Embedded SGF viewers
With the boom of the Go Blogs, there is an increasing need for tools which can replay SGF files. We all know the traditional ZGo (where the owner of 361points.com shows us the games from title tournaments) and FlashGoban (the one implemented in GoDiscussions). But there has been an announcement about the recently release of Eidogo.
I had already tried to implement it on this website but hadn't successed in it due to some file managing errors. This time, with the new release, I've been testing how EidoGo performs, as well as FlashGoban.
Before letting you know my conclusion I want to show you some data, so that you can form your own idea on this topic.| Eidogo | zGo | FlashGoban | |
| Code | Javascript | Java | Flash |
| Size | 100kb | 32kb | 32kb |
| Code placement | When required* | When required | When required |
| Source code available | Yes | No | No |
| Customizable size | No ** | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable quality | No ** | No | Yes |
| Variation system | Numbered on board | Numbered on sidebar | Selectable by icon at the bottom |
| Interaction | Totally editable | Limited and only in problem mode | None |
| Download SGF | Yes | No | Yes, through copying |
*: according to its developer, it's not necessary to add it on the header, it can be placed on the posts. I've tested and it works perfectly.
**: it can be modified through the file player.css and resizing the images to the desired size. So you would need different folders to load applets with different sizes. Personally, I find it quite too hard in comparison with the other applets.
As you can see, each SGF replayer has its own pros and cons. We've all seen how heavy it is to load a Java tool on the main page of a website. Or sending it on the RSS feeds. For the ones who do not remember, I'll tell you that, with the initial boom of zGo, the RSS feeds started to be a little bit too heavy for the computers as they had to load a few Java windows and they glitched quite a lot when the user tried to move the window. Therefore, all the bloggers decided to publish the articles in a way that zGo would be feeded through the RSS system.
EidoGo: Though 100kb can make the surfing experience of a modem user quite a torture, the user discovers a board to play against another player, or the chance to edit a SGF and then save it to your computer.
Moreover if it's widely used among the Go-bloggers and someone tires to use a RSS feed without having a broadband connection. After contacting the developer, it seem spossible to customize the size of the board and to omit the head code if it's applied on the appropiate place. After a test, we've found out that the normal code isn't corretcly sent through the RSS feeds. If someone find a way to send them on the feeds, let me know.
FlashGoban, the eternal unknown... till today, the main disadvantatge of this SGF replayer is that its website is in russian. It's a very light replayer and customizable, though it has three major drawbacks: the lack of interaction, the awfull branch system and the lack of support in English. You can choose the size of the applet, it doesn't load too much your computer but I can't say a word about its perfomance on feeds.
