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Can you tell us about the history of GABBI?
A couple of years ago I wanted to put up a forum for
Australian backgammon. I looked at the existing backgammon forums
and found them unattractive. Further research led me to phpBB, a
free open source Bulletin Board written in php. It was easy to
download, install and configure and looked good. Then of course I
wanted the users to be able to post board positions and again I
looked at what was available and found it wanting. I decided I
could do better and hence GABBI was born.
What have been the biggest challenges you have faced in its
development?
Re-learning my old programming skills. I was a programmer by
profession many years ago (before the internet!) but haven't
written a line of code in decades. Fortunately it's like riding a
bike and I've enjoyed developing GABBI.
If you could change one thing about GABBI what would it be?
Drag 'n drop. The current architecture doesn't allow for
dragging checkers around the board which is the natural thing to
want to do. To achieve this, I have to redevelop GABBI using a
different approach.
How long will you continue to develop GABBI?
As long as I enjoy it and/or get paid for it. As I'm unlikely
to get paid for it, I'll just have to live off the gratitude of
GABBI's thousands of users. Ok, hundreds of users. Alright,
alright, I admit it - not many people use GABBI. But maybe that
will change...
What more would you like to do with GABBI?
Heaps - realtime recording of games/matches; make it portable
enough for smart phones and pdas; add the ability to create
customised boards and even a FIBS client wouldn't be too hard.
What new features would you like to see implemented?
The first thing I want to do is implement drag 'n drop and
some animation of checker movement. Then add game and match
record/replay ability. To achieve this, GABBI will be rewritten as
a Flash application. Feedback from users will drive feature
implementation - I will try to provide what people want. There are
already a number of customised versions of GABBI being used for
websites and even books.
How do you think GABBI's compares to Go-Figure?
Most people use Go-Figure because it's been around a long time
and works sufficiently well for the purpose. It doesn't offer a
lot of flexibility and requires the cutting and pasting of large
amounts of html, which is not only awkward for users, but a Bad
Thing for security reasons. It allows illegal positions. It
requires a large set of images to be installed on a server plus
the permission of the author of those images. It doesn't appear to
be under development.
What do you think GABBI offers that Go-Figure does not?
A more visual experience plus a host of features such as the
ability to import/export from gnuBG, swap directions and colours,
choice of boards and choice of output format. There are many
others including fun stuff like the Cube-Arrow-Cube device which
is used to designate a cube problem, intelligent checker stacking
and optional display of pip count and other labels.
What do you do outside of programming GABBI?
I'm semi-retired and pay the bills with part time work doing
graphic design and website development. I also maintain the
Backgammon Australia Forum and
the
Sydney Backgammon site, which is
soon to morph into the Backgammon Australia website.
How is the backgammon scene down there in Sydney, Australia?
Pretty quiet in Sydney at the moment but healthy in the rest
of the country - we've had two new major tournaments in Queensland
this year and a new club has started in Brisbane as a consequence.
New Australian Backgammon Champion Jay Deva runs an occasional
tournament in Sydney and there are regular chouettes around town.
When will you be coming home next to Olde Blighty and are you
considering playing in European Tournaments?
Hopefully next year, although I say that every year! When I do get
the trip organised, backgammon tournaments will figure largely :-)
If you have questions, would like to request features or have any
comments at all regarding
GABBI, please send email to me at
simon.woodhead@uniq.com.au
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