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Rich Hutnik wrote on Sat, Oct 11, 2008 03:08 AM UTC:
I want to address questions raised, and then go for what I would like to accomplish:
1. The reason for having and from notation: A7-B4 (or I gave A7:B4, because negatives are reserved for board notation) is several reasons: A.  I need to account for the difference between games where a piece does multiple moves, verses one where a game enables multiple pieces to move. B.  It is easier to read, and communicates better also to a computer what is going on.  Again, if you are thinking in terms of chess, you can drop the delimiter. C. In cases where pieces interacting with one another can have multiple possible outcomes (capture vs non-capture), you need to have some way to signify this. D. Need to be aware of the standard picked for handling multiple dimensions.  As it is now, it is letter, number, letter, number, etc... In case of where you would have a piece leaping from a 2D board to a 3D board, then you could have possible uneven dimensions between spaces.  The desire is to avoid possible conflicts.  If there isn't any, then it might be possible to do shortening even further.
2. I believe I do have a way to account for pieces being dropped on the board.  It is important to signify this.  I have been a bit shy about using @ though, out of concern what can be passed through a web browser as data.

My main interest now in regards to some universal notation is to have some
format for data, that enables sending of data from one system to another,
to insure that a move is properly executed by a computer, based on what
was sent.  This format should be universal in its format, and work with as
many abstract strategy games as possible, so that people running a site
like the Play.Chessvariants Courier system, SuperDuperGames, Richard's
PBEM Server, and others, only have to worry about getting a player's turn
properly transmitted.  Yes, knowledge of the game will be important, but
what matters is the formatting works.  It is one format for communication
that works.  

As for N-H7 to a possible move, is that such a notation ends up being
broken when you look at a near infinite number of pieces.  You also risk
running out of letters here.  If you go with algebraic notation for
spaces, such as F6-H7, then you can be able to facilitate every single
chess variant about, if only one piece is permitted per space at a time.

Again, what I want to attempt here with this format is for someone to be
able to create a GUI that can interact with the Chess Variant website's
courier program and the others.  I would like a format that would work to
enable the GUI to communicate with the server.  I would like the format to
remain consistent and robust enough, that one could add another game and
chess variant, and all you have to do is worry about maybe the name of the
pieces, and the game rules, and standards for board set up.  You don't
have to create some format to communicate moves for every game.  You have
the format done.

If people want to create some universal format that is easy for humans to
understand that communicate moves, please come up with it.  My interest
now, though, is enabling computers to be able talk to one another and
communicate moves.

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