Author: Dan Homan
Date: 05:36:41 08/11/00
Go up one level in this thread
On August 11, 2000 at 08:22:23, Dan Homan wrote: >On August 10, 2000 at 13:47:20, Tom Kerrigan wrote: > >>On August 10, 2000 at 08:47:55, Dan Homan wrote: >> >>>I certianly agree that not having prior programming experience would make >>>writing a chess program quite challenging. >>> >>>However, I am really surprised by your last statement. Do you really know >>>experienced programmers who couldn't write a chess program or who actually >>>failed at writing one? Are you sure that it was something that was important >> >>Chess programming is not like normal programming, and I believe it can be very >>difficult for people even if they're good programmers otherwise. >> >>For most programs, it is immediately obvious if the program is working or not. >>But a chess program just spits out a lot of numbers and moves and there's >>nothing to tell you if it's working right. >> >>Also, debugging a chess program is difficult because it's an extremely fast and >>complicated loop. Finding the exact point of failure and stopping the program at >>that point is not easy and it's not something you have to do with normal >>programs. >> >>There are techniques to overcome these problems, but even good programmers may >>not think of these techniques. >> >>-Tom > >I don't know any programmers who aren't capable of these things. I think the >necessary assets are interest and determination. Natural ability is not very >important, unless we are talking about creating a top program. This is just my >opinion, of course. > > - Dan I should probably point out that by specifying "programmers" and people with the "interest and determination", I've already included people with a good bit of natural ability. I just don't think there is anything special about chess programming that requires abilities above those necessary to create any other kind of (reasonably complex) program. - Dan
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.