ChessGUI 0.173 is out

[swami]

Thanks, Mathias. ChessGUI seems to be improving a lot. Test Suites testing features are quite up there and comparable to chessbase.

Arena still leads in this department.

I wish to see new feature:

Test Multiple engines automatically in Test suite mode.
Test Multiple engines under _specified_ number of test suites.
Save Results of each engine from each test suites in a log file.

[swami]

Thanks, Mathias. ChessGUI seems to be improving a lot. Test Suites testing features are quite up there and comparable to chessbase.

I just tested it. It's actually much better than chessbase!

One unique thing is that it accounts point values! (scores for secondary moves given in test suites: 8,7,6,5,4,3 etc)

[Matthias Gemuh]

I want to tell you that this is a really nice project. It is very nice to have people like you working on sound alternative interfaces to increase our enjoyment of computer chess.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dann.

Problem is: I am now a very lazy programmer .

Matthias.

[Matthias Gemuh]

Thanks, Mathias. ChessGUI seems to be improving a lot. Test Suites testing features are quite up there and comparable to chessbase.

Arena still leads in this department.

I wish to see new feature:

Test Multiple engines automatically in Test suite mode.
Test Multiple engines under _specified_ number of test suites.
Save Results of each engine from each test suites in a log file.

I may add these features soon.

Matthias.

[swami]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it!

Umko 0.1 on Re-Capturing test currently on-going:

Score: 53/75

Partial Credit Basis: 628/750.

[Dann Corbit]

Thanks, Mathias. ChessGUI seems to be improving a lot. Test Suites testing features are quite up there and comparable to chessbase.

Arena still leads in this department.

I wish to see new feature:

Test Multiple engines automatically in Test suite mode.
Test Multiple engines under _specified_ number of test suites.
Save Results of each engine from each test suites in a log file.

I may add these features soon.

Matthias.

I have a feature that I would really, really like for UCI engines:
Iterate over UCI setting from limit to limit.

For boolean settings, it can take only true/false
For integer settings, the user would impose a limit within the range that the UCI setting allows.

Consider hash table size...
At 60 seconds per position, what is the best hash table size for a given engine?
If we iterate from 10 MB to 2000 MB 10 MB at a time, we can find the answer.

So produce three boxes:
Start:
End:
Step:
Start and End must be within the limits imposed by the engine.

[Matthias Gemuh]

I have a feature that I would really, really like for UCI engines:
Iterate over UCI setting from limit to limit.

For boolean settings, it can take only true/false
For integer settings, the user would impose a limit within the range that the UCI setting allows.

Consider hash table size...
At 60 seconds per position, what is the best hash table size for a given engine?
If we iterate from 10 MB to 2000 MB 10 MB at a time, we can find the answer.

So produce three boxes:
Start:
End:
Step:
Start and End must be within the limits imposed by the engine.

That one is too tough.
ChessGUI cannot even automatically repeat a finished tournament.

[Graham Banks]

Ray wanted me to add that "ChessGUI is the *only* GUI that handles a combinations of chess960 standards - winboard, UCI, Shredder FEN and X-FEN."

[kingliveson]

Thanks, Mathias. ChessGUI seems to be improving a lot. Test Suites testing features are quite up there and comparable to chessbase.

Arena still leads in this department.

I wish to see new feature:

Test Multiple engines automatically in Test suite mode.
Test Multiple engines under _specified_ number of test suites.
Save Results of each engine from each test suites in a log file.

I may add these features soon.

Matthias.

I recently started using this GUI and it is very nice and a good alternative.

Franklin

[ilari]

The reason why people don't use ChessGUI is that it offers only 1 percent of what Winboard or Arena offers.

I don't think you need a big feature set to be competitive. Most people don't need even half of Arena's features. Stability and usability are far more important to me.

Anyway, those who think that chess engine development is hard would eat their words if they had to write a GUI. It's just ridiculously more complicated. To write a good chess GUI one should know the chosen programming language inside-out, design patterns, file handling, databases, human interface guidelines, inter-process communication, multi-threading, graphics programming, etc. A good compiler doesn't get you very far, suddenly you need a lot more tools like a form/widget designer, unit-testing frameworks, widget toolkits, libraries, documentation tools.

So hang in there, dude. Your effort is very much appreciated, and the speed at which you crank out new features is damn impressive. The same goes for HGM for his Winboard development, especially when considering that he has to work with two of the most horrifying GUI libraries/frameworks known to man: WINAPI and X11.