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Subject: Re: PGN test game?

Author: Rob McDonell

Date: 23:11:31 06/13/98

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I would love to get some test PGN files - and FEN and EPD as well from
anyone who has them.

I'm releasing a new version of K-Chess Elite which will support reading
and
writing PGN, EPD and FEN file formats. It's been an interesting
exercise,
not because the formats are hard but because there seems to be so many
generally accepted deviations from them. For example...

*  Some PGN files have "ep" appended to en passant captures, even though
the PGN spec prohibits it.

*  PGN tags are usually recorded in some sort of logically grouped (at
least to someone) order rather than according to the spec which says
ASCII
order.

*  Some PGN files include WhiteCountry and BlackCountry tags which are
not
in the spec.

*  Some EPD files don't have semicolons between operations which the
spec
says should follow every operation.

*  Some EPD files have miscellaneous information after the final
semicolon,
but this practice is never mentioned in the spec.

*  Some FEN files seems to have comments at the end, surrounded by
square
brackets, again not mentioned in the spec.

Is there somewhere these "deviations" are discussed and either condoned
or condemned? I've tried to cater for all the above, but I'm wondering
whether there are any more out there I'm not aware of.

By the way, if you'd care to try out the last beta version of K-Chess
Elite
you can get it from www.pnc.com.au/~arkangle/kchess.htm

Regards,
Rob McDonell
ARK ANGLES
Web: www.pnc.com.au/~arkangle


On June 13, 1998 at 08:14:51, Manfred Rosenboom wrote:

>On June 12, 1998 at 15:03:30, Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
>wrote:
>
>>Before constructing a "PGN test game" (description below)
>>I thought I'd ask:
>>
>>1)  Does anyone have such a game I could use?
>>2)  If not, and I have to construct this game myself,
>>    are there any added criteria I should consider?
>>
>>====== PGN test game definition ========
>>
>>When beta testing chess software, one of the things I look
>>at is conformance to the PGN "reduced export format" standard.
>>
>>For this purpose, it would be handy to have a game that
>>excercised as much of the minimial PGN specification as
>>possible, including:
>>- en passant capture
>>- disambiguation (both row and column)
>>- nondisambiguation (due to absolute pin)
>>- promotion and underpromotion
>>- kingside and queenside castling
>
>I have a PGN test file with a small set of games, which will
>do most of the jobs. If anyone is interested in this PGN test
>set (plus a description file about the test goals of each game
>in the PGN file), I can make the file public available.
>
>Manfred



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