Update information for Picochess V 3.1

[Dirk]

Hello,

here are some quick information about the current development status of the Picochess version 3.1+ in Gerhards repository (https://github.com/gkalab/picochess).

I have installed the current version on all of my 3 devices (PicochessWeb, DGTPI/MolliPi and standalone Version with my Revelation II) and they all work fine since several weeks so I hope we are on a good way to have the same stability like we had with Version 3 over the years.

The last cool 3.1 images created by Dirk S. included the followong enhancements over 3.1:

• Support of different eboard types (DGT,  Certabo, Chesslink, ChessNut) - this is so cool!
• Different ini-files for retro, modern and favorite engines and corresponding menu entries
• Support of Windows engines (Dirks image)
• Auto ELO feature for engines supporting the UCI ELO settings
• Web themes: light, dark
• RetroSpeed for mame engines via picochess.ini

These are the new changes which we made over last past weeks:

Internal changes:

• Unified sources for all devices (before we had different sources for the PicochessWeb version  (most important for me)
• Unified translation.py file (new  "web_text" tag for longer texts) eg.: 

if text_id == 'pleasewait': entxt = Dgt.DISPLAY_TEXT(web_text='Reboot: please wait', large_text='please wait', medium_text='pls wait', small_text='wait  ')

• Unified engines.ini (new "web" tag for longer engine names), see attached retro.ini eg.: 

[mame/academy] 
name = Mephisto Academy
small = academ
medium = Academy
large = Mep.Academy
web = Mephisto Academy
elo = 1980
levels = 10
ponder/brain = n

• Lots of bug fixes (esp. for analysis mode, PGN information display in web server etc.)

New features:

• New (for PicoChessWeb) and alternative (for DGTPI/DGT3000 users)  Beep sample sounds instead of internal beeper. For this I have created a new voice  „beeper“  which does not need a voice.ini entry (it is not a voice for announcing moves etc.) because it is activated via menu system ->  sound -> „sample“). This voice folder must be put into the /picochess/talker/en/ folder and consists of different sound samples for various events (eg after computer move has been played etc. You can here some of these sounds in my last video for the no eboard feature). The sound files are part of Gerhards repository but I have put it into my dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/thii2ty659qm29g/AADaiG_-z3IKavYh9eSvupUla?dl=0
• New "auto" theme option according to sunrise/set and the possibility to change it in the menu
• New no-eboard/web play only mode for playing without an attached eboard via the web server.
• Search nodes like search depth for NN strength restriction for eg. Leela (with node = 1 you can simulate the maia engine etc.)
• Retro speed option is now in menu, automatic restart of the (mame-) engine but keep in mind that you have to start a new game after changing the retro speed because of this engine new start as we have no FEN position setup at the moment (so better change it before starting a new game) 

So if you want to create an image based on this current V3.1 version (which I would recommend and welcome ;-) you should start with the last 3.1 image provided by Dirk S. and copy the master branch of Gerhards repository but replace the talker and engines, gamesdb and obooksrv folders from your old Picochess 3.1 version.

Enjoy the new
Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Hi Dirk,

Thanks for your work and the description of the current status of PicoChess v3.1+. Will you, Dirk S. or Gerhard be updating the documentation (README.md and perhaps adding image build instructions)? That file is pretty outdated now.

Randy

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[Dirk]

Hi Randy,

I think all Picochess documentation is pretty much outdated. I just took the existing 3.1 image and copied the picochess folder and replaced the ones mentioned above. 

Don't know if someone would have time for adding detailed instructions starting from the scratch and updating the readme files. I think it is now rather complex because of the box/wine installation, our remote engine mode modification and the necessary addons for the desktop web image /starting chrome in kiosk mode, setting resolution etc.). I have never done this - I just use an existing PicoChessWeb image as a starting point...

On the other hand I think the requirements file in Gerhards repository should be up to date.

Dirk

 

[Randy Reade]

Yeah, there are a lot of pieces involved. It's fairly straightforward for those that have the Linux experience to set up images. I just think it would be nice to have a step-by-step recipe that anyone could follow along with a feature list and user manual for all the options.

Perhaps it's just a fantasy. :^) 

Randy

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[Dirk]

Uops - I forgot to mention the local game and opening book database server which Gerhard added so that we now have this information again provided in the web server (this was already part of the first 3.1 images).

Furthermore if you get error messages of missing libraries after copying the new code to your picochess directory it could be that not all requirements are up top date or installed.

From the /opt/picochess directory just do:

sudo pip3 install --upgrade -r requirements.txt 

If you use  Dirks last 3.1 image (or the one before or one from Randy)  the remote engine feature in Picochess to Windows (and Mac, Linux) will also work because of an SSH modification we hat to apply for windows remote ssh servers. I have all windows engines not running locally in box/wine as a remote (windows) engine configured and it works perfectly! 

My ini for this looks like:

; *****************************************
; Remote Engines
; *****************************************

[remote_giraffe]
name = NN Giraffe by Matthew Lai
small = girf
medium = Giraffe
large = Giraffe(R)
web =  NN Giraffe (Remote Windows)
elo = 1500
levels = 8
ponder/brain = n

[remote_colossus]
name = Colossus 4.0 by Martin Bryant
small = colos
medium = Colossus
large = Colossus(R)
web = Colossus 4 (Remote Windows)
elo = 1500
levels = 8
ponder/brain = n

[remote_fritz16]
name = Fritz 16  2017, Vasik Rajlich.
small = fritz
medium = Fritz16
large = Fritz16(R)
web = Fritz 16 (Remote Windows)
elo = 2400
levels = 20
ponder/brain = y

[remote_houdini]
name = Houdini 1.5
small = houdini
medium = Houdini
large = Houdini15(R)
web = Houdini 1.5 (Remote Windows)
elo = 2400
levels = 20
ponder/brain = y

[remote_komodo]
name = Komodo 13.0.2 64 bit
small = komodo
medium = komodo
large = Komodo13(R)
web = Komodo 13 (Remote Windows)
elo = 2400
levels = 20
ponder/brain = y

Ah and the correct directory for putting the new "beeper" system confirmation sounds is /picochess/talker/voices/en/... of course.

Enjoy!

Dirk

[gkalab]

Yes, the manual and documentation was so outdated that I've removed it some time ago from the master branch. The history and the sources of the manual are still there so it can be regenerated at any time.

If anyone finds the time or inspiration to write a detailed user manual I'd like to add it to the existing short user manual which is available when PicoChess 3.1 is running at http://picochess.local/help

Regarding the image creation: I believe this can be an automatic process. I've created an Ansible playbook and linked to it in another thread. This can also be used to just update an existing PicoChess version. To update my own, existing image, with the latest sources of PicoChess I just need to type:

ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass main.yml --tags="picochess"

...and the current source gets checked out from github, my individual engine folders, voices and picochess.ini get copied to the raspberrypi and after about 5 minutes a freshly installed PicoChess is started.

Gerhard

[Scally]

Hi Dirk,

Everything sounds great, but before I try it I have a couple of questions.

Assuming this is still 32bit:

1) Have we got round the problem whereby only a few Windows Engines actually work with wine & box?

2) Can I now run a Retro Engine at greater than 100% and not have to adjust the time parameters, i.e. is this now done internally?

It looks as though the Phoenix team have managed to do this?

Cheers,

Al.

[Dirk]

Hi Al,

nothing has changed regarding the windows box/wine engine situation (as far as I know) or teh mame speed handing.

But both things are not a problem at all as we still have the remote engines and you can give the engine more time if you don't like the time acceleration!?

Dirk

[Scally]

Hi Dirk,

Yes, I do use remote engines, probably more than anyone else, but it would be nice to get everything on the same device rather than having to power up a windows tablet too.

And I am adjusting the retro engines time, but some of the times I need don’t exist, see my post re Phoenix YouTube video …

Hopefully these issues will go away when we go 64bit, although that may be too late for me … but that’s another issue 

Cheers,

Al

[Werner D]

Hello,

after more than a year break I wanted to experience Picochess again. I downloaded the new V3.1 image (dgtpi31.img) and have a strange phenomenon. After the bootsequence, my 7 inch EVICIV Touch says "Failed to start DGT PI Hello", I only see the console on the screen. Voice output on the touch works, I can also access the web server via the IP address on my laptop, I can play any game on the DGT-Board, all Settings are accessible, Everything! It just doesn't start the local display properly. What could go wrong? Anyone has an idea? Which log files should I take a closer look at? My Linux knowledge is moderate.
It runs on a PI 4 Model B.

Thanks in advance for any hint

Werner

[Randy Reade]

Hi Werner,

You probably want the PicoChessWeb version, not the DGTPi one.

Randy

[RandyR]

Hi Dirk,

Concerning the beeper sample sounds, is it correct that when you select 'Sample' in the sound menu that the beep-some-level setting will have no effect?

If so, I've noticed that there is no section of picochess.ini that refers to the beep-config setting. There is a section at the top called  = DGT related options = where it probably should have been added but it never was as far as I can see. Perhaps this text would work:

------------------------------

## beep-config enables or disables the internal DGTPi beeper sounds. The options are "Never", "Sometimes", "Always" or

## "Sample". "Never" disables all beeps. "Always" enables all beeps. "Sometimes" enables beeps depending on the level set by

## the beep-some-level setting explained below. "Sample" is used to select audio samples for specific actions and require

## correctly named sound samples (in ogg format) to be installed in the talker/voices/en/beeper folder. These samples can

## be used with or without a DGTPi/DGT 3000.

# beep-config = ( 'none', 'some', 'all', or 'sample')

beep-config = some

## beep-some-level changes the occurrence of beeps. Minimum value is 0 (no beeps), maximum is 15 (all beeps).
## Please keep in mind: values 0 and 15 make no sense (but are allowed) since they are the same as "Never" and "Always"
## inside the clock menu or via the beep-config option above. (NOTE: this setting has no effect if beep-config is set to 'sample' above.

## The value you give here, is when using the "Sometimes" menu selection (in System/Sound). Beeps are determined by a

## special number which you get by adding the following events together to get the beep-some-level value:

##

## CONFIG = 1 Takeback, GameEnd, NewGame, ComputerMove and SetPieces
## BUTTON = 2 All Events coming from button press
## MAP = 4    All Events coming from Queen placing at start pos (line3-6)
## OKAY = 8   All Events from "ok" (confirm) messages
## For example to beep on "ok messages" and "button press" events beep-some-level is: 8 (okay) + 2 (button) = 10
# beep-some-level = 10

beep-some-level = 2

------------------------------

Another thing I noticed was that the nodes option should probably also have a description in picochess.ini. The menu shows choices (e.g. Nodes 250) that are outside the range given in picochess.py:

parser.add_argument('-node', '--node', type=int, default=0, choices=range(0, 99), help="search nodes per move for the engine")

Is this a bug?

Randy

[Dirk]

Hi Randy,

yes, you are right about the beeper and sample setting and your description fits perfectly. 

Regarding the nodes: I have enlarged the range but forgot to adjust the comment. Good catch, thanks.

Dirk

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 20.02.2023 um 21:27 schrieb RandyR <randy...@gmail.com>:

Hi Dirk,

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[Dirk]

Further (minor) improvements for no-eboard/WebPlay mode together with PGN Replay engine and PicoTutor

Over the last days I enjoyed playing  in the new no-eboard/WebPlay mode as I don’t have an eboard with me on my current trip.

That’s why I did some more minor improvements regarding the „no eBoard/WebPlay“ mode and my PGN Replay engine and the PicoTutor (Coach function).

By the way: Gerhard added an important feature to the no-Eboard mode and eBoards with no piece detection: in case of a pawn promotion there is a pop up from which you can select the promotion piece you would like to have…

PGN Replay/Analysis and Guessing Game engine

i) Correct PGN header information (player names, elo) for the current game in web server. Fully automatic replay, you can define the replay speed in the corresponding uci file by specifying a higher or lower thinking time for the analysis engine). 

[AlphaZero1]
pgn_game_file  = /opt/picochess/engines/pgn_engine/pgn_games/alphazero_stockfish_2018.pgn
pgn_audio_file = /opt/picochess/engines/pgn_engine/pgn_audio/AnnaRudolph_AlphaZeroStockfish.ogg
max_guess= 0
engine_path = /opt/picochess/engines/armv7l/a-stockf
think_time = 1

Pause of audio commentary with II button, pause of fully automatic replay of the game: lever button 

demo video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f8a77gfhyvwlr90/PGN_REPLAY.MOV?dl=0

ii) full support of guessing game functions when playing in no-eboard/Web Play mode  (automatic take back of wrong guessed moves, etc.)

demo video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f7mksu4pd9bxw7j/GUESS.MOV?dl=0

PicoTutor in no-eBoard/WebPlay“ mode

i) Get position evaluation by activating PicoCoach (again) because we can’t lift up and replace a piece (that’s the trigger for the tutor evaluation when playing with an eBoard).

ii) In emulation mode with retro/mame engines: support of automatic take back in case of a blunder (because we can’t take back moves the normal way in case of retro engines)

demo video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r8s87b05aujs3s9/EMULATION_TUTOR.MOV?dl=0

Dirk

P.S:

The picoChess voice in these videos has been generated by a neural network trained by voice samples of the HAL9000 computer of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey 

[christopher stummer]

Hey Dirk,

Is there an img available to download with these improvements?

Best,

Chris

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[Randy Reade]

For some reason Google is rejecting my reply. And it deleted one that got through! I'll try again:

That's great, Dirk. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder how easy it would be to add a tournament mode between engines. :^)

Randy

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[Dirk]

Hi Randy, 

yes I also have google problems regarding posting new messages - I had to create my last posts several times until it finally worked - grrrrrr.

Ahhhh - good idea: I was thinking the same regarding engine tournaments when I saw the automatic replay function with no-eboard mode in action ;-)

Actually I don't think that would be too difficult. Like my PGN engine one could write a simple meta engine with 2 parameters (engine1 & 2 and uci options 1&2) and executes the moves similar to the PGN engines.

But I don't think that would by too much of value for us (at least for me) because main purpose of PicoChess for me is self play. 

If someone wants to do this I could provide the (python) source of my PGN engine (i have already added The ELO information  for the web display which is missing in my orginal engine).

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Yes, that's what got me thinking about it, too - the PGN Replay video. 😊

There are probably already solutions for watching engine tournaments on the Pi, maybe coolchess or even xboard?

Randy

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[RandyR]

Hi Dirk,

Perhaps just restarting the picochess.service would suffice when switching boards (e.g. to the Web Play mode). Or would that leave some orphaned processes running?

Just a thought.

Randy

[RandyR]

I wonder how hard it would be to add a resign function and/or reset (new game) for the Web Play mode.

Randy

[Dirk Mollmann]

Hi Randy,

new game function is already there (in Game Setup menu and I showed this in my video). Regarding  Resign I hadn‘t a look yet but who wants to resign anyway ;-)

Dirk (I would have thought after your Bluetooth Python studies you should be able to do this on your own :-))))))))))

But you are right resigning or declaring different game endings (like setting the kings on the middle squares of the board) is still missing…

Dirk 

Am 12.03.2023 um 18:32 schrieb RandyR <randy...@gmail.com>:

I wonder how hard it would be to add a resign function and/or reset (new game) for the Web Play mode.

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[Randy Reade]

I'm sorry, Dirk. I should have re-watched your video. ☺️ As for the python, if it relates to bluetooth I'm your man. Well, I should clarify that to anything related to the DGT bluetooth board that uses RFCOMM. Everything else is still over my head. 🤪

Randy

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[Ghislain Bourgeois]

My repo is now updated with a change that makes patching the spur library unnecessary for using Windows remote engines. I just finished getting destroyed by stockfish 15 on my gaming PC without issue with those changes.

Here are my next steps:

1. Create installation script to run on a fresh RaspiOS installation.
2. Create an update script to fetch a newer version of picochess.
   1. This will involve changes to the handling of pretty much all ini files, to provide defaults on install, and keep user configurations on update.
3. Update picochess dependencies to newer versions
   1. This will involve some refactoring of the code and might take some time, but will help the maintainability of the project long term.
      

Ghislain

[RandyR]

Nice work, Ghislain.

I just reverted spur/ssh.py and was able to connect and play against Stockfish 15 on my Windows PC.

Randy

[Dirk]

Wow that is cool, thanks Ghislain.

Yep, I tried several tunes to upgrade to a newer version of python-chess but the more I changes on one end the more I had to change on another end that's why I gave up although it would really help picochess for future updates (but we would have to change /upgrade the engine handling completely etc.

And of course that would mean a lot of testing but fortunately but together this would be possible...

Dirk

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 12.03.2023 um 22:14 schrieb RandyR <randy...@gmail.com>:

Nice work, Ghislain.

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[Dirk]

and I was just destroyed by my windows remote engine Fritz 16 without the spur/ssh modifictaion.

Works great - thanks Ghislain!

Dirk

[Dirk]

This one is for Randy and his great PicoChess help & image service

Demo:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nc0p66a3l7wku9a/Game_end_declaration.MOV?dl=0

Although  I added the game end declaration function especially for the no-eBoard/WebPlay mode the function should also work together with a real eBoard (which is nice as sometime the trigger via the two kings in the middle squares of the board seems to not work every time and in all cases.

Thanks Randy!

Enjoy!

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Ha ha. That's awesome, Dirk! Too funny.

Thanks for the enhancement. 😁 I'll have to play more and improve.

Randy

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[Dirk]

[Dirk]

Further fine tuning for version 3.1

1. Beep some level for beeb config „sample“ sound setting

Now the beep-config „sample“ sound supports basic beep-some-levels settings:

0 = no sound, 1 = only move confirmation sounds and 2 = additional button press sounds (keep in mind that they won’t always be in sync with the physical pressing of the button, so leave that setting = 1)

picochess.ini:

## "Sample" is used to select audio samples for specific actions and require

## correctly named sound samples (in ogg format) to be installed in the talker/voices/en/beeper folder. These samples can

## be used with or without a DGTPi/DGT 3000.

#beep-config = ( 'none', 'some', 'all', or 'sample')

beep-config = none

## beep-some-level changes the occurrence of beeps. Minimum value is 0 (no beeps), maximum is 15 (all beeps).

## Please keep in mind: values 0 and 15 make no sense (but are allowed) since they are the same as "Never" and "Always"

## inside the clock menu or via the beep-config option above. NOTE: if beep-config is set to 'sample' only values 0 (samples off), 1 (move confirmation), and 2 (move+button confirmation) will be considered.

## The value you give here, is when using the "Sometimes" menu selection (in System/Sound). Beeps are determined by a

## special number which you get by adding the following events together to get the beep-some-level value:

##

## CONFIG = 1 Takeback, GameEnd, NewGame, ComputerMove and SetPieces

## BUTTON = 2 All Events coming from button press

## MAP = 4    All Events coming from Queen placing at start pos (line3-6)

## OKAY = 8   All Events from "ok" (confirm) messages

## For example to beep on "ok messages" and "button press" events beep-some-level is: 8 (okay) + 2 (button) = 10

#beep-some-level = 10

2. BugFix: Correct match result in PGN header of web display when ending a game via new menu option (might be already in Randys images)

3. PicoCoach can now be used/triggered via menu like WebPlay mode. Furthermore you can disable the „piece trigger" (lifting up and putting back a piece ). I  often accidentily touch a piece and put it back and I do not want to get the PicoCoach information each time ;-) 

Triggering the evaluation via menu is simple: Just go to PicoTutor->PicoCoach and select on or lift again. Enabling the piece lift trigger via menu or picochess.ini:

## Pico Coach: move and position evaluation, move suggestion, etc. on demand. You can set it to „on“, „off“ or „lift“. Default is „off“, on mmeans you must trigger the evaluation via the pico tutor menu and ‚lift‘ menas you can trigger it by lifting a piece and putting it back when it is your turn (in addition you can trigger the coach via menu as well). Trigger via menu :just selcet the pico coach option = on or option = lift again. 

#tutor-coach = lift

tutor-coach = off

4. One of the last missing picochess.ini now is also in menu (but I guess this is only used by me because of all my voices with commentary  ;)You can now change the probability of the written and spoken game comments via menu (in PicoTutor menu)

Enjoy

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Great enhancements, Dirk.

Thanks.

Randy

[James Young]

Hey Dirk

Are any of your upgrades pushed via the cli request for update/upgrade? Or is it a total reinstall/new SD build?

Thanks 

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[Dirk]

Hi James,

the newest changes are only in my repository at the moment. Ghislain will check later and merge it into his repo  (which has the update script you probably mentioned)  together with his changes from time to time . Nothing is  tested so much at teh moment so I would just wait until there is a new image from Randy somewhere in the near future. You won't miss anything important anyway at the moment....

Dirk

[Dirk]

Thanks Randy.

Regarding the new PicoCoach setting (lift piece or not):

Be sure to update your picochess.ini with a correct value for the coach becuase True or False are no longer valid options (now only on, off, and lift are valid options) otherwise picochess won't start any more ;-) 

Dirk

[James Young]

Awesome Dirk

Thank you for your quick response and clarification.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/e9b3faa8-2e36-4b33-bea3-e76b41e37f17n%40googlegroups.com.

[Randy Reade]

Ok. Hopefully Ghislain will update the picochess.ini.example file. I'll add it into my next images.

Randy

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[Dirk]

PicoCoach trigger lift mode - done the right way ;-)

Thinking about the PicoCoach lift mode I asked myself what is really so annoying that I added the PicoCoach menu-only mode:

Triggering the coach was just too fast (you just had to pick up a piece and put it back immediately) and it was activated bx each piece so that it happened just too often accidentally.

Don’t know why I hadn’t thought of before of this new procedure (maybe because it was a little bit Ricky to add it correctly ;-)

When PicoCoach is set to lift mode that’s how you now trigger it...

1. Pick up the king - any king you would like ;-)

2 .Wait until you see the first set pieces message

3. Put the king back on its original square

4. PicoCoach is invoked

For triggering the coach accidently this means: 

a) no more problem if you pick a piece and put it back  too fast

b) no more problem if you pick up a piece (other than a king) and wait too long and put it back

demo (comments are set to 90% with my new hal9000 voice):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qqovc1hmnamc1hz/PicoCoach_New_Lift_mode.MOV?dl=0

By the way:

if you also use a chessnut air for picochess you can turn the board around when you play white for better display of the LEDs (at least for me this works perfect).

Picochess will automatically register that you put the pieces the other way round!

Only downside (for beginners) is that the board numbers and letters are not correct - but who cares when you have LEDs!?

Computer move: e7-e5

Dirk

[Dirk]

I will post the "fix" soon to my repository...

Dirk 

[Randy Reade]

Hi Dirk.

A question: does picoCoach remain ON or do you pick up the King each time? If it remains ON, may I suggest using the King as a toggle?

Randy

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[Dirk]

Hi Randy,

Sorry I don’t understand your question?

The picochess.ini setting (or the menu settings) set the PicoCoach on (without lift trigger), on (with lift trigger) or off in general.

This is just to say what trigger is possible and that the tutor engine is running in background.

Now you can trigger the coach for evaluation and move hiint by either picking up and putting down the king like I have explained (if lift mode is configured) or by menu (if only set to on without lift trigger).

The coach evaluation/move hint information is an on demand action so you would have to pick up the king each time you would like to have this information (but the coach is running in background the whole time (but will only calculate a few plys).

On the other hand the watcher is triggered automatically each time it you blunder (and when switched on of course).

Does this answer your question!?

Dirk

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[Randy Reade]

Ah, yes. I was thinking of picoWatcher. I like your new option.

Thanks, Dirk.

Randy

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[Ghislain Bourgeois]

Hi Dirk, Randy,

I pulled the fix to my repository. I also fixed an issue with indentation that would prevent python from parsing the file properly.

The picochess.ini.example file is up to date.

Ghislain

[RandyR]

Thanks, Ghislain.

Randy

[Dirk]

Good to have you on board, Ghislain!

Thanks for the fix.

Dirk

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[Henri]

Hi Dirk (and others),

Now that you are in the wonderful process of finetuning, I have a request. Is it possible to add a movenumber to the 'position' option? Default 1 is alright most of the time in compositions, but when it comes to games it would be nice to see/know the number of the move.

Henri

[Henri]

Hi Dirk (and others),

And now I'm at it, I've added Dutch translation to the translate.py file (see attachment). Most of it was simple to do for an absolute python amateur, but the Picotutor bit in the file proved far beyond my knowledge. I would like to change the notation to Dutch there (K=P, B=P) and change 'threat' to 'dreigt', can anybody help me how to do that?

Henri

[Dirk]

Hi Henri,

thanks for your translation work, Henri. 

Unfortunately you used an older translation.py file - don't know if we can easily merge yours with the current one, maybe Ghislain knows an easy way.

Regarding the PicoTutor translation: yes for this you would need (just) a little bit of aaditional code in the translation file but you should be able to do with copy and paste (in. most cases you can see the variables ending with '_g' or '_de' which means these are specific program variables for the german language and you could copy these with the program logic and rename these '_nl' and assign your language trabslations.

Regarding your request: 

Adding things to the menu requires an unusually high amount of work/time - so I don't know if this feature is really worth the work to be done... At least I am busy with something else at the moment (not even chess related but ist es definitely possible and we should save it on a feature request list....

Dirk

[Santiago Torres]

Thanks friends for your great work, please if you need some translation to spanish from english just let me know.  Picochess is getting better and better.  I think my voice (:-( ) was included in an old version.  It would be nice to have an evaluation bar in one of the board sides, similar to mephisto phoenix, chess.com, etc.

Best regards,

[Randy Reade]

I wonder if this could be adapted? If anyone has some Javascript, html and css experience, feel free.

https://github.com/trevor-ofarrell/chess-evaluation-bar

Randy

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[Dirk]

Ah that really looks like it must be part of picochess . It seems to fit - good find, Randy.

Keeping finger crossed that someone with enough wen knowledge picks this up.

Dirk

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[Ghislain Bourgeois]

Hi Henri, Dirk,

I was able to get just the translation changes using vimdiff. I pushed them to my repo.

Thanks for the work Henri!

Ghislain

[Dirk]

Thanks Henri & Ghislain.

Dirk

Am 26.03.2023 um 03:28 schrieb Ghislain Bourgeois <ghislain....@gmail.com>:



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[Henri]

Hi Ghislain, Dirk,

Thanks for the adjusted version, but there is still a bit pf Dutch translation to be done. I'll have a look at it in the hope I can manage it....

Henri

[Dirk]

Hi Henri,

if I find some time I will add the necessary variables for the PicoTutor translations - but it may take a litte bit...

DIrk

[Dirk]

Does any of the Picochess 3.1 users still use the good old DGTPI,  Revelation  ii or  even a PI & DGT300 as stand alone system?

Yes? Then you obviously don't use Fischer inc. as time settings because that was broken fro non-PicoChessWeb systems because of a too long  translation text.

This is fixed in this version I have attached and will soon be uploaded to the repositories...

Enjoy your Fischer time settings ;-)

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Now there's a scenario I never would have tested. Thanks, Dirk.

Randy

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[Henri]

Hi there Dirk,

Yes i have a DGTPI, trouble is that I just can't keep up with all the fabulous enhancements and changes. But I think I found another bug, this time with Millennium clink attached. When you play a blunder and have picotutor enabled, the program says so and takes back the move. On the Millennium board the according lights of the move will blink, but you can't take back the move or play on in any way, at least I can't.

Maybe someone else with clink can acknowledge this bug too?.

Henri

[Dirk]

Henri,

are you playing against a mame engine or a standard uci engine?

For standard uci engines the game continues automatically, the tutor wanting is just for information purpose as you can take back at any time during the game all moves.

As mame engines (at the moment) don’t support take back functionality the blunder take back works different:

For mame engines you are forced to take back the move unless you press the lever - picochess is waiting for the take back otherwise it won’t continue (unless you press the lever meaning that you don’t want to take back).

If there is a problem with take back for millennium boards in general this won’t work.

Does the normal take back works for standard uci engines on the millennium board?

If yes it should also work like I have described for mame engines.

If not I can’t help unfortunately…

Dirk

 

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[Dirk]

Hi Henri,

I have added the necessary code for your tutor translation to dutch.

Please check all the variables ending on '_nl' and ajust the tranbslations for your liking but keep the length restrictions in mind (web can be up to 38 chars I think, DGTPI (large) 11, medium 8, small 6)

Please post you revised file again so that we can include it in our repos.

Thanks

Dirk

[Henri]

Hi there Dirk,

Here's the translate.py back again, with full Dutch translation. Thank you for your code, it made it all quite easy! :)

Of course there's one detail: In Modus/Analyse I still get 'English' moves in the webmode (see example), while on the DGTPI it is Dutch. I bet you know what is going on.... 

Thanks again for your fast service. Man, I enjoy this project!

Henri

[Dirk]

Thanks Henri,

I fixed the move translation (and another bug) in analysis mode for web display.

Dirk