcomings immediately deter them from using it.

| I'm no expert on how anti-aliasing is done. I just use a function 
| supplied by the GD library. But I can tell you it is done very fast, 

Very fast is a relative notion. Something that needs to be done 60
times in a 1-min game doe not have to be visibly slow before it starts to
soak up a sizable fraction (say 5%) of the CPU time. Correspondance Chess has other standards.

| and I expect Winboard would have to do only between moves, not when it
| needs all the CPU power for calculating a move. 

The problem is that in engine-engine games you always need all CPU power
for calculating move, as when it i not engine A's turn to move, engine B
should start thinking. Plus that these programs often want to think in the
opponent's time as well.

| Anyway, resizing boards is not as important as just allowing bitmap 
| images to be used for boards and pieces. It makes a difference only 
| for large variants that don't easily fit on the screen. 

Well, it doe to me, and many like me: a I have a dual-core PC I play two
games simultaneously, and would like to fit both WinBoard displays next to
each other, together with the control windows of the corresponding two
tournament managers. And soon I will have a quad (or, when I get my way,
even an octal core or dual quad)...

| Game Courier's boards and pieces are at a scale that normally fits 
| the screen for most games and usually don't need to be resized.

Yes, if you only want to have one game on screen, and not four.

| I'll still play Shogi, but if Winboard plays Shogi only with shoddy 
| graphics, I will play Shogi with another program. The issue here is 
| not whether people are sufficiently interested in Shogi but whether 
| your program would be a more appealing option than some other program.

Well, to some it is. To me it is. That is enough for me.

| Shogi is a good reason for including multi-color pieces. In Shogi, 
| the promoted sides of pieces are normally red rather than black. 
| This makes it easier to tell promoted pieces from unpromoted ones, 
| and it is crucial when you are using a westernized set in which the 
| promoted pieces use the same images as the unpromoted pieces.

Well, there is no red in the Japanese set I have, that's for sure. Using
the same image for the promoted and unpromoted piece is just bad design of
the piece set. By the same token you could represent all Chess pieces by
Pawns, and then complain how essential it is to have their heas rendered
in all different colors to distinguish a Knight from a Queen...
The built-in winBoard representation does not suffer from this. Promoted
pieces are clearly distinct from the unpromoted versions there. They look
like the piece they promote to, while stil betraying their origin.