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From: howard@well.UUCP (Howard A. Landman)
Newsgroups: net.games.go
Subject: Re: go problems
Message-ID: <529@well.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Jan-86 15:21:04 EST
Article-I.D.: well.529
Posted: Tue Jan 21 15:21:04 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jan-86 20:27:42 EST
References: <911@dcl-cs.UUCP> <4132@npoiv.UUCP>
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 53
Summary: How about a standard format for presenting Go diagrams in ASCII?

In article <4132@npoiv.UUCP>, bad@npoiv.UUCP (Bruce Dautrich) writes:
> 
> 		+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
> 		|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
> 		+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--O--+--O--+--+
> 		|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
> 		+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--X--+--O--X--+--+
> 		|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
> 		+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--O--+--X--+--+
> 		|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
> 		+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--X--+--X--+--+--+
> 		|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
> 		+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
> 		|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
> 
> X intends to blockade the O group by the X play at 6,5 if things go well.

A few comments: (1) Having played several games of Go via net mail, I find that
one line per row and two chars per column is adequate.  It also uses only 1/3rd
the characters of Bruce's format, which lets an entire board to fit on one
24-line screen with room to spare:

	   A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T
	19 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 19
	18 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + O + O + + 18
	17 + + + + + + + + + + + + + X + O X + + 17
	16 + + + . + + + + + . + + + + O . X + + 16
	15 + + + + + + + + + + + + + X + X + + + 15
	14 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 14

(2) It really helps if the star points are indicated (as above).  Some people
prefer to use '*' instead of '.', but I find that '.' is easier to discriminate.
Some people also prefer to use '*' or '@' instead of 'X'.

(3) I don't understand the comment about blockading at the 6,5 point at all.
X already occupies one 6,5 point (O15) and would be much better off connecting
at O16 or P15 than playing P14 (the other 6,5 point).  It would help if the
axes were labeled.  The standard way of doing this is with letters for the
columns and numbers for the rows (as above).  The letter I is omitted to avoid
confusion with the numeral 1.  See, e.g., Takagawa, The Vital Points of Go,
p.2 (Nihon Ki-in, Tokyo, 1958).  I don't particularly like this lettering
because it adds a mildly annoying complication to Go programs, but it seems
to be the international standard.  I believe it was used in the first USENIX
Computer Go tournament, for example.

Does anyone know of any standards for ASCII board presentations?  What, for
example, is the format used by Bruce Wilcox's "Nemesis" program?

As for the answer, it wouldn't happen to be N17?

	Howard A. Landman
	"About to lower the average IQ of California
	 and raise that of Arizona"