what is best chess engine and gui for mac?

[hgm]

Xboard, sorry to say that, is a pain to configure, being based on text configuration files. It's a lot of work for what Scid does in 10 seconds with a very basic menu, so I end up not using it.

Strange. I was told that the Mac version of XBoard, for which I gave the link, had elaborate menu dialogs for everything. (I cannot test that, of course, since I have no Mac.)

Are you sure you were not using some stone-age version?

[hgm]

I am ashamed on behalf of myself and the Macintosh computer chess community that we still don't have a decent free chess GUI. Something must be done about this.

If you want a GUI that is a native Mac application, why not write a native "front-end" for XBoard? (So that we will have an XBoard, a WinBoard and a MacBoard.)

In the past years I have been migrating lots of code from the XBoard front-end to the shared back-end (e.g. the mouse handler, and tables for the tabe-driven dialog creator also used for the engine-options dialog), greatly reducing the amount of code that would have to be ported to adapt it to other platforms.

And I could continue on that path to make the job even easier. E.g. I could move almost all code for displaying the board to the back-end, only drawing on front-end primitives such as drawng lines or filling rectangles, and copying bitmaps. (There is little need to do that now, as it works for both XBoard and WinBoard already, with lots of duplicated code, but making new ports would be a good incentive to do it.)

[javimm]

Xboard, sorry to say that, is a pain to configure, being based on text configuration files. It's a lot of work for what Scid does in 10 seconds with a very basic menu, so I end up not using it.

Strange. I was told that the Mac version of XBoard, for which I gave the link, had elaborate menu dialogs for everything. (I cannot test that, of course, since I have no Mac.)

Are you sure you were not using some stone-age version?

I'll try that version when I arrive home. Hope it works well, as I really enjoyed Xboard in Linux when I used Win/Linux combo a few years back, but I tend to avoid text based configuration apps nowadays if I can.

[hgm]

Well, let me know if it is indeed the version that supports the dialogs. (The shown Board Options dialog should be in the View Menu; most others are in the Options menu.) We are close to releasing this version as 4.5.2, and already did a preparatory "developer" release. But I was under the impression that the guy who makes the packages for Mac takes them directly from my on-line repository, where the latest version can be found.

The official release was mainly waiting for the decision which sound files we should include as standard sounds in the Sound Options dialog, and where to install them.

[micron]

http://www.stockfishchess.com/
The GUI is slightly primitive.

It is not "slightly primitive", it is totally broken, and suffers from so many years of bit-rot that it is far beyond salvation.

As the author, you are entitled to speak strongly. I would never be so rude.
Did I read somewhere that you dislike Objective-C (in which the gui is written)? If so, Stockfish.app is like a Mozart flute concerto.

[javimm]

Well, let me know if it is indeed the version that supports the dialogs. (The shown Board Options dialog should be in the View Menu; most others are in the Options menu.) We are close to releasing this version as 4.5.2, and already did a preparatory "developer" release. But I was under the impression that the guy who makes the packages for Mac takes them directly from my on-line repository, where the latest version can be found.

The official release was mainly waiting for the decision which sound files we should include as standard sounds in the Sound Options dialog, and where to install them.

I've just tried this 4.5.2 version, and it's a bit of an improvement, but I can't find the board config menu you showed previously. Anyway, engine configuration and installation is still manual and text based. Polyglot is installed so I suppose I should configure it to load UCI engines... a bit of a pain. Arrgg.

[hgm]

If the Board Options dialog is not there, it cannot be 4.5.2. I suppose you also don't have the Load, Save, General, ICS, Match and Sounds dialogs in that case.

Configuring the engines should go through the menu even in 4.5.1, though. (Or 4.4.0, for that matter). The required dialog is in the Engine -> Engine #1 Settings menu. Nothing text-based about it (except where the engine wants you to enter texts for string options, of course).

Linux-like systems have there own methods for installing engines. (E.g. apt-get in Ubuntu, I suppose you have something similar on Mac.) You would have to mention to XBoard what engine you want to run it with, though, if the engine doesn't create a men item to run it with XBoard in the install, like

xboard -fcp fruit -fUCI

Not sure how that could be avoided. Having XBoard on install make menu items for every engine under the sun seems a bad idea, especially when the engines are not installed. So it seems unavoidable that you must somehow indicate the engine each time you want to run it, or it would use the default engine.


Engine #N Settings dialog to configure Glaurung

Soon there will also be a dialog to change engine during a session. I already have it working, but it seems bug-prone, so I don't want to include it in 4.5.2 yet.

[javimm]

If the Board Options dialog is not there, it cannot be 4.5.2. I suppose you also don't have the Load, Save, General, ICS, Match and Sounds dialogs in that case.

Configuring the engines should go through the menu even in 4.5.1, though. (Or 4.4.0, for that matter). The required dialog is in the Engine -> Engine #1 Settings menu. Nothing text-based about it (except where the engine wants you to enter texts for string options, of course).

Linux-like systems have there own methods for installing engines. (E.g. apt-get in Ubuntu, I suppose you have something similar on Mac.) You would have to mention to XBoard what engine you want to run it with, though, if the engine doesn't create a men item to run it with XBoard in the install, like

xboard -fcp fruit -fUCI

Not sure how that could be avoided. Having XBoard on install make menu items for every engine under the sun seems a bad idea, especially when the engines are not installed. So it seems unavoidable that you must somehow indicate the engine each time you want to run it, or it would use the default engine.

Soon there will also be a dialog to change engine during a session. I already have it working, but it seems bug-prone, so I don't want to include it in 4.5.2 yet.

According to the link provided earlier, it's version 4.5.2, and the zip file said so. I'm at work right now, and I won't be able to recheck it until tonight, but I'll post what items I do have.

I have the engine menu. There isn't an "apt-get" equivalent in Mac for Mac apps as there is in Linux. The process I use to install an engine is downloading the source from the author's webpage, compile it with the Mac Xcode tools (GCC compiler), open Scid, tell it to install a new engine, look for the executable and then configure it with the menus.

Mac OS X is just another Unix flavour, so everything is very similar to other Unices, although not as standarized as Linux (I do miss "apt-get" and the .deb package system Ubuntu/Debian provided).

What I'd like in Xboard is an option to run an engine with a menu item, like a "Choose Engine..." item. Having to run a different command at start up time for running a certain engine is very inconvenient.

I do like Xboard, but due to this limitations, I've used it in the past as a GUI for playing on ICC and FICS only, but I'd love to use it for analyzing games too, as it's fast and looks great.

Cheers.

EDITED TO ADD: That Load Engine menu is what I'm looking for. The day it's implemented I'll be a happy camper It's a pity I have such a limited programming skills. I wish I could help implementing it.
Thanks for all the work you're putting in the Xboard project.

[Ponti]

How can I install Xboard on a Mac? Is there a .dmg file to move to apps?

[javimm]

OK, sorry for this but it was indeed version 4.5.1, and not 4.5.2. No Board Options dialog present, and I can configure the engine options with the menu.

For Ponti: The link for Xboard for Mac:
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewt ... 19&t=50428

The first post has a link to it.

Cheers.