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This card is neat. I would suggest to write the Betza's string with a small font between () towards the bottom of the card.
I actually was contemplating putting the XBetza at the bottom. (Of course, I'd have to take care that the font was small enough that even the Linebacker Pawn's XBetza could all fit on one line!)
Of course, Fergus' feedback is important here too, since he's helping me with this part of the programming. And it will be necessary for H.G. to add my most recent upload so all of the starter cards have icons. (I'll have about a dozen or so more later on, to fill out the Expansion Sets.)
Here's a shot at that, using the Linebacker Pawn (which has the longest XBetza of any piece that I know of). The entry would look like
Moves one space directly or diagonally forward (two for the opening move). Cannot capture, but pushes an enemy piece to the empty square just beyond.
The resulting card:
I realize that the XBetza is a little hard to read. Sorry, but 7-point type is the largest I could go and fit the whole XBetza on one line. (Of course, with a string like that, it could be 15-point type and still hard to read.)
Yes, it's getting to the limits of the concept. I was not imagining using such complex pieces.
My suggestion was to put the Betza's string when it helps, for example WCZ is something that is meaningful when I read it. In case where the Betza's string is almost longer than what you need to explain, I believe you can forget it.
"Sometimes there, sometimes not" might or might not happen. I'm expecting this will be done in an automated way, since there are 151 total cards to convert (71 in the basic game, and 80 expansion cards).
H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Nov 17, 2023 05:58 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from 05:11 PM:In case where the Betza's string is almost longer than what you need to explain, I believe you can forget it.
Indeed. Although Betza notation was initially conceived for the purpose of describing piece moves in a clear and compact way, it has evolved to a state where it has basically become a programming language in itself. With an expressive power so large that it can handle quite complex side effects of moves, such as pushing other pieces. This is a lucky coincidence we can take advantage of for programming a computer to handle the piece, but no longer useful as a description of the move for humans.
For descriptive purposes I would strongly recommend to use the bracket notation for multi-leg moves. Even in cases where the bracket notation would not yet work in the ID. It is much more easily readable than pure XBetza, because it does not need range toggles and extra intermediate square for making the atoms for the various legs compatible, as you can specify the atom for each leg independently.
I'm expecting this will be done in an automated way, since there are 151 total cards to convert (71 in the basic game, and 80 expansion cards).
You can suppress XBetza strings that are exceeding a certain length; it should be possible to do that automatically.
"Sometimes there, sometimes not" might or might not happen. I'm expecting this will be done in an automated way, since there are 151 total cards to convert (71 in the basic game, and 80 expansion cards).
It's on my todo list, but I've been busy with the script for showing pieces.
It's on my todo list, but I've been busy with the script for showing pieces.
It's cool. I'm just finishing up the latest set, which I'll upload in a little while and then leave off for a while since that (with all the rest) gives me all the icons I need for diagrams in Hundred Acre Chess, Zwangkrieg, Short Sliders, and Vanguard Chess as well as this one. Plus, once I have at least one of my waiting games approved (if nothing else, Wedgie Chess looks to have no issues), I can start working up the page showing it all off, hopefully with a link from the graphics.dir index. And beyond that I have at least a couple of other games in mind that will use these icons. So, I'll have plenty to do once the icons are all in place.
@Fergus & H.G.
I just put up one more update for my set. Once that and my previous udpate are both in place (at both my SVG directory and -- more importantly --- my set for the Diagram Editor), I can get into all the ID projects I just mentioned.
I don't anticipate any more updates for a while, unless either (1) I notice something that needs to be fixed, or (2) someone makes a specific request.
(What'll be next, in a couple of months, will likely be a mixture of my personal outliers, plus some more Shogi-specific pieces.)
Bn Em wrote on Sat, Nov 18, 2023 10:52 AM UTC in reply to Bob Greenwade from Fri Nov 17 12:49 AM:I only just noticed it reading the card, but it's true of the page as well: you seem to have the Gryffon and Rhino the opposite way round from the conventional usage
Aw, crap -- so I do. I'll fix that later today.
It took a bit longer than I'd said, but I did get this corrected.
I also found that I'd completely screwed up Expansion Set #2; I hadn't changed the text descriptions of the moves at all! Good thing I was also making changes to the Left Knight and Right Knight.
I started on the script for showing cards tonight. It still needs work, but at least it is functional. Here's an example:
Here's another example with a different font:
This should be at least enough for you to start writing a cards file, which I could then use for testing. Just make a list associating each ID with a query string for the script, and I will turn it into a PHP array.
OK, great! I'll start working on the script(s) after I've done a few more fixes on the icons.
I was just getting started on this, when I realized that six of the seven Royals use compound icons, as do most of the starting Pawns.
I'm getting started with the Pieces, though.
I was just getting started on this, when I realized that six of the seven Royals use compound icons, as do most of the starting Pawns.
Try making them as you usually do with /cgi-bin/fen2.php, and we'll see if my script can use the image it creates.
It doesn't. No matter how I juggle things around, there are conflicts in argument-passing.
I suppose there may be problems with including one query string inside another. But do it anyway and let me figure out how to make it work. Maybe I'll just pass your pseudo filename to fen2.php instead of using Imagick.
OK. In case it helps, the way I'll do that is, for those particular pieces, the image call will be last for showcard, and the image pair will be last for fen2.
If all else fails, maybe you can see if the image-compounding for fen2 can be translated in one way or another to showcard. (That'd be easiest at my end, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was crazy complicated if not impossible at your end.)
I got compound images to work. If you specify the piece using the theme and piece options with the same values you would use for t and p in fen2.php, then it will use that script to generate the image. Here are some examples:
And the reverse:
It looks awesome!
I actually would prefer the ID on the right side, but that's minor.
More significantly, the move text needs both a smaller font and more space. (This isn't even the longest description in the game! It's only the longest among the base Pieces.)
But I'll start formatting everything in this way now.
More significantly, the move text needs both a smaller font and more space. (This isn't even the longest description in the game! It's only the longest among the base Pieces.)
Let me have some examples with the longest text.
Also the one with the longest name:
(It should've been the Bodyguard at the back, but somehow I screwed that icon up.)
I got these to work with a width of 210. I coded it to still keep a 5:7 aspect ratio if you alter just the width or the height. If you alter both, then you can change the aspect ratio how you wish, but 5:7 is what I got when I looked up the aspect ratio of playing cards. The ID and name are in Fira Sans, which is showing up bolder than other sans serif fonts I have installed. The description is in Flair, which is both compact and easy to read thanks to being bolder than many of the other serif fonts I have installed.
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For the cards on the Game Courier version of this, I'm thinking that a listing like
Moves one square diagonally; then may continue sliding outward orthogonally.
in the batch file (I can change the format if needed) would result in something like this: