-The programmer of APwin is Paul H. Wiereyn (NL).
-Works in co-operation with Alybadix so that Alybadix is used as solving 'engine'.
-Compatible with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7.
-Easy to enter chess positions with normal and fairy men.
-Gives help in 3 languages: english, german and dutch.
-Includes much help about  fairy rules and fairy piece moving rules etc.
-Supports near all Alybadix options.
-Nice display of the solving moves.
-Preview of printing.
-Prints diagrams and solutions on different printer models installed in Windows (1-6 diagrams on one page).
-Loads and saves chess problems in Alybadix text format.
-Easy to exchange chess positions with other chess programs via file or Windows clipboard
  in epd/fen/pgn/Fritz formats.
-APwin can be associated to POS-, POO-, PO-, SOL-, SOO-, SO-, EPD-, FEN- and PGN-files,
 so that you can open them directly by double clicking the file's icon.
-Versatile Search options with Duplicate test (v2004-).
-Converting of  CMG-, PBM- and PBZ-formatted chess problems to Alybadix format (v2006-).
-Improved duplicate/plagiarism testing (v2006-).
-Duplicate test 80x quicker (v2010-)!
-Huge chess problem collection added (v2010-).

APwin is freeware - see: Downloading APwin v2010

Contents:

2. Example of APwin v2005, Show solution screen
(click mouse left on the diagram for viewing the normal size)

3. Example of APwin v2005, Print preview screen
(click mouse left on the diagram for viewing the normal size)

4. APwin v2007 info  (by Paul Wiereyn)

Weesp,  March 2006

IMPORTANT

 - APWin V2005 (and later) will only work correctly, provided that you replace the former AR.EXE
   and AW.EXE programs (in sub dir. \Aly), by the recent ones dated 1.1.2005 (or later).

- As from APWin V2004 the cooperation between APWin and AP re solving a series of normal/fairy problems, has become much easier.
  If you still use a former version of AP (before V2003), you should read the help screen in APWin re: 'Cooperation with former versions of AP'.

- Three important conversion programs have been added. See under 4.a.: 'New features'.

1. GENERAL

APWin has been developed by:

Paul Wiereyn
M. Nijhoffstraat 202
NL-1382 TW Weesp
HOLLAND

E-mail: p.wiereyn@hccnet.nl
telephone: 0294-410722

APWin is FREEWARE. Please note that it will only work, when the resolution of the monitor has
been set to 800 x 600 or better, and the colors to 256 or better.

Please report bugs to above mentioned E-mail address and an update will be sent to you by E-mail.

It is meant to be used as a Windows front to the DOS program AP.exe (= Alybadix/Fairybadix).
However, it can be used independently for showing/printing diagrams/solutions in Alybadix-format
(e.g. 6 diagrams can be printed on 1 page).
When you also want the option to solve problems, then you should buy AP.exe, which program was
developed by:

Ilkka Blom
Salmikatu 27 A 16
FI-65200 Vaasa
FINLAND

E-mail: iblom@saunalahti.fi

Alybadix/Fairybadix is since many years the standard for solving chess problems
(inclusive fairy conditions/men). It can be purchased from Ilkka Blom.
 

2. INSTALLATION

See the file Install.txt in the sub directory \Aly\APWin\Install.
 

3. HOW TO USE APWIN (solving option only available, when you bought AP.EXE = Alybadix + Fairybadix)

See the Help screens in APWin, with various examples.
 

4. RECENT VERSION HISTORY (after V3.00)

a. New features

NEW in V2003:

- In accordance with AP 2003, many ANTI forms of Circe can be selected. Further a new accelerating option, called 'capture' has been added.

- Under the menu 'Board', duplex can be selected (if a problem has a duplex part), which option exchanges the sides and the colors of the men.
  Then this duplex part can be solved by clicking 'solve 1'.
  After solving, you can see the solution in the Solutions screen in its original diagram, by clicking the button 'duplex'.

- Intelligent mode for series selfmate- and series reflexmate-problems added (re seriesself also speed option).

- Under "Config" you can select "Change colors of squares". For the white squares 10 colors are available (e.g. white) and for the black
  squares 10 other colors (e.g. grey or green). This means e.g. that you can print diagrams with white/grey squares, so you do not need
  to use the expensive colors of your printer.

- POS-, POO-, PO-, SOL-, SOO-, SO-, EPD-, FEN- and/or PGN-files can be opened by APWin directly, by double clicking such
  a file and provided you selected under Windows, that APWin should open the relative file(s) henceforth.

- When APWin is started more than once at the same time, this may lead to serious problems.
  Therefore a warning will appear, when you try to start APWin for the second time.

- Going backwards in the Solving screen in a very long problem, takes much time under Windows XP on some systems. Now the left cursor will work fast.

- When using the right cursor, now the former variation will be completely unmade,
   before executing a new variation (the square before the new variation will become lightbrown).

- In the solutions screen you can select to print the solution in Bold (see command 'print/save solutions'). Further the number of fields,
  in which the solution is displayed, can be increased from 6 x 20 to 8 x 25 (see button 'max?').

NEW in V2004 + V2004.01:

- A COMPLETE NEW SCREEN HAS BEEN ADDED RE SEARCHING PROBLEMS.
  THE USER CAN FILL IN ALL KINDS OF CONDITIONS.
  Further all duplicate positions among many thousends of problems can be found fast in one run.

- A NEW option has been added in the Main screen under 'File', viz. 'Rename all files in a sub directory'. This option comes in handy,
  when you want to copy all Fide-problems from the various sub directories, to one big sub dir. in connection with above new option
  re SEARCHING PROBLEMS. Normally this copying would not be possible, since many Fide problems have the same name
  in the various sub directories.

-When maximizing the screens of APWin, now the fontsize also changes, depending on your screen resolution.

- Only diagrams with a problem are now printed, in the option '6 diagrams on 1 page', so empty diagrams are no longer printed.

- All solution files in a sub directory can be converted to 1 or to separate files in the PGN-format, inclusive of the solution.

- APWin now also accepts an 'S' (next to the 'N') for the Knight in the PGN-format; further superfluous spaces are removed at the begin
  of the FEN-position. Finally the program accepts, that the last rank(s) of the position are not stated,  if they are empty.

- The structure, to save problems as a PGN-file, has been renewed.

- The saving of all solutions in a text file (see screen with solutions) has been made 4 times faster.

NEW in V2005 (+ AP):

- New additional genres: One-way, No-capture, Monochrom, Bichrom, Edgemover, wEdgemover and bEdgemover.

- Solving modes (1/6) = Smod1/Smod6 can now be set.

- The speeding option "Black must capture" = bC+ has been added.

- Now in principal, problems with maximal 252 plies (=126 moves) can be solved.

- A man and Ziel now can be placed on the same square in APWin (formerly only on different squares). The Z-symbol has been changed into a red line.

NEW in V2005.01:

- The "Quantum Mainframe" screen (appears when a problem has more than 1000 variations) now works smoother = without jerks.

- When the solutions of all opened problem are saved in 1 file in the solution screen, every solution now is separated by a line, like ========.

NEW in V2006:

- THREE CONVERSION PROGRAMS have been added under Menu 'File', viz. conversion of PBM-problems
  (see website: http://www.problemist.com/, where about 60,000 problems can be downloaded), conversion of CMG-problems
  (see website: http://www.people.freenet.de/pevomuc/, of Peter Vogel, where more than 100,000 problems can be downloaded)
  and conversion of PBZ-problems (=MatPlus). Website http://www.matplus.org.yu     More than 10,000 Probleme can be downloaded.).

- A new option 'move pr. to \Dupl' has been added in the Main screen, with which the shown problem
  can be moved to the sub directory \Aly\APWin\Dupl.

- When about 30,000 problems were opened, the simple calling of the 'Search' screen could take 5 to 20 minutes under Windows 98!
  Very strange behaviour of Windows 98, since the same calling only takes a few seconds under Windows XP. V2006 has been made
  much faster in this connection. Now the 'Search' screen appears immediately.

- The following new features have been added to the 'Search' screen:
  a. With the button 'test on duplicates' now it is also possible to search in an opened TEXT-file with problems (Aly-text-format).
      Formerly the program could only search in opened 'sol' files.
  b. A button 'move duplicates + make lists' has been added. Found duplicates can be moved, whereas the original problems
      remain in the same sub directory. Moreover 7 lists are made:
    1. RemovedProbl.txt
    2. AllDuplicates.txt
    3. Plagiarism.txt (smart search in case names are not written correctly)
    4. Anticipated.txt
    5. PlagPevo.txt
    6. Match.txt (names of the duplicates are the same)
    7. NoMatch.txt
  c. Now an explanation is given after clicking on a blue label (just as in the other screens).
  d. The minimum number of moves have been changed from 1 to 0 (0 sometimes denotes a study).

- The scrolling through the problems in the Main screen has been improved considerably. There is no longer a limit of 32767 lines.

- The opening of thousands of problems is much faster now, especially when instead of SOL-files, a TEXT-file with all problems is opened.

- The menu 'File' has been changed:

removed: Open + convert all 'pos/poo/po'-Files to 'All#.txt' file
         Open + convert all 'sol/soo/so'-Files to 'All#.txt' file
         Open + convert one 'po?/so?'-Files to a text file
         Save as ... (1 problem in Aly-format)
         Save (append to txt-file)
replaced by: Save 1 or all opened problems to Aly-textformat (choice appears).
With this option also a certain translation can take place. Wenn your language is e.g. German and you open a text file
with problems in which the names of the men are in English, you can translate these names into German by saving all
problems in a new text file with this option. The names of fairies can only be saved in the German or English language.
However, the abbreviations of normal men are always translated to your own notation.

removed: Print shown text-file of problem
replaced by: Print the text of 1 or all problems (choice appears)
(now the text-file of 1, or of all opened problems can be printed)

removed: 'Open new text-file with defaults'
removed: 'Show position' under menu 'View/separate'

Added: a new option to add comment to the text file of a problem.

- The menu 'File/Rename all files in a sub dir.' now has more options

- When you move the mouse to a man on the diagram in the Main screen (without clicking!), the name of that man appears.

- After opening a text file with problems, each problem can be changed and the text is adapted immediately.

- In the screen, after clicking on the button '1 diagram' in the main screen, one button (print + solution) has been added,
  with which the diagram + the complete solution can be printed.

NEW in V2007.00:

b. Corrected bugs

Corrected in V2003 + V2003.01:

- The loading of many problems, or the conversion of many position/solution-files to a text file  could go wrong on some computers.
  This was a synchronisation problem. APWin makes use of DOS-programs, belonging to Alybadix and sometimes APWin already continued,
  before the relative DOS-program was   ready. To solve this, a delay of 1 second has been built in.
  Conversion also gave a wrong result, when problems with German fairy names were among the English problems.

- Conversion of problems on a CD-ROM to a text file, did not produce this text file (it tried to write to the CD-ROM).

- When a Queen was placed last during the set-up of a problem, the white King changed into
   a Queen after clicking 'show solution'. This 'sex-change' was not intended of course.

- The menu 'view/separate', combined with changing the name of the problem (and/or saving it) gave wrong results sometimes.

- After clicking the button "defens./tries" in the Solutions screen, the last defensive move was
  omitted by mistake. This also caused that tries were not always shown correctly.

- Compression (see solutions screen) of a problem with cooks, gave wrong results sometimes.
  Since correction was too complicated, no compression will occur in such cases (a warning will appear).
  Please note, that compression of a solution with many variations (e.g. more than 1000), may take several minutes.

- In the Solutions screen, it occurred once in a while, that the solution of a problem with a 0-0  move, was not shown correctly.

- When the solution of a problem with an Imitator was played in the Solutions screen, a moving man
  disappeared, when it went to the square of the Imitator.

- Circe-problems with neutral men and helpself as condition, could give an error, when showing the solution.

- Computers with a memory of 2 Gb (or more) and Windows 98, sometimes got stuck after solving problems several times.
  This is in fact a kind of bug in Windows 98; to solve this, APWin has been adapted.
  When you have this problem, you have to copy the recent file  AW.pif (attached) to the sub directory  \Aly.

- When a problem in a text, or position file was solved, which file was situated in a sub directory other than the standard sub dir.
   \Aly\APWin\Data, the solution could not been shown directly with the command  'show solution' (first it had to be opened from \Aly\APWin\Sol\).
   Now the solution can be shown directly after solving, irrespective where the text, or position file was situated.

- The combination of one or more Jokers, with Skylla and/or Charybdis, gave errors in the solution screen.

- Chameleon pieces were not shown correctly after moving. Moreover the Circe-reborn squares were wrong.

- The text of the solution was not correct re a captured and reborn Rook, after castling in the Circe-Diagram genre. Sometimes an error warning appeared.

Corrected in V2004.01:

- Not all problems with the condition 'stalemate' or 'double stalemate' were found in the Search screen.

- A duplex-problem with fairy men gave errors.

- The menu-option: 'File' / 'Save (append to txt-file)' did not work correctly.

- Problems with the condition hs=, were not handled correctly in some options.

- In castling problems with neutral King or Rook, the color of the castling men was not correct after going backwards in the solution.

- The saving of all solutions in a text file in the Solution screen, was not quite correct.

Corrected in V2004.03:

- The Castling/Circe combination caused an error in the solution screen sometimes.

- The display of helpmate solutions in 50# caused an error.

- The fairy piece Rose can make 0-moves. Such a move was erronuously shown as a threat  in the solution screen.

Corrected in V2005:

- A reborn man was not placed correctly in Couscous Circe, after promotion, or after capture by a Chameleon.

Corrected in V2005.01:

- When after a search, one of the selected problems was solved (again) and the button "next selec." was clicked in the solution screen,
  then a "Runtime-error" occurred.

- When a problem is solved in the dualfree mode, Alybadix only states a keymove (followed by a  ! ), when a solution has duals.
   In APWin this exclamation mark was wrongly replaced by  # (or =).

Corrected in V2005.02:

- The limits in the option "(no)capture(of)" were not set correctly; this was also connected to Circe or no Circe.

Corrected in V2006:

- Sporadically print-problems occurred when 6 Diagrams were printed. Now corrected.

- EP could not be set for the first move in setplay.

- The combination of 8x symmetry + the search for 2 or more men, gave a bug in the Search-screen

- After clicking on the button '1 Diagram' in the main screen, the printing gave problems sometimes.

Corrected in V2007.00:

- When the symmetrical test-option was selected, the button 'test on duplicates' did not find ALL symmetrical duplicate positions.

- After setting up a position, the saving of this problem can be done correctly. However, when this problem is changed and
  then saved again, the first saved version of the problem is changed to the second position.

- A very long title was only partly printed, although the preview screen showed the problem with solution correctly.

- The button 'Move pr. to: \Dupl' in the Main screen did not work re a new problem, which just had been set up.


5. W A R N I N G

When you use APWin in combination with a PREVIOUS version of the solving program AP 2002,
NEVER use one of the following new options in APWin during solving, since then an error will occur:

- the 'z-option'
- the 'threat', or 'threat + var' - option
- the intelligent-mode in mate-, reflexmate-, or selfmate-problems (Alybadix/Fairybadix),
  as well as in series selfmate- and series reflexmate-problems.

Further please note, that the ANTI-Circe genres only can be solved with AP 2003-.

- Windows XP is not always very kindly to some DOS programs. Therefore it can happen
  on some systems with Windows XP, that the system gets stuck, when Alybadix has been
  started under APWin. To solve this, just change the APDos.pif file from 'full screen' to 'window'.
  Now Alybadix will solve correctly, but the chessboards of Alybadix may be mutilated on some systems.
  Perhaps this problem can be solved by installing a more recent video-driver.

6. Downloading APwin v2010

Obs.
APwin should work without problems under all Windows systems, if the Screen resolution
is 800x600 pixels or higher and the Color quality 16 bits or higher. If 256 colors only,
then some strange errors, as wrong piece color may occur!

a) Update APwin from an old version to the version 2010

Download apwin-2010.04.zip (1183 kB, updated 2010-07-01).

Then extract (unzip) the file apwin.exe to your old apwin-folder (generally c:\aly\apwin).
This will replace the old apwin.exe with this new apwin.exe 2010.
There are also 3 info document files (english/deutsch/nederlands). Unzip them to any folder for reading.

b) Full installation of APwin (and Alybadix demo)

Download setupapwin-2010.04.zip (4039 kB, updated 2010-07-01).

Then extract (use Winzip or PKzip or WinRAR etc) all files to any (temporary) folder and run SETUP.EXE.
Read also the info document files. Unlike in the former APwin versions this new APwin can be installed in any folder,
for instance c:\Program Files\APWin!
If you have not the full Alybadix version installed, APwin installs Alybadix demo solving engine (named as ap.exe) to the folder \Aly.
The installation folder of APwin includes also the complete Alybadix demo version apd2010.zip with many short example
problems proper for solving with the help of Alybadix demo version. Unzip apd2010.zip to any disk partition with the paths.

c) Huge chess problem collection

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