One question you should ask yourself is why you want to expand xBetza.
My answer is: I don't. The use of an extended character set, as I'm suggesting it, would appear on a case by case basis, be programmed by the designer of the variant, and only affect that game's Interactive Diagram.
To clarify an earlier illustration. Normally, qN is more than sufficient to define a Rose, and XBetza is good enough to handle most variations that I can think of. But then there's the "Rifle Rose," which can not only move like a Rose, but make a rifle capture along the same path. There's not really any good way to do that in XBetza.
So, under my suggestion, I could define Þ to represent the Rose's movement path (possibly with a line something like def Þ = qN -- not just a character replacement, but a definition of a movement path). Then the Rifle Rose could be mÞcaibÞ. The definition wouldn't affect anything outside that one specific Interactive Diagram; other users could use a different character for the Rose, use Þ for a different function, or both. The Þ wouldn't even have to appear outside the ID, though I think that a brief explanation in the text would be the polite thing to do.
Addendum: It's already possible (though not generally a good idea) to use any Unicode character for single-character piece ID codes. I haven't experimented yet with using those in captureMatrix and similar functions, but if they work there then that's one problem (provisionally) solved -- though I'd still advise folks to avoid it when possible.
My answer is: I don't. The use of an extended character set, as I'm suggesting it, would appear on a case by case basis, be programmed by the designer of the variant, and only affect that game's Interactive Diagram.
To clarify an earlier illustration. Normally, qN is more than sufficient to define a Rose, and XBetza is good enough to handle most variations that I can think of. But then there's the "Rifle Rose," which can not only move like a Rose, but make a rifle capture along the same path. There's not really any good way to do that in XBetza.
So, under my suggestion, I could define Þ to represent the Rose's movement path (possibly with a line something like
def Þ = qN-- not just a character replacement, but a definition of a movement path). Then the Rifle Rose could be mÞcaibÞ. The definition wouldn't affect anything outside that one specific Interactive Diagram; other users could use a different character for the Rose, use Þ for a different function, or both. The Þ wouldn't even have to appear outside the ID, though I think that a brief explanation in the text would be the polite thing to do.Addendum: It's already possible (though not generally a good idea) to use any Unicode character for single-character piece ID codes. I haven't experimented yet with using those in captureMatrix and similar functions, but if they work there then that's one problem (provisionally) solved -- though I'd still advise folks to avoid it when possible.