Polyglot

[hgm]

The one thing these names have in common is a 'dot' is in the filename (Fairy-Max 4.8, Stockfish 2.3.1, Critter 1.6a). When a dot is in the filename then the extension .exe has to be included.

/firstChessProgramNames={"Fairy-Max 4.8.exe" -fcp fmax -fd "..\Fairy-Max" /firstXBook
"Stockfish 2.3.1.exe" -fcp stockfish-231-64-popcnt-ja -fd "../Stockfish" /fUCI
"Critter 1.6a.exe" -fcp Critter16a -fd "../Critter" /fUCI

Note that the thing between quotes that you fixed is not really used as engine name here, because another -fcp follows. It is only used to define a nickname that will appear in the selection lists.

But otherwise you are right: this is almost certainly the problem. When there is a period in the filename Windows likely assumes that what follows is the extension. Otherwise it assumes you omitted it, and will imagine a .exe extension. So in general the .exe should not be carelessly omitted from engine names.

When you do install the engine by browsing to the .exe, though, I think WB should automatically use the full name (including extension).

[Charles Browne]

The one thing these names have in common is a 'dot' is in the filename (Fairy-Max 4.8, Stockfish 2.3.1, Critter 1.6a). When a dot is in the filename then the extension .exe has to be included.

/firstChessProgramNames={"Fairy-Max 4.8.exe" -fcp fmax -fd "..\Fairy-Max" /firstXBook
"Stockfish 2.3.1.exe" -fcp stockfish-231-64-popcnt-ja -fd "../Stockfish" /fUCI
"Critter 1.6a.exe" -fcp Critter16a -fd "../Critter" /fUCI

Note that the thing between quotes that you fixed is not really used as engine name here, because another -fcp follows. It is only used to define a nickname that will appear in the selection lists.

Now that you point it out I see my mistake. Thank you for the correction. The filenames Sune is using do not have periods in them. So my suggestion to him would not help him with his problem.

[hgm]

Yes, it does, because he did not show us his problem, but how he fixed it (renaming Critter to a dot-free exe).

[Kyodai]

Protector installed nicely in WB 4.6.2. I even managed to activate the Polyglot book - thanks to a change in "common engine"
unticked "first has own book". But now I cannot repeat this... not even when using the pictures HG sent. The engine works okey though.

Vitruvius do not load - pipex_open {} The (engine) file cannot be found


"Protector 1.4" -fcp Protector_Win64 -fd "../Protector" /fUCI
"Vitruvius 1.11" -fcp Vitruvius_1.11H_HEM_x64 -fd "../Vitruvius" /fUCI

I tried to rename the Engine to Vitruvius, Vitruvius111 and some more
but no luck.

[hgm]

As long as you continue to untick the 'Has Own Book' in the Common Engine Options it should use book. If you want this to be automatic you should have unticked it in 'Load Engine'when you were installing it. You can repair this on the already-installed engine by using 'Edit Engine List' in the Engine menu to add /firstXBook to the engine line.

"Protector 1.4" -fcp Protector_Win64 -fd "../Protector" /fUCI /firstXBook

With Vitruvius you forgot to add the .exe in the filename. So Polyglot will not be able to find it, because it is looking for a file that does not exist.

[Kyodai]

Thanks for the tip with firstXBook - I will try that in a minute!

Added .exe in the filename for Vitruvius

"Vitruvius 1.11" -fcp Vitruvius_1.11H_HEM_x64.exe -fd "../Vitruvius" /fUCI


The engine loaded but then quickly "child exited unexpectedly"
Repeated and the same happened.

[hgm]

Well, that sounds like a Vitruvius problem. If the engine exits, there is not much Polyglot can do about it. Are yu sure Vitruvius is correctly installed? What happens when you run it from the command line and type 'uci'?

[Kyodai]

Then it shows the id-name - lots of info and then uciok

I thought maybe the engine name was too long or full of
strange things like _ x HEM and stuff. Is it usually possible
to change the name of the engine?? I tried the short Vitruvius
but no luck - not even Vitruvius111H. adding .exe was not
needed for the other engines - I normally don't use it in winboard.ini

added firstXBook after Protector's string - and the setting is there
but it still doesn't play any book moves... Strange...

[hgm]

Beware that when you make changes in the engine list while WinBoard is running they will only become effective AFTER you re-loaded the engine.A direct check if the change did what it was supposed to do is to go to the Common Engine Options dialog and se whether the Has Own Book checkbox is indeed switched off after loading.

If it is, and WB still does not play bookmoves for the engine, maybe something gotmessed up with the general book settings. Check if 'Use Book' is still ticked, the book file name is still valid, and if the Book Depth is still set to a non-zero value.

The Vitruvious problem is weird Long names and underscores should normally not upset WinBoard or Polyglot in ay way. Renaming engine .exe files shouldin general be possible, but, like you say, it doesn't help here. And neither would I expect it to help, as it should not be the problem. The error message you get, that the child suddenly exited, indicates that Polyglot did understand the filename, could find the file, could start it, but that after all that the engine exited spontaneously.

I gues it would be needed to make a Polyglot log to see what is going on. But I guess the engine crashes before you get the opportunity to switch this on through the Engine #1 Settings dialog? Perhaps the following works: In the folder _PC within the WinBoard folder there should be a Vitruvius.ini file (which is a polyglot.ini file for Vitruvius). You could edit that and add

Log = true

in the Polyglot section, and then try to start Vitruvius with WB again. You should then get a file Polyglot.log, which you could post here.

[Kyodai]

"The logfile could not be created or opened"


About Protector and the book.... I changed book to another .bin
and voila - bookmoves coming as fast as you can blink..

Tried with some other .bin and they all worked - though much smaller
than the first I tried. At least that problem solved! Now I go look
for a big book.bin that can be used as default book in WB

"Everything that glimmers is not gold.bin" .... "oh well....."

Thanks for your help - and problems are there to be solved...
Thats why they exist. As for wb and polyglot - are there any uci-engines
known not to work well with polyglot?