From: Darren hotmail com> Date: 03 jan 2007 Subject: RE: Shogi record file formats? >>>Hi Adrian, What a great idea! Good luck with it , it might be quite a big job to take on. Darren >From: Adrian Petrescu cogeco ca> >Reply-To: shogi topica com >To: shogi topica com >Subject: Shogi record file formats? >Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:08:48 +0000 > >Hello, Shogi mailing list! I'm a student and a Go player who is new to >the world of shogi, but very interested. > >When I first started playing Go several years ago, certainly the most >important part of my progress was the huge availability of online >players thanks to servers like KGS, IGS, Dashn, Cyberoro, etc., but also >the technical excellence of the clients, which allowed you to store, >review, and discuss games after they were played (or even months after >they were played, thanks to the built-in database). However, after much >looking, it has become abundantly clear that currently no such thing >exists for English-speaking Shogi players. Although a few servers, like >Kurnik and Club Shogi, do exist, they cannot even begin to be compared >to existing Go servers, either in terms of popularity or functionality. > >So, as a fun side project (I am a Computer Science student after all :)) >I have been working on a Shogi server similar in functionality (and >hopefully once it is finished, similar in status) to KGS. One of the >most important features to me is to store every played game in a >database which can then be downloaded for offline viewing or online >reviewing. In order to do this, I need some common recording format that >supports a wide range of annotation features -- full support for >variation trees, board annotation (marking up square and peices, etc), >the ability to "set up" artificial positions, etc. I could devise my own >format, but I would prefer to respect the standards that already exist >in the Shogi community. In the Go community, there is a clear defacto >standard: SGF. Although a few other formats exist, and are somewhat used >by non-English servers, there is no arguing that SGF is by and far the >most popular implementation, and any Go programmer who wants to write >something knows he is safe implementing SGF. However, from what little I >know about the shogi community, no such overwhelming standard exists for >shogi kifu. I have found at least three competing formats: .psn, .kifu, >and one that Spear uses whose extension I forget at the moment, but none >of them seems to have anything resembling a majority mindshare. >Additionally, I have not been able to find ANY technical documentation >that clearly states the standard for any of these. I could easily learn >by example, just using MacShogi or Spear to generate records I can learn >from, but I would rather have some solid documentation to use, in case >my examples are not a COMPLETE implementation of the standard. Also, >none of the formats I've seen so far supported board annotation, >although that may only be an issue with the implementation, not the >format. > >If anybody could point me to any documentation, or give a consensus on >which format(s) are the most worthy of being implemented in the server, >that would speed up development and would be greatly appreciated :) > >Thanks in advance! >--Adrian Petrescu > >NOTE: I apologize in advance if you have recieved this message twice. I >tried it once through the regular email adddress and even after several >hours it did not show up, so I'm trying again through the web interface. >Hopefully it works this time. > > > _________________________________________________________________ Advertisement: Mobiles, computers, handsets, iPODs and more! http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etradingpost%2Ecom%2Eau%2Fsearch%2Fcat%5FPhones%5Fns%5FTrue%5Foff%5F0%5Fsect%5FAutomotive%5Fsort%5FotRZSQ1BJDZfdRZSQSearchDisplayPriorityIndAVSCotRZSQ1BJDZfdRZSQFirstPublished%5Fsqt%5F2%5Fsrch%5Fmobile%2Bphones%5Fsrchtype%5Fint%5Fstate%5F9%5Fstpg%5F1%5Fsubs%5FUsed%2BCars%5F%3Freferrer%3Dplacement13&_t=759568604&_r=Email_Tagline1&_m=EXT --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: shogi-l shogi net EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2i6Ys.aBsjvI.c2hvZ2kt Or send an email to: shogi-unsubscribe topica com For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------