Rational suggestion: what if external links will use the same font as the main text (Literata) but still be underlined twice as now? This increases text’s readability in some cases.

I'm taking a break from inventing Chess variants to work on some other things and myself. I'm currently finishing up my Chu Shogi Applet with Assorted Tsumeshogis by adding in the remaining workable tsumeshogis from H. G. Muller's MSM Errata (only one left is D63). It's kind of a prelude to a stand-alone program I plan on making that allows you to play Chu Shogi (based on historical rules of course).

I'll still be around from time to time, mostly to review submissions.

Thank you for your detailed and promt answer!

There are no pictures in cgi-bin. By convention it is a directory for server-side scripts/programs, which will run to create dynamic content for sending to the client. The file fen2.php there dynamically creates PNG images, by rendering SVG images with sizes and colors that can be specified in the URL as a so-called query string.

The SVG images it seeks in the directory /graphics.dir/svg/xxx, where xxx is the value specified for theme in the query string t=xxx. Any file yyy.svg in that directory can be rendered, by specifying p=yyy in the query string.

Unfortunately the server does not provide direct access to these directories through the HTTP web interface, because there is a file index.html in them which will be retreived with priority. This is supposed to contain an overview of what is available, but it might not be up to date. (It is a static file, so it would have to be edited to include new images added to the set.) The trick to get around this is to use a script 'list.php' that is also in those directories, and will generate the output that the server would have given you when the index.html file had not been present. (Which is a list of filenames; no preview of what they contain. The Play-Test Applet uses these scripts to build its piece table.) E.g. /graphics.dir/svg/alfaerie/list.php.

How can I see what pictures are available in cgi-bin? It seems I do not have access. I need the names for use in the interactive diagrams.

Game Reviews are the same as Comments.

The query string had the right parameters, but it needed to set gamesonly and ratingsonly to true instead of just including them. I corrected that, and it now works properly.

Game Reviews are the same as Comments.

I noticed today in the comments section that Smess was being given the description for Take the Brain. So, I made some corrections to make sure that the correct description was given for the name it was paired up with in IndexEntry. In the comments section, the primary name and description should now be used. In queries of the database on the names of games, each description will now show up for the name it goes with. On the What's New page, the name should be the primary name, and the description should be the Whatsnew text if it is available. Otherwise, it will fall back to using the primary description. All of this now works correctly for Smess, All the King's Men, and Take the Brain, though I have not tested other games with multiple names.

The print color scheme now has its own small logo too. Since the big logo included 19th century black and white artwork of Chess pieces, I chose a more retro style that displays fairy pieces by changing the orientation of Chess piece images. According to a section of Anthony Dickins' A Guide to Fairy Chess, the inverted queen is the grasshopper, and the reclining bishop is the unicorn.

I have changed forpersonid to author in the link, and it now works.

When I go to any person information page and try to view game reviews, it says "$forpersonid is an unexpected variable and was not given a value".

That looks like my Viking up there. :)

I may make a logo for it with some of Tenniel's black and white illustrations from Through the Looking-Glass, though I'm open to other ideas.

I have now done that except that I cropped and divided one illustration instead of using two separate illustrations. Also, most of the small piece images I used are based on characters Alice encounters in Lewis Carroll's books.

The color scheme code I was working on yesterday and into today is now on the site. As I mentioned before, it will now change the theme with JavaScript as long as JavaScript is enabled. This is done mainly as a backup for older browsers that do not support :has() in CSS. It uses both JavaScript and CSS to change the color scheme so that if one method fails, the other one might still work. Generally, the CSS method will fail on older browsers, and the JavaScript method will fail if someone has JavaScript disabled.

One new feature is the Print color scheme. This is a more minimalist version of the Light color scheme. I may make a logo for it with some of Tenniel's black and white illustrations from Through the Looking-Glass, though I'm open to other ideas. For now, it uses the same logos as the Light color scheme.

Internally, I have moved the color scheme CSS to colors.css, where it is better organized and more maintainable than before. First, it creates individual custom properties for each color in each color scheme. The light ones begin with --light-, the dark ones with --dark-, etc. Since it has to define each color scheme multiple times for different selectors, it defines them in terms of the individual custom properties already created. So if I decide to change a color, there is now only one place it has to be changed.

Also, this provides page authors with the ability to customize color schemes for a particular page. By adding a style section in which you add custom properties to :root, you can rewrite individual values for particular color schemes.

many of these shatranj images have transparent backgrounds so they are hard to see with dark themes

Also, the king description text for Great Shatranj is always black regardless of the theme.

On the page /index-test.html, I have augmented the CSS implementation of the color schemes with a JavaScript implementation. The CSS implementation works without JavaScript, but it requires the use of :has(), which earlier browsers do not support. The JavaScript implementation is working on both my Kindle browser and on both Chrome and Edge on my iPad 2, though the latter two require you to save your change before it takes effect. I don't think there are browsers more primitive than these that still need to be supported. By providing both a CSS and a JavaScript way to change the color scheme, this expands the number of browsers it will work well on. I plan to add the code for this to the site tomorrow. In the meantime, try it out and let me know how it works for you, particularly if you have some older device I am not using.

When I go to any person information page and try to view unpublished submissions, it just shows my own submissions.

Okay, I corrected that.

When I go to any person information page and try to view unpublished submissions, it just shows my own submissions.

The two rooks, bishops and knights do not differ and can no longer be distinguished in the course of the game. How is a strategic game supposed to come about then?

You can differ them:

• in offline play by sticky markers;
• in online by notation used.

BTW I have recently done the rules page.

I stumbled across 'GC Preset for Reche's Super Faceoff Masquerade' again, and I'm wondering again how to recognize in the course of the game how an a-Rook takes as Knight, h-Rook as Bishop; b-Knight takes as Bishop, g-Knight as Rook; c-Bishop as Rook, f-Bishop as Knight (according to the description). The two rooks, bishops and knights do not differ and can no longer be distinguished in the course of the game. How is a strategic game supposed to come about then?

BIG THX!!!

Please remove these unneeded lines from Edit Metadata also. I’ve written new page, thank you, but when I tried to revert it to Members-only, error repeated. It shows that I’m veteran contributor with nine or more submissions, so I cannot publish more if I have nine submissions to review (even if it’s not).

While it was giving you the same error message, it wasn't due to extra code again. This time, another variable was undefined, which caused its counts of the database to return the wrong values, and the solution was to add a new line assigning its value.

Please remove these unneeded lines from Edit Metadata also. I’ve written new page, thank you, but when I tried to revert it to Members-only, error repeated. It shows that I’m veteran contributor with nine or more submissions, so I cannot publish more if I have nine submissions to review (even if it’s not).

There were a few lines of code that were held over from an earlier version of the code, and these lines used an undefined variable. The result was $itemid being set to just "MS". Removing these lines of code fixed the problem.