Winboard Forum

I released pulsar2009-9b on my web site, its allready been given to be packaged with winboard, and it just has 2 minor fixes from 9a. shatranj is now in the variants and its less likely to stalemate in blitz.

My web site has been the central site for pulsar since 2003, however i decided i wanted to post the rlease and copy the text of the liscence that is up there to the winboard forum, to document it publically outside my web site. From the web page, here it is:

http://www.adam16mr.org/pulsar2009-9b.zip This is an executable only and fixes a stalemate issue in blitz. no changes to wild programs though shatranj is now included in its variants. You can edit the bad files for 2009-9a to refelct the new engine name. this version of pulsar of pulsar is distributed with winboard in one of the packages.
*important note, liscence terms for pulsar2009-9b.exe*

License conditions:
Pulsar 2009-9b comes "as is", without any guarantees, and using it is entirely at your own risk. It can be freely redistributed in unmodified form, alone or in combination with other software,.

Mike Adams
author of pulsar
Seattle Washington

addition, pulsar is expected to be downloaded with the books from the pulsar20090-9a package, and all books needed to make pulsar work are on exactly the same liscence as i just posted for pulsar2009-9b. If its constined in the pulsar2009-9a zip file, its under exactly the same liscence. i will modify my web page to reflect this.

from web page 9-6-09

liscence pulsar2009-9a
pulsar2009-9a-release.zip ( which includes pulsar2009-9a.exe its books, and the bat files i made) comes "as is", without any guarantees, and using it is entirely at your own risk. It can be freely redistributed in unmodified form, alone or in combination with other software,.

Mike Adams
Pulsar author
Seattle Washington

one last note. the pulsar2009-9a release and pulsar2009-9b release is understood always to be the executable and any bat files to start the program or books that are wanted to be used. The books are optional along wtih the bat files and any combination ( all none or selected ) can be packaged with it under the liscecence. from teh web page:

additional: pulsar2009-9b is expected to work with the books from pulsar2009-9a-release package. the liscence also applies to any packaging of pulsar2009-9a.exe or pulsar2009-9b.exe with any combination of books that are wanted to be included from the 9a package or bat files ( with teh name changed to 9b for the 9b package). It is understood do to the number of files someone may only want to package it with books of interest, not all books, or bat files for variants of interest, or just package the exe alone. the release is understood to be the executables, 9a or 9b, and any combination of the books or bat files, or none, which are optional. These liscence conditions may in the future move to another web page within adam16mr.org and be clearly linked on this page for presentation purposes.

Mike Adams
Pulsar author
Seattle Washington

Thanks for clarifying the license conditions! I did not package the batch files with WinBoard, because the install was meant to run Pulsar (and other engines) from items in the Start Menu. I had only planned for one menu item for Pulsar, not one per variant, because WinBoard has menus to change the variant easily after startup. So people could start Pulsar through the Windows Start Menu (Start -> Programs -> WinBoard-4.4.0 -> Chess Engines -> Pulsar), and then select what variant they want to play from the WinBoard File->New Variant... menu.

I noted that in one of the batch files you include a book name in the Pulsar startup command (crazyhouse). Would it give problems with the books if Pulsar was used the way I installed it? In particular, if someone started Pulsar in variant normal, and would then select Crazyhouse from the New Variant menu, would Pulsar to know how to find its Crazyhouse book? I now also see that all the batch files do call pulsar with the argument "norc" on its command line. I did not do that in the menu shortcut I created for Pulsar; I only have a "2" for reducing the hash-table size somewhat. Would it have adverse effects that I left out the "norc"? It seems to play fine, in most variants.

Hi,

Pulsar can be used with pulsar.rc or pulsar2.rc files or whatever i set up depending on variant, this lets you control things like piece values. norc in the command line just means skip reading these files. Its just a way of being sure you are using default evaluate values. Since you didnt set up any of these files or include them in the install the norc is not needed.

i think that argument you saw is 'crazybook'. Pulsar will still work in crazyhouse without it, Just a different way of invoking the book. Pulsar will use the blitz book i think for 4 half moves *without* crazybook. if crazybook or whatever it was was there , it would use its crazyhouse books not its blitz books and go deeper than 4 half moves. I think the crazyhouse white and black books are just copies of the blitz book, i never made a crazyhouse book, so the only practical effect is it plays more moves in the book, and its debatable if staying in book longer is always good since it doesnt use a real crazyhouse book. So i think you are fine the way you are without crazybook, would be a slightly different experience , more book moves but not neccesarily good ones, with it. And without crazybook you get just your first 4 half moves in book then engine thinks.

Mike