shogi software for Mac OS X?
Hi. What are some good programs for Macs?
I was using MacShôgi for game records. (http://www.macshogi.com/) However, it kept on crashing after an OS update. (Even if MacShôgi is out of date, the download page is still nice because it contains a link to Reijer Grimbergen's big file with hundreds of shogi game records with English commentary: http://www.macshogi.com/download/japan-pros.psn.zip . The file is in the .psn format, which, as the western world knows, isn't compatible with lots of/most? Japanese software.)
So, I was recommended to use 桜花 (ouka) 'Cherry Blossom' which has Bonanza 6.0. All menus are in Japanese. It seems to use a non-human (non-.txt) format for saving game records (in contrast to MacShôgi).
[update edit on the 桜花 program: I now see that it can read some other kifu file formats. One copy&pastes the text into the program instead of reading the file directly. It doesn't support PGN format. Supports: CSA, KIF, KI2, GIF, and 'Yahoo!Mobile'. Links: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/ying-hua/id831481931 and http://cherryblossom.mydns.jp/support/ja/news/]
Is there anything else worth noting?
@kmullin
I am not good at English, but please forgive me.
"mono" is software substituting for ".NET Framework" on Linux and Mac.
It is necessary to use "Shogidokoro" on Mac.
http://park.geocities.jp/sbrowser_q/apery_for_mac.zip
This has been already compiled for Mac.
Please unzip the file if you use it on "browser Q"
and choose[将棋エンジン設定：shogi engine setting] of [設定(C)：setting menu].
And drag "apery/bin/apery (execute file)" , and drop it on shogi engine setting dialogue.
Like this ↓
http://park.geocities.jp/sbrowser_q/drag_and_drop.jpg
That's all.
"GPSfish" is the same way, too.
Please ask a Japanese proud person if you do not understand even this.
A test for whether SPEAR runs properly would be to issue the command
wine SpearShogidogoro.exe
from a terminal after changing to the directory where SPEAR was installed. Once started, when you then type
usi
SPEAR should respond with a list of 'id' and 'option' commands, and finally with 'usiok'. Then you could type
isready
and SPEAR should respond with 'readyok'. Getting those responses already makes it almost certain that SPEAR functions properly under wine. To really set it thinking you could continue typing
usinewgame
position startpos moves
go btime 300000 wtime 300000 byoyomi 1000
It should then start spitting out variations.
Just for my information: the two engines that come with XBoard are Shokidoki and Bonanza, right? Bonanza should be very strong, far stronger than SPEAR. Shokidoki is not that much weaker than SPEAR at normal Shogi, although it plays rather uconventional; in my tests it wins about 35% of the games against SPEAR at 20-min sudden-death time control. The main reason for adding Shokidoki to the package is that it also plays Shogi variants (mini-Shogi, Judkins Shogi, Tori Shogi and Euro-Shogi).
@oekaki_coco, I don't know what 'mono' is. What is it?
I installed the Q browser. However, I don't know what I need to do with Apery. Do I need to compile or something? The pages (as you know) are in Japanese. I got the GPS Fish engine into Q, but I'm not sure how to start a game with it.
@Test_DontPlayMe, I wasn't sure whether Spear needed the executable to run it under XBoard. Your reply was very informative. However, I'm still not able to run Spear under XBoard. It'd be nice to know whether Spear actually runs under Wine to make sure I'm not doing something wrong via typing the command incorrectly. But, I'm probably giving up now. I'm able to use the two engines that come with XBoard. And, I'm able to run Shogidokoro under Wine. (But, not BCM Shogi under Wine) So, maybe that's enough for now...
Well, XBoard natively understands WB engines, and through UCI2WB you can use UCI, UCCI and USI engines with it. So basically you can use whatever engine you want. It is just that SPEAR happens to be a USI engine. USI and UCCI are dialects of UCI, and an option -s or -x to UCI2WB makes it use the USI or UCCI dialect instead of UCI. I don't know any Shogi engines that are UCI, although in theory this would be possible. (There are for instance both UCCI and UCI Xiangqi engines.)
With 'their website' you mean http://www2.teu.ac.jp/gamelab/SHOGI/SPEAR/spearmain.html ? I only see a download link there for a Windows version of SPEAR there. In general Windows software does not run on a Mac. You need a Windows emulator for that, and I think 'wine' is included in OS X for that purpose. But that would mean that the engine command for starting SPEAR is not just 'SpearShogidogoro.exe',but 'wine SpearShogidogoro.exe'.
I have been running SPEAR on Windows using UCI2WB and WinBoard (the Windows version of XBoard), as it is the major test opponent for Shokidoki, and I did check out how I istalled it. It turns out SPEAR is not fully USI compliant, and needs special pampering by UCI2WB to run, which has to be enabled by some extra options. As engine command you should use
UCI2WB -s "wine SpearShogidogoro.exe" " byoyomi 1000"
(and then leave the USI/UCCI checkbox unticked, as you already explicitly invoked UCI2WB. Note the space before 'byoyomi'! This option is needed to fool SPEAR into thinking every incremental time control is byoyomi.) I see the XBoard 'Load Engine' dalog has no text entry for giving additional XBoard options, so after installing SPEAR this way you should use the 'Edit Engine List' menu to add to the SPEAR line (at the end)
-firstFeatures "ping=0"
to work around the problem that SPEAR does not respond to the USI 'isready' command. Note that SPEAR does not support classical time controls; you will always have to select an incremental TC in XBoard to prevent weird time usage by SPEAR.
Note that the latest version of XBoard (4.9.x) should be able to load .kif files (both from file, and on pasting them). I am not sure if that version is already included in the Shogi App. I don't have a Mac myself.
@Test_DontPlayMe: I see that misread the acronym. So, it's the UCI2WB adapter that I need to use *USI* engines (and not UCI engines!), according to HG Muller's website. Thanks for setting me straight.
I was assuming that all I needed was the SPEAR .ini file and the adapter to use SPEAR with XBoard. I just downloaded the .zip file from their website, and the .ini file was included in that. Am I wrong about that?
Also, update on the 桜花 program, I now see that one can read some other kifu file formats. However, one has to copy&paste the text into the program rather than just reading the file directly. Kinda clunky. It doesn't support PGN format. Supports: CSA, KIF, KI2, GIF, and 'Yahoo!Mobile' (?whatever this is?).
The OS X shogi world is very sad....
Polyglot is an adapter for UCI Chess engines. SPEAR is a USI engine. To mediate for USI you need the variant-agnostic UCI2WB, used with a -s option.
But in the Shogi App this should be pre-configured, and you just have to tick the USI/UCCI checkbox when loading the engine.
I am surprised you have a SPEAR for the Mac. Or are you running it under wine?
There is an OS X App of XBoard, specifically configured for Shogi: http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=53274 I believe it contains Bonanza 6.0 (the version adapted for interactive analysis) and Shokidoki,and loading other engines should be easy.
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/3hjihngbxru8kk2/XboardSgOSX1.png?dl=0 ">
XBoard saves all games in PGN format.
I'll add one more:
You can use XBoard which includes the Shokidoki engine and a GNU Shogi engine.
However, it is a Unix program that isn't terribly user friendly.
(Incidentally, I tried to get XBoard to load the Spear engine using the bundled Polyglot UCI translator, but I wasn't able to get it to work. I'm not understanding something obviously, which means poor documentation.)
81道場 Webシステム
kmullin (1100) 2016-08-17 07:31
