On July 25, 2022 at 2:45:49 AM UTC-6, Simon Woodhead wrote:
On 25/07/2022 3:34 pm, MK wrote:
It's not about what I like or not. If the rules is
that "You have to use both dice if you can.",
then the correct play *and* correct notation
of the correct play is "6/4 4/off".
You're a one man conspiracy cult, Murat :-)
How did you see conspiracy in what I wrote?
Did you perhaps feel like saying whatever to
simply attack me?
But this time I won't do the same to you and
as an answer to your post, I will try to write a
comprehensive article about how's and why's
backgammon games should be notated, also
in addressing all issues discussed in other posts
in this thread (and then some), as best as i can.
I will also try to be as nice and as compassionate
as I can while doing that, with the hopes that you
all may learn something towards analytical and
systematical thinking, for better understanding
backgammon and becoming better players.
There are no notation rules in backgammon.
Yes. Unfortunately true and to the detriment of
backgammon. I think there were a few attempts
in the past, like proposed BGX(?), etc. standards,
but apparently nothing came out of them.
Common sense and practicality prevail.
No. Unfortunately again, this is not true at all.
All notations past and present are so devoid of
common sense and practicality that one would
think it's all done so badly on purpose.
I will here examine their details and make some
propositions, both from the view and for the sake
of both the game of backhammon and its players
and of bot programming and data processing in
general.
I'll number my paragraphs to delienate sub-topics.
So, let me start.
1) Obviously BG notation is done to communicate
game info among human and bot players, mostly
to preserve it in order to use it later.
The most important, desirable quality of preserved
data is for it to be as "raw" as possible. Think of raw
BMP images which can be repeatedly processed vs
lossy, condensed JPG images which can't be without
further losing bits of data.
Thus, unlike all bots and humans currently do, dice
rolls should not be notated with the higher number
first. Statistically, a 52 is different than a 25. Unless
this distinction is preserved, you can never go back
to statistically analyse dice rolls/rollers.
There is something much more important about it
from the player's sake perspective, which is that it
conditions the player's brain to alwasy process the
higher number first and turns them into bad players
by tempting and causing them to assess and play
the higher number first, very often erroneously.
The same harm is done also by the bots that offer
to always display the higher number first. Humans
should never use this feature and allow their brains
to remain flexibly capable of processing dice rolls
either way.
2) Unlike all bots and humans currently do, moves
should not be notated with higher die numbers first.
In games like chess where only one piece is moved
only once per move (counting castle as one move),
there is nothing to say about the order of moves.
In backgammon, depending on the position and dice,
a player may move 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 pieces, by moving a
piece more than once and/or making the same move
more than once.
This makes the order of the individual moves is very
important, not only while making the moves during
a game but also while analysing past games that had
been played between better human or bot players, in
order to learn from them.
For example, playing a 52 as 19/14 7/5 is obsolutely
not the same thing as playing it as 7/5 19/14 even if
the resulting position is the same.
Think about you guys' own position/play discussions
here. Often times you say things like "the 2 is obvious
but how do you play the 5?"
By notating it as 7/5 19/14 you preserve that bit of
info that 7/5 was the obviously, decisively correct
move. By notating it as 19/14 7/5 you lose it forever.
3) Unlike all bots and humans currently do, moves
should not be notated starting at higher points first
for the same reason as above.
Using the same 52 example but this time with the 5
being the obvious move, notating it as 19/17 7/2
(simply because the 19-point is higher numbered
than the 7-point) is just as bad, instead of notating
7/2 19/14 even if the resulting position is the same.
4) Because the double numbers are played four times,
the issues with the order of moves in the above sub-
topics 2 and 3 are further magnified with doublets.
For example, if you played a 33 as 6/3 (to make your
3-point) 8/5 (to move a blot to safety) 23/20 (to get
ready to escape) 6/3 (just to reduce the stack on your
6-point), according to how you perceived and made
each move in your own order of importance, nothing
can be worse than notating it as 23/20 8/5 6/3 6/3 or
23/20 8/5 6/3(2), etc. based on such useless, in fact
counter productive, things like in descending order of
point/die numbers.
Now on to somewhat minor issues...
5) Not all bots and humans indicate a blot hit using an
asterisk. I deem this as necessary beyond being merely
a useful clarification because when a piece is hit, it is
touched and moved from a point on the board to the
bar and thus technically counting as a separate move.
6) Even hand-notating backgammon games in real time
doesn't require the speed of court reporting. Shortening
notations doesn't serve any practical purpose to save time
or storage space, (which is miniscule for text format data),
but to the contrary, makes them more lossy, cryptic and
confusing.
Personally, I would prefer "Cannot Move" instead of just
blank spaces, "Bar/.." instead of "25/..", "../Off" instead of
"../0", etc. which are more human than machine language.
7) Currently many bots display the possible legal moves
and the actual moves made differently during the games
and then even more differently when saving/exporting
then in different file foemats. This is a clear proof of how
your venerated gamblegammon bots are total garbage
products of incest among mentally ill gambler in all roles.
Consistency ensures quality and is of utmost importance.
8) If playing both/all dice numbers when possible is the
rule, then it should be used throughout the entire game
including during bearing off without confusing exceptions.
Consistency in applying rules is of utmost importance.
9) Checker and cube errors during bearing off are more
critical than during early and even middle stages of the
games and thus all moves need to be notated separately
and in the same order as they were made.
10) Finally, not only that all of those unnecessary gildings
of the lily are counterproductive for the humans but they
also "uglify" the computer code by causing a bloating in
programming more logical decisions and data processing.
For purists in computer programming, simple is beautiful.
When you consider that while exporting/importing games
among different bots all those inconsistencies cause more
problems, it becomes clearer that haphazardly trying to
make something more out of backgammon and more so
of gamblegammon (a la chess) than what it really is will only
make it less...
MK
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