What is the +/- information put out by chess engines?

I normally used two different engines (Toga & Fritz6) to analyze moves and games and I have a question about the output they generate.

For example, after moving e4 I see the following output:

Toga: 1. 15 +0.19 1... e5 etc

Fritz6: 1 = (0.22): 1... e5 etc

My question is what do the numbers +0.19 and (0.22) refer to and in the case of Toga, what does the 15 refer to?

I'm very new to chess and this site .. I hope the question isn't too noob.  Thank you!

The numbers are a point formulation of who is winning. 1.00 means white is up a pawn but otherwise even, -1.00 means black is similarly advantage-d. Engines also take into account position and threats to generate those numbers. You can also see symbolic representation such as = (equal), += (white's a little better) or -/+ (black has a strong advantage).

The 15 might mean the depth that the engine searched, or how many moves it calculated after 1...e5 for example. This number can be important as the computer might miss something important that is just beyond the depth.

Thank you for your reply.

So if I'm reading the results correctly, Toga puts white as a slight advantage yet Fritz6 puts white at a disadvantage.  Is that correct?  Why might they produce opposite 'advantage' results?

I just realized that in Fritz6 the brackets do not denote a negative number.  That's an old habit of mine after 15yrs in public accounting ;)

Back to my example, I now read that they both show white with a slight advantage.

No, they both say "both sides have equal chances". Try to think of these evaluations this way. When they'd go above 0.25, then that would mean "white has slightly better chances." If they would go above 0.70, that would mean "white is clearly better," and if it goes above 1.75 or something, "white has decisive advantage".

If fritz would want to say black has slightly better chances, it would show something like =+ 0.28.

+=0.28 would be the same thing, but for white.

I understand.  I'm assuming the advantage takes into account the move being proposed.

So when the engines provide their output, is it normally the top of the bottom choice that is being recommended?

Hello, check this out:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/uncooperative-opponents-amp-computer-symbols

They predict the stock market flows. It's how I use them anyway