WinBoard-TM installer

[hgm]

I have uploaded an installer for the WinBoard beta with the built-in tournament manager, at

http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-4.5TM.exe .

I tried to set it up such that the .trn file extension is automatically associated to WinBoard, so that clicking a tournament file will automatically start a new WinBoard instance in match mode to work on that tourney. So you only have to use the Tournament Options dialog once, to specify the tourney, and have WB create a .trn file for it, and after that you can ust click it to resume (if you interrupted it), or play concurrently.

Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to test it: none of my WinBoard file associations seem to work anymore (also not the PGN and FEN files). They all start some other WinBoard (4.2.7, in fact ), with ridiculous settings. I must have way too many WinBoard versions installed on my system, and it is confusing the registry...

So if there is anyone that would like to try it, in particlar if clicking PGN, FEN and TRN files works, I would be most grateful!

Note that I also expanded the "WinBoard for Novices" tutorial (accessible through the README item created in the Windows start menu) to include a paragraph on the tournament manager function.

[hgm]

Beware that I originally packed a faulty Polyglot with this, which does not properly select moves when you set BookLearn=true. This is corrected now. (And the corrected Polyglot is not only replaced in the WinBoard-5.5TM package, but can be obtained separately from http://hgm.nubati.net/polyglot66hgm.zip .)

If you don't use BookLearn, you don't have to bother.

[Sylwy]

Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to test it: none of my WinBoard file associations seem to work anymore (also not the PGN and FEN files). They all start some other WinBoard (4.2.7, in fact ), with ridiculous settings.

Hello Mr.H.G.Muller !

Maybe "someone" from aReNa cursed this new Tournament Manager ? Who knows ? Happens a lot of in our days !

THANK YOU FOR THIS WB-TM INTEGRATED INSTALLER !

Regards,
SilvianR

[hgm]

You are welcome!

If you don't use BookLearn, you don't have to bother.

I have to retract this statement, though; before I replaced the Polyglot in the package this morning, it was really defective for all book probing. You only have to bother if you let Polyglot handle book. (So not if the engine has an own book, or if you use the WinBoard GUI book.)

[Daniel Shawul]

I can help. But I am not sure I understand how to use the torunament manager.
I see there is a new menu "Machine match" and also a "Tournaments" option.
It looks like Machine match does multiple games b/n the two loaded engines at startup. But If I select two other engines from tournaments menu, and then click machine match, it still plays with the old loaded engines. I am sure I missed something here.

P.S: Which branch on the savannah site contains the version with the extended board size features you told me about?

[Christopher Conkie]

Maybe "someone" from aReNa cursed this new Tournament Manager ? Who knows ? Happens a lot of in our days !

Maybe you should carry on fiddling with it? I am sure it works. It just might take a while for "novices" to get to know......



Chris

[hgm]

I can help. But I am not sure I understand how to use the torunament manager.
I see there is a new menu "Machine match" and also a "Tournaments" option.
It looks like Machine match does multiple games b/n the two loaded engines at startup. But If I select two other engines from tournaments menu, and then click machine match, it still plays with the old loaded engines. I am sure I missed something here.

P.S: Which branch on the savannah site contains the version with the extended board size features you told me about?

The 'Machine Match' menu item is just a method to get WinBoard in match mode (equivalent to using -mm on the command line). And yo can click it again to switch match mode off (so the match stops afterthe current game).

To make a match into a tournament, you have to specify a tournament file. You can do that with the Tournament Options dialog. In the remainder of that dialog you can specify the contents of that file if it didn't exist yet. With a tournament file, a match will be conducted as a tournament, according to the specifications in it. Without it, it will just be an old-style match. So I guess the problem was that you had not specified a tournament file.



Perhaps I should make it impossible to 'OK' the tournament dialog if no tournament file was specified? (E.g. pop up an error box telling you that a tournament file is mandatory if you leave the field empty, and not close the dialog.)

Note there is an on-line description of how the tournament manager works at http://hgm.nubatinet/TM.html , and that the WinBoard tutorial included in the package contains a setion on its use at the end.

The version that allows double-digit ranks is not yet on Savannah. In fact, it is not even on hgm.nubati.net. IIRC I did that in the Grand Chess branch, which was distinct from the Alien branch. But when I committed the Grand Chess patch to git, I did it in the Alien branch. But I did not merge the rest of that branch, because I was still in the middle of making the parser understand traditional Xiangqi (AXF) notation, and the parser was part of that branch. But then I got side-traced by the tournament-manager idea.

I am afraid I have to do a lot of cleaning up to merge everything again.

For Chris: did you notice that someone requests here to support a larger board?

[Daniel Shawul]

First bug. The result display on the title bar doesn't match what is stored in trn file. I don't think it is storing the results correctly

-participants {Fruit 2.1
Fairy-Max 4.8
}
-tourneyType 0
-tourneyCycles 10
-defaultMatchGames 2
-syncAfterRound true
-syncAfterCycle true
-saveGameFile "tm.pgn"
-loadGameFile ""
-loadGameIndex 0
-loadPositionFile ""
-loadPositionIndex 1
-rewindIndex 0
-results "+-+-+-*"

Fruit has won all matches but sometimes it display 0-1-4 , 0-0-6 , 0-2-2 weird. I thought fairy got draws but it didn't.
I think it displays it wrong when fruit is black but displays correctly when it becomes white. First it was 0-0-8 then 0-1-8 (when it should have been 0-0-9) then 0-0-10

[Christopher Conkie]

For Chris: did you notice that someone requests here to support a larger board?

We get requests all the time for various things to be implemented in Arena. Some are strange and some are not. Some are populist requests and some are minority requests. It is a question of priorities and how the programmer sees the ethos of the program.

My point to you in the previous thread was that you could make Winboard much more popular by making it easier to use. Adding support for whatever may well be fine for you but if the interface is a complete bugger to use for the average chess player it wont matter.

Its all about priorities. If you see that larger board support is a priority before usability, that's up to you. I know that we don't.

It is almost like Winboard is becoming more fragmented and less cohesive by the second. You should read your own thread (this one).

I know you are trying to do a lot of things with what is in truth an old design. Maybe you might find some project management software a good idea to help you with organisation of tasks.

Let me ask you a serious and productive question.

What is the thing that people complain about the most with Winboard?

Then ask yourself if more people asked for a larger board.

Do you see what I mean? I hope this helps, I really do.

Chris

[Daniel Shawul]

a) When the trn file is loaded , the contents of the match options dialog box are not automatically updated. If I close the dialogue and open it again , it updates it.

b) Once the tournament is over and I want to increase the number of games, I can't do it from the dialogue box. Only way is to open the trn file and edit the number of games.

c) Display of tourney participants list gets screwed once the dialogue is closed and open again.