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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> initial placement notation
        
(Message started by: The_Jeh on Jul 29th, 2007, 9:58pm)
Title: initial placement notation
Post by The_Jeh on Jul 29th, 2007, 9:58pm
An average line of Arimaa notation takes 23 characters (including spaces) to write. However, the initial placement lines take 66 characters to write. This is visually imbalanced and takes an inordinate amount of space.  I know that the way the bots work makes this unlikely to change. However, here is a system that takes only 28 spaces:

1w Exx Mxx Hxxxx Dxxxx Cxxxx

The rabbits are omitted, because obviously they are put wherever there are no higher pieces. The disadvantage of this system is that you can't go through left to right and place the pieces as you go.  The advantage is that on paper it looks better and is still fairly easy to understand at a glance.

Of course, it is possible to notate this opening move simply by listing the pieces in order left to right (e.g. 99of9: 1w RHDEMDHRRRRCCRRR), but I don't like this way as much.
Title: Re: initial placement notation
Post by 99of9 on Jul 30th, 2007, 10:34pm

on 07/29/07 at 21:58:00, The_Jeh wrote:
Of course, it is possible to notate this opening move simply by listing the pieces in order left to right (e.g. 99of9: 1w RHDEMDHRRRRCCRRR), but I don't like this way as much.

What is it you don't like about this?  I find it to be the most instantly understandable by far (or maybe it would be better if there were a separator after 8, eg 1w |RHDEMDHR|RRRCCRRR|).
Title: Re: initial placement notation
Post by The_Jeh on Jul 30th, 2007, 11:09pm

on 07/30/07 at 22:34:56, 99of9 wrote:
What is it you don't like about this?  I find it to be the most instantly understandable by far (or maybe it would be better if there were a separator after 8, eg 1w |RHDEMDHR|RRRCCRRR|).


You're right. I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking that it didn't look similar enough to the rest of the lines, but now I've seen the light. I like the separators, too.
Title: Re: initial placement notation
Post by woh on Aug 1st, 2007, 6:04am
Instead of the seperator row numbers can be used:
1w 2RHDEMDHR 1RRRCCRRR
1b 7rhdmedhr 8rrrccrrr
Title: Re: initial placement notation
Post by Jan Kruschak on Aug 30th, 2007, 1:41am
Woh, that is a very good idea for changing the initial placement notation into a simpler format.


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