• so hive, unlike chess, doesn't really need to keep track of an underlying grid system. because every game action is taken in relation to where the other pieces are.
• the notation system depicted here is cool because it's kind of like a sentence. take the second move in this game bL \wL. it has a subject, bL and an object, \wL.

breaking down bL \wL

subject

player+Type+id number

• the subject is composed of three elements. the lowercase element "b" just specifies who's making the move (black). you would think this could be elided because games go back and forth, but there are obscure game states that require one player to pass, so it's necessary to specify who's making the move even if 99% of the time it alternates. you can have b or w.
• the second element, the uppercase letter, just specifies which kind of piece the player is moving or placing. you can have one of any of these here: SAQBMLGP. they stand for spider, ant, queen, beetle, mosquito, ladybug, grasshopper and the loathsome pillbug respectively.
• the third element is a number between 1 and 3. it keeps track of when that piece was played in relation to the remaining pieces of that type. the first ant you play would be A1, for example, and the last one would be A3. it is only required for pieces that the player has multiples of (i.e ants, beetles, grasshopper and spiders). because players only have one ladybug each, our example does not have a number. but you could conceivably just put a 1 there, if you wanted.

object

side specifier + subject

• the object is the same kind of construct as the subject but with an added prefix or suffix. where the subject represents a tile, the object represents one side of a tile. if it's a prefix, it's a left hand side, if its a suffix it's a right hand side. this positional marker can be either a slash, a backslash or a dash.

• the dash just means the flat side (Hive is played pointy side up). now, this is the part that bothers me: the backslash and the slash don't mean the same thing on both sides. if it's a prefix, backslash means up, but if it's a suffix it means down. vice versa with the slash!! WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT!!! just make one of them mean up and the other one down!! this doesn't need to be a contextual symbol!!!!

thank you for taking the time to read all of the context for my complaint. why do they do it like that... i don't actually care about the reasoning for why it is like that, i just think it's a weird choice.

ps: you can learn more about this here

pps: i slept badly because i ate too much pasta yesterdsy :(