From: H.G. Muller Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:52:35 +0000 (+0200) Subject: News page for 4.6.0 X-Git-Url: http://winboard.nl/cgi-bin?a=commitdiff_plain;h=131fb1c41f778cd586274aa1f67a139f717a37e9;p=xboard.git News page for 4.6.0 Screenshot for figurine font still missing. --- diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/BookMenu.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/BookMenu.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bf6d34 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/BookMenu.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/CopyGL.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/CopyGL.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f8bd73 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/CopyGL.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/Count.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/Count.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b51355 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/Count.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/Detour.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/Detour.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d685c20 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/Detour.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/EditBook.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/EditBook.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de55768 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/EditBook.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/EngMenu.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/EngMenu.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1c631c Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/EngMenu.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/History.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/History.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f3405d Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/History.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/LoadEng.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/LoadEng.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de03fc2 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/LoadEng.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/LoadWB.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/LoadWB.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac675e7 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/LoadWB.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/MultiPV.png b/whats_new/4.6.0/MultiPV.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..857c1aa Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.6.0/MultiPV.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.6.0/News-4.6.0.html b/whats_new/4.6.0/News-4.6.0.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11376eb --- /dev/null +++ b/whats_new/4.6.0/News-4.6.0.html @@ -0,0 +1,616 @@ + + + +XBoard News + +

What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.6.0?

+
+ +

Engine vs. Engine

+ + +

Interface Improvements

+ + +		 +

Interactive Analysis

+ + +

Other New Functionality

+ + +

XBoard -> WinBoard Convergence

+ +		 + + +
+ +
+ + +

Copying the gamelist to the clipboard

+

+The menu entry Copy Game List to Clipboard" so far was missing in XBoard. +This patch corrects that state of affairs. +In the Edit menu of XBoard there is now an entry similar to that of +WinBoard, +which copies the Game List to the clipboard and primary selection. +

+Like in WinBoard, it copies all selectable fields of each game, +irrespective of the setting of the game-list options for tag order. +It uses the same format as WinBoard, a comma-separated list of +double-quoted strings, +which makes it easy to import in most spread-sheet programs. +A difference with the WinBoard implementation is that it does pay +attention to the Filter field, +and only includes those games that are displayed in the Game List window +based on that selection. +

+
+ +

Detour under-promotion

+

+The promotion popup is a necessary evil. +It slows you down, but without it, using the option "Always Promote to Queen", +you can no longer under-promote, which would cost you the occasional game. +So you have to put up with the popup. +Or have you? +

+
+

+Now XBoard and WinBoard have a new method for entering promotion moves, +called "detour under-promotion". +It replaces the option "Always Promote to Queen" in the General Options +menu dialog. +(The old option can still be used from the command line, +when the new one is switched off.) +It promotes to Queen without asking questions first, +but still allows you to under-promote to a piece of your choice, +using only the mouse. +

+The trick is that you can select the piece by not dragging a 7th-rank Pawn +directly to the promotion square, +but through a detour, first dragging it "backwards". +As soon as you start dragging the Pawn it changes into the piece it will +promote to when you release it. +Normally this will be Queen (or anyway the default choice for the variant +you are playing). +But while you drag it backwards, it cycles through all the options: +Q -> N -> B -> R -> Q -> N etc. +As soon as you see the piece-of-choice appear, +you reverse the direction of dragging to forward. +This freezes the choice; the piece will not change even if you drag it +backwards once you have started to drag forward. +You can then put the piece on the promoton square. +Or, when you somehow erred, put it back on the from-square, +and try again. +In that case it will remember the piece you selected, +and start with that in stead of Queen. +So you could also do a click-click move by clicking the to-square, +or drag it directly forward to it. +

+		 + +
+ +

Typing in a move

+

+XBoard now has a move type-in just like WinBoard. +When the board window has focus, +typing any printable character will pop up a type-in box, +aready containing the character you typed, +where you can finish typing a move, +or a move number. +The move you type will be played like you entered it with the mouse. +Typing a move number will make you go to that move, +like you operated the < or > buttons, +or clicked the Evaluation Graph. +

+
+

+In Edit Position mode, you can also type a FEN. +In this case the corresponding position will be set upon the board, +and you will leave Edit Position mode. +All input has to be terminated by <Enter>, +which will close the box. +Hitting <Esc> will close the box ignoring the input. +

+		 + +
+ +

Placing pieces on the board in Edit-Position mode

+

+The Edit Position menu can now be replaced by 'sweep selection' +of the pieces you want to place, through the option -pieceMenu true|false. +With sweep selection, right-clicking a square creates a Pawn there +(because that is the piece you need most of), +but when you move the mouse before releasing the button, +the piece on the clicked square will cycle through all available pieces, +of both colors. +You release when you see the piece you want. +A plain right-click will start with a black Pawn, +pressing the Shift key with it will start with a white Pawn. +

+This manner of placing pieces is especially handy in variants, +where you might need piece types that are not in the piece menu, +which can only be obtained by promoting or demoting other pieces. +It also protects you from placing pieces that do not belong in +the currently selected variant (as specified by the -pieceToCharTable). +

+ +

Interrupting a match

+

+The latest release of XBoard added a menu item to start a match. +But it did not have one to stop a match. +The only way to do that was to quit WinBoard, usually causing an unfinished game to appear in the PGN file of saved games. +This is now corrected. +During a match, the Machine Match menu item is no longer inactive. +But clicking it again will cause XBoard to shorten the number of games in the current match +to the number that has actually been played, including the one in progress. +So the match will terminate when the current game finishes, +after which XBoard will either exit (for matches started through the command-line -matchMode option), +or switch back to Edit Game mode (for matches started from the menu). +

+ +
+ + +

Loading a new engine at any time

+

+The engine(s) running under XBoard used to be specified only in advance, +through -fcp and -scp options on the command line when XBoard is started. +(WinBoard at least had a startup dialog, where you could select engines +through a combobox, displaying a list of engines configured in the +settings file.) +This experimental patch allows you to change engines during a session, +(or even during a game!), +through a new menu dialog. +

+This dialog offers the choice to select an engine from a combobox, +or specify a new one. +To do the latter requires you to enter the engine command +(which in many cases is just the name of an executable file, +to which you could browse with the aid of the browse button), +and the type of engine (UCI or WB). +In Linux, compliant engines don't need specification of a path +or an engine directory, as they can be run from the command line +by simply specifying their name. +So usually you wouldn't have to specify anything for the engine directory. +If you leave that field empty, and do supply the engine as a path name, +XBoard will set the directory equal to the one the engine executable was in. +Check boxes allow you to specify if the engine is UCI or WB v1, +if it should use the GUI book, +or if it can only work for a variant. +

+
+
+

+You can also tick a checkbox to have a thus specified engine be added +to the list of installed engines, which, like in WinBoard, +is saved in the settings file as the option -firstChessProgramNames. +Unlike it used to be with the WinBoard Startup dialog, +that same list is also used for selecting the second engine, though: +in the dialog you can specify if you want to replace the first or second +engine through another combobox. +(WinBoard now has a new command-line option "-singleEngineList true|false", +which also allows you to abandon the second list in the Startup dialog as well.) +When you add an engine to the list, next time it will appear in the +engine-selection combobox, under its 'tidy' name, +possibly with the variant for which it works behind it in parantheses. +It will have remembered the engine type and book-usage options, +and possibly the variant. +

+		 +
+
+ +
+ +
+
+
+

+WinBoard now also supports this through a similar dialog, shown to the right. +Due to the inability to accept negative numbers in numeric input fields, +auto-increment of the game or position index, +has to be indicated by checkboxes. +There are also buttons here to directly invoke the Common Engine and Time Control dialogs to enter further settings, +and to read the parameters of an existing tournament file +(first specified in the Tournament File field, e.g. by browsing to it) +into the dialog, so you could use these for a new tourney as well. +(Of course you could still change one or more of them before pressing 'OK'.) +This is very useful if you often play the same gauntlet with a long list ofparticipants, +to test new versions of your engine. +

+		 +

A built-in tournament manager

+

+Xboard now can conduct tournaments more complex than simple two-player matches. +This works similar to playing a match, except that XBoard will change engines now and then, +based on tourney parameters stored on a 'tournament file' +(such as the list of participants, tourney type). +That file also keeps track of the progress, +so that starting XBoard with a -tourneyFile left over from an interrupted tournament, +it will simply resume that tournament, and play it to completion. +you can even start one (or more) other instance(s) of XBoard with a -tourneyFile that is still in use. +In that case all the XBoard processes will share the game load, playing several games in parallel. +

+The XBoard Match Options dialog has been extended to allow you to enter the tournament specs. +Currently you can do round-robins and (multi-)gauntlets. +Swiss tournaments are implemented through an external pairing engine. +You can both specify a number of games per pairing (which are played consecutively), +and a number of 'cycles', i.e. repeats of the entire pairing scheme after all pairings are played. +When multiple instances of XBoard are working on the same tournament, +you can make them wait for each other at the end of a round or cycle. +For a more elaborate description, look here. +

+ +
+ +

Editing a Polyglot opening book

+

+XBoard now has a very basic facility for editing opening books: +tuning the move weights, or adding and deleting moves. +To achieve this a book should be specified in the Common Engine Options +dialog, in the Polyglot book field. +(XBoard GUI books are in Polyglot format.) +After this, you can use the 'Edit Book' item in the 'Edit' menu to edit it. +Although primitive, this is a very useful feature, +because XBoard supports many variants, +and software to edit or otherwise maintain opening books +for other variants than standard Chess is quite rare. +

+
+ + + + +

+Edit Book will pop up a small window, that contains all moves +from the current position that are found in the book, +as a table in text format. +Each line will display the move weight (as percentage of total, +and the absolute number), +and the move. +You can then alter the weights +(the percentages are ust to aid the eye; +they are not really used), +delete lines,or add lines with new moves in the same format. +After you are done, +you can write the information back to the book by clicking 'OK'. +

+As long as the Edit Book window is open, +its contents will be updated while you step to other positions +of a loaded game or variation, +or when you play or retract moves. +

+
+ +
+

Playing PV moves in analysis mode

+

+When the engine is analyzing +(or at any other time it is thinking, like when playing or pondering) +you can step through a selected PV it produced +by right-clicking it in the Engine Output window, +and moving the mouse. +But in analysis mode, it is now also possible to add one or more +of these PV moves to the game you are analysing. +

+When you right-click a PV in analysis mode, +display of the positions along the PV will not start at the end, +(as is normally done), +but after the first move. +You can step through the PV in the usual way, +by moving the mouse with the right button kept down. +But when you release that button now, +the position that was displayed when you released will become the new +position from which the engine will be analyzing. +All moves of the PV before that will be added to the stored +game, starting from the old position the engine was analyzing. +

+This means a simple static right-click can be used to +advance exactly one move along the PV, +and continue analysis from there. +But by moving the mouse first, you can follow the PV +much farther, in one swoop. +If it was not your intention to make any of the moves at all, +but you just wanted to have a peek at the PV, +like right-clicking in other modes would do, +you can simply move back to the beginning of the PV +before releasing the mouse button. +

+The Shift key retains its usual meaning for entering moves: +If you keep it pressed at the time of the right-click, +for a position not at the end of the game, +the PV moves will be added as a variation. +Otherwise the game will be truncated, before adding the moves. +

+ +
+

Quickly adapting the number of printed PVs in analysis mode

+

+The number of PVs printed in multi-PV mode by engines that support +the option 'MultiPV' can now be conveniently changed by clicking +on the words 'fewer' or 'more' displayed in the Engine-Output window, +in Analysis mode. +The header line printed above the engine output to make this +possible also specifies if scores are displayed from the white +or from the side-to-move point of view. +This can be controlled by the new command-line option +'-absoluteAnalysisScores true|false'. +This option has no effect outside Analysis mode. +

+ +

Displaying the fifty-move counter

+

+The number of plies since the last irreversible move (capture or Pawn push) played in engine games +is now displayed in the title bar of the Engine Output window, +when it gets significantly large. +This way you can see more easily if the engines are heading for a 50-move draw, +and how long you will still have to endure it. +

+		 + +
+ +

Null moves in Chess

+

+When analyzing, it is sometimes useful to give the move to the other side as that really has it. +For instance, if you want to know if there if the last move poses a hidden threat, +you can let that side move again to reveal his plan. +In analysis and edit-game mode you can now do such a null move, +by clicking the clock of the side you want to give the turn to. +(The old fuction of adjusting the clocks has been abolished, +because you can do that now in modes where engines play by pressing Shift while clicking on the clock, +and EditGame mode does not use the clocks anyway.) +Pressing Shift while entering the null move will make this move start a variation, +otherwise it will replace the tail of the current line (as usual). +A null move will be written as "--" in the PGN file. +

+ +
+ + +

Figurine fonts and piece fonts

+

+The font of the Game List in WinBoard can now be chosen separately from that of Move History and Engine Output, +so that it becomes possible to choose a figurine font for the latter. +(This would otherwise completely mess up the Game List.) +

+The WinBoard Fonts dialog now also includes the Piece Font, +i.e. the font that is used for rendering the pieces on the Chess board, +which formerly could only be defined by the command-line option /renderPiecesWithFont. +Because there is no standardization in the way Chess fonts map characters on piece symbols, +you always have to do this in combination with changing the /fontPieceToCharTable. +The dialog offers you this opportunity, by allowing you to edit the sample field in the given font, +so that you can sort the piece symbols of the font into canonical order (PNBRQKpnbrqk), +so WinBoard knows which character to use for which piece. +

+

+ +
+ +
+ +		 +
+

+The use of font-based piece rendering and board-texture bitmaps can now also be switched on or off +in an easy way from the menu, by new checkboxes in the Board Options dialog. +These correspond to new command-line options /useBoardTexture and /usePieceFont, +which suppress the use of these features even if valid bitmap or font names are given. +Before this could only be acheived by making the names invalid. +

+ +		 + +
+ +

Searching a position in a game file

+

+XBoard now supports the possibility to filter games based on the occurrence of a given position, +just as you could already filter on occurrence of a certain text in the game header. +To this end there now is a new button in the Game List window, "find position". +When this button is pressed, the loaded game file will be searched for the position currently shown in the board display, +and only games containing this position will be dispayed in the Game List. +(The filter text is also taken into account during such a search.) +When you then load a game selected this way, auto-play will be suppressed, +and in stead you will be automatically moved to the sought position. +Selecting by header text only remains possible through the Filter (WB) / Apply (XB) buttons. +

+Note that searching for a position is a much slower process than searching for a header text, +because all the games have to be replayed to compare their positions. +For big files with tens of thousands of games, this could take appreciable time. +To show progress, messages counting the number of games already processed will be shown in the title bar of the main window. +XBoard will try to preprocess the games, and cache them in memory in a compressed (2 byte per move) format, +to speed up subsequent searches through them. +But if the file is too big, this will not work, and all searches must be conducted from disk. +

+ +
+

+Apart for selecting games by position or by an exact text match in the header line, +you can now also select them by numerical comparison on the rating and date tags. +Thresholds for rating and year can be set, and only games of higher-rated players +or from later years will then be selected. +These thresholds can be set from the Load Game menu dialog, +as well as through the (volatile) command-line options +-eloThresholdAny, -eloThresholdBoth, and -dateThreshold. +The way positions are searched can also be set in this dialog. +You can search for an exact match, but also for positions +that can contain additional material on what are empty squares in the board display, +or material composition with or without exact Pawn structure. +There also is a mode in which you can search for material within a specified range, +where you set up the material that must minimally be present in the lowe board half, +and what could be present optionally next to that in the upper half. +You can also require that this optional material should be balanced, +so that you will only find positions with the same difference in material as what you set up in the lower board half. +Position searches can be extended to also find horizontally mirrored or color-reversed positions. +

+ +

Playing openings with reversed colors

+

+The setting "-loadGameIndex -2" to indicate XBoard should take a new opening line from a game file every two games, +in a match or tournament between engines, +is now also effective in combination with the GUI book. +Provided both engines do use the GUI book, specifying this option +(through ticking the checkbox "Use each line/position twice" in the Tournament dialog) +will cause the odd games to be extracted randomly from the book, +but the following even games then to use exactly the same opening. +When you play an even number of games per pairing, this game will be between the same two engines, +so they will play it with the colors reversed. +This will even work when these two games are played by different XBoard instances working on the same tourney. +

+ +
+

Replacing engines during a tournament

+

+The built-in tournament manager now allows you to replace an engine in a running tournament. +To this end two buttons have been added in the Tournament dialog. +The way it works is that you first replace the name of the engine you want to replace +by the name of the engine you want to replace it with +in the Participants list of the Tournament dialog, +by editing the latter. +After that you can use one of the buttons to perform the substitution. +With "Upgrade" the games already played by the replaced engine remain valid, +and the new engine will only replace it for future games. +With "Replace" all games of the replaced engine will be voided, and be replayed with the new one. +You won't even have to stop the tourney to do this, +as long as the engine you want to erase the games of is not playing at the moment you try to replace it. +

+		 + +
+ +

Converting PVs to SAN

+

+Some engines show ugly PVs (in the message field above the board, or in the Engine-Output window), +using long-algebraic notation. +It is now possible to let XBoard convert PVs to SAN before display, on a per-engine basis, +through the options -fSAN and -sSAN. +This does put some extra workload on the GUI, though, having to parse each PV to extract the meaning of each move, +and then convert it to SAN. +You would also lose any remarks the engine writes in between its moves. +So do not use it frivolously. +

+ +
+ + +

Zooming in on small scores in the Evaluation Graph

+

+The vertical axis of the Eval Graph always runs from -5 to +5 Pawns, +(or -15 to +15 in drop games like Crazyhouse or Shogi), +with ticks at 1, 3 and 5. +Larger scores are not very interesting, as the game is usually completely decided when they occur +(and the graph can overshoot the axis to about +/-7 anyway). +But it makes small scores occurring in the beginning of the game hard to see. +An additional hindrance was that scores below a certain threshold (0.25 in absolute value) +were not drawn at all in the graph, for unclear reasons. +

+
+

+A new option, "-evalZoom N" with integer N, allows you to blow up the range -1 to 1 by the given factor, +to get better view there. +Default value is 1, to mimic old behavior, but usually N=3 provides a much nicer view. +In XBoard the zoom factor can be set from the General Options menu dialog. +A new option "-evalThreshold S" allows you to alter the score threshold below which drawing is suppressed +to S centiPawn (default 25 cP). +The score/depth of the currently displayed move is now printed numerically in the title bar of the Eval Graph, +and no longer in the Comment popup, +so you can more easily see them (and won't be bothered by the Comment popup that much anymore). +

+ +

The point of view of engine scores

+

+Two options have been added to control the point of view of scores. +With "-absoluteAnalysisScores true|false" you can control whether scores in the Engine-Output window +will be displayed from a white perspective, or from the perspective of the side to move, in Analysis mode. +With "-scoreWhite true|false" you can do the same for all modes. +These options have only effect on printing of the scores, +not on score-based adjudication, sorting order of multi-PV lines, +or the Evaluation Graph (which always shows scores from the white perspective). +

+ +
+

New-style move-history window for XBoard

+

+XBoard now has a Move History window similar to that of WinBoard, +which displays the game in free-format PGN style. +This means that score-depth info can now be printed in PGN comment style between the moves, +through the option "-showEvalInMoveHistory true|false", +wich can also be set from the General Options dialog. +Of course clicking on the moves will still bring up the corresponding position on the board, as usual. +Apart from being a step in the XBoard -> WinBoard convergence, +this "landscape" style Move History is preferred over the old "portrait" format, +for more natural tiling of the various widows. +

+		 + +
+ +

Annotating a game with analysis results

+

+The item "Analyze File" in the Mode menu has been replaced by an item "Analyze Game". +The original function of "Analyze File" loading a game file and starting analysis on it, +had already been altered since XBoard 4.5.0. +It was not really useful, as it did the same as what could also be done +by first loading a game, and then switching to Analysis Mode. +In stead it was made to save the analysis results as comments to the moves, +during the automatic stepping through the loaded game. +

+But it was quite illogical to have an item in the Mode menu that would open a file; +such items belong in the File menu. +And being only able to do such annotation on games from files was not very flexible. +The menu item that now replaces it, "Analyze Game", performs the same kind of annotation, +(with engine score/depth and PV), +but now on the game that is already stored, starting from the currently shown position. +As you can stop the auto-stepping at any time, by switching to another mode, +this means you can now limit the annotation to any selected part of the game, +starting where it gets interesting. +

+ +
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