FAQ
Q. What is GSDB ? GSDB is short for the Gnu Shogi Database project. The idea here is to store shogi-games in a database that can be consulted by people on the internet. It will make things easier for people who want to learn from professional games. It will also allow you to see how amateurs (in Europe) play shogi. As an additional bonus, it's a nice tool to make shogi diagrams. Q. Where can I find GSDB ? GSDB can be found on the internet on http://www.netpoint.be/shogi/gsdb/ The source-code is available for both the server and the client part of GSDB. The file is called : http://www.netpoint.be/shogi/gsdb/files/gsdb-2.7.1.zip Q. What's the latest version of GSDB ? The lastest version as of 12-feb-1998 is 2.7.1 Q. What's new in the latest version of GSDB ? * We changed the look and added menus for your ease of use * More then 1 client can be started from the same applet. * All screens are now available under F1-F8 AND under menus * A list of preset queries has been added to the menu. * We have a new graphical game-score window supporting variations * The whole datastructure of GSDB has been rewritten * ... Q. What are the known bugs ? * The tsume-solver still drops mate with a pawn (Yuk !) * INTERNET EXPLORER doesn't respond as it should to the getClipRect() method causing the screen to be drawn too high, cutting of a piece of the screen. I included a view IE option for this, but it's not a good solution. * INTERNET EXPLORER doesn't respond as it should to the loadBoard method in the Gsdb class. Switching from color to black&white is not possible. The solution is to click right on the database icon to get the black'n white version and left for the colored screen. Q. What software do I need to use GSDB ? For the client you need a browser capable of running java-applets. For example: Netscape versions 3 or 4 Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3 or 4 AppletViewer from the JDK. GSDB is written in Java version 1.0.2. and should run on any Java enabled browser on any platform. Please inform the authors if this is not the case. For the server you need to have the Java Development Kit (JDK) for the platform you're running. You also need the JDK if you want to change something in the client or server code. Q. How do I read a game from the database ? The database contains over 800 games, so you have to make a selection. You can do this by selecting a preset query in the Search menu, or by making your own query in the Window "Search" menu. (F6 key) Once the server has computed your query a list of games will be presented. You can click on a game and press OK to load it from the server. If you can't connect to the server, you can also download a selection of games from the "Open game file" option in the File menu. Q. How do I save a game in the database ? Once you entered all the information you have in the data-screen, and entered the game by playing it through on the board, you can select "Send game" in the File menu. If the game allready exists in the database a message will be shown. You can then send again to overwrite the game. Q. How do I browse through a game ? In the main window : Click << to go to the beginning of the game Click >> to go to the end of the game Click < to go back one move Click > to go forward one move. Click Auto to start the auto-replay of the game. Click stop to stop the auto-replay of the game. Press LEFT-key to go back one move Press RIGHT-key to go forward one move. Press UP-key to load the previous game in the selection Press DOWN-key to load the next game in the selection Press SPACE-bar to prevent a piece from promoting while moving ...or move with right-button/Meta+Button Press !-key to print a PSN notation of the game to the console and the Decode screen Press b-key to put a square in bold typeface Press c-key to clear all bold settings. Press d-key to dump a .bmp file to the server directory Press i-key to show the intro on the screen Q. What do the different menu's do ? Menu descriptions ----------------- File ---- New game : Erases the games, resets all settings to default and clears all data fields Open game file : This option gives you a list of data-files to select from. These data-files are tab-delimited flat-files. Selecting one will load the games in this file into memory and display the contents in the game selection window (F7). Open PSN file : This option gives you a list of PSN-files to select from. These PSN-files are in Portable Shogi Notation format. Selecting one will load the games in this file into memory and display the contents in the game selection window (F7). Connect : Connect to the Shogi Database Server. This server allways resides on the machine from which you loaded the applet. Save game file : This option lets you save the game you entered in the Shogi Database. A dialog-box will appear to confirm this, and if the game already exists, you will need to confirm the overwrite. A dialog box will confirm that the game has been saved. Save bitmap (d) : This sends a black and white bitmap to the Shogi Database server. The server will then save the bitmap as a MS Windows BMP format. (uncompressed in 2 colors, 408 pixels wide, 355 pixels high. A dialog box will confirm that the bitmap has been saved. Calculate Tsume : When you entered a tsume, this option will try to calculate the solution for you. Quit : Quits the client after confirmation View ---- Turn board (F9) : Rotates the board 180 degrees. Color/B&W... : Lets you choose between a colored or a black and white representation of the shogi board. Game type : Lets you choose between the different possible types of handicaps. You can also choose the types Tsume, Hishi, Position. Choose Edit Position if you want to change an existing tsume, hishi or position. Done editing : If you chose "Edit position" in the game type menu list, you can indicate that you're through done editing with this option. Show names of players : This options showes or hides the names of the players under the board. It's allways "black vs white", even when the board is rotated. Load previous game in query (UP) : When there are games in the game selection window, this will load the previous game from that list. Load next game in query (DOWN) : When there are games in the game selection window, this will load the next game from that list. Correct IE bugs : Setting this option is only necesseray for clients running on Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3 and 4. Internet explorer has a couple of bugs, the most important one being that shogi board is drawn in the wrong place because IE reports back the wrong clipping area to the client. Move ---- Forward (RIGHT) Back (LEFT) Start of game (HOME) End of game (END) New variation Leave variation Auto replay start Auto replay stop Auto replay delay... delay 0.1s-6s Search ------ Amature events... : various European amateur tournaments Professional events... : a selection of Professional Tournaments Games played in ... 1992-1998 What's new today, this month, this year. Window ------ Data (F2) : Shows or hides the data window containing information on the shogi game. Following game information is available in the data-window : - the names of the players with their strength; - when it was played; - in which country it was played; - who put it in the database; - the name of the tournament; - the round; - the result of the game; - wether it is a professional game or not; - a general comment on the game. Game score (F3) : Shows or hides a graphical window with the gamescore in it. Comment (F4) : Shows or hides a window containing a comment on a move. This window pops up automatically when there is a comment on a move. Decode/Encode (F5) : Shows or hides a window which allows you to look for games in the shogi database. Two criteria can be given to look for in an "AND" or "OR" combination. Wildcards can be given to search for games : use the * and ? characters. For example : Select "black player" and type in "*Nakabisha* Possible decoding schemes : PSN, Kifu, JavaShogi Possible endecoding schemes : PSN, ESN Search (F6) : Search for a game in the database, fill in either screen. Combine the 2 search criteria if needed with OR/AND Select from search result (F7) : Displays the result of the last search command to select from. Choose a variation (F8) : If different variations exist for a move, this window allows you to select/delete these variations. Close all windows : Closes all windows exept the client/board itself. Q. How do I use GSDB on my PC without an internet connection ? First you need to install the Java Development Kit (or JDK). The latest version of the JDK is 1.1 and can be found free of charge on the internet. Go to http://www.javasoft.com/ for the Windows 95/NT and Sun Solaris versions. Look at http://www.javasoft.com/products/jdk/jdk-ports.html for links to the JDK on other platforms. Then, once you got hold of the GSDB archive, decompress it in a directory. For example you might decompress the archive in the \ directory. This gives you a number of subdirectories. The first thing you do is start the database : cd \gsdb\java\server java Server Then you start your browser(or the appletviewer) and load the file \gsdb\contents.html That's it : the applet will start and you can use GSDB. On all platforms this is the same. Make sure you have the TCP/IP protocol installed on your machine. You can check if this is covered by typing ping 127.0.0.1 Some people using Microsoft Windows '95 have reported problems with this on their machines. One possible solution is to explicitly give your machine an IP address (for example : 10.0.0.1) and a netmask (for example 255.255.255.0) If your machine is connected to a network, please make sure this is ok for the other machines. And if that still doesn't work, I noticed that the appletviewer might work when your browser doesn't. (again, this problem only seems to occur on Windows 95) Q. What is the connect function for in the main menu? Well, it can be very annoying if your modem hangs up just at the moment you are entering a long game. Now you can reconnect to the server with the connect button. Also, you can work off-line with this option. Q. What's left to do in GSDB ? There are a few things left to do in this program. * Write a Shogi Tutorial * Further devellopment of the Shogi-engine. Q. How do I set up a Tsume problem ? (same for Hishi & Positions) Select in menu View, Gametype... Tsume/Hishi/Position to get an empty board Move the mouse-pointer over a square on the board. Press PLNSGBRK for respectively Pawn, Lance, kNight, Silver, Gold, Bishop, Rook and King If you press the key again, the piece will promote/unpromote If you press the ENTER key, the color (to play) will change Press space to clear a square Press d to change the calculation depth When you're finished select in menu View, "Done editing" The remaining pieces in hand for white will be automatically calculated Change a positions by selecting in menu View, Gametype...,"Edit". Q. How does the tsume-solver work ? Once you set up the tsume-position, you can let the computer calculate the solution. To do this simply press the CALC button. After a while the solution will be presented. A score greater then 0 means that a tsume has been found. For example : Best path found (3p) : [89997] pos=78 secs=57.244 [N'5c K6a-7a G'7b] means : [89997] : tsume has been found pos=78 : 78 different positions examined sec=57.244 : it took almost a minute to calculate it N'5c K6a-7a G'7b : solution is mate in 3