AlienBoard: android app for chess variants

[Daniel Shawul]

I am just kidding. Thanks for your attention anyway
The menu feature is implemented now. It has about nine items to choose from. Then it will load participant engines and the referee, and other configurations for the required game.
I will implement premove after I am done with 'auto moving' (finishing moves automatically when there is only one choice, very important for checkers).

[Daniel Shawul]

The best version yet is out (1.2). It has included all the features I have been implementing past couple of days. Please upgrade with this one those who dowloaded (5 of you), you won't regret it. There are many changes.
a) FICS play is the one most improved
-> Login screen to avoid typing
-> Sought list improved
-> added game list to observe by picking
-> added player list to choose and challenge
b) Startup menu with 9 items to choose from. This avoids the need to install engines by thyself because program does it automatically.

c) PGN view that can be used instead of Debug view or besides it if there is enough space. You can play bughouse comfortably if you switch off both debug and pgn views and use landscape mode. The two boards fit the screen perfectly.

d) Flicker when displaying games with holdings avoided

e) Major addition with highlighting of squares, and a brand new way of making moves I invented. This should be the major update I think. You can make a move by clicking on any square that is contained in it. This gives you good opportunity to make moves fast. Click on squares until one move becomes unique in which case the gui will play it automatically.

f) I am glad to say all the games are very usable now right out of the factory (no need for the user to configure). Especially the human vs engine options were not usable for most games like chess but now, they are very much usable with the additon in (e). I checked each and every one of them before this release by playing a game

g) Many crashes are fixed. Android ndk programming is kind of unique in a way because the desing forces you to use asynchronous calls. I have had many issues regarding concurrent exectuation with Android than when developing a parallel searching chess engine ...

Let me know of features you need. But I can say this version will give me some time to relax since it made the app usable now.

Cheers
Daniel

[shiv]

Thanks for the latest features and the speed in implementing them. You changed a lot including a simple menu that clarifies what you want to do on startup.

I must note that Scorpio is a good engine to play against at least for me. It is not that strong for me on the android tablet, however its competitive and fun to play against.

Issues:

1. When I run out of time, I still want to continue the game but I get "Time Fail" or some message like that in the engine log. One should have the option to continue.

2. I see random crashes on the UI. Is there a log file I should store and send to you?

Feature requests:

1. Opening book if its easy to add. The engine taking time on move 1 means either something is wrong in my setup or there is no opening book support.
2. Ability to setup a position.
3. Ability to navigate to a position in the move list and resume play from there. I am able to do the former but not the latter.

Glad to do more tests if needed.

[Daniel Shawul]

Thanks for the latest features and the speed in implementing them. You changed a lot including a simple menu that clarifies what you want to do on startup.

Well the reason I am coding fast is because I already had a working java gui that does everything. So I am only porting it to android platform, but when that runs out probably soon, I will be slow I am glad you liked the menu. Did you also like the highlighting scheme? You can make many chess moves by one single click instead of two. For example e2e4 can be made by clicking the empty e4 square. That is simple enough but there are many cases that comes handy specially in other board games. For some reason I like this feature,and no other GUI does that AFAIK.

I must note that Scorpio is a good engine to play against at least for me. It is not that strong for me on the android tablet, however its competitive and fun to play against.

You must be a strong player. It is about 5x slower than the regular version so I don't know where that puts it interms of elo but a random _guess_ would be in the 2000 elo range. Its searches 200kns on my phone, I don't know how much Stockfish or other strong engines search per second there. Ofcourse I don't want you to be stuck with Scorpio, so I will look for a stronger engine that I can include if the author allows me. Maybe I can pick up Ivanhoe (public any way).

Issues:

1. When I run out of time, I still want to continue the game but I get "Time Fail" or some message like that in the engine log. One should have the option to continue.

Right now it is not very user friendly because I tested it only with engines. It even shuts down as soon as the last mating move is played. So no chance to replay the game. I will try to incorporate those options in the next release.

2. I see random crashes on the UI. Is there a log file I should store and send to you?

Indeed. I solved one crash that happens almost at the end of every game. The problem with those crashes is mostly related to concurrent modification that is a headache on the android. I think that is a priority and will try to solve it ASAP.

Feature requests:

1. Opening book if its easy to add. The engine taking time on move 1 means either something is wrong in my setup or there is no opening book support.

There is none. If I can find a tiny opening book I will include it. The problem with Android ndk is anything you put in assets folder is saved twice. So when my app size is in reality around 1mb total, it takes up 2mb on the phone. So I am a bit reluctant to include big files with the apk, but ofcourse once can download books compatible with scorpio and put them on the sdcard! I only need to provide option to modify scorpio to read book from any path... Will that work for you ?

2. Ability to setup a position.

Ok. I will put it on to do list.

3. Ability to navigate to a position in the move list and resume play from there. I am able to do the former but not the latter.

Aha you tried the move list window. I haven't tested it well myself. In the java version of the app I mentioned before, it is possible to accept takeback offers in FICS mode. It will undo the requested number of moves and played continued from there.

Glad to do more tests if needed.

Thanks. I am total newbie with regard to what chess players want from the app, but I will do what I can to incorporate features.

cheers
Daniel

[shiv]

Well the reason I am coding fast is because I already had a working java gui that does everything. So I am only porting it to android platform, but when that runs out probably soon, I will be slow I am glad you liked the menu. Did you also like the highlighting scheme? You can make many chess moves by one single click instead of two. For example e2e4 can be made by clicking the empty e4 square. That is simple enough but there are many cases that comes handy specially in other board games. For some reason I like this feature,and no other GUI does that AFAIK.

Yes, the highlighting scheme is useful. I did not like to see all the legal moves though, that is somewhat distracting for me, however, maybe an option to show or hide legal moves.

Right now it is not very user friendly because I tested it only with engines. It even shuts down as soon as the last mating move is played. So no chance to replay the game. I will try to incorporate those options in the next release.

Indeed. I solved one crash that happens almost at the end of every game. The problem with those crashes is mostly related to concurrent modification that is a headache on the android. I think that is a priority and will try to solve it ASAP.

Interesting, did not realize something is concurrently modified.

There is none. If I can find a tiny opening book I will include it. The problem with Android ndk is anything you put in assets folder is saved twice. So when my app size is in reality around 1mb total, it takes up 2mb on the phone. So I am a bit reluctant to include big files with the apk, but ofcourse once can download books compatible with scorpio and put them on the sdcard! I only need to provide option to modify scorpio to read book from any path... Will that work for you ?

Yes, that will work. Odd that assets are saved twice with the android ndk, I wonder why that would be.

You must be a strong player. It is about 5x slower than the regular version so I don't know where that puts it interms of elo but a random _guess_ would be in the 2000 elo range. Its searches 200kns on my phone, I don't know how much Stockfish or other strong engines search per second there. Ofcourse I don't want you to be stuck with Scorpio, so I will look for a stronger engine that I can include if the author allows me. Maybe I can pick up Ivanhoe (public any way).

Yikes, I did not realize that Scorpio on the tablet was only 2000. It certainly feels stronger. I am about 2300. I would say Scorpio might be 2100 or so. At least I hope/think so. Ivanhoe or Stockfish appear interesting to add.

Are you planning to put Alienboard on github? Possibly others might interesting in adding code. Myself included.

Thanks for the changes and your comments.

[Daniel Shawul]

Yes, the highlighting scheme is useful. I did not like to see all the legal moves though, that is somewhat distracting for me, however, maybe an option to show or hide legal moves.

Sure why not, it is just adding a checkbox in preferences.

Yes, that will work. Odd that assets are saved twice with the android ndk, I wonder why that would be.

If I ship it with the apk, it has to be put elsewhere to be used, as the former is read only.

Yikes, I did not realize that Scorpio on the tablet was only 2000. It certainly feels stronger. I am about 2300. I would say Scorpio might be 2100 or so. At least I hope/think so. Ivanhoe or Stockfish appear interesting to add.

Yikes ??

Are you planning to put Alienboard on github? Possibly others might interesting in adding code. Myself included.

Yikes who said it is open source ?

[shiv]

Sure why not, it is just adding a checkbox in preferences.

Great, that would be useful at least for me.

If I ship it with the apk, it has to be put elsewhere to be used, as the former is read only.

I see. Probably, a way to enable book loading and putting it on the sd card is good enough.

Yikes, I did not realize that Scorpio on the tablet was only 2000. It certainly feels stronger. I am about 2300. I would say Scorpio might be 2100 or so. At least I hope/think so. Ivanhoe or Stockfish appear interesting to add.

I thought Scorpio was 2100+ or so. It definitely feels far better than 2000. The yikes comment was because I felt good about my games vs the machine in fast games but now dont feel as good

Yikes who said it is open source?

It's totally fine if it is not open source but I assumed it might be because you have open sourced some of your other projects like Scorpio. However, I was simply curious.

[Daniel Shawul]

Well you can't seem to help yourself from throwing pot shots at me. First you insult my dear dear Nebiyu, saying Scorpio should be the one I should work on. Then when given your wish, you then attacked Scropio too with a Yikees. I gave you the benefit of the doubt but if you are like the rest of them tr.., then you should know for me it has been like "On to the next one" Please understand I don't mean to insult you or anyone for that matter, but I can't work with anyone with your attitude. Thank you but no thank you.

[shiv]

Well you can't seem to help yourself from throwing pot shots at me. First you insult my dear dear Nebiyu, saying Scorpio should be the one I should work on. Then when given your wish, you then attacked Scropio too with a Yikees. I gave you the benefit of the doubt but if you are like the rest of them tr.., then you should know for me it has been like "On to the next one" Please understand I don't mean to insult you or anyone for that matter, but I can't work with anyone with your attitude. Thank you but no thank you.

Wow, this is a huge misunderstanding. When going over my comments. I admit the latter one was more confusing but I had a different interpretation. Explanations below:

1. I never insulted Nebiyu. I know better than to insult something like Nebiyu, which is many months of your labor. I have written large projects (though not chess software) that have been ignored and know the painful feeling. Why should we ignore Nebiyu? Also see comment #2 about ARM CPU optimization which might be applicable to Nebiyu as well.

2. On the scorpio yikes comment. My understanding of the statement was like this: You have written scorpio for the desktop which is > 2700 (according to CCRL). On the mobile, you claim its 2000. I don't believe that at all! It has given me a hard time in blitz games. That is why I dont feel good about my games vs Scorpio, it is very strong in blitz (and hence the sad face). I estimate it should be much stronger, but cant tell for sure. Its definitely not easy to beat it in 3 minute games. It's probably worthwhile testing. However, given that you did not yet fully optimize it for the ARM CPU, I am shocked with how strong it is already. I know many programmers have spent a long time to optimize their code for the ARM CPU.

3. I also find it funny that you think a person like me who has never written a chess engine in my life has the right to insult someone who has written a 2700 level chess engine! There are probably less than 50 people in the world who have ever written a 2700 level engine. I don't have an attitude. I am not happy with my chess strength (I worked over the years to get a reasonable rating, but am very far from a strong player) and don't have chess programming skills. I don't think I have a basis to insult any of your contributions.

Anyway, I feel its a misunderstanding. I apologize for contributing to misunderstanding. I am happy to test out Alienboard and be more clear with my statements. If you are not satisfied with my explanations, I have to live with that.

[Daniel Shawul]

1. I never insulted Nebiyu. I know better than to insult something like Nebiyu, which is many months of your labor. I have written large projects (though not chess software) that have been ignored and know the painful feeling. Why should we ignore Nebiyu? Also see comment #2 about ARM CPU optimization which might be applicable to Nebiyu as well.

painful feeling ?? you are really something.. nebiyu gives me enjoyement for the record...

2. On the scorpio yikes comment. My understanding of the statement was like this: You have written scorpio for the desktop which is > 2700 (according to CCRL). On the mobile, you claim its 2000. I don't believe that at all!

Genius, did you even read my comment that stresses it with (_guess_).

I also find it funny that you think a person like me who has never written a chess engine in my life has the right to insult someone who has written a 2700 level chess engine!

You give way too much credit for your self.
Like I said it is "On to the next one".
Bye bye now.