Winboard Forum

Hi there fellow programmers. Arena has a nice feature that shows current move being searched, that can be used in WBII programs. Everytime you start searching a new root move you send the command "stat", which works as follows:

Code: Select all

      #if defined(ARENA)
         if (TimeElapsed > 3 || Depth > 4)
         {
            printf("\nstat01: %u %u %d %u %u %s%s\n",
               (UINT32)(TimeElapsed * 100),
               TotalNodes,
               Depth,
               MoveIndex,
               TotalRootMoves,
               MoveInAlgebraicNotation);
         }
      #endif


MoveIndex stands for the "3" in: 3/47.
It is a nice feature and it's implemented in five minutes.

Jos? C.

Thanks Jose'.

How can we identify Arena at runtime?

This method is used in analysis mode to show regular updates, but not when engine is thinking/pondering during a match!

Pallav

It works during thinking/pondering. Try it!
You can't detect you're under Arena. I just have a compilation #define and build two versions. I always release the version with the switch on because it only marginally hurts performance under Winboard (sending a command tha Winboard ignores).

David Weller wrote:Thanks Jose'.

How can we identify Arena at runtime?

I have had this feature for a few year now, since ChessPartner also can show this info.

What I did to turn this on/off was to make a new command 'autostat on/off' that I can put into an 'InitString' or on the command line in the GUI setup.

Odd Gunnar

Jos? Carlos wrote:It works during thinking/pondering. Try it!
You can't detect you're under Arena. I just have a compilation #define and build two versions. I always release the version with the switch on because it only marginally hurts performance under Winboard (sending a command tha Winboard ignores).

I had suggested to Tim Mann some years ago a new WB command "GUI". For example the engine could send "feature GUI=1\n" and then the GUI would reply: "GUI Winboard 4.3.5\n" or something like this.

Some nitpicks to your original post: the format string looked wrong to me (one %s too much). The cast is dubious at best. A better cast would be to unsigned int. (One could start an endless discussion about the doubtful merit of user defined types in C here, but in this case cast to some user defined type clearly is not asked for - there is no user defined format specifier accompaning it ...). I guess the original type is some floating point type - using %.0f instead of the cast might also be a good alternative, that is portable.

Regards,
Dieter

Some nitpicks to your original post: the format string looked wrong to me (one %s too much). The cast is dubious at best. A better cast would be to unsigned int. (One could start an endless discussion about the doubtful merit of user defined types in C here, but in this case cast to some user defined type clearly is not asked for - there is no user defined format specifier accompaning it ...). I guess the original type is some floating point type - using %.0f instead of the cast might also be a good alternative, that is portable.

I copied and pasted too fast. Actually, I posted the code as an example of the format, not trying to write perfect code, because I translated all variables to english and more readable names. The double %s is there because I use "from" and "to" in my code, but then I translated to a single variable name. As for the cast, I have a #define unsigned __int32 UINT32 in my code. I have one of those for every integer size, signed and unsigned.
But you're right, I should have been more carefull with the code I posted. Thanks for the remarks.

Jos? Carlos, I fear I was not so clear. It is a minor point anyway. But compare:

typedef unsigned int UINT32;

...

double time_used; /* in seconds */

/* need to print centiseconds to WB */

printf("%u\n", (UINT32)(time_used*100));

Now one can ask, why use a user defined type here? IMO it only has disadvantages. Say on Borland-C 3.0 (I still have it and use it now and then), the typedef would be to unsigned long. And now the printf is wrong (you need %lu and not %u then). Alternative

printf("%lu\n", (unsigned long)(time_used*100));

will work anywhere (at least for 1 1/2 years or so, after which it can have undefined behaviour). Or

printf("%.0f\n", time_used*100);

So, my point was: use the basic types for such stuff. BTW. using unsigned int, as I wrote wrongly in my other post, would not be such a good idea, because it will overflow pretty fast (in 10 minutes) on some systems.

Regards,
Dieter

Jos? Carlos wrote:Hi there fellow programmers. Arena has a nice feature that shows current move being searched, that can be used in WBII programs. Everytime you start searching a new root move you send the command "stat", which works as follows:

Code: Select all

      #if defined(ARENA)
         if (TimeElapsed > 3 || Depth > 4)
         {
            printf("\nstat01: %u %u %d %u %u %s%s\n",
               (UINT32)(TimeElapsed * 100),
               TotalNodes,
               Depth,
               MoveIndex,
               TotalRootMoves,
               MoveInAlgebraicNotation);
         }
      #endif


MoveIndex stands for the "3" in: 3/47.
It is a nice feature and it's implemented in five minutes.

Jos? C.

A small addition. To get the 3 in 3/47 you actually have to send (47-3)-1.

So, amount of remaining moves.

Tony