Gilbert Rebhan wrote: Hi!
>> The universal chess format already exists : PGN. And Scid and chessbase >> (and nearly every chess software I am aware of, can import / export this >> PGN format). > > yes of course, but what if you get a cbf | cbh file and > you don't own a chessbase product like fritz | chessbase > (light) ? Then you're out of luck especially with cbh. I remember a discussion on the issue for chessx and there is no doc about how to read cbh. All DOS-tools that use it just call a DLL from ChessBase (had a detailed discussion of the issue with Stefan from Shredder, why he does not support cbh in [EMAIL PROTECTED], and about data formats in general). Hence you'd have to have this DLL. Now this one is win32-binary only and you're out of luck "beyond windows". Probably one could do something like the tricks one uses for the win32-codecs in the multimedia sector to get this DLL usable with scid. (Don't know, I never worked in that technical area.) CBF as far as I know would be possible by some commandline tools but actually as Gilbert already stated this format is pretty outdated as all new CB products use cbh. (They even convert without asking from chf to cbh as I noticed recently opening some cbf with Fritz getting my $HOME/ cluttered...) Don't get me wrong IMHO it would really be nice if I could access this CB-stuff natively from scid, or at least natively import it (cause PGN as intermediate format is pretty big compared to the DB formats on either end). But I'm a bit pessimistic on a general solution especially as we've some commitment to a pretty broad range of platforms. > i think there was a tool for converting cbf to pgn > (not sure anymore!) but none for cbh > pgn without a > chessbase software. That's what I remember as well, and it's the reason why I actually invested some 5,- EUR for a Fritz 8 Special Edition when Fritz 9 was out (good enough for the job) that runs in wine for conversion of cbh->pgn. Even Fritz 6 would do, runs also in wine. (I worte a short howto available at http://theorie.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~arwagner/chess/chessbase.html) Though I do not like the approach it seemd the most practical for me. As exchange format I agree with Pascal, it already exists and it's called PGN. Now Shivs problem was something strange at the import (we discussed this in PM) probably Pascal has a clue what happens there. PGN is certainly flexible enough to handle all needs, no need to invent something in xml. Besides it would just get huge due to the xml-overhead involved. Imagine something like (probably slightly exagerating): <move> <no>1</no> <piece>P</piece> <start>e2</start> <end>e4</end> </move> compared to 1.e4. And now dump a Mega ~4*10^6 games. Will be no fun. Don't get me wrong, xml is a nice thing (if you don't have to process it with tcl ;) but it's not the cure for everything, and especially it would introduce a very senseless overhead in this case. > You're right, everyone can create his own binary format, > would be nice if there would be one format, but there are > commercial interests of course ... Actually I believe that those who underestimate the necessity for interfaces today will not be left tomorrow. Today CB has a factual monopol in certain areas and they actually try to protect it by not offering any interfaces. Thats IMHO a wrong startegy that will not pay out. Anyway I just had an interesting discussion about the point for the photo metadata with CB support. (Very helpfull people.) But @CB there is currently no insight that one needs to have an interface for anything, beyond their own product available only on Win. Now what will I do? Consider twice if and probably when I'll buy another DB from them. Especially as due to the lack of any interface I can not just add the diff to my current one. And I'd be willing to add also my two cent of own code. Most people won't. Therefore, I'll fill up my current DB from free sources available in PGN, maybe it'll not be that perfect or complete as a new mega, but well... One should think about the fact that even the Evil Empire started to use something far similar to xml (at least a text based document description language) recently... Ever imagined how e.g. ChessBase Mega should be preserved on the long run? By "on the long run" I do not mean 5 years, but "over the change of technology". Just imagine what's left of CB9 if there's no Evil Empire anmyore. (Ever imagined back in the 80s and 90s that WordStar or 1-2-3 would not be there anymore?) -- Kind regards, / War is Peace. | Freedom is Slavery. Alexander Wagner | Ignorance is Strength. | | Theory : G. Orwell, "1984" / In practice: USA, since 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Scid-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scid-users
