Palm SGF
http:://www.palmgo.com
Reviewed by Zeke Tamayo

The sole reason I purchased this program was because it is fully SGF based and is the only reader I've found with that ability. I've also used PilotGOne, Pilot Go, and AIGO. Palm SGF's major advantage is that it can read SGF files from my SD memory card rather than from the "Notepad" application. The drawback is that a 3rd party utility is required to copy SGF files to the SD card, as the basic "hotsync" application refuses to copy SGF files to my Tungsten|T. However, this is a minor issue compared with cut and pasting the entire SGF file to notepad on the palm desktop in order to put the file onto my palm pilot.

There are a few issues with the interface on Palm SGF. The graphics allow you to change the board color, stone color, and blink speed but the comments field is unruly. You cannot view the whole field at once, and the only way to scroll the field is to click a small arrow with your stylus. The website says "jog dial" support can move the comment field, but this is on the Sony Clie and there isn't any equivalent on the Tungsten.

The file chooser is fairly good. There are no problems getting to a file, and you can see basic info about the file (event, filename, date, and players). The only thing I think could be improved is a way to sort the files. They don't really seem to have any sorting at all and folders are as likely to appear at the top of the list as they are somewhere in the middle of the list.

By far, the best function has been the "play through" one. If you load an SGF file (a pro game or tsume go set perhaps) you can play the next move. In other words, if black to play, you can search around until you make the correct choice and white's next move will be shown. This is wonderful for Tsume go!

Overall, Palm SGF is a significant improvement on older PDF go programs and has become my primary reviewing utility.

Back to Reviews