Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 13:46:35 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Arno Hollosi <hollosi@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at>
Subject: Re: Summary of recent discussion


>  So, I should not have moves in the firtst, root, node. And the root node
> should not be empty. But my program should be able to handle that when I
> read files. Should we correct such things when we save changes?

There are no limititations - the application may change everything it 
doesn't like. Loss of imformation should be avoided though (as long as the 
user doesn't explicitly wish to discard information [i.e. properties/nodes]).

>  A question to you out there. If there is no setup or move for, lets say, 4
> nodes. Do you step to that posision in the file when you have loaded it.

It depends: if they are empty (i.e. there are no properties) and
there are NO variations then those nodes could be skipped/deleted.
If there are properties (e.g. comments) then don't skip it.

> changes to it and save it. Should we save the old begining or convert it to
> a more "normal" look. This is more style questions then standard questions.

As stated above: do whatever you like - but don't lose information.
I know at least two games where the first move is made on node 3 or 4.
In nodes 0,1,2 are comments about the game.
I don't think that removing those comments (in order to make the first 
move in node 1) is a good idea.

E.g. SGFC (SGF syntax checker & converter) has an option to remove all 
empty nodes that are not root nodes and have no siblings.


/Arno