1.6.0: Feature release

Summary

Version 1.6.0 is a feature release. It was published on the App Store on March 27 2021.

Below is a summary of changes, taken verbatim from the ChangeLog document. For the full story, a list of issues closed for this release is available here on GitHub.

Features

Smart Game Format (SGF) data processing:

• Added an SGF parser (#112). Little Go can now read and write SGF data on its own without having to delegate this task to Fuego (the built-in computer player library). The core piece of software is SGFC, the SGF Syntax Checker & Converter. A big thank you to Arno Hollosi for writing this tool and making it available under a free license, and also for helping with integrating it into Little Go.
• When you select an SGF file in the archive you can now see if the file contains more than just one game. For each game you now get a preview of its content and you can select which game to load (#338).
• In the Settings screen there are now a number of user preferences that give you some control over how SGF files are processed (#337). The defaults should be fine, especially for files that were created by Little Go, but if you have imported files from an external source you might need to make adjustments. The in-game manual has all the details.

Other features:

• Added a new user preference to the "Board position" settings screen that lets you choose whether discarding the computer player's last move also discards your own last move (#99). The goal is that if the option is enabled you can immediately play again after a discard and try out a different move.
• Added a new entry to the "More game actions" menu that lets you play a rematch without showing the "New game" screen first (#313). This is a convenientshortcut to quickly start a new game with the same parameters as the last one.
• Added a new user preference that lets you choose what kind of computer assistance you would like to receive. The default is, just like before, to let the computer make a move on your behalf. What's new is that if you prefer you can now tell the computer to insted only make a suggestion how to play (#28). Note that the feature is still a bit rough on the edges. Known issues have been collected in #363, the polish will come in one of the next releases.

Improvements and changes

• The buttons that let the user navigate between board positions have now more space between them (#346), making it less likely that the user taps the wrong button. Thanks to Dan Hassin for both reporting the issue and implementing the fix.
• Loading a game from the archive now benefits from improved error handling. If a game cannot be loaded you will now get better error messages that should be more helpful.
• When a game is saved to the archive the current player names are now written to the SGF data (#237).
• The user interface has been adapted to newer iOS devices with a sensor notch, rounded corners and/or a Home indicator instead of a Home button (#336).
• The app now supports Dark Mode (#345). A new, darker wooden background for the board still needs to be found (#360).
• When Little Go is newly installed from the App Store the default computer player is now weaker (#358). This should give more users a positive first app experience. Users who want a challenge can still increase the difficulty by switching to a stronger computer player. A side effect of this change is that the default computer player no longer uses the "Pondering" setting, which means that the iOS device's battery should now be used up a lot less.
• Added another predefined computer player that has "Pondering" disabled. Users who already have the app installed need to select "Reset to defaults" in the "Players" settings screen to see the new player.
• The app's user interface no longer exposes GTP engine profiles as a separate entity, instead the user interface now only displays players (#211). It should now be easier for users to find the settings for adjusting the computer player's strength.

Bugfixes

• The app no longer crashes when a game with many moves (500 or more) is archived or unarchived (#357).
• The app no longer crashes when a game is loaded while an ended game with non-alternating dispute resolution is present (#361).
• Speculative fix for a potential app crash when an SGF file is imported (#362).
• The information which player resigned is no longer lost when the user switches to an earlier board position (#341).
• On iPhone devices with larger displays, when the device is rotated while the activity indicator is displayed in the status view the activity indicator is now still displayed after the rotation (#343).

Regressions

• All iPhones: When board setup mode was added in version 1.5.0 a bug was introduced that made it possible for board position lists to show erroneous information when moves were discarded and then replayed, or when games were restarted with different characteristics. This bug has now been fixed (#359).
• iPhone devices with smaller displays: When iOS 13 or newer was installed on these devices the current board position view stopped responding to taps. This bug has now been fixed (#344).

Technical changes

• The project has been upgraded to the iOS 14.3 SDK (#335) and Xcode 12.3 (#334).
• The migration from Twitter Fabric to Google Firebase is now complete (#322).
• Support for iOS 8 has been dropped, the minimum required version is now iOS 9.0 (#305). This should not affect any devices unless they are artificially held back at iOS 8.
• The project's software build should now work out of the box for new contributors. Thanks to Dan Hassin for contributing the necessary changes.