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FAQ

Questions

  1. ChessDB is I believe based on Scid. What differences are there between ChessDB and Scid?
  2. Pascal Georges has released an updated program he calls Scid too - what is that?
  3. Why does ChessDB use 3 files (extensions .si3, .sn3 and .sg3) for its database? It could be more convenient if there was just one file for each database, in the same way Word uses one file (.doc) for a text document, or .xls for a spreadsheet.
  4. What is the history of ChessDB?
  5. When I run the program pgnchessdb, which can be used for converting PGN files to ChessDB format files, the Windows DOS box opens for a millisecond & closes! Can anyone tell me how I can run this program normally to create ChessDB files from PGN files?

Questions with answers

  1. Question: ChessDB is I believe based on Scid. What differences are there from between ChessDB and Scid?
    Answer: There are quite a few, which are listed elsewhere.
  2. Question: Pascal Georges has released an updated program he calls Scid too - what is that?
    Answer: I am glad you asked! Pascal has really annoyed me over this - see my comments elsewhere.
  3. Question: Why does ChessDB use 3 files (extensions .si3, .sn3 and .sg3) for its database? It would be more convenient if there was just one file for each database, in the same way Word uses one file (.doc) for a text document, or .xls for a spreadsheet.
    Answer: Speed. Having 3 files makes searching a lot faster than it would otherwise be. Consider searching for games played by Fischer for example, there is no need to search all the moves - the header will contain all the information needed to do the search. If all the moves were stored in one big file, it would take a long time to search it. Instead, by using 3 files, searches are a lot faster, since there is no need to search a file containing the moves, when the information needed it nothing to do with the moves.
  4. Question: What is the history of ChessDB?
    Answer: More than 90% of the code in ChessDB is taken from Scid (Shane Chess Information Database), which was first made available to the public on the 9th May 2001. Scid was primarily developed by Shane Hudson, but Shane lists a large list of contributors. The last release of Scid was on the 2nd March 2004. An unofficial web site then set up, with a few enhancements and bug fixes to Scid. On the 23th December 2006, David Kirkby (drkirkby on Sourceforge), started a new project called ChessDB on Sourceforge. This used the original Scid source code, with most of the fixes given on the unofficial web site, and a couple of minor bug fixes David developed. A lot of effort went into improving the documentation. Since then, there have been several releases of ChessDB, with some of the code developed by David, but again there are other contributors, particularly Jeremy White. Hans Eriksson helped a lot with translations to Swedish and other information.
  5. Question: When I run the program pgnchessdb, which can be used for converting PGN files to ChessDB format files, the Windows DOS box opens for a millisecond & closes! Can anyone tell me how I can run this program normally to create ChessDB files from PGN files?
    Answer: First you don't need to use pgnchessdb directly,, since you can do this inside ChessDB by first creating a new database, using File->New. After creating the new database, import a PGN file into the new database with Tools->Import File of PGN games. The GUI will actually call pgnchessdb for you. But since you asked, this is how you can create a ChessDB database by using pgnchessdb at the command line.
    • Click the Windows Start Menu and click Run. For the command type cmd.exe (Windows NT, 2000, 2003, XP, MCE or Vista) or command.com (Windows 95, 98, 98SE or ME)
      DOS box
      This should bring up a DOS box.
    • Change to the drive letter where the PGN file is. For most people you will not need to do this, as ChessDB and your PGN files are likely to be on C:. But if not you will need to change to the drive letter. For this example, the drive is M:\, which is a networked drive.
    • Change to the directory where the PGN file is - in this example M:\chess
    • check the PGN file of interest is there, by using DIR. In this example, the file smith-morra-games.pgn is used.
    • Give the full path to where pgnchessdb is installed - this is likely to be C:\Program Files\ChessDB\bin\pgnchessdb but it may be different for you, if you chose to install ChessDB in a location other than the default. Put the path in double quotes, since there is a space in the file path. Follow this, with the name of the PGN file.
      DOS box showing use of pgnchessdb

    A more convenient solution, will be to change the PATH in windows so that it includes C:\Program Files\ChessDB\bin. There is information on the Microsoft Knowledge Base about setting environment variables in Windows XP You can check the PATH by typing set, which will display all environment variables in Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, Vista, XP, MCE, 2000, 2003 or NT.

    In Windows 95,98,98SE and ME you can set the PATH in AUTOEXEC.BAT with SET PATH= specifying the file paths to search separated by ";".

    In Windows Vista, XP, MCE, 2000, 2003 and NT you can change the PATH by editing the registry. First, click the Windows Start Menu, then click Run. For the command type regedit.exe There you can change the search path in
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\SessionManager\Environment
    where the file paths to search are also separated by ";".

    After you have changed the PATH in Windows you will need to restart Windows, since Windows only reads the PATH when Windows starts.

    But personally, under Windows, I would not bother with the command line utilities, although they are probably somewhat quicker than the GUI for converting large files.

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This page was last modified: September 16, 2007. 10:41:18 am GMT