New notation system: "fraction notation"

[Zachary Brown]

Hi folks,

Staircase notation is good for any crumble position, no matter how complicated. But in the early stages of a game, there's an easier way -- you can just give the fraction of the board from the left, and the fraction of the board from the bottom, as the way to identify the lower left corner of your piece. I've added the description to the quora pages:

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-notate-moves-in-the-game-of-Crumble/answer/Zachary-Brown-25

So basically, you'll be saying something like "1/3,1/2VEN" instead of "1,2,2,4VEN"

In simpler positions, fraction notation could be easier and quicker than staircase notation. In the later stages of the game, you'd probably revert to using staircase notation to avoid too much calculation.

Be well,

Zack

[Jan Kok]

The fraction notation seems like a good idea.

Re: staircase notation, it seems strange to me that you want to count ALL intersections along the direction you are traveling. Since you can only move to the right or up, why not count only those intersections where you can turn up or to the right? I think it would be less error prone for humans and slightly easier for computers. I can understand not wanting to change because then someone reading a game record might not know if the old or new counting rule was used. However, you could make it a rule that if fraction notation was used for other moves of the game, then the new counting rule is used for staircase notation.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Crumble" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to crumble+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/crumble/d5f5a03c-1b14-4998-99b1-e9a84a77ab04%40googlegroups.com.

[Zack Brown]

On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 2:36 AM Jan Kok <jan.k...@gmail.com> wrote:

The fraction notation seems like a good idea.

Re: staircase notation, it seems strange to me that you want to count ALL intersections along the direction you are traveling. Since you can only move to the right or up, why not count only those intersections where you can turn up or to the right? I think it would be less error prone for humans and slightly easier for computers. I can understand not wanting to change because then someone reading a game record might not know if the old or new counting rule was used. However, you could make it a rule that if fraction notation was used for other moves of the game, then the new counting rule is used for staircase notation.

That was exactly my first attempt at staircase notation in 2008. I liked it at the time because it reduced the number of things to count, which I wanted, especially since I saw staircase notation as already more complex than I preferred. But in practice, the 'optimization' turned out to be too confusing. Players would often get the count wrong, and the record of their games would be lost. Counting every intersection is just a simpler heuristic for people to follow, than distinguishing between relevant versus nonrelevant intersections. When I dropped the optimization, game records became more reliable.

I remember at the time, someone made a passing remark about fraction notation, which I dismissed because it wouldn't work well in complex positions, and I was in the middle of figuring out staircase notation, which I felt would probably be a better general solution. I wish I remembered who that person was so I could credit them. Now, more than 10 years later, I see that if users have the choice at each move between fraction and staircase notation, they'll probably choose fraction notation early in the game, and staircase notation later.

 

On Sun, Jan 26, 2020 at 3:41 AM Zachary Brown <zach...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi folks,

Staircase notation is good for any crumble position, no matter how complicated. But in the early stages of a game, there's an easier way -- you can just give the fraction of the board from the left, and the fraction of the board from the bottom, as the way to identify the lower left corner of your piece. I've added the description to the quora pages:

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-notate-moves-in-the-game-of-Crumble/answer/Zachary-Brown-25

So basically, you'll be saying something like "1/3,1/2VEN" instead of "1,2,2,4VEN"

In simpler positions, fraction notation could be easier and quicker than staircase notation. In the later stages of the game, you'd probably revert to using staircase notation to avoid too much calculation.

Be well,

Zack

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Crumble" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to crumble+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/crumble/d5f5a03c-1b14-4998-99b1-e9a84a77ab04%40googlegroups.com.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Crumble" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to crumble+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/crumble/CAJMuS0AzUhGMi_mHY4rzxhdkva41jVDr0QRMtnAhyowMX49viQ%40mail.gmail.com.

--

Zack Brown