Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 09:22:23 12/21/01
Go up one level in this thread
On December 21, 2001 at 01:01:08, Russell Reagan wrote:
>>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.
Yes the definition is fuzzy at best, and it has already lead to harsh
discussions at the beginning of the ICCA events, because in these events
"professional" programmers had to pay a ridiculously high entry fee ($1000 or
something like that).
Christophe
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