You do know that you are not allowed to be pro Hiarcs and also support other chess engines.As Bush would say if you don't support us in this war, then you are against us.Graham Banks wrote:What on earth do those have to do with Hiarcs?Harvey Williamson wrote:Some nice cartoons from Graham in case anyone missed them..
My comments to Mark were genuine. I hope you didn't think I was being sarcastic.
Chess Explorer
Moderators: Watchman, Mark Uniacke, mrudolf
"A coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy; a coalition partner must perform," Bush said. "That means different things for different nations. Some nations don't want to contribute troops and we understand that. Other nations can contribute intelligence sharing. ... But all nations, if they want to fight terror, must do something."
Bush said he would not point out any specific countries when he speaks to the UN.
"Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity," he said. "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."
Chirac said his country had deployed 2,000 troops from all three of its armed services branches to participate in the military campaign. He also said he and Bush had discussed the need for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and international crises -- including those in the Middle East -- that might fuel terrorism.
"The ultimate responsibility of any political official ... is to ensure the safety of his people, and that is exactly what President Bush is doing, what I am doing," Chirac said, speaking through a translator. "In this spirit, we talked about military operations, about French support, about the political actions we must take to establish in Afghanistan all the trappings of a modern state."
Bush said he would not point out any specific countries when he speaks to the UN.
"Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity," he said. "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."
Chirac said his country had deployed 2,000 troops from all three of its armed services branches to participate in the military campaign. He also said he and Bush had discussed the need for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and international crises -- including those in the Middle East -- that might fuel terrorism.
"The ultimate responsibility of any political official ... is to ensure the safety of his people, and that is exactly what President Bush is doing, what I am doing," Chirac said, speaking through a translator. "In this spirit, we talked about military operations, about French support, about the political actions we must take to establish in Afghanistan all the trappings of a modern state."
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RetirementRules
- Member
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What is this??
Wow, I'm glad is this a forum for topics about Hiarcs!?
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sockmonkey
- Member
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Hi Mark,Mark Uniacke wrote:I would hope and expect it before then [the end of June].
Can we have a status update when you have a moment? We're at the end of June and haven't seen screenshots yet nor heard news in a while. Of course, take all the time you need, but I'd love to know what's going on.
Thanks,
Jeremy
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Michael Blake
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- Location: Cheshire, England
That's a great point, information is key to keeping us loyal to Hiarcs. The market is getting tougher with the latest release from ChessBase incorporating their cloud and souped up analysis and database functions. I'd prefer to go with Hiarcs Chess Explorer and understand there are many reasons for a delay, I would just like to see a more regular news update on where things are and less promises of difficult to meet deployment dates for the software.
Keep up the good work, it is much appreciated even if we are getting impatient
Keep up the good work, it is much appreciated even if we are getting impatient
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Mark Uniacke
- Hiarcs Author
- Posts: 1458
- Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:32 pm
- Location: United Kingdom
- Contact:
HIARCS Chess Explorer update
HIARCS Chess Explorer had its release candidate load available for testing on 25th June. A few relatively small but important issues were found and these are being addressed.
We hope to be able to release the new product at the end of next week, although based on past experience with this project this may slip but I am working very hard every day to make it happen as soon as possible.
There is no doubt that the GUI has slipped a lot compared to our intended schedule. To some extent that was due to an under estimation of the work involved combined with feature creep, making H14 and the complexity of a mulit-platform GUI together with developing a new HIARCS chess server from the ground up and making sure the whole design can evolve in the future to fit with planned expansion. The quality of the product is very high and it has many innovative features which I believe will strongly appeal to chess players.
We had a working product in November 2011 and I demo'd it successfully to a number of people back then and it was very well received, Harvey was at one of the demos so he can vouch for that. The success of the demos probably made my estimates far too optimistic, in fact I am sure it did as at the time we were seriously thinking we would release in January!
- I have to laugh about that now.
Unfortunately I have been so busy on this project for a year now that I rarely have time for much else so I apologise for the lack of updates on the forum. All I can say is I think you will find HCE with Hiarcs 14 worth the wait.
Thanks to everyone for their patience especially this year.
There really is not that long to wait now.
We hope to be able to release the new product at the end of next week, although based on past experience with this project this may slip but I am working very hard every day to make it happen as soon as possible.
There is no doubt that the GUI has slipped a lot compared to our intended schedule. To some extent that was due to an under estimation of the work involved combined with feature creep, making H14 and the complexity of a mulit-platform GUI together with developing a new HIARCS chess server from the ground up and making sure the whole design can evolve in the future to fit with planned expansion. The quality of the product is very high and it has many innovative features which I believe will strongly appeal to chess players.
We had a working product in November 2011 and I demo'd it successfully to a number of people back then and it was very well received, Harvey was at one of the demos so he can vouch for that. The success of the demos probably made my estimates far too optimistic, in fact I am sure it did as at the time we were seriously thinking we would release in January!
- I have to laugh about that now. Unfortunately I have been so busy on this project for a year now that I rarely have time for much else so I apologise for the lack of updates on the forum. All I can say is I think you will find HCE with Hiarcs 14 worth the wait.
Thanks to everyone for their patience especially this year.
There really is not that long to wait now.
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Graham Banks
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Michael Blake
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sockmonkey
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Re: HIARCS Chess Explorer update
Excellent news, thank you very much for the update -- I can't wait to see it, and wish you the best for the home stretch.Mark Uniacke wrote:Thanks to everyone for their patience especially this year.
There really is not that long to wait now.
Jeremy (not holding my breath for my Graham Banks' Official Certificate of Genuine Computer Chess Enthusiasm, but I'm excited for the release regardless)
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sockmonkey
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Sorry to nudge, but it's the end of another month, and it's been another 30 days here without any communication whatsoever. The worst thing that could happen to you is that people stop caring about this release, I suppose, so take it as a good sign. 
Please let us know what's going on: 2 sentences a week would suffice ("Crumbs, Harvey found a tricky bug which potentially forces some changes to the DB format. Sorry, but we're going to be delayed again...", as an example), but the radio silence makes it hard to maintain enthusiasm.
Screenshots, public betas, etc. would all be icing, but clearly you don't have the headspace for that at the moment. Nevertheless, some form of communication is really key, and not too much for loyal customers to ask.
Thanks, hope it's going well,
jb
Please let us know what's going on: 2 sentences a week would suffice ("Crumbs, Harvey found a tricky bug which potentially forces some changes to the DB format. Sorry, but we're going to be delayed again...", as an example), but the radio silence makes it hard to maintain enthusiasm.
Screenshots, public betas, etc. would all be icing, but clearly you don't have the headspace for that at the moment. Nevertheless, some form of communication is really key, and not too much for loyal customers to ask.
Thanks, hope it's going well,
jb
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Mark Uniacke
- Hiarcs Author
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- Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:32 pm
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- Contact:
Nothing tricky, just the amount of work that went into the help system and a number of small items which needed attention in such a big release. With a powerful set of features it was considered essential to have excellent and detailed manauls and help files for the products on both platforms.
There is an 85 page A4 PDF manual for the product. We also have detailed HTML help and context sensitive help from within the software, that is finsihed for Windows. The consensus was that the manual needed to be native on both PC and Mac so that was extra work and as you might imagine while writing such a detailed manual, other small issues were spotted which needed attention. For example if a piece of GUI text needs changing for clarity, we then have to organise it to be translated into many languages.
We also had requests from very strong players for a Russian language version and that is now included.
There are also many peripheral work items which have gone on as well such as the large annotated database we have from IMs and GMs, managing the email lists and customer upgrade discounts, there really is a lot of work that is not immediately obvious. Not to mention the book work.
I still have to finish the Mac manual, update the website and build the final installers. Once that is done it is just the regression test suite to run.
All I can say right now is I am working as hard possible to get it finished as soon as possible to the high standard we have set.
Thanks for everyones patience, it will be rewarded soon, honestly!
There is an 85 page A4 PDF manual for the product. We also have detailed HTML help and context sensitive help from within the software, that is finsihed for Windows. The consensus was that the manual needed to be native on both PC and Mac so that was extra work and as you might imagine while writing such a detailed manual, other small issues were spotted which needed attention. For example if a piece of GUI text needs changing for clarity, we then have to organise it to be translated into many languages.
We also had requests from very strong players for a Russian language version and that is now included.
There are also many peripheral work items which have gone on as well such as the large annotated database we have from IMs and GMs, managing the email lists and customer upgrade discounts, there really is a lot of work that is not immediately obvious. Not to mention the book work.
I still have to finish the Mac manual, update the website and build the final installers. Once that is done it is just the regression test suite to run.
All I can say right now is I am working as hard possible to get it finished as soon as possible to the high standard we have set.
Thanks for everyones patience, it will be rewarded soon, honestly!
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Mark Uniacke
- Hiarcs Author
- Posts: 1458
- Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:32 pm
- Location: United Kingdom
- Contact:
Mark,
I don't supposed I'll be lucky enough that Chess Explorer is enhanced for the Retina Display MBP's?
Also ..... any nearer to a release? Have been aching for a chess GUI since Apple dropped support for legacy PPC apps in Lion/Mountain Lion. And all the other GUI offerings are weak to say the least...
I don't supposed I'll be lucky enough that Chess Explorer is enhanced for the Retina Display MBP's?
Also ..... any nearer to a release? Have been aching for a chess GUI since Apple dropped support for legacy PPC apps in Lion/Mountain Lion. And all the other GUI offerings are weak to say the least...