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Subject: Re: Great character representation of a chess board!

Author: Andrew Williams

Date: 00:39:50 10/23/98

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On October 22, 1998 at 23:30:31, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On October 22, 1998 at 22:29:22, Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com) wrote:
>
>>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
>>
>
>Has the same problem as the other one with respect to pawns, however,
>as I can't visually detect Pp unless they are side by side and even then
>it is distracting.  IE maybe "i" for black pawns (sorta looks right) and
>something else for white maybe...
>
>
>>Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)

I have always used "o" for black pawns and "P" for white pawns.
My text board looks like this:

8  . . . . . . . .
7  . . . . . B o .
6  . . . . P . . .
5  . . . . . . o P
4  . b . k . P . .
3  . . . . . K . .
2  . . . . . . . .
1  . . . . . . . .

   a b c d e f g h


This seems clear to me, but I can't tell if that is because I am used to it
now.


Andrew Williams



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