I missed Colin's tournament thread on the new Wei table, because I was off playing with the new Wei table. This thread is for reactions to it, and a place to say "thanks" to Wei, and a place to note bugs encountered, and suggestions for further improvement - in case Wei stops by and reads it.
If you haven't tried it yet, here is the link:
http://cuetable.com/
It is already "WEI BETTER" than the original!
I request the forum webmasters add it to the Links menu ASAP please!
There's a couple of bugs in there - occasionally I'll get it locked up, and once managed to create a copy that kept cycling rapidly through my drawing steps and never stopped. Spaces in the URL you create will cause problems. So, there's a little work to do.
That said, the new features and precision are just excellent! It takes a bit of time to play with it to get the hang of things, like the weird Shift-SpaceBar sequence, but pretty soon it becomes quite natural. It is hard to get the balance between ease-of-use and ability-to-do-everything just right when designing software. This new tool has much more capability overall, and is still reasonably easy to use with a little practice...
The best new things IMHO are:
bigger size/ precision you can "cheat" pockets, lock in the jaws, etc.
random racks (allows online path tournament play like Colin's thread)
at the end of the OB or CB path, while drawing, is a round ball-sized image, so you can be precise on the path of the center of the ball, which doesn't touch the rails for example.
the CB diagram in lower left, where you can indicate english, and cue elevation.
the URL copy - so you can send an address, the recipient copies it to a browser and sees your table, and can work with it from there! nice!
Worst things?
some won't like the revolving ads mid-table, but I wasn't bothered, after a while you just let them run into your subconscious, but otherwise they stop being an annoyance. It is like the Major League Basball ones behind home plate - same sort of effect. Look Wei deserves some sort of support for this thing! It is FREE to use, so where's he gonna get some money for his efforts? (Disclaimer: I'm in CT and he's in nearby NYC, but I've never met him, have no personal or commercial insterest in common)
the "tool tip" directions are in an odd spot, where I just don't intuitively see them while working.
pastel colors - well, they're just the latest design rage. not a big deal.
But, the curved line is missing!
the old Wei table had a "rubber-banding" line like many drawing programs which you could use to indicate a curving path. This is gone. However, as a workaround, you can "roll your own" curved lines, using the Shift-Space bar to start drawing a line, then click the mouse to "anchor" that point, change direction slightly, click again, and so on.
Point your browser here to see the effect:
http://CueTable.com/P/?16POD19!)O36PODQecRRHR};StuTOpTguTg(TPB
Wei, wherever you are, it appears you can select an already drawn line (then shade it for example). It would be better to have "handles" on the selected line so the user knows it is selected. Then if you could add a "smooth the line" pencil next to the shading pencil, which would interpolate the smooth curve between the points, I think you'd have the curved line feature improved to the level of this much improved version of a great tool!
Give it a try folks.
If you haven't tried it yet, here is the link:
http://cuetable.com/
It is already "WEI BETTER" than the original!
I request the forum webmasters add it to the Links menu ASAP please!
There's a couple of bugs in there - occasionally I'll get it locked up, and once managed to create a copy that kept cycling rapidly through my drawing steps and never stopped. Spaces in the URL you create will cause problems. So, there's a little work to do.
That said, the new features and precision are just excellent! It takes a bit of time to play with it to get the hang of things, like the weird Shift-SpaceBar sequence, but pretty soon it becomes quite natural. It is hard to get the balance between ease-of-use and ability-to-do-everything just right when designing software. This new tool has much more capability overall, and is still reasonably easy to use with a little practice...
The best new things IMHO are:
bigger size/ precision you can "cheat" pockets, lock in the jaws, etc.
random racks (allows online path tournament play like Colin's thread)
at the end of the OB or CB path, while drawing, is a round ball-sized image, so you can be precise on the path of the center of the ball, which doesn't touch the rails for example.
the CB diagram in lower left, where you can indicate english, and cue elevation.
the URL copy - so you can send an address, the recipient copies it to a browser and sees your table, and can work with it from there! nice!
Worst things?
some won't like the revolving ads mid-table, but I wasn't bothered, after a while you just let them run into your subconscious, but otherwise they stop being an annoyance. It is like the Major League Basball ones behind home plate - same sort of effect. Look Wei deserves some sort of support for this thing! It is FREE to use, so where's he gonna get some money for his efforts? (Disclaimer: I'm in CT and he's in nearby NYC, but I've never met him, have no personal or commercial insterest in common)
the "tool tip" directions are in an odd spot, where I just don't intuitively see them while working.
pastel colors - well, they're just the latest design rage. not a big deal.
But, the curved line is missing!
the old Wei table had a "rubber-banding" line like many drawing programs which you could use to indicate a curving path. This is gone. However, as a workaround, you can "roll your own" curved lines, using the Shift-Space bar to start drawing a line, then click the mouse to "anchor" that point, change direction slightly, click again, and so on.
Point your browser here to see the effect:
http://CueTable.com/P/?16POD19!)O36PODQecRRHR};StuTOpTguTg(TPB
Wei, wherever you are, it appears you can select an already drawn line (then shade it for example). It would be better to have "handles" on the selected line so the user knows it is selected. Then if you could add a "smooth the line" pencil next to the shading pencil, which would interpolate the smooth curve between the points, I think you'd have the curved line feature improved to the level of this much improved version of a great tool!
Give it a try folks.