Portable WinBoard

[hgm]

Same message Doc. Connection closed by ICS.
Is this line from the ini correct?: freechess.org /icsport=5000 /icshelper=timeseal

Yes, that line is correct. But that doesn't matter really, as the tests you just did shows that the problem also occurs if you don't use WinBoard (and thus the line) at all.

Something in your system is preventing timeseal and timestamp to connect to FICS. But it is not blocking telnet. So it seems to be selective, like a firewall. Perhaps you have firewalls you are not aware of.

You could change the line to /icshelper=telnet

As you already established that telnet works fine, that should allow WinBoard to connect to FICS. But of course you would not be compensated for lag, then.

[tano-urayoan]

Same message Doc. Connection closed by ICS.
Is this line from the ini correct?: freechess.org /icsport=5000 /icshelper=timeseal

Yes, that line is correct. But that doesn't matter really, as the tests you just did shows that the problem also occurs if you don't use WinBoard (and thus the line) at all.

Something in your system is preventing timeseal and timestamp to connect to FICS. But it is not blocking telnet. So it seems to be selective, like a firewall. Perhaps you have firewalls you are not aware of.

You could change the line to /icshelper=telnet

As you already established that telnet works fine, that should allow WinBoard to connect to FICS. But of course you would not be compensated for lag, then.

Thank you for your help Dr. I suppose the router/modem firewall is blocking the timeseal/timestamp so I need to create an application. Which protocol to use TCP/UDP? And which ports range?

Note: I found a portable Arena in which I could log to FICS.

[hgm]

I can't believe this could be a problem outside your PC. Because if it is the router, how would it know if it is telnet or timeseal that is making the connection? The TDP/UDP and port range is usually something you only need for incoming connections, not for outgoing.

The only other explanation I have is that you are (with WinBoard) somehow using a defective timeseal or timestamp. On my Win XP / Celeron M the versions I packed work, though. No doubt Arena comes with its own timeseal. You can test the timeseal in the Arena folder using the same lines as I gave above (but this time changing to the Arena folder first). If that turns out to work, you could copy Arena's timeseal to the WinBoard folder.

Or perhaps Arena is not using timeseal at all.

[tano-urayoan]

I can't believe this could be a problem outside your PC. Because if it is the router, how would it know if it is telnet or timeseal that is making the connection? The TDP/UDP and port range is usually something you only need for incoming connections, not for outgoing.

The only other explanation I have is that you are (with WinBoard) somehow using a defective timeseal or timestamp. On my Win XP / Celeron M the versions I packed work, though. No doubt Arena comes with its own timeseal. You can test the timeseal in the Arena folder using the same lines as I gave above (but this time changing to the Arena folder first). If that turns out to work, you could copy Arena's timeseal to the WinBoard folder.

Or perhaps Arena is not using timeseal at all.

I am using the ones provided by you in your initial post, so I assume something is broken from my side. Swinging blindly I change your timeseal with the one in the Arena package. (found no timestamp in Arena folder). I got the same message.
Anyway thank you for your help and patience.

[hgm]

This is very weird. When you run the timeseal that came with Arena from the Arena folder (again with the comand "timeseal freechess.org 5000"), does it give you the welcome page or the error message? If it also gives you an error, I don't see how Arena can connect, unless it does not use its own timeseal at all. If you get the error message, it is very strange that it would connect from the Arena folder, but not from the WinBoard folder. A firewall could do that, however. (It could, for instance, refuse any internet access by exe files not in the C:\Program Files\ tree.)

[Zhu.Jianzhao]

In fact, I still like the classic winboard or the mod winboard-x.

As they are much simple, without chess variations, I care the chess most, so I do not want there are so many variations in the program which I seldom use.

It would be great if winboard will have a version which mainly concerning chess, as winboard-x have some bugs.

Besides, I'm used to edit the polyglot.ini to use UCI engines, the menu of UCI or so in current winboard always confused me. Simple is best!

[hgm]

Well, all a person would ever see of the variant support, if he would not use variants, is a single extra item in the File menu ("New Variant"). That the presence of a single extra menu item would confuse you too much to use a piece of software seems just plain nonsense...

But a solution for those who cannot bear to see the word variant, there already exists a good solution: just create a file variantless.lng, containing the single line

"New &Variant...\tAlt+Shift+V" === " "

and select the language 'Variantless' from the Help menu. Then you won't see the "New Variant" menu item anymore, and will effectively have your variant-free WinBoard!

If you like to edit ini files, fine. No one is stopping you, and you can do it just the same in current WinBoard. No one is forcing you to open the Engine Settings dialog. You could even have the menu items become invisible by the same trick as above, providing some more 'translations'.

Simple is indeed best, but the problem is that 99+% of GUI users would not agree with you that editing ini files is simple.

So the short answer is "No, I will not be making special versions for people that do not need a certain menu item!". If there are items you don't need, just don't click them...

[tano-urayoan]

By the way, how could I add the shogi variant to the portable version?

p.d. The ICS connection is now working, it was either the firewall or antivirus "isolating" the winboard application so just allowing it solved the problem.

[hgm]

OK, great it works now. It had to be something like that. Probably everything in the WinBoard folder was 'blacklisted' for accessing the internet, which is why the timeseal that came with Arena ceased working when you copied it to the WinBoard folder.

What exactly do you expect of 'adding the shogi variant'? WinBoard does support Shogi, you can select it from the new variant at any time. Do you want Shogi engines with it, or a 'shorcut' to start WinBoard in Shogi mode?

If you use WinBoard for both Chess and Shogi it could be a good idea to create an xsf file containing all settings you need for Shogi. For instance, in the preconfigured Shogi release I used a file:

Code: Select all

;*******************************************************************************
; WinBoard 4.5 master settings file
;
; should be used ONLY for redefining compiled-in defaults of volatile options.
; USERS USED TO EDITING THE winboard.ini SHOULD NOW EDIT settings.ini INSTEAD!
;
;*******************************************************************************
;
; redefine default variant as Shogi (Note: piece nicknames as used by ICS)
;
/variant=shogi
/pieceNickNames=".............HD..............hd."
/colorNickNames="sg"
;
; define engines to appear in start menu as Shogi engines, and set default engine
;
/firstChessProgramNames={sdk09s /fd=Shokidoki
"gnushogi -B gnushogi.bbk" /fd=gnushogi
"TJshogi" /fd=TJshogiWB
"UCI2WB -s LaramieV3.exe LaramieV3"
"UCI2WB -s Lesserkai.exe Lesserkai"
"UCI2WB -s BlunderUSI.exe Blunder-20091023-Binary\Binary"
'UCI2WB -s ssp.exe PetitShogi " byoyomi %d"'
'UCI2WB -s SpearShogidokoro.exe Spear " byoyomi %d"'
'UCI2WB -s gpsusi.exe GPSshogi\single " byoyomi %d"'
BonanzaWB.exe /fd=Bonanza_Feliz_0.0\winbin
}
/secondChessProgramNames={sdk09s /sd=Shokidoki
"gnushogi -B gnushogi.bbk" /sd=gnushogi
"TJshogi" /sd=TJshogiWB
"UCI2WB -s LaramieV3.exe LaramieV3"
"UCI2WB -s Lesserkai.exe Lesserkai"
"UCI2WB -s BlunderUSI.exe Blunder-20091023-Binary\Binary"
'UCI2WB -s ssp.exe PetitShogi " byoyomi %d"'
'UCI2WB -s SpearShogidokoro.exe Spear " byoyomi %d"'
'UCI2WB -s gpsusi.exe GPSshogi\single " byoyomi %d"'
BonanzaWB.exe /sd=Bonanza_Feliz_0.0\winbin
}
/cp
/fcp=sdk09s /fd="Shokidoki"
/scp=sdk09s /sd="Shokidoki"
;
; select a shogi opening book.
;
/polyglotBook="shogi_book.bin"
/usePolyglotBook=true
; (We could by default switch the GUI book on, so we would not have to give
;  the XBook options with each engine, by uncommenting the next two lines.)
;/firstXBook
;/secondXBook
;
; set bitmap background for board
;
/useBoardTexture=true
/liteBackTextureFile="wood_l.bmp"
/darkBackTextureFile="wood_l.bmp"
/liteBackTextureMode=1
/darkBackTextureMode=1
;
; set line width to 1, and use arrow for highlighting
;
/overrideLineGap=1
/highlightMoveWithArrow=true
;
; set Shogi-style piece orientations, colors and board
;
/flipBlack true
/allWhite true
/whitePieceColor=#ffffcc
/blackPieceColor=#ffffcc
/lightSquareColor=#f0b030
/darkSquareColor=#f0b030
;
; select font for piece rendering, but switch it off
;
/usePieceFont=false
/renderPiecesWithFont="shogi"
/fontPieceToCharTable="HFCBGE...D.OMKJNLAhfcbge...d.omkjnla"
/fontPieceBackColorWhite=#000000
/fontPieceForeColorWhite=#ffffcc
/fontPieceBackColorBlack=#000000
/fontPieceForeColorBlack=#ffffcc
/fontPieceSize=80
;
; redirect saving and reading of persistent options to settings.ini
;
/saveSettingsFile="Shogi settings.ini"
/settingsFile="Shogi settings.ini"
;
/boardSize=moderate

This sets the variant to Shogi, automatically adapts the display to give you traditional oriental-style Shogi board (only available with buit-in pieces in board size moderate), makes Shokidoki the default engine, defines lists of Shogi engines for in the Startup and Load Engine dialog, configures a Shogi piece font (so the user can easily switch it on).

Of course you would have to obtain the the font and put it in your system's Fonts folder, and download all the engines you want to use, to places where the preconfigured engine list supposes them to be.

As presumably you would not want all those settings to leak into the settings file you also use for Chess (making you lose your list of Chess engines!), it also defines a separate file for saving Shogi settings. (An alternative would be to include /saveSettingsOnExit=false in the file, but that would still desroy your Chess settings if you accidentally hit "Save Settings Now".

Putting all this in a .XSF file, could make you start WB in Shogi mode by simply dragging it on top of the WinBoard.exe.