In recent years, operating systems such as OS X have made it easy to monitor a file, folder, or set of files and folders for filesystem changes. This means a program like Poker Copilot uses fewer operating system resources (such as CPU) to find whether you’ve got a new hand history file in one of your hand history folders, or whether a hand history file has had a new hand added. It also makes the programming code dramatically simpler. Simpler code is less error-prone and easier to maintain.
I’ve tried twice to add file system monitoring to Poker Copilot. The first time was in the early days of Poker Copilot, in version 1, I think. It didn’t work because Full Tit Poker seems to keep a hand history file open all the time, rather than opening the file, adding a hand history, and closing it. Unfortunately OS X’s file monitor libraries don’t inform of the change until the file is closed. At least, this is my understanding of why the file monitor library works with PokerStars but not with Full Tilt Poker.
The second time I attempted to add file system monitoring was because I forgot that I had tried this years earlier and encountered the problem with Full Tilt Poker not closing files between writes.
If you open OS X’s “Activity Monitor” and watch CPU usage while Poker Copilot is running, you’ll notice that every 10 seconds or so, Poker Copilot has a sudden peak in CPU usage. That’s because Poker Copilot periodically scans through your hand history folders, looking for new files. Once a new file is found (defined as created within the last ten minutes), it is added to a list of files checked every second for changes. This is a quick process that doesn’t use noticeable system resources, because only a few files need to be checked.
This is one of the frustrating things about writing software (such as Poker Copilot) that is dependent on other third-party software (such as Full Tilt Poker). I don’t have just my own bugs and performance issues to worry about. I also need to code work-arounds for bugs in other software.
Poker Copilot used to have a Facebook page. Back then, managing it was clumsy and didn’t seem to offer many benefits. Now, Facebook has improved its product page dramatically. It’s also become the go-to source for news for many people. So we’re back.
The next update of Poker Copilot will give you SharkScope info directly in the HUD. Here’s how it looks:
The stats are fetched live from SharkScope’s website, so at first Poker Copilot will show “—” next to each statistic to indicate that the data is loading:
Some players have chosen to block their statistics from other SharkScope users. This is indicated with two X signs.
Not all players are in SharkScope’s database. If a player can’t be found you’ll see two question marks:
If you see two asterisks (**) something has gone wrong with contacting SharkScope. If this happens to you, you should send us an issue report, from Poker Copilot’s “Help” menu.
The SharkScope HUD layout defaults to showing “Av ROI”, “ITM %”, “Ability”, “Count”, “Profit”, and “Av Stake”. You can select from the full range of HUD stats from Poker Copilot’s Preferences:
As part of this change, there are now more slots available for custom HUD layouts:
Finally, this is all experimental and limited. If there is enough positive feedback, we’ll vastly improve SharkScope support in the next major Poker Copilot version.
