Two informations/questions for Mr. H.G.Muller

[Sylwy]

Hello !

1.
Trying to save manually a game ,under WinBoard-4.5.2 GUI (File menu/Save Game) I received a nice error message:

========================================

Internal error in file dialog box:
Error code 12290

========================================

Like bonus , after this drama, the program cannot locate the help files. I must set the path manually !

This thing happens only when loaded some very few engines. One example is Toledo Nanochess.

2.

With some ( very few) engines happens another drama.
For example: I have loaded under Winboard -4.5.2 GUI Cheoss 0.649 JA engine of Mr. Molina.
Well , every human ( me- for example ) can play nice games both with whites/blacks.
If I let this engine in matches vs. various engines-it plays well with whites but stops instantly with blacks.A new error message appears ( something with a string , I can' t remember now exactly).

Any idea what happens ?

Have -you all-a nice weekend !

SilvianR

[hgm]

Well, the first thing sounds like a Windows error message, as the file dialog is just a call we use to some MicroSoft library. It would be important to know what filename you tried to save that game. When you save manually, WinBoard proposes a filename based on the engine names, basically "Player A-Player B.pgn". It could be that some of the engine names contain characters not allowed in file names, and that the file dialog some how chokes on it trying to correct that. There is not much we can do about that, apart from avoiding the offending names,and complain to MicroSoft. (Who will then recommend us to avoid the offending names...)

As to the other problem: some engines do not properly implement WinBoard protocol. It would help if you showed me a winboard.debug file of a game where the engine hung.

[Sylwy]

Well, the first thing sounds like a Windows error message, as the file dialog is just a call we use to some MicroSoft library. It would be important to know what filename you tried to save that game. When you save manually, WinBoard proposes a filename based on the engine names, basically "Player A-Player B.pgn". It could be that some of the engine names contain characters not allowed in file names, and that the file dialog some how chokes on it trying to correct that. There is not much we can do about that, apart from avoiding the offending names,and complain to MicroSoft. (Who will then recommend us to avoid the offending names...)

As to the other problem: some engines do not properly implement WinBoard protocol. It would help if you showed me a winboard.debug file of a game where the engine hung.

1.Yes , the name of Toledo implemented in his .exe is long , something like toledo_nanochess_20100111. I never tried to change it when saving.
Maybe a good way to solve this problem will be that the GUI displays the name of the .exe itself ( used in WinBoard.ini/Engine Install1st-2nd) !

2.How right you are Mr.H.G. Muller ! Trying to add all Java chess engines -familiar to the human race- to my very big EXOTIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES IN CHESS TOURNAMENT ( unfortunately on Fritzy GUI -a bad inspiration) a lot of Wb engines show problems in the implementation of Winboard protocol.Some are so minimalistic that is a great wonder for me how can even load on WinBoard GUI. I must obtain a master's degree in making Wb2Uci.eng files to use like UCI engines under Fritz GUI !
Not only a bad implementation of the Wb protocol but some engines are only move generators.Something like ACE 0.1(UCI) of Mr.Adam Adair.Hard to see chess here.
On the other hand I see a good implementation of the Wb protocol in chess engines written in particular programming languages: Lovelace ( ADA) a good tactical engine without any crash , Geko (Pascal) a nice chess engine of Mr. Canella and many more.
If you are interested -here is a nice chess aplication (with GUI) :
Pythonchess 0.6 ( in Python) /Rubychess 0.6a (in Ruby)of Mr.Glenn Lewis:

http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=2354&release_id=7376

OK ,in my next use of Cheoss 0.649 JA engine a winboard.debug file will be ready !

Thank you a lot !

SilvianR

[hgm]

Indeed, ACE seems to play only the first legal move. So if it has black it plays Na6, and then shuttles its Rook between a8 and b8 forever.

Another engine I like is Belofte. It can apparently only handle a single Queen per side. So if it is badly winning (a rare event, probably outside its design parameters ), it marches all its Pawns to the 7th rank, but then they are stuck there, because it doesn't want to promote them as long as it still has a Queen!

[Sylwy]

Indeed, ACE seems to play only the first legal move. So if it has black it plays Na6, and then shuttles its Rook between a8 and b8 forever.

Another engine I like is Belofte. It can apparently only handle a single Queen per side. So if it is badly winning (a rare event, probably outside its design parameters ), it marches all its Pawns to the 7th rank, but then they are stuck there, because it doesn't want to promote them as long as it still has a Queen!

That's because I love so much the computer chess !

But not only !

RS

[Sylwy]

Hello !

Here is the winboard.debug file for Cheoss 0.649 JA engine:
http://www.mediafire.com/?739298p80up0x01

Were two games between Cheoss and the master Fairy-Max 4.8R on WinBoard-4.5.2 GUI. Both failed.
At a first look in the winboard.debug file seems to be some problems with Mr.Molina engine.
Again , in matches human vs. Cheoss/Cheoss vs. human all are OK.


Regards,
SilvianR

[hgm]

Well, it play with black, doesn't it? It doesn't stop 'instantly', it does play a few moves, in the second game. It is just that pretty quickly plays an illegal one.

Perhaps it cannot play multiple games; it seems to ignore the 'new' command, and use the final position of the previous game as the starting position of the next one. I guess this could lead to instant stopping if the previous game ended in a checkmate. But here the first game ended in a time forfeit (after the opponent played e8c8, which could be a castling, and it could be that Cheoss does not uderstand the notation for it).

You could try to use the /xreuse or /xreuse2 options to let WinBoard start the engine anew for every game.

[Sylwy]

You could try to use the /xreuse or /xreuse2 options to let WinBoard start the engine anew for every game.

Thank you a lot !

RS

[ernest]

Hi HGM,

Why does the "Move now" not work with Winboard infinite analysis (Analysis Mode). If you want to "advance" in the analysis, you have to play the recommended move yourself with the mouse...