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WinChloe 3.20 & latest update of the WinChloe Echecs database!
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- The latest update (as of 12-Sep-2012) of WinChloe Echecs database is available for those, who uses it. The number of problems has increased till 441047!
65 of original problems published at juliasfairies.com are added to WinChloe Echecs database as of 12-Sep-2012.- I’d like to tell a few words about how the updates of Echecs database are made. This is a very impressive work of the whole command of people! I was interested about how it all works, so asked Christian Poisson and share here what I’ve found out! 🙂
At http://winchloe.free.fr/
ouvrages_table_echecs.html you can see a list of those who help Mr.Poisson – the author of the program – to record new problems into Echecs database. Let me quote Christian Poisson:Laurent Riguet records problems since the first version of WinChloe in 1995 (this first version was written in Visual Basic).Also, Harry Fougiaxis, Vaclav Kotesovec, Imanol Zurutuza, Henk Le Grand, Michel Caillaud, Pierre Tritten, José Coello Alonso, Abdelaziz Onkoud etc… send each month tables with new and/or updated problems. (Ch.P.)So, Mr.Poisson gets tables with a new problems or updates to the existing problems from the “support-command” (thanks a lot to all of you!!) and makes a copy from all these tables into Echecs table (the main database) – one by one, using “Copy in another table” option from File menu, adding a “Treatment of the duplicates” – ‘Verify each duplicate‘.So, during the copy, if a duplicate is found (same position, same stipulation, same fairy conditions), and if there are differences between some fields, a new window appears indicating these differences. I make the necessary modifications and when I close the window, the new informations are added in the record of the table Echecs (but note that this works with all tables, not only the table Echecs). (Ch.P.)
Users always criticize programmers – this is something what always existed and will exist I think! 🙂 I’m sorry about it.. I do the same thing from time to time, but the same time I’m impressed about such a big permanent work and I’m saying “Thank you!” to Christian Poisson and to those who help him in this huge project!
Yes… indeed it’s a laborious, boring, thankless job – updating databases with new problems..
But one thing needs to be addressed which I’ve noticed with all chess problem databases: winchloe, pdb, meson, yacpdb – a certain percentage of problems with:
1. wrong details (author, source, year)
2. old or cooked versions (when newer, corrected or improved versions exist)
3. incomplete solutions (important tries or variations are left out – which makes viewers miss the main theme or intent of the composer)
4. wrong diagrams! (really.. one of my problems was flagged as “no solution” due to this!)
4. poor quality! (yes.. these are not FIDE/WFCC albums, but still… I see some real duds – including mine!)
One solution is for the concerned problem authors to check these databases for their own problems and send corrections to the maintainers.
Lengthy discussions took place in the matplus forums on this topic… lot of heat and sound generated too.. 🙁
As the database is not free and hence not accessible to everyone, there is no possibility of authors suggesting corrections.
For winchloe, yes. But pdb, yacpdb, meson… _are_ free no?
Having said all that, I don’t wish to detract from the huge labour of love made by the creators, maintainers and contributors to these databases.. Here’s a another big thank you to Poisson, Stephenson, Wilts and Turevski!
Yes. Great deal of dedication and patience shown by these chess problem lovers and programmers. My thanks to them all !