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Subject: Phhhbt

Author: Bruce Moreland

Date: 19:13:10 04/24/00

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On April 24, 2000 at 18:49:04, Tom Kerrigan wrote:

>On April 24, 2000 at 15:56:37, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On April 24, 2000 at 15:43:24, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>>[snip]
>>>Here's my question. If pondering=off cripples Crafty so badly to the point that
>>>Bob Hyatt has to write dozens of posts about it, why doesn't he just do
>>>something to fix it? I mean, surely the time spent writing all those posts could
>>>have been put to better use.
>>
>>That makes a great deal of sense if Dr. Hyatt were writing crafty to make people
>>happy who want to play engine verses engine matches on a single machine.
>>However, he does not play it that way and it is contrary to his purposes.
>>
>>Do you alter your programs to make them do what others wish even when it does
>>not coincide with your desires?
>
>Yes.
>
>-Tom

If your point is that Bob should do this or that, I think that Bob should be the
one who decides what Bob does.  It's great to suggest improvements in
functionality or support, but if Bob wants to do it his own way, that's fine.

I don't think Bob much likes single machine tests, and doesn't want to spend any
time supporting them.  I can understand this choice.

It's probably approximately as valid to compare Crafty with anything else on one
machine as it is on two, but my god, who cares?

It's painful to watch people say that this or that program is stronger or weaker
than this or that other program.  There's always a lot of attack and defense
from people on both sides of the issue, and sometimes from the authors or other
people who have a stake.

But I think a lot of it is penis measuring, which is a dubious thing to be going
around doing, especially if it's not even your own penis that you are trying to
measure.

I think that there are two categories of people doing this.  1) People who just
absolutely positively have to know which program is "best" for some unknown
reason.  2) People who have an agenda for or against someone, and want to build
that person up or tear them down.  I can understand why someone would belong in
category one, but people who are in category two would do well to heed the
following advice:  get a life.

For all the arguments I've had with Thorsten, he makes sense some of the time.
I think that people would enjoy life more if they would stop comparing NUMBERS
and start having FUN.

You'd think that for all the time people spend fiddling with chess programs,
that it might be more productive to use the programs to learn how to appreciate
chess more fully.

bruce



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