Hi Stefan,

since Chrismas I own a Star Diamond .
Now I'm checking out the usability of the PC interface. I use the scripting language Python. Python offers a programmer library for the RS 232 interface. With that library I build a wrapper around the complicated commands of the PC protocol. It seems to work.

This evening I successfully added some openings; here are my samples:
e2e4 c7c5 g1f3 b8c6 d2d4 c5xd4 f3xd4 g8f6 b1c3
e2e4 c7c5 g1f3 b8c6 c2c3 d7d5
e2e4 e7e6 d2d4 d7d5 b1c3 f8b4
g2g4 e7e5 f2f3
g2g4 e7e6 f2f3

If you ask the Novag about its internal representation, it answers:
. __white __black
m 1 e2-e4
m 1 _______c7-c5
m 2 g1-f3
m 2 _______b8-c6
m 3 d2-d4
m 3 _______c5xd4
m 4 f3xd4
m 4 _______g8-f6
m 5 b1-c3

m 3 c2-c3
m 3 _______d7-d5

m 1 _______e7-e6
m 2 d2-d4
m 2 _______d7-d5
m 3 b1-c3
m 3 _______f8-b4

m 1 g2-g4
m 1 _______e7-e5
m 2 f2-f3

m 1 _______e7-e6
m 2 f2-f3
(I added the underscores to get the spacing right).

You see, its like a tree. And it works
With only (g2g4 e7e5 f2f3, g2g4 e7e6 f2f3) I won some quick games with black against the Star Diamond (after forcing it to use the programmed opening book).

From the tranmit menu you mention above 1 and 3 are definitely possible with the Star Diamond. The others probably too.

My first plan is to transfer an opening book for given pgn files.
Another plan is to make the build-in book visible (and to avoid these openings within the user defined openings).

Cheers,
Bernd