English Chess Forum

anyone else having problems importing the new lists into Swiss Manager? It might be as simple as installing a new version of SM, but I wondered - sometimes the files at FIDE are corrupted and nobody can download them!

Adam Raoof wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:21 pm

anyone else having problems importing the new lists into Swiss Manager? It might be as simple as installing a new version of SM, but I wondered - sometimes the files at FIDE are corrupted and nobody can download them!

I don't know if you understand the difference between an Array and an ArrayList in Java, but the difference is that an Array needs to have a fixed size defined, and an ArrayList does not.

Java isn't used in Swiss-Manager but apparently this is the equivalent problem; the rating list goes into Swiss-Manager as the equivalent of an Array. If the number of names in the rating list exceeds the length of the Array that was defined, then Heinz needs to hastily update the size of the Array and make it available as a new download. So if you download a new update of SM, it will work.

The reason you don't define the Array to be 20 times longer than it needs to be to avoid this problem is that it would slow the program down.

thanks Alex, that makes sense - and it worked. Doesn't SM use Java for the pairings engine?

the size of the rating lists must be growing exponentially!

Adam Raoof wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 02, 2020 1:04 pm

thanks Alex, that makes sense - and it worked. Doesn't SM use Java for the pairings engine?

Yes, via JaVaFo, which requires Java. But I don't think the part of the program in question uses it.

Adam Raoof wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:21 pm

anyone else having problems importing the new lists into Swiss Manager? It might be as simple as installing a new version of SM, but I wondered - sometimes the files at FIDE are corrupted and nobody can download them!

Yes, I have had this problem several times on occasion. I find it goes away with an update install, but there may not be an update for what seems like a lengthy period, in which case you need to enter the players and their ratings by hand. (Doesn't do anything to quell my misgivings about the underlying engineering of the software.)

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 02, 2020 2:12 pm

Adam Raoof wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 02, 2020 1:04 pm

thanks Alex, that makes sense - and it worked. Doesn't SM use Java for the pairings engine?

Yes, via JaVaFo, which requires Java. But I don't think the part of the program in question uses it.

(Referring to JaVaFo Pairing Engine Advanced Users Manual) Does JaVaFo not just take a TRF06 or a TRF16 as input?

In that case, Swiss-Manager just passes the ratings to JaVaFo.

The problem should thus surely lie with Swiss-Manager. As I understand it, SM was originally written in Pascal, which uses (or did back in the day) arrays with dimensions pre-declared at compilation time. It is now written using Delphi, which I understand is a coding environment for an object oriented Pascal. If this diagnosis is correct, you could solve this particular problem once and for all using linked lists.

A very clever arbiter (whose first name may have been Adam) once told me that before starting to use SM for a tournament I should always download and install the latest version and then download the latest relevant rating/grading lists. Still very sound advice.

Brian Towers wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:57 pm

A very clever arbiter (whose first name may have been Adam) once told me that before starting to use SM for a tournament I should always download and install the latest version and then download the latest relevant rating/grading lists. Still very sound advice.

Jack may have to insert the appropriate emoji here...