xboard-devel/xboard-f49e7e1/readme.htm

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<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tinkering with Winboard<br>
by Alessandro Scotti<br>
</span></big><br>
Last update: March 22, 2005.<br>
<br>
This readme is about some modifications I made to Winboard 4.2.7. Some
will work in Xboard too, while others are for Winboard only.
Regardless, everything here is absolutely experimental and has been
tested very little... so no warranties ok?<br>
<br>
All modified sources are included in this archive, the rest can be
downloaded from <a href="http://www.tim-mann.org/xboard.html">Tim
Mann's Xboard page</a>. Please feel free to take my changes and use
them as you like, they are released under the GPL.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Game adjudication</span></big><br>
<br>
User can adjudicate a game between two machines, using the "Action"
menu. Note that this only works if two machines are playing.<br>
<br>
Also, it is possible to adjudicate a game automatically with this
parameter:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/adjudicateLossThreshold=-700<br>
</div>
<br>
if set to a negative value, Winboard will adjudicate a game if a engine
can't get a score above the specified threshold for 3 full moves (6
plies). Note that both engines must agree on the score value, and also
the game is only adjudicated after the last move from the losing engine.<br>
<br>
Adjudication is still under test!<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Background textures</span></big><br>
<br>
Add the following to winboard.ini:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/liteBackTextureFile="sandstone_w.bmp"<br>
/darkBackTextureFile="sandstone_b.bmp"<br>
/liteBackTextureMode=1<br>
/darkBackTextureMode=1<br>
</div>
<br>
Of course you can choose any file you like for texturing the light and
dark squares, as long as it's a valid BMP (Windows bitmap) file. <br>
<br>
Valid texture modes are 1 (default) and 2. In mode 1 the squares are
taken from portions of the texture bitmap and copied without further
processing. In mode 2, squares can also be rotated, mirrored and so on
in order to provide a little more variety to the texture. The
operations are selected at random so the board will look slightly
different every time the program is run.<br>
<br>
Note: to "comment out" a filename, put an asterisk in front of it, i.e.
"*sandstone.bmp" will be skipped.<br>
<br>
Additionally it is possible to override the size of the "gap" between
the squares, which is otherwise selected automatically. Add this to
winboard.ini:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/overrideLineGap=2<br>
</div>
<br>
I have added this because textures usually look better with a smaller
or no gap. Any negative value will ignore the override and use the
standard value from Winboard.<br>
<br>
The combination of these parameters can produce very interesting
effects, see for example <a
 href="http://usuarios.lycos.es/alexwbtm/Test/">Alex Guerrero's page</a>.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Font-based rendering of chess
pieces</span></big><br>
<br>
It is possible to use chess fonts to draw pieces, in place of the usual
bitmaps. You have to specify the font name by adding the following to
winboard.ini:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/renderPiecesWithFont="Chess Leipzig"<br>
</div>
<br>
Chances are the program will automatically recognize the font and
select the proper mapping, i.e. the correspondence between a chess
piece and the corresponding font character. So if the board looks good
you're set and there's nothing else to do, otherwise you'll have to
find the proper mapping and tell it to the program with&nbsp; this
setting:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/fontPieceToCharTable="phbrqkojntwl"<br>
</div>
<br>
The piece are in order: white pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, king
and black pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, king. So the example above
tells the program to use the letter "p" for a white pawn, the letter
"h" for a white knight, the letter "t" for a black rook and so on.<br>
<br>
Note: to "comment out" a font name, put an asterisk in front of it,
i.e. "*Chess Merida" will be skipped because of the asterisk.<br>
<br>
It is possible to customize the font foreground and background color,
with these settings:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/fontPieceBackColorWhite=#ffffcc<br>
/fontPieceForeColorWhite=#402010<br>
/fontPieceBackColorBlack=#ffffcc<br>
/fontPieceForeColorBlack=#301008<br>
</div>
<br>
Colors are expressed in RGB notation. If you are not familiar with the
RGB notation&nbsp; I would suggest to leave them alone until I manage
to update the GUI. In this case, the program will take the board
settings as for the usual piece set.<br>
<br>
It is also possible to control the size of the piece with respect to
the square, for example this entry:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/fontPieceSize=80<br>
</div>
<br>
tells the program to make the pieces about 20% smaller than a square
(i.e. the piece size is 80%). Note that different fonts may require
different values for this parameter. Usually values in the 70-80 range
provide the best values, however the program accepts anything from 50
to 150.<br>
<br>
Font-based pieces are automatically given a "roundish" look. For now,
this option is not mapped to a user-definable setting.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fast clipboard pasting</span></big><br>
<br>
Press Ctrl-V to paste a PGN game or a FEN position from the clipboard,
the program will try to autodetect the proper type.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thread initialization bug</span></big><br>
<br>
I've tried to fix a bug reported (and fixed) by Anastasios Milikas (of
AICE), where a thread could try to access a not yet initialized
variable. I've used a different approach here, where threads are
started in a "suspended" state and then released only when the variable
has been initialized (this has the advantage of putting all the
required fix code in one place, and the disadvantage of not having been
tested by Anastasios).<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Protection from some buffer
overflows</span></big><br>
<br>
In just a few cases, I've tried to put some guard against buffer
overflows. These are just quick attempts... a lot more work would be
needed to provide some measurable benefits. I hope that bug **353 is
finally fixed now. The buffer overflows were propagated across several
functions so as soon as one was fixed another would crash!<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Absolute scores can be converted
to relative</span></big><br>
<br>
Some engines (e.g. Crafty, Delphi) always report scores from the white
side (i.e. absolute), rather than the engine side (i.e. relative). This
leads to confusion and breaks features such as automatic adjudication.
In order to convert the scores to relative add the following to
winboard.ini:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/firstScoreAbs=false<br>
</div>
<br>
If true, the score of the first program is absolute and will be negated
when playing black. And similarly:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/secondScoreAbs=false<br>
</div>
<br>
if true, the score of the second program is absolute and will be
negated when playing black.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Engine search info can be saved
in a PGN file</span></big><br>
<br>
Add the following to winboard.ini:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/pgnExtendedInfo=true<br>
</div>
<br>
If true, and the PGN save game option is enabled, each move will be
followed by a comment&nbsp; containing the engine score and thinking
depth (when available).<br>
<br>
Note: can also be set from the General options dialog.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Engine search info can be hidden
in human-computer games</span></big><br>
<br>
When "show thinking" is disabled, engine thinking is not generated at
all, rather than simply hidden. It is now possible to generate the
think lines (e.g. for logging or saving in the PGN) yet hide them when
the engine is playing against a human player. Add the following to
winboard.ini:<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">/hideThinkingFromHuman=true<br>
</div>
<br>
Note: can also be set from the General options dialog.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Asymmetric time controls</span></big><br>
<br>
Very experimental! You can enter two time controls in the usual dialog,
separated by "/". If so, white will be assigned the first time and
black the second. So for example "0:30/2:00" will give 30 seconds to
white and 2 minutes to black.<br>
<br>
Note: for now these times stay with black and white, rather than the
corresponding player.<br>
<br>
<big><span style="font-weight: bold;">User interface</span></big><br>
<br>
Options to "hide thinking from human" and "save extended info in PGN"
now appears in the "General" options dialog.<br>
<br>
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