Beginner --- Journeyman Dialog

[hsmyers]

Chris
Sep 10

to me
Hi,

I was wondering what the source of the ECO.txt file was because I think
I've found an anomaly.

If you search the file for A05 you get
The first occurrence:
"A05","rnbqkb1r/pppppppp/5n2/8/8/5N2/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq -"
which shows White to move, which is correct for 1.Nf3 Nf6
but then on the fourth occurrence:
"A05*","rnbqkb1r/pppppppp/5n2/8/8/5N2/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKB1R b KQkq -"

How could it be Black to move?

What does the '*' mean after A05


As an aside:
I'm just starting to get into Perl, and I was wondering if you know of
any good tutorials for using the module etc.

Thanks for writing this module, I'm going to work my way through it.


Hugh S. Myers <[e-mail]>
Sep 10

to Chris
Chris,

If memory serves, the '*' lines are the 'inverted' versions of a line. You might Google "ECO lines inverted" or something like that. Another possible resource is might be the google group for chess (frankly I don't know there is one, but if there is it would be useful).

--hsm
p.s. The only tutorial as such (at least that I know of) is to run 'perldoc Chess:PGN::ED' from the command line...


Chris
Oct 4 (3 days ago)

to me
On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 11:47:53AM -0600, Hugh S. Myers wrote:
> Chris,
>
> If memory serves, the '*' lines are the 'inverted' versions of a line. You
> might Google "ECO lines inverted" or something like that.

JFTR. No such luck with Google.


Hugh S. Myers <[e-mail]>
Oct 5 (2 days ago)

to Chris
Chris,

I'll ask around. Most likely Eric Schiller can give me chapter and verse and I'll pass it along. His or one or the other of my friends will probably be able to remind me :) And for that matter it would be a good thing to add to the POD/Documentation for the module---for which addition I'll blame you for :)


Chris
Oct 6 (1 day ago)

to me
On Sat, Oct 05, 2013 at 09:55:22AM -0600, Hugh S. Myers wrote:
> Chris,
>
> I'll ask around. Most likely Eric Schiller can give me chapter and verse
> and I'll pass it along. His or one or the other of my friends will probably
> be able to remind me :) And for that matter it would be a good thing to add
> to the POD/Documentation for the module---for which addition I'll blame you
> for :)

No problem. :)

I want to incorporate that module into a cgi I'm playing with but I've
been a bit slack and haven't done much lately.

I'm still learning, (e.g. I still haven't looked into @INC to see how
to use that module, because I can't apt-get install it). As you can tell,
I'm using Debian Linux.

It also seems that, given two fen strings of a before and after move you
can deduce the move with one of those chess modules?

I'm not too good with a bottom-up approach to learning coding, I'm more
of a top-down guy.

I would be keen on working on a list of tasks and implementing them
using the chess modules at cpan, e.g:

* display a fen position using icons (I'm storing the FEN in a
PostgreSQL database and using DBI to retrieve the details.

No doubt there are some other tasks that can be done but I'm not aware
of them (yet).

Thanks for all your work! It's great that a lowly person can talk to the
guy who wrote the code! -- the benefits of free software!



Chris,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you.

• You should be able to just download the module from cpan and install it as is. Google 'install cpan module Debian' for instructions.
• Do you know about http://www.perlmonks.org/? If not get thee hence to the monastery and join up. Invaluable help awaits!
• Seek to make the 'still learning' mindset permanent. One of the classic(for a reason) texts on Zen is 'Zen mind---beginner mind' by Shunryu Suzuki available here(pdf link follows). One of the best introductions to programming that I know---and it has nothing and everything to do with programming! http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/zenmind.pdf
• I've lived through all of the revolutions in programming. As my friends in Vietnam would say, 'It's all good' You will develop ways that work for you and these ways will change over time---don't worry about the current fads unless they are useful.
• Regarding fen-before and fen-after...yes such a comparison would in fact tell you the move. That said, nothing I've included in my tool set currently does so. I'll have to scratch my head a bit and see what I can come up with---interesting idea, I think I'll steal it! :)
• Regarding display of fen position, Here is an idea you might want to play with. First be aware (we all need more 'wares) that virtually every one uses or has installed on their system a Unicode font. Then understand that the Unicode spec includes chess pieces! Trust me when I say that this is a really good thing :) Imagine boards that you can scale in size. Imagine further that you can allow users some control over set design (still in its infancy but do-able) Now look at the idea of HTML5 and other modern additions to web design(for instance such as http://jquery.com/ I've used this for a variety of things. Other libraries as well---investigate http://javascriptlibraries.com/
• Other tasks/ideas? Of course. I've been working with chess and computers from the days of the Z80/8080/80/85 till now---there is no end of ideas to imagine/steal/embroider etc/Und so weiter.
• 'Lowly person'? Bosh! We are just people at different points on the same(or different) paths. The top of the mountain or the end of the road is just the goal---it's the journey that is the point of it all :)