Author: Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
Date: 19:29:22 10/22/98
Go up one level in this thread
On October 22, 1998 at 21:01:28, Fawna Bergstrom wrote:
>It's great, I agree, except for the black pawns. They look just like the white
>pawns. Can anyone suggest an improvement? I'm stumped!
the board we're discussing is:
> Posted by Bruce Moreland on October 22, 1998 at 13:03:26:
>
> a b c d e f g h
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 8 | |///| |///| |///| |///| 8
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 7 |///| |///| |///| B |/p/| | 7
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 6 | |///| |///| P |///| |///| 6
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 5 |///| |///| |///| |/p/| P | 5
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 4 | |/b/| |/k/| |/P/| |///| 4
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 3 |///| |///| |///| K |///| | 3
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 2 | |///| |///| |///| |///| 2
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> 1 |///| |///| |///| |///| | 1
> +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
> a b c d e f g h
>
> 8/5Bp1/4P3/6pP/1b1k1P2/5K2/8/8 w - - 0 1
Personally, while I agree the board above looks pleasant,
I find it hard to find the pieces. Most of the characters
above will be the same for any position, and I'm interested
in information particular to this position - I want the
positions of the pieces emphasized, and the pattern of the
board de-emphasized. In other words, I want a higher
"signal to noise ratio".
I prefer the board at lower left - if you find that too spartan,
I offer the board at lower right, though I personally find the
row/column labels distractingly similar to the piece letters.
------------------- -------------------
| : - : - : - : - | 8 | : - : - : - : - |
| - : - : - B p : | 7 | - : - : - B p : |
| : - : - P - : - | 6 | : - : - P - : - |
| - : - : - : p P | 5 | - : - : - : p P |
| : b : k : P : - | or 4 | : b : k : P : - |
| - : - : - K - : | 3 | - : - : - K - : |
| : - : - : - : - | 2 | : - : - : - : - |
| - : - : - : - : | 1 | - : - : - : - : |
------------------- -------------------
a b c d e f g h
I like the diagram at left because:
- I can find the pieces without any problem
- nothing other than pieces remotely resemble pieces
- the non-piece markers are minimally intrusive
- I can follow the diagonals easily
- the "dark squares" are clarly dark
I talked the author of the shareware Macintosh PGN reader, "PGNTalk"
into implementing this. The function "Edit: copy position as text"
produced the diagram at left. PGNTalk may be downloaded from:
http://www.rjen.com/Macintosh/PGNTalk.html
Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
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