Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

@ H.G.:

When I set the Applet diagram to 8 files and 10 ranks and then added a row of Omega Pawns to each side on the rank in front of their K, and pressed Start Position (but without using the AI engine), the pawns could take initial triple steps (as indicated by the diagram prior to moving) when I played a few moves against myself. However, there was no indication by the diagram that a legal en passant capture was possible, even if an enemy pawn was now on the same rank (and on a file right beside) a triple-stepping pawn.

Yes, I am aware of this problem, and I will soon fix it. This is purely a problem of the PTA; theDiagram or preset you generate with it through the buttons won't have this problem. The Omega and Wildebeest Pawns use W* as XBetza notation for their multi-push. Originally such a move would always generate e.p. rights, but at some point that apparently proved inconvenient when I wanted to use it for other  pieces than Pawns, and I changed the Diagram script such that it only would generate these rights for the first piece in the table. But when you play in the PTA directly, the table is not 'cleansed' when you press Start Position, (to allow further addition of pieces not in the start position), so the Omega Pawn is not the first piece in the table.

The rule that only the first piece in the table generates e.p. rights when doing a W* move should be relaxed to the first N pieces, where N would be 1 by default, but large enough on the PTA page itself to include all Pawn types.

@ H.G. (or Fergus):

When I tried to make a Play-Test Applet generated diagram for my SOHO Chess CV settings file, the game code produces the same symbolic character representation for White or Black Champions and Cannons (i.e. a 'C') when I look at the Applet's offered Custom set representation (meant for the Custom code box at the start of a preset's code boxes, when in Edit Mode).

Just to be sure it wouldn't work for me, I tried using the Custom specifications offered by the Applet in my preset's Custom code box (without saving it as the latest version), used Custom Group and Complete Custom Set in the preset itself, and got images of Champion figurines in place of the Cannons in the Edit Mode diagram, besides still having Champion figurines for the Champions in that diagram).

Thought I'd let you know, even though I can later try to make such an Applet generated preset without using a Custom Set, as H.G. described for me how to possibly do it, earlier. Here is unaltered non-rules enforcing SOHO Chess settings file, if that will shed any further light:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=SOHO+Chess&settings=default

You should not use pieces with the same ID when making GAME code; Game Courier does not accept that. Change the ID of one of the pieces in the PTA before pressing the GAME-code button. Just type an ID not in use by any of the other pieces in the text entry under the table, and then click the move of the piece.

Ok, thanks H.G.; I've now made an Applet generated rules enforcing preset for each of my SOHO Chess and Wide SOHO Chess inventions, while following your latest advice, about using the Play-Test Applet table.

Note to Fergus:

Strangely, someone had my checkering pattern for board of non-rules-enforcing Wide SOHO Chess preset reversed, so that queens stood on their own colour (as in chess' setup) in the setup. Don't know if I did it accidently, an editor did it, or someone guessed my password, but today I put the checkering pattern to be usual, so that lower right hand square was a light square (as on my rules page), before also having Applet generated preset's board to be that way, too.

I edited my previous post, in case anyone missed it.

@ H.G.:

Are there any plans you have to soon allow for Flexible Castling (like used in Fergus' 12x12 Gross Chess), with the use of the Applet and it's generated Game Code? I looked for a way to do it with the Applet, but there seemed to be no way available, currently at least.

At the moment I have two CV invention ideas (each having a settings file) that use flexible castling:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Hybrid+Chess&settings=default

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Hybrid+Decimal+Chess&settings=default

Flexible castling is nothing else but multiple castling moves with different ranges on the King. E.g. KisO2isO3isO4. It is not a special way of castling, such  as fast castling or free castling would be. So it has always been supported, ever since a notation for castling was added to Betza notation.

@ H.G.:

Thanks for the help.

However, when I made an Applet generated preset for Hybrid Chess, I tested it in Move Mode and was not allowed to move a knight-alfil compound piece at i1 on move one at all, without getting an error message if I tried. When I made the diagram with the Applet, I used the Tiger figurine in the table for that piece type, giving it the new ID .NE and the Betza NA, before placing all four of those on the diagram board and later pressing Start Position, before pressing on the Game Code Button.

I used Set Group Unique and piece set Alfaerie: Many, and the right piece type figurines all showed up in the preset before and after editing, after I used the Game Code's FEN (without using Custom specifications, as you prviously advised it was possible to do). Don't know if using Alfaerie Many caused the fatal error, but I would have guessed that this time it did not (in a previous test I moved a White pawn on move one successfully in Move Mode):

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Hybrid+Chess&settings=enforced

It indeed behaves very strange. King and Queen are allowed to capture their own Bede.

I think it is not able to recognize to whom the pieces belong when you use non-alphabetic characters in their labels. Piece IDs are supposed to be letters. When you ask for trouble, you usually get it...

I'll see if I can find a Diagram Designer piece set that just uses letters for the labels of the various piece types that I need (if the set has them all), though somehow I am not too hopeful.

The Auto Alfaerie PNG set has almost everything I want, in a way. It has the knightferz (one word label), the badger (new word for Bede that I might need to explain), but no knightalfil (although the highpriestess is available and it does show no ferz symbol, but that is kind of understood by its history on GC/CVP - I could explain it as just my substitution, though).

I will continue to look. Also, I don't know if there is a limit to the number of alphabetical characters an ID in the Applet table can have (I hope it's quite long, if need be).

edit: The Alfaerie: All SVG set has NF and Bede but no NA (but has high priestess) and the piece labels are quite short, all alphabet characters. I'm happier, but I will look for something even better still. Note that this set oddly(?!) labels the high priestess figurine with AN, which one might think it is at first sight (other set[s] I've seen show the ferz portion on the elephant's portion of the figurine).

@Kevin: I don't know if it may help you. With Bigorra I have more than 26 different pieces, so I have to use some blocks of 2 letters. I could made an ID and from the ID with the PTA tool, it was rather direct to make a GC.

I went with the Alfaerie: All SVG piece set, and after redoing the Applet diagram and Game Code, the preset now seems to work, based on just some testing in Move Mode:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Hybrid+Chess&settings=enforced

Well, the SVG pieces are a 'work in progress', and if there is demand for Alfaerie pieces that have not yet been converted to SVG, we usually add those. In particular, putting a cross on an existing SVG piece is almost no work at all.

And once the piece exists as SVG we render it as 50x50 and 35x35 PNG to expand the repertoire there too. And whatever appears in those directories, will automatically appear in the auto sets; that is why they are called auto sets.

[Edit] The existing High Priestess image seems wrongly labeled, because (as you say), there is no Ferz cross on it. By Alfaerie logic it should thuse be a representation of the NA, and the High Priestess (which is FAN) should get a symbol with diagonal cross. But there seems to be no room for the cross. (Which is of course the reason it isn't there in the first place.)

In fact, I don't like this kind of symbol at all, with a demagnified version of one piece inside another. (And in this particular case, to a needlessly small size; the Knight could have been at least 50% larger.) Especially when there was no effort to preserve linewidth, and it was demagnified together with the overall size, so that visibility really suffers if the entire symbol gets rendered at a small size like 35x35. If it was up to me we would get rid of such symbols.

Now the fen2.php renderer used by the Diagram Editor with Scalable Graphics allows you to create on-the-fly compounds of two existing SVG images. So I did not even have to make new SVG pieces to create these:

I added those to the alfaeriePNG and alfaeriePNG35 directories under the name b/welephantknight.png . I checked that they also appeared in the corresponding automatic sets, with the name ELEPHANTKNIGHT / elephantknight. I picked these rather than those with the Knight in front, because the Elephant is wider, so that it covers the place where the bottom of the Knight image was cut off; with the Knight in front the bottom of the Elephant would stick out in an ugly way.

I like this way of combining pieces better, and it is more in line with what we do for BN and RN. I think the High Priestes symbol should really be replaced by this with an extra cross; the ear of the Elephant provides ample room for that.

@ H.G.:

The Alfaerie:Many piece set is at least one set that has the High Priestess with a Ferz symbol on it, so there is room on such an image (in this set it's labelled with _CBJ_HPF):

I still don't like it. The problem of poor visibility of the thin lines has been addressed here by changing the fill color, but this is out of style with the rest of the Alfaerie set.

If such different coloring were to be used, I would want to reserve it for indicating divergency (as I believe the pieces in Desert Pub do).

It actually was specifically because of this lack of clarity that I created my own, distinctive High Priestess icon for Alfaerie:

I have a very similar icon (which I only just now realized is upside-down) in my SVG set.

Umm, I see now what the problem is when you try to paste a Diagram specification directly from the Page Source into the PTA. It contains a lot of HTML tags that do not produce any visible output, which I could make show up by first replacing the < character by the escape sequence for it. I then got this as the pasted definition against which the PTA complained:

<span>satellite=conquer
<span id="line401"></span>files=9
<span id="line402"></span>ranks=8
<span id="line403"></span>maxPromote=0
<span id="line404"></span>promoZone=1
<span id="line405"></span>promoChoice=NBRQ
<span id="line406"></span>graphicsDir=/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/
<span id="line407"></span>squareSize=50
<span id="line408"></span>graphicsType=png
<span id="line409"></span>symmetry=none
<span id="line410"></span>baring=0
<span id="line411"></span>pawn (nasty neighbours):P:fWfcnD:pawn:a2,c2,e2,g2,i2,b7,d7,f7,h7,,b2,d2,f2,h2,a7,c7,e7,g7,i7
<span id="line412"></span>double knight:N:N2:knight:b8,h8,,b1,h1
<span id="line413"></span>double step bishop:B:nA7:bishop:c1,g1,,c8,g8
<span id="line414"></span>double step rook:R:nD7:rook:a1,i1,,a8,i8
<span id="line415"></span>double step queen:Q:nD7nA7:queen:d8,f8,,d1,f1
<span id="line416"></span>king:K:KisO3:king:e1,,e8
<span id="line417"></span></span><span></span>

I suppose the best counter measure would be to scan every line for the occurence of the substring 'span>', and then retain only everything that is beyond the last occurrence of that. I do that now, and it appears to solve the problem: I can directly copy-paste Diagram definitions from a Page Source. I also improved the error reporting: when the Diagram script gets a specification it does not understand, it will now first replace all < caharacters by their HTML escape sequence, so that the browser will no longer recognize any HTML tags in it, and display these as encountered in the error message.

[Edit] While at it, I also expanded the capabilities of the Move-Definition Aid to understand leaps to the 4th ring. (As I already did yesterday in the Checkmating Applets.) Originally the 4th ring was only there for seeing when you had defined a rider, or for cutting the range of a slider. Perhaps I should increase the size of the panel, so that you could also see or enter 5th-ring moves.

[Edit] While at it, I also expanded the capabilities of the Move-Definition Aid to understand leaps to the 4th ring. (As I already did yesterday in the Checkmating Applets.) Originally the 4th ring was only there for seeing when you had defined a rider, or for cutting the range of a slider. Perhaps I should increase the size of the panel, so that you could also see or enter 5th-ring moves.

Given my love of Fifth-ring pieces, I'd consider this a boon. ;)

Yeah. But it isn't very urgent, as in the PTA the definition aid only serves to fill the Betza text entry, and you can type anything that the aid cannot make directly there.

On a separate note, I've discovered (somewhat to my surprise) how to create the Zigzag Nightriders, as seen in Nachtmahr.

• Diagonal Wide Crooked Nightrider ((1,1)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nabl(abz)N
• Straight Wide Crooked Nightrider ((2,0)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nabr(abz)N
• Diagonal Narrow Crooked Nightrider ((3,3)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nafr(afz)N
• Straight Narrow Crooked Nightrider ((4,0)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nafl(afz)N

I just thought it'd be good to post them somewhere. :)

Maybe Jörg or an editor can go into that article to change the notation.

Yeah. But it isn't very urgent...

Agreed. :)

On a separate note, I've discovered (somewhat to my surprise) how to create the Zigzag Nightriders, as seen in Nachtmahr.

There was already an Interactive Diagram in the Comments to that article; I think the notations I used there were somewhat more compact, because they exploit the default assignment of oblique moves as l or r. In fact the 'repeat parentheses' in XBetza where implemented just to make that Diagram.

When you talk about changing the notation I suppose you mean that in the article.