British Go Journal.

Convention List / Convention Contents

This page starts by listing what conventions exist. The details of the conventions themselves follow.

E-Archive Writing Conventions.

Purpose

The purpose of this page is to define the conventions and styles used in the EBGJ pages. Some of the conventions are HTMLish, some are GOish and some are STYLEish. It is my, Steve Bailey's, intense desire that a common style be used throughout all the issues and articles.

Initially at least, all the comments below are in no particular order. Once typed, they may get sorted. This is a large document but, hopefully, not a difficult one to cope with.

Due to the HTML descriptions written for display in this document, you may find it helpful additionally to save the file as a text file and review that version with a text editor.

Target browser / HTML

There is no specific browser intended to be used when viewing the EBGJ pages. However the article content is such that use of a non-graphic browser would fail. Every article is proofread with a version of Microsoft Explorer (MSIE) and Netscape (NS). Currently these are old versions - MSIE:3.0a and NS:2.02. Random checks are made with these browsers adjusting the font sizes and other options to check for continued readability. Obviously there is no specific target computer, PCs, Unix boxes, Macs, Acorns etc are all equally targeted.

Once posted on the BRITGO site, the articles are run through a web page validator - maybe not immediately, but within a couple of months. I am currently using http://valsvc.webtechs.com/, compliant to Wilbur 3.2.

The pages should comply with that standard although there are certain known, intentional deviations, listed later.

Types of files

There are three types of HTML pages used in the EBGJ, contributing to the 6 types of file used.

All filenames are lower case throughout. HTML files are *.html on the BRITGO site, although Steve Bailey tests them all as *.htm for Operating System reasons.

General HTML
Pages which are not issue specific such as: the main index page, the glossary page. Filename: *.html (eg bgj.html, glossary.html)
Issue content HTML
Each BGJ issue has one of these. They include a list of all the articles in the issue but only have links to those which have actually been put on the web. Filename: bgj???.html where ??? is a the three digit issue number with leading zeroes (eg 015 for issue 15), (eg bgj015.html).
Article HTML
Self-evident I hope. There are style variants for types of articles (teaching, games, problems...). Filename: ?????.html or rarely ??????.html where the first 3 ??? are the issue number with leading zeroes (eg 015 for issue 15), the next two ?? are the number of the first page of the article, including a leading zero if needed (eg 05 for an article starting on page 5), and in the rare event of two articles starting on the same page, a lower case letter for the last ?. So valid filenames are 12345.html for page 45 of issue 123, 00001.html for page 1 of issue 0 (and there was an issue 0), 01505b.html for the second article to start on page 5 of issue 15.
Text
Rare, these usually contain related information, such as documentation, rather than direct web 'stuff'. Filename: *.txt
*.GO
Game record in Ishi or Go Scribe format. Filename: *.go where * matches the associated *.html file. Generally articles with multiple games reported are split into multiple web pages with different * names.
*.SGF
Game record in Smart Go Format. Filename: *.sgf where * matches *.go

HTML at start of page

Items shown in italic should be replaced by the relevant information. Text required to be in italic will be indicated by displaying <i> and </i>, not by italicising the text. Long lines in the sample code below are wrapped for this page's display purposes. Line wrapping should be used on the real HTML to keep line length below 80 characters normally, it will be different to wrap positions shown here.

Blank lines may (and should) be put in to the HTML to make it easier to maintain the pages. They are inconsistent in the lists below.

The following lists HTML code, discussing each group of lines of HTML coding after they are listed.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
Wilbur 3.2 compliance specification

<html>

<head>
Standard

<title> British Go Journal. Title of Page. </title>

<title> British Go Journal Issue number. Month/Season Year. </title>

<title> British Go Journal Issue number. Month/Season Year. Page Page number. </title>
Use these for General / Contents / Article pages respectively.
Contents pages uses full month names (eg September) and 4 digit years.
Article pages use 3 letter month names (eg Sep) and 2 digit years to leave more room for the page number. The page number could include a letter (eg Page 5a).

</head>
Standard

<body bgcolor="#c0c0ff">

<body bgcolor="#ffff80">

<body bgcolor="#80ffc0">

<body bgcolor="#80ffff">

<body bgcolor="#ffc080">
Select the relevant background colour:
~ A ghastly purple background colour for General pages - c0c0ff.
~ Yellow for winter (Dec, Jan, Feb) Contents and Articles - ffff80
~ Green for spring (Mar, Apr, May) Contents and Articles - 80ffc0
~ Sky blue for summer (Jun, Jul, Aug) Contents and Articles - 80ffff
~ Brown for autumn (Sep, Oct, Nov) Contents and Articles - ffc080

<h1 align=center> <a name="start"> British Go Journal.</a> </h1>

<h1 align=center> <a name="start"> British Go Journal Issue number.</a> </h1>

<p align=center> <b> <a name="start" href="URL of issue contents page"> British Go Journal No. Issue number.</a> Month/Season Year. Page Page number. </b> </p>
Use these for General / Contents / Article pages respectively.
Note that these are the anchor "start", for use as a destination from elsewhere in the page.
Article pages use 3 letter month names (eg Sep) and 2 digit years to leave more room for the page number. They are also bold paragraphs rather than type 1 headings. The page number could include a letter (eg Page 5a).

<h2 align=center> Title of Page. </h2>
For General pages only.
On some pages, the Title of Page may want to be a link (eg the issue index page - bgj.html).
Capitalise each word in the title.

<h2 align=center> Month/Season Year. </h2>

<p align=center> Editors: First Editor, Second Editor. </p>
Two lines for Contents pages only.
Month name in full, Year as 4 digits.
Make the editor list singular or plural as appropriate. Omit the line if the editor is unknown.

<h1 align=center> Title of Article. </h1>

<h2 align=center> Optional subtitle of article. </h2>

<p align=center> <b> Author of article if known. </b> </p>
Up to three lines for Article pages only.
Subtitles are uncommon.
Capitalise each word in the titles and subtitles.

At this point we are into the body of the page.

HTML at end of page

This is described in the same fashion as the start of the pages. Note that this section is mostly compatible with other BRITGO pages rather than the HTML style of the EBGJ pages. Capitalisation and tagging are very different - but it works, so leave it alone.


<hr align=center width="80%" size=3>
In article pages, use this line before the end of page blurb only if line separators have been used throughout the article body. Otherwise omit it.
Omit this line in Contents pages.

<p> <a href="#start"> <img src="previous.gif" height=20 width=20 alt="[Start]" border=0></a> </p>

<p> <a href="#start"> <img src="previous.gif" height=20 width=20 alt="[Start]" border=0></a> <i> Links to related pages. </i> </p>

<p> <a href="#start"> <img src="previous.gif" height=20 width=20 alt="[Start]" border=0></a> <i> The article continues with another game on <a href="98712.htm"> page 12</a>. </i> </p>

<p> <a href="#start"> <img src="previous.gif" height=20 width=20 alt="[Start]" border=0></a> <i> There are other problems (<a href="98711.htm"> p11</a>, <a href="98721.htm"> p21</a>). Solutions to them all are to be found on <a href="98727.htm"> page 27</a>. </i> </p>
Every Article page ends with an [Start] image which is a link to the start of that page.
Some pages require links to related pages - for example the next article in a series; the solution the the problems in this page; other problem pages in the same issue; the next game in a multi-game article; etc.
The first line here is the "raw" line. The next a generic description. The remainder are the examples below (the links will NOT work):
[Start] The article continues with another game on page 12.
[Start] There are other problems (p11, p21). Solutions to them all are to be found on page 27.
Generally the comments are italicised if they are not in the original BGJ article.
Omit this for Contents pages.

<hr align=center width="80%" size=3>
Standard

<center>
Standard

This article is from the

<font size="+2">B</font>ritish <font size="+2">G</font>o <font size="+2">J</font>ournal

<a href="URL of Issue contents">Issue Issue number </a>

<br>
For Article pages only.

This is one of a <a href="bgj.htm">series</a> of back issues now available on the web.

<p>
For Contents pages only.

These pages are part of the

<font size="+2">B</font>ritish <font size="+2">G</font>o <font size="+2">A</font>ssociation

<a href="../index.htm">web site.</a>

<p>
Standard
...
For General pages, suitably phrased reference links to bgj.html and the main web site should be provided.

Last updated Date as 4-digit-year hyphen 2-digit-month hyphen 2-digit-day

<br>
Standard

Email: <a href="mailto:SGBailey@iee.org">SGBailey@iee.org</a>

<br>
Standard

Copyright &copy; British Go Association Year of publication of BGJ , Year page written or edited

</center>
Standard

<hr align=center width="80%" size=3>

</body>

</html>
Standard

Contents pages body

The Contents pages are basically an unordered list. The recommended procedure is to take an existing one and edit it, taking great care over the start and end coding.

Description of the Contents pages body:


<ul>
Standard

<li> Article title
The title of a BGJ article which has not been reproduced as an EBGJ page. Use sentence capitalisation and no trailing full stop.

<li> <a href="URL of article"> Article title</a>
The title of a BGJ article which has been reproduced as an EBGJ page. Use sentence capitalisation and no trailing full stop.

<li> <a href="URL of article"> Problem (pPage number)</a>
Link to an article which is a problem. Similarly for problem 'Hint's and 'Solutions's.
Where there is more than one problem article in an issue (with identical titles), distinguish them with the page number: (p11), (p15), (p22) etc and for multiple solutions (p11, p15 & p22)

<li> <a href="98712.htm"> Article title</a> <br>

<i> Black initial and surname v. White initial and surname </i>

<small> (<a href="URL of *.go"> URL of *.go</a>, <a href="URL of *.sgf"> URL of *.sgf</a>) </small>
An article of one game where the article title is the link.

<li> Article title <br>

<i> <a href="URL of article 1"> Game 1</a>: Black initial and surname v. White initial and surname </i>

<small> (<a href="URL of *.go"> URL of *.go</a>, <a href="URL of *.sgf"> URL of *.sgf</a>) </small> <br>

<i> <a href="URL of article 2"> Game 2</a>: Black initial and surname v. White initial and surname </i>

<small> (<a href="URL of *.go"> URL of *.go</a>, <a href="URL of *.sgf"> URL of *.sgf</a>) </small>
A multi-game BGJ article handled as several EBGJ articles.
As the above is hard to read, an example is included below:

<li> Championship <br>

<i> <a href="98711.htm"> Game 1</a>: B. Black v. W. White </i>

<small> (<a href="98711.go"> 98711.go</a>, <a href="98711.sgf"> 98711.sgf</a>) </small> <br>

<i> <a href="98712.htm"> Game 2</a>: B. Black v. W. White </i>

<small> (<a href="98712.go"> 98712.go</a>, <a href="98712.sgf"> 98712.sgf</a>) </small>

A game Article

Intro

All game articles start with a section detailing the players etc. This is not direct BGJ text.

<p> <b> Black: Forename (or initial). Surname, Grade (k or d), Abbreviation for country <br>

White: Forename (or initial). Surname, Grade (k or d), Abbreviation for country <br>
The names and strengths of the two players. The strength uses initials k, d and p (for pro-dan) rather than kyu, dan, pro. If it is not an international match, omit the country abbreviations. The country abbreviations are things like GB, NL, USA, F etc.
There may need to be additional lines added here on occasion, for example details of handicaps, komi or time limits.

The game-file in <a href="URL of *.go game record"> Ishi</a> and <a href="URL of *.sgf game record">

SGF</a> format. </p>
... says it all.

<p> <i>The article is continued from the previous game on <a

href="URL of a previous game in a series"> page Page number</a>. </i> </p>
These lines are omitted if not applicable.

<hr align=center width="80%" size=3>
A line between the intro and the real BGJ article.
Body text

Do this as regular text, "<p> Text...</p>" with occasional "<ul>", "<li> Text..." and "</ul>" and occasional "<h3> Heading... </h3>" as appropriate.

Include links to referred diagrams if they are a long scroll away, eg if a comment on Dia 5 refers back to Dia 1 where all are full board diagrams.

Black, black, White and white. The convention used in these pages is to alter the BGJ to meet the capitalisation criterion listed below.

Capitalisation criterion:
Use a capital letter at the start of a sentence and if the word black/white refers to the player not the colour.
I handled this by mentally changing the names to Smith & Jones and reading the phrse. If 'Jones' is sensible here, I capitalise the colour.
Examples:
... and the white group ...
... and White's group ...
... then White captures the three black stones ...
... a white play at A makes it hard for Black...

When there is a references to an alternative move using the same number as the main move in the diagram / position currently under discussion, append an apostrophe to the move number.

Alternative move number examples:
if White plays 2' at 3, Black will play 3' at 2.
the white move at 2 could be at 3

When referring to marked points in a diagram, use unquoted capital letters (A, B, C...) and gifs for triangles and squares etc.
There are some pages already done where the references are quoted with single quotes, at some point I mean to go back and remove the single quotes.

The symbol gifs must have correct "alt" statements.
Note that all the symbol gifs are the same size and are black on transparent. At present only triangle and square exist. Circle, diamond etc will be made as required.

<img src="triangle.gif" height=15 width=15 alt="triangle">
A triangle. triangle

<img src="square.gif" height=15 width=15 alt="square">
A square. square

Where the BGJ article is obviously wrong, is unclear or has a paragraph or diagram which needs breaking into smaller parts. Comment on that in parenthesised small italics:

<small> <i> (BGJ erroneously has W122 here.) </i> </small>
An example BGJ error which should have been W112...

If reporting the error would brake up the flow locally, us a superscript small italic footnote reference and report the error at the next convenient point.

<li> White 106: Very good. White's correct strategy is to keep his
distance from the black group <sup> <small> [1] </small> </sup>, and to
concentrate on getting rid of his own weaknesses. Solid, good shape
plays like 106 are particularly effective in taking away the weaknesses
against which Black might play forcing moves to make eyes. <br>
<small> <i> [1] BGJ had "white group". </i> </small>
An example of a a superscripted reference and footnote.

Good HTML defaults (approximately) to 7-bit US ASCII. Certain characters have special meaning to HTML. The correct 'escape' sequences should be used for unusual or reserved characters - these all start with & and end with ;

&
&amp;
"
&#34; (NOT &quot;)
<
&lt;
>
&gt;
A non-breaking space
&nbsp;
½
&#189; ({half} Not strictly good HTML 3.2, but generally works)
£
&#163; ({sterling} Not strictly good HTML 3.2, but generally works)
Body diagrams and commentary

Diagrams are as created by ENTERGO.BAS, a QBASIC program. They use one or two mini-gifs per point, with two points per source line to ease editing of diagrams later. Each row starts a new source line and is commented in the source.

Each diagram is in a table - where two diagrams are less than 20 points wide in total, they may be joined into a three cell wide table. The middle column containing a blank gif ("___") to separate the two diagrams horizontally on less benevolent browsers. If the two diagrams are different heights, the shorter one should be padded with black gifs and <br> source lines.

Note that each gif is a three letter name and has no *.gif extension - even though they are gifs - and that there is no ALT parameter. These are deliberate violations of the spirit of HTML 3.2 for 'good' reason.

By default, the diagram titles are self-anchoring links. Only remove the links if they are replaced by a more appropriate link immediately prior to the diagram.

Ko lists etc, should be inside the table cell after a final and additional <br> . Each entry should be comma separated, using triangle gifs etc as required. Ensure that every stone not on the diagram is explicitly listed here and that it is obvious where it is played - IE don't write "123 ko", write "123 ko at 77" etc.

Diagrams usually come as 'Diagram' (Dia) or 'Figure' (Fig).

For game figures, include the range of moves in parentheses with no spaces and a hyphen immediately after the closing of the diagram name link.

<table> <tr> <td>
<a name="dia1" href="#dia1"> Diagram 1</a> (1-9) <br>
<!-- row 7 --><img
src="gw_"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><br>
<!-- row 6 --><img
src="gw_"><img src="gmd"><img
src="b1_"><img src="c_2"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><br>
<!-- row 5 --><img
src="gw_"><img src="b1_"><img src="c_0"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><br>
<!-- row 4 --><img
src="gw_"><img src="w~9"><img
src="b~2"><img src="b__"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><br>
<!-- row 3 --><img
src="gw_"><img src="w1_"><img src="x_1"><img
src="w~1"><img src="w~3"><img
src="b~4"><img src="b~6"><img
src="b~8"><img src="gmd"><br>
<!-- row 2 --><img
src="gw_"><img src="gmd"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><img
src="w~5"><img src="w~7"><img
src="gmd"><img src="gmd"><br>
<!-- row 1 --><img
src="gsw"><img src="gs_"><img
src="gs_"><img src="gs_"><img
src="gs_"><img src="gs_"><img
src="gs_"><img src="gs_">
</table> <!-- Diagram 1 -->

All diagrams shall use stones numbered below (or =) 120. All references to those stones will be to their actual move number. For example stone 108 in a diagram may have associated text "308 is good".
Where a BGJ diagram breaches this criterion, split it into two diagrams and add a note similar to the following after the self referencing at the start of each diagram:

<small> <i> BGJ had Fig 2a and 2b as one diagram, Fig 2. </i> </small> <br>

Note that splitting a diagram into two is very involved due to capturing and stones played where other stones are / were affecting the ko-lists.

Commented moves are done as an unordered list immediately after the relevant diagram.

Depending upon how the BGJ text is phrased, start move comments as either:

<li> Black 123: Relevant sentence
Where the relevant sentence is separate from the move number and starts with a capital letter.
<li> Black 123 remainder of a sentence which uses 'black 123' as the subject
Where the move number is part of the sentence. The colon is omitted and the capitalisation not used.
Black 123-129:
For a range of moves.
Black 123, White 124:
For a range of moves.

This is not a complete list of conventions already in use. Also more will get themselves defined over the months. Please familiarise yourself with existing files using both a browser and a text editor and endeavour to do whatever, the same way it was done before.

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E-BGJ
Last updated 2004-08-10
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