Greg Strong wrote on Tue, May 21, 2019 11:40 PM UTC:
I now managed to have KingSlayer play some CwDA games against Fairy-Max, which it eventually could do without illegal-move complaints (and even win some). This is just the basics (move generator and check test); the material table is not implemented yet. The non-standard a-side castling of the Clobberers works, though.
Nice. That's progress :)
I currently programmed names like "fide~nutters~(cwda)" (all lower case; the space existing WinBoard versions reserve for these names in the New Variant dialog is rather small, and capitals take more space). This we obviously have to sync between ChessV, Quaddrox and KingSlayer, and then I will adapt the names in Fairy-Max' ini file likewise.
That's fine. I will present the formal names to the user so it doesn't matter much to me what is sent to the engine in the backgrond. I will synch to whatever you settle on.
The other issue is the piece IDs. I currently use the same as Fairy-Max already used. These are not very satisfactory, though; many were picked to match the piece symbol I picked to represent the piece in WinBoard (e.g. U for Charging Knight because I displayed it as a Unicorn, E for Waffle because I displayed it as an Elephant). They make no sense in a GUI that would use a less fanciful representation.
Yeah, there is that too. But I'm not sure what the "correct" notations would be anyway. I have assigned letters already but you probably won't like them. I abandoned Betza's terrible, horrible, absolutely no good names at least a decade ago, using alternatives when they already existed. The Waffle? For real? People will not take seriously a game with a piece called the Waffle... And that piece is already know by the far more satisfactory "Phoenix". Betza had already started fixing the names - the "Furhrurlbakking" becoming the Colonel for example. Too bad he disappeared before he finished.
I patched it to allow use of the formerly unused type code 7. So that could be its own pieces plus the opponent's super-piece. But then under-promotion to an opponent piece will always be impossible.
This is not ideal, but is probably not all that big a deal. How often will any engine pick something other than the two super-pieces? I would think pretty rare, and then 50% of the time it will still pick one of its own lesser pieces.
Nice. That's progress :)
That's fine. I will present the formal names to the user so it doesn't matter much to me what is sent to the engine in the backgrond. I will synch to whatever you settle on.
Yeah, there is that too. But I'm not sure what the "correct" notations would be anyway. I have assigned letters already but you probably won't like them. I abandoned Betza's terrible, horrible, absolutely no good names at least a decade ago, using alternatives when they already existed. The Waffle? For real? People will not take seriously a game with a piece called the Waffle... And that piece is already know by the far more satisfactory "Phoenix". Betza had already started fixing the names - the "Furhrurlbakking" becoming the Colonel for example. Too bad he disappeared before he finished.
This is not ideal, but is probably not all that big a deal. How often will any engine pick something other than the two super-pieces? I would think pretty rare, and then 50% of the time it will still pick one of its own lesser pieces.