Author: Tim Foden
Date: 09:50:02 10/18/00
Go up one level in this thread
On October 18, 2000 at 12:37:33, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>On October 18, 2000 at 10:51:25, Steve Maughan wrote:
>
>>I'm writing a PGN / EPD parser for my program. I've managed to find the PGN
>>standard on the Internet and implemented most of it.
>>
>>I'm hoping to make my parser as robust as possible so it would be great if it
>>could cope with the situation when other programs produce less than standard PGN
>>output e.g. using o-o ('zero'-'zero') instead of O-O?. My question is does
>>anyone know of a document that discussed how people have alterned the PGN
>>standard?
>>
>>All help appreciated!
>>
>>Steve Maughan
>
>The guy who owns PGN is Steven J. Edwards. He has been claiming for several
>years that a revision is in the works. He does not want help. When I proposed
>some new NAG's that would get PGN in line with Informant notation he told me
>essentially that he would be discussing the new standard with "experts such as
>Bob Hyatt", which I took as "go away".
>
>Steven J. Edwards has decreed that 0-0 (zero-zero) means double forfeit, so he
>reserves that token.
>
>This is obviously wrong but good luck getting him to change it.
>
>An obvious compromise is to check for 0-0 (zero-zero) in the result tag, and if
>it's present, don't convert 0-0 (zero-zero) as O-O (oh-oh) in the move list.
>Good luck getting him to listen.
>
>A problem with PGN is that it was designed as an interchange format. This means
>that computers generate it, and computers eat it. Computers don't have to deal
>with 0-0 (zero-zero) or "e2e4" or "ba6" (when B is either a bishop or a pawn),
>and so forth.
>
>This is a problem because people type the stupid stuff in by hand, and even
>people who program computers mess up more or less constantly. So you do have to
>cope with non-standard algebraic. I don't think there is a "standard" regarding
>how you deal with non-standard algebraic.
>
>bruce
The worst I had to deal with in GreenLight's book builder were moves like "bc4"
which can mean either Bishop to c4 or Pawn to c4. In quite a few games (e.g.
from crafty's medium book PGN) it actually means Bishop to c4.
Also it may be worth remembering that O-O-O and O-O can be found in forms with
check and checkmate e.g. O-O-O+ and O-O# or even O-O++.
Cheers, Tim.
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.