LarsenVB 0.05 out

[Luca Dormio]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Luca Dormio at 04 March 2002 12:17:39:
Hi to all, i've just uploaded LarsenVB 0.05 to my site
What's new
- Faster move generation
- Better endgame recognition
- Take back support added (about time...)
- Opening lines extended up to 30 ply
- Book editor completed
- Starting move as White now taken from book preferences, not "hard-coded"
Even if i'll be the only one to use it here are some notes regarding the editor:
Adding and removing of lines is now fully working, even directly with the small chess board... you can also create a book from scratch, and it supports also books without the trailing space (like mine) that some other engines use.
Beware, however, of a small bug that i've not be able to trace yet, that sometimes results in incorrect "playable" flags (easy to correct) or in a partial duplicated line (which is worse, since the book won't load... althought it still can be corrected with a simple text editor)... so, save often and make backups
Have fun
Luca

LarsenVB Home Page

[Luca Dormio]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Luca Dormio at 04 March 2002 12:20:09:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Luca Dormio at 04 March 2002 12:17:39:
Almost forgot.... i've just tested for a few minutes, however it seems to work fine with Arena beta 2
Regards
Luca

LarsenVB Home Page

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 04 March 2002 20:36:11:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Luca Dormio at 04 March 2002 12:17:39:

Hi to all, i've just uploaded LarsenVB 0.05 to my site
What's new
- Faster move generation
- Better endgame recognition
- Take back support added (about time...)
- Opening lines extended up to 30 ply
- Book editor completed
- Starting move as White now taken from book preferences, not "hard-coded"
Even if i'll be the only one to use it here are some notes regarding the editor:
Adding and removing of lines is now fully working, even directly with the small chess board... you can also create a book from scratch, and it supports also books without the trailing space (like mine) that some other engines use.
Beware, however, of a small bug that i've not be able to trace yet, that sometimes results in incorrect "playable" flags (easy to correct) or in a partial duplicated line (which is worse, since the book won't load... althought it still can be corrected with a simple text editor)... so, save often and make backups

Thanks for this. I am sure it is the strongest VB chess program in the world, and very interesting because it comes with source code.


My Ftp Site

[Uri Blass]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Uri Blass at 04 March 2002 23:33:43:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 04 March 2002 20:36:11:

Hi to all, i've just uploaded LarsenVB 0.05 to my site
What's new
- Faster move generation
- Better endgame recognition
- Take back support added (about time...)
- Opening lines extended up to 30 ply
- Book editor completed
- Starting move as White now taken from book preferences, not "hard-coded"
Even if i'll be the only one to use it here are some notes regarding the editor:
Adding and removing of lines is now fully working, even directly with the small chess board... you can also create a book from scratch, and it supports also books without the trailing space (like mine) that some other engines use.
Beware, however, of a small bug that i've not be able to trace yet, that sometimes results in incorrect "playable" flags (easy to correct) or in a partial duplicated line (which is worse, since the book won't load... althought it still can be corrected with a simple text editor)... so, save often and make backups

Thanks for this. I am sure it is the strongest VB chess program in the world, and very interesting because it comes with source code.

How can you be sure that it is the strongest VB chess program in the world?
Do you know all the engines in the world that are written in visual basic when part of them are not public?
I read in the readme that it lacks advanced features like
hash tables,null move pruning etc so it seems that it is possible to do something clearly better than it in visual basic.
Uri

[Uri Blass]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Uri Blass at 04 March 2002 23:38:04:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Uri Blass at 04 March 2002 23:33:43:

Hi to all, i've just uploaded LarsenVB 0.05 to my site
What's new
- Faster move generation
- Better endgame recognition
- Take back support added (about time...)
- Opening lines extended up to 30 ply
- Book editor completed
- Starting move as White now taken from book preferences, not "hard-coded"
Even if i'll be the only one to use it here are some notes regarding the editor:
Adding and removing of lines is now fully working, even directly with the small chess board... you can also create a book from scratch, and it supports also books without the trailing space (like mine) that some other engines use.
Beware, however, of a small bug that i've not be able to trace yet, that sometimes results in incorrect "playable" flags (easy to correct) or in a partial duplicated line (which is worse, since the book won't load... althought it still can be corrected with a simple text editor)... so, save often and make backups

Thanks for this. I am sure it is the strongest VB chess program in the world, and very interesting because it comes with source code.

How can you be sure that it is the strongest VB chess program in the world?
Do you know all the engines in the world that are written in visual basic when part of them are not public?

I can add that I also do not know that part of the engines in visual basic are not public and it is only a guess.
My engine is written in C.
Uri

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 05 March 2002 00:23:40:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Uri Blass at 04 March 2002 23:38:04:

Hi to all, i've just uploaded LarsenVB 0.05 to my site
What's new
- Faster move generation
- Better endgame recognition
- Take back support added (about time...)
- Opening lines extended up to 30 ply
- Book editor completed
- Starting move as White now taken from book preferences, not "hard-coded"
Even if i'll be the only one to use it here are some notes regarding the editor:
Adding and removing of lines is now fully working, even directly with the small chess board... you can also create a book from scratch, and it supports also books without the trailing space (like mine) that some other engines use.
Beware, however, of a small bug that i've not be able to trace yet, that sometimes results in incorrect "playable" flags (easy to correct) or in a partial duplicated line (which is worse, since the book won't load... althought it still can be corrected with a simple text editor)... so, save often and make backups

Thanks for this. I am sure it is the strongest VB chess program in the world, and very interesting because it comes with source code.

How can you be sure that it is the strongest VB chess program in the world?
Do you know all the engines in the world that are written in visual basic when part of them are not public?

I can add that I also do not know that part of the engines in visual basic are not public and it is only a guess.
My engine is written in C.

It is very easy to know what each engine was written with. In fact, I can even tell what the name of the C compiler that is used for one that is compiled in C.
A simple inspection of the binary with strings.exe is usually sufficient.
I can also tell in less than one minute if a program is (for instance) a TSCP clone. I can easily detect if a program is a copy of another program by looking at the internal data tables.
VB programs are very unusual. To write a fast chess program in VB is quite amazing.


My Ftp Site

[Uri Blass]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Uri Blass at 05 March 2002 05:18:21:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 05 March 2002 00:23:40:

Hi to all, i've just uploaded LarsenVB 0.05 to my site
What's new
- Faster move generation
- Better endgame recognition
- Take back support added (about time...)
- Opening lines extended up to 30 ply
- Book editor completed
- Starting move as White now taken from book preferences, not "hard-coded"
Even if i'll be the only one to use it here are some notes regarding the editor:
Adding and removing of lines is now fully working, even directly with the small chess board... you can also create a book from scratch, and it supports also books without the trailing space (like mine) that some other engines use.
Beware, however, of a small bug that i've not be able to trace yet, that sometimes results in incorrect "playable" flags (easy to correct) or in a partial duplicated line (which is worse, since the book won't load... althought it still can be corrected with a simple text editor)... so, save often and make backups

Thanks for this. I am sure it is the strongest VB chess program in the world, and very interesting because it comes with source code.

How can you be sure that it is the strongest VB chess program in the world?
Do you know all the engines in the world that are written in visual basic when part of them are not public?

I can add that I also do not know that part of the engines in visual basic are not public and it is only a guess.
My engine is written in C.

It is very easy to know what each engine was written with. In fact, I can even tell what the name of the C compiler that is used for one that is compiled in C.
A simple inspection of the binary with strings.exe is usually sufficient.
I can also tell in less than one minute if a program is (for instance) a TSCP clone. I can easily detect if a program is a copy of another program by looking at the internal data tables.
VB programs are very unusual. To write a fast chess program in VB is quite amazing.

You still can know things only on programs that you have and not about programs that you have not and it is possible that there are better private programs.
Uri

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 05 March 2002 05:32:25:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Uri Blass at 05 March 2002 05:18:21:

Hi to all, i've just uploaded LarsenVB 0.05 to my site
What's new
- Faster move generation
- Better endgame recognition
- Take back support added (about time...)
- Opening lines extended up to 30 ply
- Book editor completed
- Starting move as White now taken from book preferences, not "hard-coded"
Even if i'll be the only one to use it here are some notes regarding the editor:
Adding and removing of lines is now fully working, even directly with the small chess board... you can also create a book from scratch, and it supports also books without the trailing space (like mine) that some other engines use.
Beware, however, of a small bug that i've not be able to trace yet, that sometimes results in incorrect "playable" flags (easy to correct) or in a partial duplicated line (which is worse, since the book won't load... althought it still can be corrected with a simple text editor)... so, save often and make backups

Thanks for this. I am sure it is the strongest VB chess program in the world, and very interesting because it comes with source code.

How can you be sure that it is the strongest VB chess program in the world?
Do you know all the engines in the world that are written in visual basic when part of them are not public?

I can add that I also do not know that part of the engines in visual basic are not public and it is only a guess.
My engine is written in C.

It is very easy to know what each engine was written with. In fact, I can even tell what the name of the C compiler that is used for one that is compiled in C.
A simple inspection of the binary with strings.exe is usually sufficient.
I can also tell in less than one minute if a program is (for instance) a TSCP clone. I can easily detect if a program is a copy of another program by looking at the internal data tables.
VB programs are very unusual. To write a fast chess program in VB is quite amazing.

You still can know things only on programs that you have and not about programs that you have not and it is possible that there are better private programs.

True enough. Anything is possible, pretty much. Let's just say it is the strongest VB chess program that Dann Corbit knows about, which isn't saying much perhaps. At any rate, to write a chess program in VB that does not get trounced by everything except Java programs is a pretty good feat.
Yes, I am aware that there are one or two Java programs that aren't totally horrible.



My Ftp Site

[Lyapko George]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Lyapko George at 05 March 2002 10:02:15:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Uri Blass at 04 March 2002 23:33:43:

Thanks for this. I am sure it is the strongest VB chess program in the world, and very interesting because it comes with source code.

How can you be sure that it is the strongest VB chess program in the world?
Do you know all the engines in the world that are written in visual basic when part of them are not public?
I read in the readme that it lacks advanced features like
hash tables,null move pruning etc so it seems that it is possible to do something clearly better than it in visual basic.
Uri

It sounds like "How can you say that X is a best writer in Y language, if not all writers had published their works?"
Until engine remains private it does not exists (at least for me).
It is always possible to write something better, but nobody had done this yet...
Best regards,
George

[Luca Dormio]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Luca Dormio at 05 March 2002 12:29:31:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: LarsenVB 0.05 out geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 05 March 2002 05:32:25:
[SNIP]

VB programs are very unusual. To write a fast chess program in VB is quite
amazing.

You still can know things only on programs that you have and not about
programs that you have not and it is possible that there are better private
programs.

True enough. Anything is possible, pretty much. Let's just say it is the
strongest VB chess program that Dann Corbit knows about, which isn't saying
much perhaps. At any rate, to write a chess program in VB that does not get
trounced by everything except Java programs is a pretty good feat.

Thanks...
Anyway, Uri is absolutely right about the fact that this is still far from "the best" ore "the fastest" program that can be done in VB.
Even if i've already started a different, object oriented, Delphi 6 version of Larsen (guess what... it'll be called LarsenD ) for the next Italian OTB tournament, i will not stop playing around with LarsenVB.
I'll definitely try to add hash tables in the future, for example, 'cause i'm still curious to see how far i can go with that language.....oh yes, expect also a .NET version as well
Regards
Luca

LarsenVB Home Page