ReadMe: informational file for chessplaying program test suites

Revised: 1993.11.24

There are two kinds of files in this chessplaying program test suite
directory: documentation files which have no suffix extension and
command files which have a ".ci" extension.  (They may also have a
compression extension as well.)

The documentation files are: SAN (decribing Standard Algebraic
Notation used for chess moves) and FEN (describing Forsyth-Edwards
Notation used for chess positions).  Both notations are used in the
command files that contain the test positions.

Each line in a command file starts with a four character command which
is followed by zero or more operands.

The command "noop" is for "no operation" and it is used to indicate
commentary lines.

The command "rtrn" is for "return" and it is used once per command
file as the last line in the file to indicate the end of the command
stream.

The command "echo" is similar to the "noop" command in that it carries
commentary.  When processed by a chessplaying program, the effect of
this command is to echo its operands to the standard output file.
Each test position in a command file starts with an "echo" command
that gives the position number of the problem (starting with one) in
the file.

The command "svfe" is for "set value: Forsyth-Edwards" and its
operands are a chess postion description using FEN.  The FEN
documentation file has the details on decoding this information.

Finally, the command "srch" is used to establish a set of search move
targets.  These moves are listed in ASCII order and are formed using
SAN (as described in the SAN documentation file).  These are the moves
that are considered "best", and although some may be slightly better
than others in a given set they are all considered valid answers for
the test position.

ReadMe: EOF
