GoPanda client

[ahamay]

Hi,

the new GoPanda (formaerly gGo) IGS client is now available by Java web start under
http://pandanet-igs.com/gopanda/gopanda.jnlp

We've changed some things about the look and feel and tried to simplify account management a bit. Please consider the software instable (and report bugs here, please), but try it =)

Regards,
Benjamin

[judicata]

Thanks - looks nice.

[LovroKlc]

Application Error

Unable to launch the application.

[cdybeijing]

This is wonderful. I can finally run panda natively in Linux without having to connect through qGo. I wish all go servers would start supporting Java web start.

[ahamay]

Application Error

Unable to launch the application.

Do you have any details about how you started it and what else is there in the error message?

[LovroKlc]

I just clicked on the link you gave.

[quantumf]

Excellent. One obvious glitch - the drop down combo of accounts is both too big and too small. Too big in the sense that its height is crazily big, but it's width is so small, that only the first two characters of the account names show. This is using sun java 6 on windows xp.

[Suji]

Looks good.

[mayweed]

Ah ah ah tabs...Thx a lot for it

[murksomat]

Application Error

Unable to launch the application.

Do you have any details about how you started it and what else is there in the error message?

I've got the same message, only on the first start. Downloading was a little bit slow. Maybe a timeout?

[daal]

A few comments:

I like the client (I won 2 out of 3 games trying it out), though it seems fairly similar to glgo (except it's missing the cool 3D board that causes glgo to crash on my computer)...what's the purpose of this alternative?

What do "away" and "autoaway" mean?

Clicking "gGo on the web" caused an application error: java.io.IOException: failed to open http://www.pandanet.co.jp/java/gGo

I like that you show the cursor position, but it would be nice if it disappeared when the cursor is not over the board instead of prominently showing the irrelevant information of where the cursor left the board.

[Podiceps]

I am also unable to launch GoPanda. I get the following messages:

Error: jave.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError: null

Launch file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<jnlp codebase="http://pandanet-igs.com/gopanda" href="gopanda.jnlp">
<information>
<title>GoPanda</title>
<vendor>PandaNet Inc.</vendor>
<homepage href="index.html"/>
<description>GoPanda Development Version</description>
<description kind="short">Play Go on Pandanet IGS. This is an UNSTABLE development version for testers and other brave people - USE AT OWN RISK!</description>
<icon href="shinypanda128.png"/>
<shortcut online="true">
<desktop/>
<menu submenu="Pandanet IGS"/>
</shortcut>
<offline-allowed/>
<!-- <association mime-type="x-go-sgf" extensions="sgf"/> -->
</information>
<security>
<all-permissions/>
</security>
<resources>
<j2se version="1.5+" max-heap-size="150m"/>
<jar href="gopanda.jar" main="true"/>
<jar href="clojure-1.2.0.jar"/>
<jar href="clojure-contrib-1.2.0.jar"/>
<jar href="help-1.1-SNAPSHOT.jar"/>
<jar href="javahelp-2.0.02.jar"/>
<jar href="playerdb-1.1-SNAPSHOT.jar"/>
<property name="apple.laf.useScreenMenuBar" value="true"/>
<!-- <property name="com.apple.mrj.application.apple.menu.about.name" value="GoPanda"/> -->
</resources>
<application-desc/>
</jnlp>

Exception:
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeApplication(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeMainClass(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.doLaunchApp(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: ggo.error.EncodingError
at ggo.Encoding.checkEncoding(Unknown Source)
at ggo.model.Account.<init>(Unknown Source)
at ggo.model.Account.<init>(Unknown Source)
at ggo.model.Account.<init>(Unknown Source)
at ggo.model.accounts$reset_accounts.invoke(accounts.clj:88)
at ggo.model.AccountManagement.resetAccounts(Unknown Source)
at ggo.utils.Settings.initDefaults(Unknown Source)
at ggo.utils.Settings.<init>(Unknown Source)
at ggo.gGo.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
... 9 more

Hope it makes sense.

[ahamay]

I am also unable to launch GoPanda. I get the following messages:
Hope it makes sense.

Yes, it does - hopefully with the newest version you only get a warning about encoding MSR932 not possible on your system instead of that error. Please try again.

Thanks for the report,
Benjamin

[ahamay]

Excellent. One obvious glitch - the drop down combo of accounts is both too big and too small. Too big in the sense that its height is crazily big, but it's width is so small, that only the first two characters of the account names show. This is using sun java 6 on windows xp.

Interesting - didn't hear about that from anyone else. But we'll try to restrict the height and width somehow better.

Thanks,
Benjamin

[Pyoveli]

Since Pandanet is sponsoring some EGF events, I guess I'll be watching and playing games on IGS. I installed this new client to take another look at IGS.

Unfortunately I still get the feeling that the buttons and menus are mostly wrappers for command-line commands which have not been designed with modern GUIs in mind. I hope that things like the "console tab" would be hidden by default. Obviously advanced users could enable it but in general you should never have to use console or command-line unless you choose to do so.

It's strange that the player lists and game lists are not updated automatically. I understand that at some point in history the bandwidth and processing might have been an issue but modern networks should easily stand the load. Real-time might not be necessary but at least once in a minute would be better. (If bandwidth really is an issue, then at least I'd like to see some kind real-time list of "top 10 strongest games" or something along those lines.)

When using the client, it's hard to understand what some settings do and how to change them. For example, I see that some players have "match conditions". What are match conditions for and how to set them for my own account?

I used to like the "Find opponent" function when I used IGS before but it seems that true blitz settings are still missing. 25 stones in 5 minutes is more like rapid game (30 minutes absolute) than a blitz game (10 minutes absolute).

(Also, I'd just like to mention this in this context although I know it's not a client issue at all. My old IGS account had expired and I made a new one. When I got an e-mail from IGS with my new password, the e-mail had links to some old FTP servers and suggestions to use telnet to some fixed IP addresses to connect to IGS. When Pandanet is sponsoring EGF events to get new players, this kind of stuff just doesn't look good at all.)