AnalyzeFile to annotate pgn file?

[HardThink]

Could somebody help me set up Winboard to analyze a batch of pgn games? I am trying to automatically generate a pgn file with games annotated like this:
1. e4{+0.00/2} Nf6 2. e5{+0.00/2} Nd5 3. d4{+0.00/2} Nb6 4. Nc3{+0.54/10} d5
{-0.53/14} 5. Bb5+{+0.66/10} Nc6{-0.40/12} 6. Bxc6+{+0.64/11} bxc6{-0.24/12}

This is what I have tried so far.

1.
a) Open Winboard (using engine line "Rybka v2.2n2.mp.x64.exe" -fd "C:\Arena\Engines\Rybka" -fUCI)
b) Click "Load game" and select my pgn file. New window pops up where I see the list of the games
c) Click on the first game. It gets loaded.
d) Select "Analyze game". Rybka steps through the moves but then does not load the next game

***Questions: do I need to use a different mode? as far as I could figure out a mode "Analyze File" exists but I do not see it in the menu

2.
Tried to invoke "Analyze File" mode from the command line this way:

c:\WinBoard-4.6.2\WinBoard>winboard.exe /mode AnalyzeFile input.pgn > output.pgn

The game list pops up but even the first game is not loaded. If I can click on it it gets analyzed but again other games are not loaded. "Load games with automatic
stepping" option is selected under "Thresholds".
output.pgn is empty, I do not capture even the first game analysis this way. I guess it should be written into Winboard.debug file. But I do not see it in Winboard directory.

[H.G.Muller]

Well, the menu item is called "Analyze Game", not "Analyze Games".

I simply have not implemented batch analysis in WinBoard. I guess it should not be that difficult to step to the next game in the game list (so that you can select), once you reach the the end of a game. I will think about it. This could be brought under control of the "Step through opening lines" checkbox in the Tournament Options dialog (or with -lgi -1 from the command line.)

[HardThink]

Can't believe this feature has not yet been implemented/requested. How do people auto-annotate games then? Fritz GUI?

[H.G.Muller]

I 'have no idea, because I never do any analysis.

I already included my first attempt at this, which I just uploaded with the latest beta to http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-Portable.zip. (The real reason for uploading it was that it has a patch where you can analyze with two engines, by cicking Analysis mode a second time.)

It steps through the game file now, but does not pay attention to the selection yet (I think). But worst thing is that it seems to lose the PGN tags in the process, which makes it pretty useless at the moment.

Anyway, the way to do it would be:

1) Start WB with an engine
2) Load a game file with multiple games (Game List appears)
3) Go to the Tournament Options dialog to tick "Step through opening lines", and specify a save file
4) Switch on "Analyze Game"
5) Double-click a game in the Game List

It will the start analyzing that game, and automatically continue with the next.

[H.G.Muller]

I am not very happy with the need to set the stepping through games in the Tournament Options dialog. If it belongs anywhere, it would be in the Load Game Options dialog. But I also am not to keen in changing WinBoard dialogs, or adding duplicate controls in general.

Would the following interface be acceptable?:

*) When you click "Analyze Game" when a Game is already loaded, it would just annotate the game, and stop afterwards, leaving the annotated game loaded, and not auto-saving it. (This would only happen when you did not save it by hand, and started a new game.)

*) When you first load a PGN file, but not yet any games from it, (just leaving its content displayed in the Game List), and select "Analyze Game" then, it will enable auto-stepping through games. If you then select a game for loading from the Game List, it will auto-play and annotate that game, and then automatically go on with the next game.

This would not require you to set anything (provided you had auto-save already on), so no meddling with dialogs. Just the menu and the Game List (which pops up automatically).

[Edit] I fixed the clearing of the PGN tags. So the version I uploaded now (same link) should be usable.

[HardThink]

thank you for the quick fix.

i am still unable to make it work. i downloaded your patched winboard and followed your steps. i do see the engine stepping through the games but the engine output remains empty. i tried rybka2 and komodo3. i see this in the engine output:
0 #
0 #

the menu choice sounds good to me.

another question: could I setup game annotations at fixed ply depth?

p.s. I replaced Winboard folder with your updated Winboard folder. could this cause problems for me? i am using Win7 (64-bit)

[HardThink]

Update: found one problem with my setup. After I chose UCI option for Komodo3 I do see the engine output in the window. The engine steps through the game, but nothing is saved. I do not know how to stop the analysis so I just close Winboard. At that time I see that the analysis file is created but it only contains the last game analyzed.

[H.G.Muller]

Strange. Other people reported problems with the auto-saving too. For me it always worked, so far.

I will make a test version tomorrow that prints some stuff to the debug file from which I might learn what exactly prevents the auto-save. (What file did you specify for saving on, btw?) I might then ask you to run it, and send me the debug file.

[HardThink]

i used .pgn extension