Ratings & Comments
Ok, maybe I see. Since the space is outside the ?> it gets incorporated into the output stream?
Yes. Unlike Game Courier, which saves an image file to the server, drawdiagram.php simply becomes the image file. So, it's output has to be a pure image file. Since the set file gets included in it, that set file must be free of any text output.
Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 19, 2020 09:46 PM UTC:I am referring to a space in the php file that defines the piece set, not the image file created by the script. The diagram designer executes php code to dynamically create and return a binary image, right? Why would whitespace in the php source code of a program affect its output?
Update: Ok, maybe I see. Since the space is outside the ?> it gets incorporated into the output stream?
The piece sets that don't work with diagram designer all have an extra carriage return at the end.
That makes perfect sense. While the Game Courier scripts create an HTML page, the drawdiagram.php script used by the Diagram Designer produces an image file. If that image file contains any text, even a white space, it is corrupted.
Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 19, 2020 06:23 PM UTC:With some extensive testing I've been able to figure out the issue, although I don't understand it. The piece sets that don't work with diagram designer all have an extra carriage return at the end. Remove it, and they work fine. Take a file that works, put an extra blank line after the ?> line, and it breaks. Very odd for whitespace to break code...
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 18, 2020 08:31 PM UTC:Oh, ok. I guess that makes sense. Unfortunately, that means the diagram designer can't show uncheckered boards, but that's not critical.
Also, in Game Courier, if there is only one square color, it will draw outlines around the squares as shown in this preset: https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DMaorider+Chess%26settings%3Ddefault But Diagram Designer doesn't do this. It just shows a solid board with nothing to separate the squares.
That's a feature of the Table rendering method, which the Diagram Designer does not use. Game Courier does not do this for the GIF, JPG, or PNG methods.
Nine elder (아홉 장로). Sittuyin + Shogi.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Can this be published please?
Diagram Designer. Lets you display diagrams without uploading any graphics.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 18, 2020 04:22 PM UTC:Some piece sets still won't render a board with diagram designer although all the individual pieces show correctly. My earlier speculation that it involves sets with "for" in the title appears to be incorrect, or there is more to it. The ones that fail all seem to have "for" in the name, but some others containing "for" do work.
Also, in Game Courier, if there is only one square color, it will draw outlines around the squares as shown in this preset: https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DMaorider+Chess%26settings%3Ddefault But Diagram Designer doesn't do this. It just shows a solid board with nothing to separate the squares.
Sac Chess. Play classical chess along with classical compound pieces: amazons, chancellors, archbishops...[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]My opponent is having trouble moving in the following game of ours
I didn't notice any problem when I tried moving as him. If the problem is with using the mouse or touchscreen to move, he should update to a more recent browser or report which browser and device he is using.
My opponent is having trouble moving in the following game of ours - maybe the log/preset is broken, or maybe there's a technical problem like Carlos had in another Sac Chess game between himself and me?:
https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Sac+Chess&log=panther-cvgameroom-2020-217-110
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It showed up when I looked at it. Since game pages are cached, and scripts are not, there will sometimes be a delay before a new comment shows up on the page it was posted to, but there won't be any delay in it showing up on the comments page. There is no problem with the code. It is simply that the code is not run when displaying a cached page.
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 18, 2020 01:07 AM UTC:Something seems wrong with the code that displays comments on a game page. This page: https://www.chessvariants.com/41.dir/2pipe.html does not show my most recent comment on the page, but if you view all comments, then it does appear.
Two Pipe Chess. Setup on 41-squares board looks like two tobacco pipes. (9x5, Cells: 41) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 17, 2020 06:30 PM UTC:Although the rules don't state it, pawns on the first rank can move two spaces, subject to en passant capture. I determined this by looking at the Zillions implementation.
Insane. Pieces change to random type when they move. With program playing this variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 17, 2020 02:51 PM UTC:What if a piece randomly changes into a pawn on the first or second rank? Can it then move two spaces? What about the eighth rank? Does it then promote? Or is it stuck forever?
The rules don't seem to address any of this.
MS Edge seems to be the browser that came with my Windows 10 laptop.
Using that particular laptop (which is strangely a bit sluggish when using its built-in mouse, even when I'm not on the internet), I was able to finally reply to Aurelian, in the game log in question. Thanks Greg & Fergus.
Copycat chess. Members-Only Variant centered around piece which copy, and also a cat is there.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
Tax Chess. King mobility affected by the placement of pawns of the same color.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Ben Reiniger wrote on Tue, Sep 15, 2020 09:26 PM UTC:This is interesting. I'd like a more descriptive name for the variant, but I don't have one to suggest right now...
Edge is now Chromium-based and can run all the same extensions as Chrome, as well as its own Microsoft extensions. I got uBlock Origin from the Microsoft store, and I got NoScript from the Chrome store.
Greg Strong wrote on Tue, Sep 15, 2020 01:39 PM UTC:Edge should work fine but I don't know if it has plug-ins for ad blockers, nor do I know if it runs in a security sandbox. (It's Microsoft and they are not exactly known for putting security first. Or even second.) These are the important things if you are going to continue to run Win7. Firefox should work for you just fine, although Chrome should as well.
I have a Windows 10 laptop (besides the Windows 7 one). I could try to use Windows Edge with it, if that's also an okay browser for with CVP website/Game Courier these days.
In the past I used FireFox after Fergus suggested it, but eventually that browser gave me some sort of troubles on one or more of my computers (not sure if it was on the Windows 7 laptop, which was actually converted from being an original Windows Vista laptop by a family member). A relative told me Chrome could cause me difficulties as well, but I don't know if she was really sure.
Greg Strong wrote on Mon, Sep 14, 2020 05:39 PM UTC:If you are still running Windows 7, you should discontinue use of Internet Explorer. I would recommend you install Firefox, and then add the uBlock Origin extension (an ad blocker). Firefox runs in a security sandbox, and the ad blocker will reduce the chances of even viewing malware in the first place. Running Windows 7 still won't be 100% safe, but this will be much, much better than running IE. Under no circumstances should you run IE on Win7 at this point.
When I click on 'Kevin Pacey to move', I only get to see the diagram, and the note saying to make and preview my move. Maybe a bug with the preset, or with CVP website/Game Courier? I have a handicap in that with my Windows 7 Windows Explorer browser, I cannot move by mouse-clicking on a piece, if that would have helped in this case (I need to type in my moves, which I'm unable to do in the case of this log's apparent bug).
It worked fine in Firefox, but when I tested Internet Explorer, it did not work. Since I have updated my computer to Windows 10, and Internet Explorer isn't giving me the debugging information I need, I am abandoning support for Internet Explorer. If you're going to stick to Windows 7, you should use a browser that is still kept up-to-date, such as Firefox or Chrome. However, I do recommend updating your computer to Windows 10, because Windows 7 is no longer supported, and it may become increasingly vulnerable to threats on the internet. So, here is a link on how to do that:
https://www.howtogeek.com/509087/how-to-upgrade-from-windows-7-to-windows-10-for-free/
For the log
When I click on 'Kevin Pacey to move', I only get to see the diagram, and the note saying to make and preview my move. Maybe a bug with the preset, or with CVP website/Game Courier? I have a handicap in that with my Windows 7 Windows Explorer browser, I cannot move by mouse-clicking on a piece, if that would have helped in this case (I need to type in my moves, which I'm unable to do in the case of this log's apparent bug).
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Also, the Marseillais Chess preset is exiting with an error as soon as you click the button for it on the game's Game Courier Preset page.
There were a couple typos in the include file for that game. I have now fixed them.
I encountered a bug when using presets I made for large Shogi variants such as Chu Shogi. The bug prevents the blue boxes that highlight legal moves from being displayed for the second part of a double move. Apart from that, everything works normally. I also tried this with the Balanced Marseillais Chess preset, but the bug was not present there. Any ideas as to what's causing this?
It wasn't correctly handling the move "pass". I made an adjustment so that it now works.
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sun, Sep 13, 2020 03:47 PM UTC:I encountered a bug when using presets I made for large Shogi variants such as Chu Shogi. The bug prevents the blue boxes that highlight legal moves from being displayed for the second part of a double move. Apart from that, everything works normally. I also tried this with the Balanced Marseillais Chess preset, but the bug was not present there. Any ideas as to what's causing this?
Also, the Marseillais Chess preset is exiting with an error as soon as you click the button for it on the game's Game Courier Preset page.
The Sultan's Game. Variant on 11 by 11 board from 19th century Germany. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]📝Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 11:43 PM UTC:I have rewritten most of this page with updated information from Jean-Louis Cazaux's excellent new book A World of Chess, co-authored with Rick Knowlton. The previous version had the initial setup incorrect (both of a player's bishops on the same color) and incorrectly identified the author of a book on chess variants as the game's inventor. Additional historical information has also been added.
I still need to make a similar revision to The Emperor's Game
Any idea why?
The boardflags string was period delimited. Since this value was included in the value of posvar, whose value was being used as a variable name, and array elements are now period delimited, it was treating it as an array element. I stopped this by making the value of boardflags comma delimited.
Hello Fergus, In the game below:
when black tries to move the king, a threefold repetition is claimed. Any idea why?
Summary of Game variations, Clock times and other Information. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 03:59 AM UTC:This page is a mess which, in my view, should not have been published. If there are over 30 variants to Tiger Chess, they should be listed on that page, not here, were no one would find them anyway - since the name of the page, "Summary of Game variations, Clock times and other Information", does not indicate what it is.
If you'd like to format this variant information in reasonable HTML, I will happily add it to the bottom of the Tiger Chess page. But I am scheduling this page for deletion a month from now. If nothing further is done, I will add a comment to the Tiger Chess page linking to archive.org's copy of this page so that those interested in Tiger Chess will still be able to find it.
Full Cavalry. Rooks are replaced by Lancers and castling is still legal.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Makes sense, and thank you for the compliment. I figure it would be more approachable and manageable for ChessV than 8-Piece Chess (despite my personal love of the latter).
88 Hexagons Chess. Hexagonal chess on chessboard with 88 hexagons.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 01:42 AM UTC:Posted. Interesting looking game!
I converted the graphics to PNG so I could make the backgrounds transparent. The backgrounds were white and the web page background is not white. I may make some small edits to the HTML formatting later, but for now it is pretty good.
Full Cavalry. Rooks are replaced by Lancers and castling is still legal.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 01:41 AM UTC:You're welcome.
Yes, ChessV is still in development, off-and-on. New versions will be forthcoming, but I make no guarantees about what they will include. The effort involved with programming support for the Lancer is probably "moderate". But there is an almost infinite list of things that should be added, and honestly, there are many that are desired by a larger group of users. But it may happen at some point. It is an interesting piece.
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Ok, I have removed extra whitespace from all piece sets and verified that they all now work in diagram designer.