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Text File | 1998-03-02 | 14KB | 275 lines

ExaChess / ExaChess Lite 1.2

Chess database and toolkit for the Mac
© 1996-98 Exant Software and Rolf Exner

Release Notes

Release 1.2 of ExaChess adds several new features and fixes a number of bugs.
The new features include a Copy Position command to copy the current board
position as a picture, and a facility to search a database for games between players
over a particular Elo rating.

All significant changes are detailed in the section Change History below.


New features

Documentation on the above new features is not available in the ExaChess Help file, and is given here:

Copy Position (Edit Menu)

This pops up a submenu allowing you to choose the format of the information that gets copied to the clipboard.

• As Game. This copies the position as a game with a setup position, either Text or PGN according to the setting of General Preferences / Clipboard format is PGN. Positions copied in this manner can be pasted into new Game windows.

• As Picture. This copies the position as a diagram of a chessboard formatted as a Mac picture. The diagram is a square text block using characters of the current printing font. You need to install a chess font and enable it in Chess Preferences for the board to appear as a chessboard. Use this format to paste diagrams into drawing programs.

• As Text Board. This copies the position as a diagram of a chessboard formatted as styled text. The diagram is a square text block using characters of the current printing font (see above). You need to install a chess font and enable it in Chess Preferences for the board to appear as a chessboard. Use this format to paste diagrams into text documents. Note that if the application into whose document you are pasting doesn't support Mac styled text, you may need to reapply your chess font to the pasted text block in order for the board to appear as a chessboard.


Minimum Elo Searches

To search for games by minimum Elo, enter a minimum Elo value in place of a players name when entering database search criteria:
   2400       All games by players rated 2400 or more
   kasp-2600  All games by Kasparov as White against an opponent rated 2600 or more

Elo ratings are taken from the values stored in the games themselves, or if these are not available, by looking up the name in the Masters file in the ExaChess Tools folder.


Upgrading

To upgrade from ExaChess 1.0 or ExaChess Lite 1.0, either move your databases
into the new ExaChess Games folder, or copy the new ExaChess application to
your existing ExaChess folder and the new ExaChess Help and the Opening Key,
Opening Names, and Opening Extn files to your existing Tools folder. Note also that
the King's Indian Samisch database is new, and for ExaChess Pro users there is now
a Utilities folder within the Tools folder.

The index format is unchanged, so you do not need to reindex your databases. However,
the new Opening Key file contains many additional lines and is much better at correctly
classifying openings which involve transpositions. You will need to reindex in order to
pick up such reclassifications.

To upgrade from ExaChess 1.1 or ExaChess Lite 1.1, simply replace the ExaChess
application with the new version, and install the Masters file into your ExaChess Tools
folder.


Change History

Changes in 1.2 with respect to 1.1.3

    GAMES
√ Added Copy Position submenu to copy the position in the front game window in
    one of 3 formats: as Game (Text or PGN game with setup position), as PICT
    using current printing font, and as a styled text board (same as PICT but
    using styled text).
√ Opening Tree display size is now saved with Set Window Defaults for game window
√ Max piece size increased from 48 pt to 72 pt (but larger Staunton pieces will look
    ragged)
√ Increased hash to 64 bits (but longer value not yet used in database indexes)
√ Fixed bug: Font and size can now be adjusted in Text View. Changes in one view
    update the other view.

    DATABASES
√ Can now search for all games played by players with an Elo above a specified value.
    Just enter the Elo in the Players field. If a file Masters is present in the
    Tools folder, missing Elo values are found by looking up the name in the Masters
    file.
√ Fixed bug: Fixed nasty problem of 'Tried to get non-existent resource' error messages
    which would show up after several rounds of changes to database.
√ Fixed bug: PGN files are now parsed in English even when Language is non-English.
    This fixes problems seen by some users of PGN games being parsed for the first
    one or two moves only with the rest of the game as a comment.
√ Fixed bug: Given names are now indexed in full (rather than first initial only)
    so that Database Prefs / NameFormat = 'Surname,Given' works as advertized
√ Fixed bug: Error reporting during failed database operations such as reindexing
    is more reliable, e.g. out of memory errors while building Opening Tree index.
√ Fixed bug: There's now an error message (rather than a crash) if a database whose
    games appear in a Find result is renamed or moved, and an attempt is made to open
    one of those games.
√ Fixed bug [Lite, 1.1]. Databases with more than 256/128 deleted games can again
    be opened.
√ Fixed bug: ShowDuplicates, ShowDuplicatesAll now checked in menu


Changes in 1.1.3 with respect to 1.1.2

    DATABASES
√ Reduced memory requirements further when opening very large databases.
    A 1-million game database can often be opened within ExaChess's default
    memory allocation of 2.4 MB.
√ Fixed bug: No longer crash if ExaChess runs out of memory while opening
    a database window
√ Fixed bug: An initial notes no longer propagates to every move that precedes
    a move with variations when saving games into ExaChess databases


Changes in 1.1.2 with respect to 1.1.1

    GENERAL
√ Improved stability in low memory conditions
√ More error dialogs are now movable modal
√ Libraries now use HOpenDF instead of HOpen under System 7 or later

    GAMES
√ Opening Tree pane is resizable (but new size not yet saved)
√ Opening Tree view now shows percentage games < 1% as 0.x%

√ Fixed bug: Correct variation is now consistently highlighted
    in Show Game Text view.
√ Fixed bug: New unmodified game window is no longer marked as 'dirty'
    so Confirm Close dialog isn't forced when new window is closed
√ Fixed bug: Consecutive PGN nags (e.g. $4 $19 meaning ?? -+) are
    now handled

    DATABASES

√ Fixed bug: Find no longer trashes the display of any already open databases
    which it searches (which could lead to a crash).
√ Fixed bug: Recovery of ExaChess-format databases much less likely to hang.
√ Fixed bug: No longer crash on converting heavily annotated games to CB-format
√ Fixed bug: Only the first 300K games can now contribute to Opening Tree index


Changes in 1.1.1 with respect to 1.1

    GAMES
√ Fixed bug: Balloon help for the game window toolbar was still as for
    the 1.0 icons, not the 1.1 changes

    DATABASES
√ Fixed bug: Recovering ChessBase files with a missing .cbi file works
    again and Recovering shows correct games/s value.


Changes in 1.1 with respect to 1.0

    GENERAL
√ Added many more lines to opening book
√ Changed code to build opening book. New format. Auto-resizing.
√ Fixed bug: Prefs / Beep when done can now be turned off permanently
√ Fixed conflict: Eliminated 'NIL Handle' error message at startup
    where System Help menu has been removed by an extension such as CPU.

    GAMES
√ Rearranged toolbar
√ Added Go To Start and Go To End menu commands and toolbar buttons
√ Show Captured Pieces and Show Game Text settings now saved in Prefs
√ Show Game Text is greatly improved. Last move played is automatically
    highlighted as you play through the game. Clicking on a move positions
    the game at that move (use option-click to set insertion point).
    Arrow keys navigate through the game (use option-arrow key to move
    the insertion point). Changes are applied after return (use option-
    return to type actual return) or space (if Space enters move is
    set in prefs); no need to switch back. Game header is separated from
    moves.
√ Can now enter a date range for correspondence games, in the notation
    1995-97 or 1999-01; end year must be 1 to 5 years from start year;
    can't have month or day present. Supported in Text, PGN and
    ExaChess databases, but not ChessBase or NICBase. (PGN databases use
    a newly invented tag 'EndYear').
√ Removed feature whereby an immediate correction (go back then make a
    different move) deletes the corrected move.
√ An optional semicolon is now allowed before keywords in title
√ Short variations are now shown in full in input box, longer ones are
    shown with first move followed by an ellipsis
√ Added Swedish as a supported notation language
√ Input box next move number now only displayed at the end of a line

√ Fixed bug: Captured pieces now displayed correctly in PPC version
√ Fixed bug: Promoting a pawn with a discovered check is now correctly
    identified as a move giving check
√ Fixed bug: Game is now marked 'dirty' (bullet in title and Save enabled)
    on a new game or after setup, and is no longer marked 'dirty' simply
    on switching back unchanged from Show Game Text
√ Fixed bug: Suggested title on saving a game with no event no longer includes
    result and number of moves
√ Fixed bug: Scrollbar and input field now properly deactivated on Suspend event
√ Fixed bug: Can now set font, size of text in game window
√ Fixed bug: In descriptive notation input, can no longer effect a capture
    with a '-' move, e.g. 1 P-K4 P-KR4 2 Q-R5 (meaning QxP) no longer allowed
√ Fixed bug: Set Main Line now updates move list to bold
√ Fixed bug: Figurines now display correctly for fonts which have a non-zero
    descent (such as Linares)

    DATABASE
√ Added progress bar to show progress of slow database operations
√ Changed NameMatch criteria to handle given names, including incorrectly
    separated names
√ Added support for very large databases. Previously database size was limited
    by the 16M limit on the size of a Mac file's resource fork. Now databases
    with more than 105K games use up to two additional index files (.idx and
    .idp) to hold portions of the index.
√ Major reduction in memory requirements for opening large database: reduced
    from around 1 MB per 100K games to perhaps 250K per 100K games.
√ Added support for Chess Assistant text format in which title is centered and
    year precedes event.
√ SaveIn menu now shows front database as 2nd item for quick access
√ Game No now starts at 1 rather than 0
√ Improved recovery of ExaChess format databases
√ Changed command keys for Previous Game / Next Game to Cmd-[ and Cmd-]
√ Index no longer clips strings to 32 bytes (now clipped to 64)
√ Diacriticals are stripped from opening name in PGN databases
√ Handle changed Chessbase file format (.cbi file has extra 4 bytes) without
    'recovering'. CB files are now written in the new format.

√ Fixed bug: PGN input: Can now handle EventDate tag. Can now parse PGN
    databases with minor imperfections in the data (such as duplicated tags,
    blank lines after each line etc.).
√ Fixed bug: PGN output: Checkmate now indicated with #, FEN and Setup tags
    no longer end in colon.
√ Fixed bug: No of selected games now correctly shown if > 32K
√ Fixed bug: Message text now correctly shows '11 duplicates'; less flicker
√ Fixed bug: ExaChess format databases now skip over spareData
√ Fixed bug: Dupes checking no longer leaves memory allocated if it runs
    out of memory before finishing
√ Fixed bug: Games with annotations after results now handled correctly in Exa
    and CB format databases
√ Fixed bug: SaveAs now enabled only if all games are showing in window
√ Fixed bug: Entering moves on the Position search dialog board no longer
    sets title to Untitled and brings up Confirm Save dialog on exit
√ Fixed bug: Compacting a database no longer changes its format to Exa

    FIND
√ Option-Clear Search now clears results without clearing criteria (useful
    for keeping criteria but not doing Follow on search)
√ Follow on search only happens if previous search actually found some games
√ Cancelling a search now works more reliably

    OPENING TREE
√ Added Opening Tree index which allows game window to instantly show all next
    moves and their stats from the database for any opening position

    EXPORT RTF
√ Diagrams within variations are now supported
√ Fixed bug: The diagram at the start of a game with a setup position was
    being printed only if the Diagrams preference was None. It is now always
    printed unless the preference is None.
√ Fixed bug: Extraneous new line after a diagram no longer produced

    ALL DATABASES
√ Can now select a folder to select all the databases it contains
√ Folders now have a Finder-like disclosure triangle
√ Selection is now remembered and is effective when window is hidden.
    Commands which work on the All Databases window now work on last
    selection when window is hidden.
√ Double-clicking a game file in the window opens the game
√ Fixed bug: Details now updated as soon as a database gets changed (rather
    than when the database's window is closed)

    COMPUTER PLAY
√ Built-in engine can be used to play against the database (the opening tree)
√ Added 'support' for chess engines that can't handle standard algebraic -
    if engine name (or its alias) ends in '-', coordinate notation will be used
√ A computer move is now accompanied by a quiet knock sound, not the
    system beep
√ Fixed bug: Go is now disabled while a move is in progress
√ Fixed bug: Can now enter moves with keyboard can now trigger autoplay
√ Fixed bug: Chess engines are not longer listed in the Play menu if they
    are stored in a subfolder of Tools folder
√ Fixed bug: If default chess engine is missing, it will default to Built-in
    instead of reporting 'File or Folder not found'