Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 22:01:08 12/20/01
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>That's not my point. We were talking about best commercial programs vs. best >amateur programs. > >I agree that there are strong amateurs, but the interesting thing is the gap >between the best professionals and the best amateurs. > > > > Christophe I should have made the distinction between best commercial chess programs and best non-commercial chess programs. I agree that I wasn't entirely clear about that. You are indeed correct that the only interesting discussion lies in the differences between the _best_ commercial chess programs and the _best_ amateur/non-commercial programs. No one really cares that an amateur engine is better than the worst commercial engine. Also, I would agree with your definition of commercial vs. non-commercial. I believe a commercial program is one that the author recieves enough income from the program to consider it a job (even a part time job). I find it similair to the idea of "professional" chess players. In my mind, a "professional" chess player is one who is good enough to support himself from the winnings of tournaments he competes in. I don't think it be necessary that the professional chess player be able to support himself solely on the income from his chess playing, but it should constitute a good portion, just as a commercial program should be one that provides a good portion of a person's income in order to be considered commercial. I think it might also be a requirement that the author of the program, without the financial aide his program provides, find himself in a financially bad situation. However, this might not work, since this defines Bill Gates as not being a professional programmer, or a professional anything, since he could be without any job and still be financially secure. Commercial and professional are more difficult to define that I first suspected.
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