Show move number on stones

[vault101]

[Mac OS X] Is it possible to show the move index on every stone? Or is there any switch in the app?

[yishn]

No, it's currently not possible to do that. There are some considerations to make when implementing:

• How do we handle custom SGF markers?
• How do we handle two moves on the same place?
• What about the option to only show the last n move numbers?

[aniljava]

Here are my suggestions.

• How do we handle custom SGF markers?
  You mean triangles, squares, ABCD.. ? We can either write the move number first and draw the markers on top. Marker first and number on top. Lets make the move number font small so that both are visible.

If we want to show only one when both are present, We can put an option on menu with "Toggle Move Number" and "Toggle SGF Markers".

• How do we handle two moves on the same place?
  The gogui ignores the old move and only shows the last move number at the position. We can either choose that way. Or in settings we can have an option to allow user to choose whether to hide the last move or show at the bottom of the board like traditional kifu. Example, 112 : 39, 83

• What about the option to only show the last n move numbers?
  For this too, we let up to user to decide in settings, if they want the numbering to be exact move number or starting at 1 since the last move back.

[yishn]

How do we handle custom SGF markers?
You mean triangles, squares, ABCD.. ? We can either write the move number first and draw the markers on top. Marker first and number on top. Lets make the move number font small so that both are visible.

Drawing the markers on top will obscure the move number and vice versa. Especially with the cross marker and custom labels. Not good. I'm interested how to make the move number font small so that both are visible. Please note that a move number can consist of three digits. Furthermore, how to distinguish custom number labels with move numbers?

How do we handle two moves on the same place?
The gogui ignores the old move and only shows the last move number at the position. We can either choose that way. Or in settings we can have an option to allow user to choose whether to hide the last move or show at the bottom of the board like traditional kifu. Example, 112 : 39, 83

To be honest, I don't see a use case for move numbers on stones. Since you have the whole game opened already, you can just navigate through the game to get a feeling of placement order. Tracking stones with move numbers only requires a lot of mental effort and I find it very difficult to concentrate on the play itself. The only reason to use move numbers that I can think of is, if you want to convey the move order on a static medium, like a kifu or image.

Should Sabaki get the feature to print or export to an image in the future, I'll gladly add the option to automatically print move numbers.

[shuodaowang]

I think one of the workaround solution is to toggle on the game tree which shows the move number (from the first move) at the top right corner. but I guess the request was about showing numbers for a sequence moves as it is usually used in some books, so that when the author of the book says move 7, we can know exactly which one he is talking about. if we can have a feature to select/mark a certain stone as #1, and then the subsequent moves automatically show their corresponding numbers, that'd be very useful in reading some of the books that come with SGF files. I think it'd be best to show the numbers of the remaining stones, and if one needs to he can move back a few moves to see which stones were killed.

[scarin]

显示步数非常的重要。建议参考下multiGo实现的规则
http://ruijiang.com/multigo/chs/

[UnsignedInt8]

Showing move numbers is very important for users. Is there any plan to implement it?

[yishn]

Care to elaborate?

[Walther]

(I think there might have been a misunderstanding - move number visible on [placement] of every stone, instead of literally rendered on top of each stone like in traditional printed kifus). Regardless:

I think there's a grain of truth in this discussion: the current move number is difficult to see / find.

If you don't have the game tree open, you can't see the move number at all:

If you do have the game tree open, the move number is displayed on the scrollbar of the game tree:

This is difficult because:

• By default, move number is not visible
• It's a small number as the scrollbar, instead of being highlighted as an important focus item
• It moves while moving in the tree, so you have to actually "hunt for it" with your eyes

[michaelvondung]

For me, an option to display move numbers on the stones is important when replaying pro games. In SmartGo Kifu and GoGui, I scroll to a specific point in the game (e.g. move #50 or the end of the game) and display the numbers, then replay them on a physical board. It's a crucial feature for what I'd use Sabaki for (I like much about the software, but the lack of move numbers causes me to stick with GoGui).

As for how to handle multiple moves in the same space: A possible solution might be to mark such stones (e.g. with an asterisk next to the number, a different color or hue for the number shown on the stone, etc.) and use a mouse-over popup to display the numbers of other moves that occupied the same space. This would bypass the issue that using smaller font and showing multiple would still cause problems when a space had been occupied more than two times.

Ideally, only moves made up to the diagram's current state should be considered (e.g. if 50 moves are shown, and a space was occupied by move #23 and move #175, the number would not have a marker, but if the diagram showed the final state of the board, the displayed number (175) would be marked and produce a popup that shows that the space was previously occupied by the stone played at move #23).

Another possible solution would be to cycle through the numbers, but that would make it a little busy and potentially annoying.