Author: Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
Date: 16:20:35 01/24/98
Tip#1 - Capturing the wily PV Have you ever wanted to record the evolution of the PV in the chess program you were using, but couldn't because the program (like HIARCS and Chessmaster 4000) didn't have a "log" feature like Crafty and MacChess? For example, are you wondering how you would determine your program's thoughts at 23072 seconds for the KKKKup 2? Did you know that you CAN record this information as an animated GIF using the demo version of Gif-gIf-giF on Win3.1/95/NT and on the Mac? And similarly, view that animated GIF using the demo version of "A smaller GIF" on the same platforms? Both are available for download at: http://www.peda.com/ I use Gif-gIf-giF to record LCTII benchmark runs on HIARCS 6.0, to make sure it holds solutions until the 10 minute mark. Just make sure that capture screen area doesn't include things that change TOO often, like the clock displays. On my Mac 7300/180, 8-bit color, 1 frame/second, the overhead seems to be less than 0.5%. I recommend these utilities.I also used them to make the animated chess games at http://members.aol.com/Macchess/, but that uses features in the full version of Gif-gIf-giF. ------------------ Tip #2 - Bagging a PV for email [Macintosh only - unless someone knows of a Windows utility like this] For programs that don't log the PV, there is an even nicer utility on the Mac if you just want to capture what is on the screen for posterity, and perhaps email. The freeware utility Text_Capture_FKEY2.4, at <http://users.aol.com/jwwalker/> works great for this on my Mac 7300/180, System 7.5.5. You just download this tiny program, drop a copy of the "suitcase" into your System Folder (it will go in the Fonts folder automatically), and without even rebooting, now CMD-SHIFT-6 brings up a crosshairs. Just drag a rectangle about text on the display (such as in the HIARCS 6 analysis window, or Chessmaster 4000 "Thinking" window, and when you let go of the mouse button, this utility watches as that region is redrawn, and copies the text to the Clipboard, ready for pasting into your email program or text editor. Here's some unedited examples: HIARCS 6.0 Mac 6ยป23 10 d5-d6 h5-f3 O-O f3-h5 c2-c4 a6-a5 h3-h4 a8-c8 = 16 Chessmaster 4000 Mac Best: e7-e6 e2-e3 d7-d5 g1-f3 f8-d6 f1-b5 c8-d7 b1-c3 d7-b5 c3-b5 Depth: 7 Score: 0.16 Previous: e7-e6 c2-c3 d7-d5 e2-e4 f6-e4 f1-b5 b8-c6 c1-g5 e4-g5 Current: e7-e6 c1-g5 d7-d5 e2-e3 c7-c5 b1-d2 c5-d4 e3-d4 f8-d6 Positions Seen: 70912
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