While I'm sure this has been discussed... It's hard to search for since sgf isn't getting searched (says it needs to be more than 3 characters?) and problems is so generic.

Is there a good organized problem collection I can buy in sgf to import into easyGo for the iPhone? I also considered making an sgf collection for myself off the graded go problems books I own but it seems like this is hard to do? Is there an easy program for Mac that can do this?

I have smartgo kifu, and considered becoming a go problems pro user so I could download the database but the problems seem not as efficient as graded problems for beginners.

Thanks,

It's not that of a problem. I'm transcribing my problem books into EasyGo, since it makes doing them slightly easier. At a rhythm of around 20 problems for 20 minutes.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

What program are you using to transcribe them?

The same EasyGo (on iPad)

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Ooooo... I'm going to get my iPad then thanks

I do similar as rberenguel, but I'm using drago for transcription.

In fact any program is good for transcribing, Only KGS is slightly slow in handling files, and doing it in SmartGo Kifu and then moving is overkill. EasyGo can zip folders and mail them (SmartGo also, but ordering is more troublesome, for now)

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

I wonder if you could tell me what you all think the advantages of solving the go problems on some sort of computer are? My problems are all in books and I like it better that way. I've tried solving them on the computer and found that it's harder to concentrate. Also the screen is not easy on the eyes compared to paper. I'm not trying to criticize and I know it's each to his own. I'm probably one of the older people here and the world is changing very quickly. I'm just interested in the opinions of younger people about things like this, and how these tools can be used for go and for work and other things too.

The main reasons I can think for wanting to use a computer program, be it Easy Go or whatever, would be that it can switch the colours and change the orientation of the problem and change their order so you're not seeing the exact same problem every time in the same order. You can get partially around the former by changing the orientation of the problem book but again I'm not sure this is equivalent to a truly random order of both problems, orientations and colours. It's also easier to keep track of your failure rate and similar but this is a mere convenience really versus the former two things which can help you memorise the shapes and patterns better (one imagines anyway, I've no proof of this).

Edit: Oh and also, computers can keep a track of your attempts at a problem and which ones give you trouble. This is invaluable when repeating a series of problems I've found. You can do this with a book by putting marks on the page but personally I hate writing on books.

While books are easier to keep from just guessing at the problem, if you have self-restraint having them on a computer or in my case my phone, allows me to always have a good source of problems no matter where I'm at. If I'm in line, or waiting for something I can practice reading.

I like books better but it's easier to carry around everything inside my phone. I already carry enough in my EDC.

As Boidhre says: auto change colours and orientations, but above all, availability. This way I don't need to carry many problem books at the same time, and I can test my skills more often. In queues, train, before sleep

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Classical problem collections in sgf, see http://www.u-go.net/classic/

Pdf http://tsumego.tasuki.org/?page=tsumego

Also there is a nice tool named k2pdfopt (google it), that optimizes pdfs for viewing on phones (removes margins, split pages/columns etc).

Interesting tool! I use GoodReader for iPhone/iPad (it's costs around 3€) and has manual cropping of whitespace to adjust sides. Also, I have reformatted all of tasukis original pdfs for iPhone (or similar aspect-ratio) viewing, with less problems per page. He will post them someday

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net