>> Where can I find the definition of the file format for an .eng file?
> The original proposal for the *.eng format was made here: > http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53674&start=0 Thanks for your answer. I like to propose some more attributes: 1. Short identifier with version number (comma separated), e.g. "Stockfish, 4.0", or "Crafty, 4.1". 2. Name of the origin of this engine (this must not be the author), e.g. "H.G. Muller", or "Stockfish team". There exists so much versions of one engine, and these additional entries might help the GUI (or user of the GUI) to discard some engines, or to replace an entry of an older version with a newer version. The name of the specification file is in general not sufficient for this decision. One example: Scidb provides his own versions of Stockfish and Sjeng (Scidb's Stockfish is playing Three-Check, and King-of-the-Hill; Scidb's Sjeng is also playing Chessgi). Not every GUI is interested to auto-install such special versions. Scidb's installation process would write the following specification files: plugin spec 1.0 /usr/local/share/games/stockfish-scidb chess,chess960,threecheck,king-of-the-hill Stockfish, 4.0 Scidb plugin spec 1.0 /usr/local/share/games/sjeng-scidb chess,giveaway,suicide,losers,crazyhouse,chessgi,bughouse Sjeng, 2.0 Scidb So any other GUI has the chance to discard Scidb's special version, e.g. for Scid only the original Stockfish version is of interest. Not writing any specification file for these engines is not the solution for me, probably any other GUI, e.g. specialized for King-of-the-Hill, might be interested to use Scidb's engines, and Scidb will use these specification files for the auto- installation of his own engines. Another proposal: IMO the use of line numbers for the definition of attributes is not very common, I think that named attributes will make the editing of specification files easier, example: [Plugin Spec] Command=/usr/local/share/games/stockfish-scidb Path=/usr/local/share/scidb-beta/stockfish Icon=/usr/local/share/scidb-beta/playerbase/photos/38/163494 Variants=chess,chess960,threecheck,king-of-the-hill Identifier=Stockfish Version=4.0 Source=Scidb Some more features of this format: 1. In this way the parser for a well known format can be used, this format is also well known for Linux users - not only for Windows users - e.g. freedesktop.org (KDE, GNOME, XFCE) is using this format for desktop specification files. 2. This format is extensible without any version number change, hence the version number can be omitted. 3. This format allows private extensions, because any unknown attribute will be skipped. 4. An icon must not have a suffix (on Linux systems), and the name of the icon might be different from the engines name, so the generic player photos of Scidb can be used with the proposed format (see Icon=...; Scidb is using internal ID's for players and engines, because a name is in general not unique). Your original proposal is automatically adding standard image suffixes, this is not common under Linux, and it makes the use of Scidb's player photo files impossible; beside the fact that Scidb is using ID's instead of names. In this way, with an explicit specification of the image file, it is also possible to share logos. 5. This specification format can also be used easily under Windows (if required). Of course, Linux and Windows needs different contents. Cheers, Gregor Cramer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download BIRT iHub F-Type - The Free Enterprise-Grade BIRT Server from Actuate! Instantly Supercharge Your Business Reports and Dashboards with Interactivity, Sharing, Native Excel Exports, App Integration & more Get technology previously reserved for billion-dollar corporations, FREE http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157005751&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Scid-users mailing list Scid-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scid-users
