Portable WinBoard

[hgm]

I put together a package for WinBoard that would not need an installer, but an simply be unzipped in a folder of your choice, and would not affect anything outside that folder. (No menus, no registry.) This especially for people that dislike installers, or people that want to put it on a memory stick that can be pugged into any machine to give you a fully operational WinBoard.

Since it is of course not possible to predefine file associations that way, the system's "Open with" menu will have to be used to start WinBoard on PGN files. The included version of WinBoard has been made smart enough to distinguish several file types you could open that way (PGN game files, FEN position files, TRN tourney files and XSF settings files (formerly INI files)), and take the apropriate action for handling them. (The XSF files act similar to shortcuts, so no separate shortcuts are needed.)

The portable install can be downloaded from http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-Portable.zip .

Please let me know what you think about it!

[styx]

is it possible to play against the computer with different time controls? for example 1s for the computer and as many time I want for me?

[kinderchocolate]

Thanks. But do you think you should arrange the orders of the list of chess servers? I mean, shouldn't FICS or ICC before alanimus.com?

[hgm]

is it possible to play against the computer with different time controls? for example 1s for the computer and as many time I want for me?

Sure. The Time-Control dialog contains Time-odds entry fields, and you could give the (first and only) engine, say, a time odds of 10. Meaning that its time will be reduced by a factor 10 compared to the nominal time.

Thanks. But do you think you should arrange the orders of the list of chess servers? I mean, shouldn't FICS or ICC before alanimus.com?

Well, the list is hardly important, as with the portable setup there is no other way to start WinBoard as going to the folder, and clicking its icon. As that same folder also contains all the preconfigured xsf shortcut files, you might as well click those to let WinBoard open them. FICS, ICC and the others each have their own xsf file, so you can directly pick whatever ICS you want. The startup dialog should really be only a last resort for when you have to enter the ICS by typing.

Besides, FICS and ICC do not support Seirawan Chess...

[ZirconiumX]

I've visited the Variant-ICS - no-one there.

Stockfish doesn't play seirawan and manages fine.

Matthew:out

[hgm]

The Variant ICS is only a test facility. I do not advertize it for humans. So apart from testing, it is only used for the occasional engine tourney, announced in advance, so people can be there when it starts.

Whether Stockfish manages fine, is a matter of opinion. Seirawan might have another opinion on that than you!

[styx]

is it possible to play against the computer with different time controls? for example 1s for the computer and as many time I want for me?

Sure. The Time-Control dialog contains Time-odds entry fields, and you could give the (first and only) engine, say, a time odds of 10. Meaning that its time will be reduced by a factor 10 compared to the nominal time.

man... your GUI is like an early linux distribution

I really respect your work, believe me. but I have to say that it's not the most intuitive GUI I have seen.

thanks anyway!

[hgm]

Well, I am always open for suggestions how it can be improved. What exactly struck you as counter-intuitive of setting the time-odds in the Time-Control dialog? Did you expect it with Engine Settings? In the File menu?

Or is it just that the term 'time-odds' nowadays is no longer understood, and should be explained in the dialog by adding a phases like "Reduce engine time by the following factors:", "(First) Engine", "Human / Second Engine)"?

[hgm]

Thanks. But do you think you should arrange the orders of the list of chess servers? I mean, shouldn't FICS or ICC before alanimus.com?

This works brilliantly, btw:

To connect to FICS or ICC just drag supplied files ICC.xsf and FICS.xsf on top of the winboard.exe. No more messing with comboboxes in a clumsy startup dialog, it connects you to the selected ICS straight away.

No idea why I cannot get that to work on my WinXP laptop. But on my other machines (Win2k, Vista) it works without a hitch. No need to make any file associations at all, just drag and drop! Works for PGN, FEN, EPD, TRN and XSF. (Should probably also make it work for INI.)

[styx]

I just don't think the user should calculate factors. In my opinion it's easier to make two dialogues where you can specify the human time control and the computer time control as absolute values (seconds/move, minutes/game, moves/minutes).

and another cool feature would be a checkbox "ignore time loss for human player".

so the user can decide whether he wants to practice or to play a real game.