The Fritz5 adventure - continued
Giorgio Bertazzo
Our hero finds out that he can't import his old, huge CBF file to CBH
format, so decides to copy his games, 4000 at a time.
At this time he finds out another interesting feature of Fritz5: there
is no "deduplicate" feature.
This, combined with the unavailability of import and export functions
is a terrific feature.
Having import/export, you could export to CBF, deduplicate using the
fast Rob Weir's CBDEDUPE and go back to CBH format.
The conclusion is that, if you don't want to pay 500DM for Chessbase
6.0, you have to keep your game in the old, slow CBF format, and stay
with Rob Weir's utilities.
This can be asily done using the old CB11 demo, like a lot of users
do, there is almost no reason to buy Fritz5.
But this is not all.
After hours of work, our hero has a 440.000 CBH database, and decides
to experience the blindingly fast new format.
Calls the search windows, selects Kasparov as player, and starts the
search.
The database list is cleared and appears a little window in the middle
of the screen.
The disk light becomes red for a few seconds, then the system stops
and stays there for minutes.
I press Ctrl-Alt-Del. and find that Fritz5 is locked.
Terminate process is the only way to get rid of it.
I try the same search on the Fritz5 cd database, same result, doesn't
work.
The same search works if a CBF database (a lot greater) is searched.
Reinstall Fritz5, no changes.
Conclusion: this product not only is almost useless, but doesn't work,
at least not on my machine, and I suppose on many others.
If the guys at Chessbase don't want to make a cheap, essential
database it's very simple: don't do it.
It's an honest and respectable decision, too, differently from yours.
Now I have a ridiculous piece of crap that doesn't work properly,
don't know what to do with it, and if they will be able to fix at
least the bugs, is not the missing functions you can't live without.
And they have my money, perfectly working and absolutely bug free.
My tip of the day: DON'T BUY ANYTHING from Chessbase.
P.S. Does somebody have a time machine to lease? I have to go back to
two weeks ago, before I made a great mistake.
ChessBase GmbH
Caro mio, it was really a bit shortsighted to not put a "copy whole
database" function into Fritz5. Its a historic freight - ChessBase 1.1
had to be defended against Fritz4. Since we have the ambition to call
"Fritz5" a database program, it should now have decent copy functions.
You have my full sympathy for the sufferings you underwent.
The locked search reminds me about something Robert Reich reported here
a couple of months ago: CB6 paused at least a minute on his machine if
a search string was entered in lower case. Reason: lower case
("kasparov" in contrast to "Kasparov") means 'search for part of player
name' and silently scans the whole player library before starting the
visible search. Takes about five seconds on my machine (P200) for the
Fritz5 CD but could be a misleading trap on slower machines, I agree.
--
Matthias
mailto:wuelle...@compuserve.com
http://www.chessbase.com
Please DO NOT mail to 'wuelle...@t-online.de' (dead letter box)
Eberhard Pasch
Giorgio Bertazzo wrote:
> Our hero finds out that he can't import his old, huge CBF file to CBH
> format, so decides to copy his games, 4000 at a time.
This really is nasty, see my reply to KK tip of the week.
> At this time he finds out another interesting feature of Fritz5: there
> is no "deduplicate" feature.
I didn't expect such a feature from a chess program. For the
advanceddatabase features Chessbase 6.0 has to be used.
> This can be asily done using the old CB11 demo, like a lot of users
> do, there is almost no reason to buy Fritz5.
I got a really nice program for playing chess on my computer.
Especiallythe sparring feature is very good!
> Calls the search windows, selects Kasparov as player, and starts the
> search. The database list is cleared and appears a little window in
> the
> middle of the screen.
> The disk light becomes red for a few seconds, then the system stops
> and stays there for minutes.
Are you using NT 4.0? I had some crashes of the sort you mentioned.The
reason was, I was using another program - say Excel. But Fritz5
needs most of your computer. So if you are doing extensive disk
operations or calculations in another window - Fritz5 silently dies :-((
So forget about multitasking and the analysis of your last games in
the background. After all Fritz5 is still Win16.
> If the guys at Chessbase don't want to make a cheap, essential
> database it's very simple: don't do it.
Fritz5 isn't a database - it is a chess program (!) with some
databaseextensions.
Eberhard
************************************
* Eberhard Pasch *
* EMail: pa...@na.uni-tuebingen.de *
************************************
Blackstar
On Mon, 22 Sep 1997 19:43:26 GMT, g.ber...@iol.it (Giorgio Bertazzo)
wrote:
>Conclusion: this product not only is almost useless, but doesn't work,
>at least not on my machine, and I suppose on many others.
>If the guys at Chessbase don't want to make a cheap, essential
>database it's very simple: don't do it.
I'll take it off your hands if you don't want it. (save me
having to buy it for full price next month when I have the spare
cash).
<--Will-->
Edsall
On 22 Sep 1997 21:18:51 GMT, Wuelle...@t-online.de (ChessBase GmbH)
wrote:
>Caro mio, it was really a bit shortsighted to not put a "copy whole
>database" function into Fritz5. Its a historic freight - ChessBase 1.1
>had to be defended against Fritz4. Since we have the ambition to call
>"Fritz5" a database program, it should now have decent copy functions.
>You have my full sympathy for the sufferings you underwent.
Is this something you will fix shortly, or will this have to wait for
Fritz6? I'm thinking of buying Fritz5 and want to know if there is
any point in waiting on this. Thanks
ChessBase GmbH
This function will go into the traditional "5.01" free upgrade. We will
make that ready either as soon as a non-negligible bug in 5.00 pops up
or not later than January. As usual it will be downloadable from
chessbase.com.
Giorgio Bertazzo
>> At this time he finds out another interesting feature of Fritz5: there
>> is no "deduplicate" feature.
>
>I didn't expect such a feature from a chess program. For the
>advanceddatabase features Chessbase 6.0 has to be used.
I too didn't expect this feature buying Fritz.
I realized only after a few tests that this was a problem BECAUSE of
the lack of import/export.
Give me import/export, the capability to copy more then 4999 games and
I don'ask for deduplicate.
>> Calls the search windows, selects Kasparov as player, and starts the
>> search. The database list is cleared and appears a little window in
>> the
>> middle of the screen.
>> The disk light becomes red for a few seconds, then the system stops
>> and stays there for minutes.
>
>Are you using NT 4.0? I had some crashes of the sort you mentioned.The
>reason was, I was using another program - say Excel. But Fritz5
>needs most of your computer. So if you are doing extensive disk
>operations or calculations in another window - Fritz5 silently dies :-((
>So forget about multitasking and the analysis of your last games in
>the background. After all Fritz5 is still Win16.
Matthias helped me. The problem was that I didn't start the names with
uppercase, "kasparov" instead of "Kasparov".
What misleaded me was the fact that the program locked.
Giving a message "not found" the problem would have been easy to
solve.
It's 50% my fault and 50% a bug, in my opinion.
>> If the guys at Chessbase don't want to make a cheap, essential
>> database it's very simple: don't do it.
>
>Fritz5 isn't a database - it is a chess program (!) with some
>databaseextensions.
Give a look to their web pages: how are they selling Fritz?
It's both a chess program and a simple database program with some
advanced functions.