H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Aug 19, 2017 06:25 AM UTC:
Unfortunately the Interactive Diagram (or WinBoard) does not understand the (,) or [] notations. The 'a' modifier allows you to glue steps together, by using 'mp' for the mode of the preceding leg, which then would allow it both to move and to hop, so that it becomes completely insensitive to the occupation of the intermediate square. The 'a' system for multi-leg moves has the limitation that all steps have to belong to the same Betza atom, however. All leaps can be written as a sequence of King steps, but for long leaps this does get a bit cumbersome. Like mpafmpafmpafsW to write (1,4) as four King steps. For (1,5) two Zebra leaps could do it, and for (1,4) three Knight moves, but it is questionable whether this would give something that is easier to understand.
I am aware this is rather cumbersome, but I don't like the other two solutions much better. The [] notation to glue moves is just as kludgy. The coordinate notation is at least general, but I don't like to reserve parentheses for this. The cleanest would be if these leaps had their own capital. But unfortunately the iconic piece for (1,4) is the Giraffe, and Betza already used a 'G', seemingly without reason, for (3,3). Of course at some point you would run out of letters anyway. Leaps longer than 3 squares are so rare that it doesn't hurt too much if they can only be indicated in a cumbersome way. Note that for lame leaps it would be necessary to specify the entire path anyway, with 'm' rather than 'mp' modality for the non-final legs.
The simplicity of Betza notation often hinges on the choice of convenient defaults (like 'all directions' in absence of directional modifiers, 'mc' in absence of modal modifiers, step/infinite range in absence of a range specifier...). Perhaps the default modality of a non-final leg should be 'mp', then the (1,4) move would simplify to afafafsW, which reads somewhat easier. The corresponding lame move would then be mafmafmafsW. But in WinBoard I defined the default modality to be 'm', under the assumption that short-range lame leapers would be more common than very-long-range leapers.
Unfortunately the Interactive Diagram (or WinBoard) does not understand the (,) or [] notations. The 'a' modifier allows you to glue steps together, by using 'mp' for the mode of the preceding leg, which then would allow it both to move and to hop, so that it becomes completely insensitive to the occupation of the intermediate square. The 'a' system for multi-leg moves has the limitation that all steps have to belong to the same Betza atom, however. All leaps can be written as a sequence of King steps, but for long leaps this does get a bit cumbersome. Like mpafmpafmpafsW to write (1,4) as four King steps. For (1,5) two Zebra leaps could do it, and for (1,4) three Knight moves, but it is questionable whether this would give something that is easier to understand.
I am aware this is rather cumbersome, but I don't like the other two solutions much better. The [] notation to glue moves is just as kludgy. The coordinate notation is at least general, but I don't like to reserve parentheses for this. The cleanest would be if these leaps had their own capital. But unfortunately the iconic piece for (1,4) is the Giraffe, and Betza already used a 'G', seemingly without reason, for (3,3). Of course at some point you would run out of letters anyway. Leaps longer than 3 squares are so rare that it doesn't hurt too much if they can only be indicated in a cumbersome way. Note that for lame leaps it would be necessary to specify the entire path anyway, with 'm' rather than 'mp' modality for the non-final legs.
The simplicity of Betza notation often hinges on the choice of convenient defaults (like 'all directions' in absence of directional modifiers, 'mc' in absence of modal modifiers, step/infinite range in absence of a range specifier...). Perhaps the default modality of a non-final leg should be 'mp', then the (1,4) move would simplify to afafafsW, which reads somewhat easier. The corresponding lame move would then be mafmafmafsW. But in WinBoard I defined the default modality to be 'm', under the assumption that short-range lame leapers would be more common than very-long-range leapers.