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Overyang. Variant using compounds of Yang Qi pieces. (11x13, Cells: 143) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]If I view this page with Javascript turned off, I cannot see your board. Although modern browsers normally support Javascript, many people, for security reasons, browse unfamiliar sites with Javascript turned off. For example, I use the Noscript extension for Firefox to turn off Javascript by default, only turning it on for sites I trust. Because this practice is common enough, we should not be using Javascript tools to display boards. If it weren't for the number of pages already displaying boards with Javascript, I would delete the Javascript tool for displaying boards, because it should not be used at all for any page. On pages describing games, all diagrams should be done with either HTML or graphic images. This is the best way to guarantee that viewers see your diagrams, regardless of browser or browser configuration. Since you have made the most use of the Javascript tool for displaying boards, I hope you will help me phase out its use by replacing your Javascript diagrams with either HTML or images. The simplest way to go about this is to use screen shots of your current diagrams.
ATTN DAVID HOWE:
Here's something very curious. I uploaded the generated source of this page here, hoping to play with the outputted HTML until I got something that didn't put lines of empty space between each row, then modify the script to stop putting empty space between each row. But before I modified the generated source at all, it displayed perfectly, with no gaps between the rows. Furthermore, it is displaying the board twice, because it still includes the JavaScript in it from this page. Yet in both cases, it is displaying the boards without any gaps between the rows. Thinking the gaps might be due to something peculiar about Firefox, I also checked Internet Explorer and Chrome, getting the same results as with Firefox. So, apparently, there is some difference between this page and the generated source I uploaded that is causing gaps between the rows. As another test, I copied only the JavaScript code for displaying the board here, and it too displays perfectly. So, the gaps between the rows are not being caused by the HTML code generated by the script. Something else is causing them. Thinking it might be something in the CSS, I looked at global.css, but I saw nothing there pertaining to images. Whatever is causing the gaps is a mystery to me. Would you look into this?
I agree with banning Rook+Cannon and Bishop+Vao. I once considered these pieces for British Chess, calling the former a Tank and the latter a Bazooka, because I thought more powerful pieces might better balance a game with a royal Queen, but I decided they were way too powerful. A check with the Rook or Bishop move cannot be blocked, and a check with a Cannon or Vao move cannot be eliminated by moving the screen away. I eventually modified the game so that the royal Queen had no significant advantage over the King when it came to escaping checkmate. So pieces with only one type of attack over a given line remained sufficient.
But you could always add a restrictive rule, for example that the enemy pawn can stymie the cannon-rook compound so that it can only reach the square immediately behind the enemy pawn. Cannons are sometimes problematic in that they can cause devastation in a Western piece context, but if one introduces restrictive rules they can blend in. I have used exactly the above restrictive rule for my Basilisk cannon: http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/basiliskchess.htm and my Culverin cannon: http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/culverinchess.htm /Mats
David Howe wrote on Thu, Dec 23, 2010 02:07 PM UTC:Fergus, I will look into this. It may be a week or two due to the time of year. I have no idea why the generated code should display differently than the saved code. I tried using a different file name extension (.php instead of .html) but that produced the same results.
Thanks, David. But bear in mind that it is not strictly generated code vs. saved code. On the test pages I linked to, the generated code displayed the board perfectly. There is something about using the Javascript ffen2diag on pages displayed with msdisplay.php that is the problem. So the answer may lie in something that msdisplay.php is doing. For example, Pink Panther Chess, which does not use msdisplay.php, is displaying its board without gaps. However, I did see gaps in Isis and Cam and Honeycomb Chess. Although these don't use msdisplay.php, they are both placing rank numbers on the sides, which may cause the gaps in their cases.
I fixed it, David. When I compared msdisplay.php to the generated output I uploaded, I saw that msdisplay.php had a DOCTYPE declaration, and the generated output didn't. So I deleted the DOCTYPE declaration, and it displayed properly. I also proceeded to delete the META line that sets the character encoding to ISO-8859-1, because I have been converting the whole site to UTF-8, and I have already confirmed that the changes I made to .htaccess override this line anyway. So it isn't necessary to set the character encoding with HTML.
Note: all HTML in this comment is to be viewed as text, so the unticking of the HTML box is deliberate. Edit since posting: why is not appearing as text, when I have the box unticked?
I was unaware that Javascript per se raised any security issues, and under the impression that a bar on cookies was sufficient.
The reason why ffen2diag.js is my first resort for displaying arrays is because it is so economical. I was planning to start a thread of wish lists for the 202nd Decade. My own list was to include more images for ffen diagrams and advice on getting ffen2diagcol.js to work to cut down the size of some of my 4-player variants. If there's any way to achieve something as brief as
without using Javascript I'll gladly switch to it.
The next most economical arrays are Ascii Art. Something like:
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- |Sw2|Mk2|St2|Cr2|Qn2|Kg2|Qn2|Cr2|St2|Mk2|Sw2| --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- |Tk2| |Mh2| |Cd2| |Cd2| |Mh2| |Tk2| --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- | |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| | --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- | |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| |Pn2| | --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- | | | | | | | | | | | | --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- | | | | | | | | | | | | --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- | | | | | | | | | | | | --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- | |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| | --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- | |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| |Pn1| | --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- |Tk1| |Mh1| |Cd1| |Cd1| |Mh1| |Tk1| --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- |Sw1|Mk1|St1|Cr1|Qn1|Kg1|Qn1|Cr1|St1|Mk1|Sw1| --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---is still quite brief but lacks the elegance of visual images. Generally I restrict it to variants with very exotic pieces - most recently AltOrth and its offshoots. My next page is of this kind and will use Ascii Art. You don't have any problems with
, I hope. In retrospect I might have done better using it for Armies of Faith. Some inventors show both a graphic array and Ascii Art, but that's worse than just the Ascii Art. A series of individual images really raises memory use. The sequenceis just one square out of, in this instance, 143 - I will not attempt to display the entire array this way in this comment! No wonder I want to eliminate them from my 4-player variants and replace them with ffen2diagcol. Image files are the worst of the lot. These days I try to confine them to boards confounding all other presentation - pentagonal cells, Yalta-style 3-player 'square' variants, and the like. They may make the HTML file look small, but they take up considerable memory im themselves. So sorry to disappoint you, but until there's an alternative using as little memory I hope to use more Javascript, even in existing page, not less or none.
Storage and bandwidth transfer are both non-issues. We do not have a cap on how much we can store on the site, and we are allowed infinite bandwidth transfer per month, as indicated by the infinity symbol appearing by monthly bandwidth transfer in our cpanel. The only other issue is bandwidth for the user. For people with broadband connections, the savings in bandwidth for using Javascript vs a single image are too negligible to notice. But even for dial-up users, you can create graphic images that will not take very long to download. For example, the diagram for this game can be saved as a PNG file that is only 7935 bytes in size. If you wish to continue using the Javascript tool to make your diagrams, I recommend replacing the call to the Javascript tool with the actual HTML it outputs. If you're using Firefox, you can get this with the Web Developer extension, using its View Source/View Generated Source menu option.
A table with transparent piece images will use fewer images than the code generated by ffen2diag.js, because it has to load only one image for each type of piece, whereas ffen2diag.js, which uses nothing but images, has to use separate images for the same piece on different color squares. So a table will use about half as many images, and when the images are comparable, that will reduce bandwidth. Game Courier can render boards as tables using a transparent version of the same piece images you have been using. It is called 'Small Pieces for Large Boards'. But it currently adds some things to the code you do not need for displaying the board. I will work on modifying the Table rendering method to display code suitable for pasting on a web page.
Noting the reference to Honeycomb Chess, any news on when the now urgent update to that is being posted? The version on the website still has a reference to Sheikh conflicting with my current use of that name. Or has an update-your-own feature for pages that aren't post-your-own been added without me noticing? Storage is an issue for me as I keep master copies of all my pages on my own computer just in case. Could you please give me an example of 'replacing the call to the Javascript tool with the actual HTML it outputs' as I do not know how to do that?
Dear Mr. Gilman: If possible, I'd like to have your help, could you contact me? My mail is in info here in the CV site. Thank's in advance. Claudio.
Unless I know what kinsd of help you want, it's hard to know whether I can offer it. If it's something you'd like to see added to these pages it might be worth raising it on my 'Wish Lists 2011' thread and seeing who's best to address it.
As always, names, and possibly, pieces for my Megadoom Project. What would be, perhaps, the largest CV until now. To understand the project and and my pains, take a look at this, please: http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSachessvariantm http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSmegadoomchessp Thanks! So, fell free to mail me, os send me a good dark beer from Englad! ;) (Sorry I'm a carioca brazilian ado I love to play with people I admire and like).
Glad you like it. If you're into writing implementations, feel free to do one of this - and that goes for anyone who likees a variant of mine. I don't have the time to do them myself.
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