From twixt@cstone.net Fri Jul 23 01:01:38 CDT 2004 Article: 3492 of rec.games.abstract Path: news!news.niu.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!wn14feed!worldnet.att.net!63.223.4.70!c01.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!fe39.usenetserver.com.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: David J Bush Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract Subject: Twixt SGF FF[4] specifications Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 25 X-Complaints-To: abuse@usenetserver.com X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly. NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 20:02:26 EDT Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 20:02:01 -0400 Xref: news rec.games.abstract:3492 SGF FF[4] is a convention for text files which are records of abstract games. The protocol allows an entire tree of branching moves to be stored in the text file, not just a single line of moves. A spec for Twixt games which conforms to FF[4] has now been posted at http://www.red-bean.com/sgf/twixt.html This is a little different from the move syntax which exists on Richards PBM server. Most moves are simply indicated by the hole where the peg is placed. Any links are automatically added. That much is the same. But Richard's server does not record whether sides were swapped or not (although it allows swap to be played.) Also, the PBMserv syntax serves a different purpose; people type in the move they make when they send in their email. FF[4] is more likely to be used by software which will generate or read a text file of a game or games, so the syntax was chosen to be a little easier for software to deal with. It is still quite readable by people, however. Actually, the best software that currently manages a Twixt game database is Jtwixt, which cannot as yet import FF[4] files. But hopefully that will change.