Arena and EPD analysis...

[Roger Brown]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Roger Brown at 07 April 2004 13:02:41:

Hello all,
For those of you wanting a way to automatically analyse a batch of test suites -or just one - with one or several Winboard and/or UCI engines, the latest version of Arena is the answer to your problems.
Version 1.07 makes the process of selecting the EPD files a simple one. Once the desired engines are lined up then one can go to sleep. I have seven engines currently running their way through WACNEW, BWTC and WCSAC - which have hundreds of positions each - without a problem. The overflow problem seems to have been masterfully sorted out.
After several bug reports, Arena has taken a giant step forward, going where none of my other free or commercial chess programs - most allow epd processing but only one file or engine at a time - have gone before.
I just thought I would share my joy.
Later.

[Jose Carlos]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Jose Carlos at 07 April 2004 15:56:50:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Arena and EPD analysis... geschrieben von:/posted by: Roger Brown at 07 April 2004 13:02:41:

Hello all,
For those of you wanting a way to automatically analyse a batch of test suites -or just one - with one or several Winboard and/or UCI engines, the latest version of Arena is the answer to your problems.
Version 1.07 makes the process of selecting the EPD files a simple one. Once the desired engines are lined up then one can go to sleep. I have seven engines currently running their way through WACNEW, BWTC and WCSAC - which have hundreds of positions each - without a problem. The overflow problem seems to have been masterfully sorted out.
After several bug reports, Arena has taken a giant step forward, going where none of my other free or commercial chess programs - most allow epd processing but only one file or engine at a time - have gone before.
I just thought I would share my joy.
Later.

Arena's ability to process EPD's is off topic in the Winboard Forum, so consider you warned. If you continue with this attitude, you'll have to face moderators wrath. I'll watch you close.
José C. (moderator)
PS.: Just joking You got scared, didn't you?

[Günther Simon]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Günther Simon at 07 April 2004 16:03:39:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: [Moderation] Off topic geschrieben von:/posted by: Jose Carlos at 07 April 2004 15:56:50:

Hello all,
For those of you wanting a way to automatically analyse a batch of test suites -or just one - with one or several Winboard and/or UCI engines, the latest version of Arena is the answer to your problems.
Version 1.07 makes the process of selecting the EPD files a simple one. Once the desired engines are lined up then one can go to sleep. I have seven engines currently running their way through WACNEW, BWTC and WCSAC - which have hundreds of positions each - without a problem. The overflow problem seems to have been masterfully sorted out.
After several bug reports, Arena has taken a giant step forward, going where none of my other free or commercial chess programs - most allow epd processing but only one file or engine at a time - have gone before.
I just thought I would share my joy.
Later.

Arena's ability to process EPD's is off topic in the Winboard Forum, so consider you warned. If you continue with this attitude, you'll have to face moderators wrath. I'll watch you close.
José C. (moderator)
PS.: Just joking You got scared, didn't you?

You really got me first My first idea was, wow! now the mods are
even more concerned about WB on topic than I ever was
(and I was called some 'words' for disliking too much CB only posts
in the past by notorious CB posters)
Regards,
Günther

[Volker Pittlik]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Volker Pittlik at 07 April 2004 16:06:59:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: [Moderation] Off topic geschrieben von:/posted by: Günther Simon at 07 April 2004 16:03:39:

...

PS.: Just joking You got scared, didn't you?

You really got me first ...

:-)
A clear statement from my side what is off-topic in the forum and what not
is still missing. I think this is hard to do.
Because the general topic is "Winboard and related topics" I think
everything what is itemized in the "Related Software" section of the
link section is OK. That list is not concluding. The closer the
topic is to Winboard the better it is.
Regards
Volker

[Roger Brown]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Roger Brown at 07 April 2004 18:33:40:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: [Moderation] Off topic geschrieben von:/posted by: Jose Carlos at 07 April 2004 15:56:50:

Arena's ability to process EPD's is off topic in the Winboard Forum, so consider you warned. If you continue with this attitude, you'll have to face moderators wrath. I'll watch you close.
José C. (moderator)
PS.: Just joking You got scared, didn't you?

Terrified Jose Carlos, especially since I am probably the least tolerant of the moderators on this issue.

Anyway, thanks for your intervention. I was just about to launch into the merits of certain commercial engines and their guis over Winboard and Arena.
Everyone knows that Winboard as a protocol is dead. As for the barbaric and very harsh interface with absolutely no three dimensional graphics capabilities or frills and whistles...
Ugh!
Of course the thing does support over 200 hundred free and commercial Winboard chess engines and at the rate the adapter development process is going, soon UCI executables will be covered as well.
Darn, all of that plus rock-solid performance over days and days of constant usage. Primitive should look so good!

Later.

[Roger Brown]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Roger Brown at 07 April 2004 18:39:53:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: [Moderation] Off topic geschrieben von:/posted by: Günther Simon at 07 April 2004 16:03:39:

You really got me first My first idea was, wow! now the mods are
even more concerned about WB on topic than I ever was
(and I was called some 'words' for disliking too much CB only posts
in the past by notorious CB posters)
Regards,
Günther

Hello Gunther,
I am with you in spirit on this one. I cannot see the relevance of a post discussing the performance of Chessbase engines. I am sure that the good folks at Chessbase would appreciate the information far more than the persons here - especially as their ideas are closely guarded secrets and are therefore not capable of being tested.
Let the words begin!

Later.

[Fabien Letouzey]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 07 April 2004 18:45:23:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: [Moderation] Off topic geschrieben von:/posted by: Roger Brown at 07 April 2004 18:33:40:

Everyone knows that Winboard as a protocol is dead. As for the barbaric and very harsh interface with absolutely no three dimensional graphics capabilities or frills and whistles...
Ugh!
Of course the thing does support over 200 hundred free and commercial Winboard chess engines and at the rate the adapter development process is going, soon UCI executables will be covered as well.
Darn, all of that plus rock-solid performance over days and days of constant usage. Primitive should look so good!

Thanks for expressing my thoughts; I assumed they would have been off topic here
Actually, I am helping its death, as developpers can focus on UCI then
Primitive is a big advantage on say Linux, it means the graphics are fast!
Believe me, fast graphics has become a rare thing on Linux.
Fabien.

[Roger Brown]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Roger Brown at 07 April 2004 18:47:18:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: [Moderation] Off topic geschrieben von:/posted by: Volker Pittlik at 07 April 2004 16:06:59:

A clear statement from my side what is off-topic in the forum and what not
is still missing. I think this is hard to do.

Hello Volker,
This is not a bad thing at all. It certainly makes the moderators' task much more....interesting!
There are developments that make for breakthroughs in Winboard engines or the gui itself. Then there are guis that directly support Winboard - free and otherwise.
A post about six versions of the latest dual, multi-lingual, power sucking gui and engine (available right now for $5,000) is not on topic in my opinion but then I think it should be a good feel thing. Does it feel good? Then allow it.
Lots of room for differing views then....

My serious look...
Later.

[Jose Carlos]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Jose Carlos at 07 April 2004 18:50:57:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: [Moderation] Off topic geschrieben von:/posted by: Roger Brown at 07 April 2004 18:33:40:

Arena's ability to process EPD's is off topic in the Winboard Forum, so consider you warned. If you continue with this attitude, you'll have to face moderators wrath. I'll watch you close.
José C. (moderator)
PS.: Just joking You got scared, didn't you?

Terrified Jose Carlos, especially since I am probably the least tolerant of the moderators on this issue.

Anyway, thanks for your intervention. I was just about to launch into the merits of certain commercial engines and their guis over Winboard and Arena.
Everyone knows that Winboard as a protocol is dead. As for the barbaric and very harsh interface with absolutely no three dimensional graphics capabilities or frills and whistles...
Ugh!
Of course the thing does support over 200 hundred free and commercial Winboard chess engines and at the rate the adapter development process is going, soon UCI executables will be covered as well.
Darn, all of that plus rock-solid performance over days and days of constant usage. Primitive should look so good!

Later.

The only thing I really lacked in winboard over years is tournament support. For this very reason I wrote a little program in VB which handled tournaments by calling WB for each game / match between two programs. It uses an Access 2000 database for the program, with an easy to use interface for adding engines.
I don't use it anymore because it's far more primitive than Arena. I match the first program of the list against all the others, then the second and so on. It calles Winboard saving the games to a common pgn. I didn't even care to create a tournament table as I had Elostat by that time to do the job for me.
Anyway, even if it took me some effort to get to fully enjoy it, Winboard has been a great tool for many years. I still love it.
José C.