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Comments by FergusDuniho
Game Courier Logs. View the logs of games played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You're free to delete any of your invitations. Instructions are near the bottom of this page.
Oh, I see what the two of you mean now. Ironlance somehow managed to issue more GC invitations after I added some code banning the game from Game Courier, and now this code is preventing him from deleting them. I'm not sure how he managed to issue these invitations. I've just deleted them by ftp. Instead of deleting the directory in question, which would only allow someone to recreate it, I've made it unwriteable.
Game Courier Tournament #1. A multi-variant tournament played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'll get on organizing a second tournament in a while. But first, I want to update the Item Name fields of preset pages to match the names used for games by Game Courier. As I did last time, I will do an approval poll first, followed by a ranked poll. I suggest that we automatically place the ten most popular games from the approval poll into the ranked poll, no matter whether we played any in the last tournament, and then fill the remaining spots only with games that were not played in the previous tournament. We could cap it at about 20, including any games that tie for 20th place and were not played in the previous tournament. This method, or one like it, would allow the tournament to retain some of the most popular games without ruling them out for being played last time, and it would help make the list of games for this tournament different from the list used for the last tournament. And if there are any particular games you do not want in two tournaments in a row, you could avoid voting for them.
I have sent an email asking for permission to make an Omega Chess preset. Assuming I get it, I will make a preset than enforces the rules and uses the official coordinate system.
Game Courier Logs. View the logs of games played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'm not sure what has happened here. I have never known anything like what you describe happening before, and as far as I know, it shouldn't happen. If you and your opponent would send me the email records of your last moves, it might shed some light on what has happened. I have now added the feature of backing up logs. It is too late for it to help us find out what has happened to your moves, but it can help me figure out what is going on if it happens again. Whenever you make a move, your old log will get backed up before it gets overwritten. Since each new backup will overwrite the old backup, you should report any loss of moves as soon as it happens.
Based on Greg's comments, I think I know what to do about the bug David Paulowich reported. If I make sure that the old movelist is a substring of the new movelist before a game gets logged, this should prevent Game Courier from writing the log with data from unrefreshed browser windows. I'll report back when this is fixed for good. As for the other bug that Greg mentioned, it has already been reported and fixed.
Okay, I think I have fixed the bug David Paulowich reported. In my tests, it lets new moves go through, but it stops moves from earlier in the game and advises the user to go back and refresh his browser window before entering his move.
For the record, there is no need to speak in the subjunctive about the ability to choose your own piece set for a game in Game Courier. It has had that feature for some time. As for choosing the colors of the squares, it could work, if implemented, only for boards automatically generated by Game Courier, not for those made from images. This makes it a trickier feature to implement.
Before you click the 'Verify' button, change the piece set that is listed for you in the dropdown menu. Then, on the 'Verify your move' page, you will see the board rendered with your selected piece set. It will continue to use your selected piece set for your display of the game.
<P>The command to resign is <CODE>resign</CODE>. If you're going to resign, using this command is preferable to what Greg described doing.</P>
There was no security bug, and there is no chance that what Greg did would have affected your game. A piece of code, which made the userid all lowercase, was in the wrong place to do its job effectively, and the result was that your userid needed to be entered entirely in lowercase to be recognized. I moved the code to where it is effective, and now you may enter your userid in any combination of upper and lowercase. So, if you had entered your userid as 'centaure', you would have encountered no problem, but you probably entered it as 'Centaure' instead.
Yes, commands are entered in the same field as moves are. Commands may be entered as moves.
Game Courier Developer's Guide. Learn how to design and program Chess variants for Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I've now added two new parameters to Customize and Edit mode. These are Scale and JPG Quality. Scale resizes auto-generated PNG and JPG images, while JPG Quality is used for saving JPG files. Details are given in the section on Customize mode. I uploaded a new Circular Chess preset today that makes use of both of these new parameters. It also makes use of the new method for generating circular boards, which I'm still working on and have only begun to document here.
The PNG and JPG methods for automatically generating circular boards seem to now be in good working order. They are described in the guide. I have also added details on some new functions for the Polish Notation Calculator: prevfullmove, prevmove, count, and trim.
Games for Game Courier. The many games you can play online with Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have finished changing the item name for each preset page to the name used for the game in the preset. This will cause a link to the game's logs to show up on the preset page when there are logs available. In the future, whenever anyone creates a new preset page, please make the item name the same as the game's name inside the preset. Don't call it anything like 'Game Courier preset for ...'. Just use the game's name. Likewise, just use the game's name for the link text. You can mention Game Courier in the description, but leave it out of the link text. This allows the preset pages to be listed together without extraneous information in the link text that is already obvious from the context.
I think Game Courier could handle a three-step Pawn move without an additional function. Assuming Pawns begin on the second rank, like so: set legal and checkaride origin dest 0 1 less rankname dest 6; The same principle can be used for a piece with limited movement, such as an R4, which moves as a Rook no more than four spaces. set legal and checkride origin dest 0 1 or less abs minus rank origin rank dest 5 less abs minus file origin file rank 5; A cursed Queen, which I think is limited to three spaces, like so: set legal and or checkride origin dest 0 1 checkride origin dest 1 1 and less abs minus rank origin rank dest 4 less abs minus file origin file rank 4;
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thanks for pointing that out. It is now fixed in the Chess presets. Based on examination of my Anatomy of a Preset page and my Grotesque Chess preset, it appears that I originally had the code and somehow accidently deleted it recently. But since I just changed how I do it in the presets, I'll update the Anatomy page to reflect the new code.
Capablanca's Chess. Play Capablanca's Chess on the Play-by-Mail system![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]No, they were not variants. I made some typos in the FEN code, and that is now corrected. Thanks for pointing this out.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board (includes mirror array and Push-Pullyu variants).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The description of the notation to use in the preset that enforces rules is too unclear. Even though I have the advantage of having created Game Courier, I don't understand it.
Recognized Chess Variants. Index page listing the variants we feel are most significant. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since I put off this month's poll this long, and I now have a throat cold, or sars, or strep throat or something, next month's recognized variant of the month will the second place winner of the last poll, Extinction Chess.
George, you have completely mischaracterized the analogy I made, and your belief that a 'devil-may-care' and 'no holds barred' attitude rules here is completely mistaken. The James Bond analogy has nothing to do with a loose attitude toward quality. This analogy was given in the context of two other analogies, a Romeo analogy and a Don Juan analogy. Each man was characterized by a different attitude toward women, which translated into a different attitude toward Chess variants. A Romeo sticks to one variant; a Don Juan seeks after the perfect variant; and a Bond enjoys different variants without trying to seek after the perfect variant. But this does not translate into unconcern over quality. James Bond may sleep with many women, but they are always beautiful women. I enjoy many variants, but I prefer good variants to bad. The main thing that characterized the James Bond attitude is the ability to appreciate quality in a diversity of forms. Also, when I create my own variants, I pay lots of attention to quality, and I encourage everyone else to do the same. I normally playtest my games against Zillions and make changes based on playtesting. And when I can't make a game good, I avoid releasing it.
<P>Tony Quintanilla wrote:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I think what Robert and George are arguing for is: quantity with quality. Whereas, Fergus, Roberto, Greg and Michael are arguing for is: quality with quantity. :-)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>I don't know what this is supposed to mean. Since the meaning of with is basically symmetric, I would expect 'quality with quantity' to mean the same thing as 'quantity with quality,' whatever it is that either means.</P>
<P>What George Duke is arguing for has been made more clear by his latest comment. He is a perfectionist, which I have previously characterized by the Don Juan analogy. For example, he characterizes a prolific game inventor as 'someone who did not get it right in the first place and so designs, designs, designs -- eventually not even knowing whether prioritizing quantity OR quality.' Although he attributes this to the person calling himself Robert Fischer (which might be a pseudonym given that this is Bobby Fischer's name), Fischer has not asserted this, and what we have here is a classic perfectionist misunderstanding of how the creative process works. I don't design new variants because I didn't get the old one's right. I design new variants because I get new ideas.</P>
<P>My own position is neither for nor against quantity. My position is for unrestricted creative freedom along with concern for quality. I say let the creative create, let the perfectionists seek after their idea of the perfect variant, and let those who think they have found the perfect variant go play it.</P>
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Then warning might be the wrong word. Resigned is not a valid command. The command you want to use is resign.
Recognized Chess Variants. Index page listing the variants we feel are most significant. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]<P>George Duke writes:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I think he might be Bobby Fischer.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>I'm quite certain that he is not. For one thing, the latest news on Bobby Fischer's website is that he is in jail in Tokyo, Japan. But the best reason why they aren't the same person is that 'Robert Fischer' is arguing against Reinhard Scharnagl's proposal for a randomized Capablanca variant on the grounds that so many permutations may create bad game pollution. Bobby Fischer has himself invented his own randomized Chess variant, Fischer Random Chess, and so it seems very unlikely that he would now be arguing against another randomized game in a manner that applies just as much to his own game.</P>
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