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Subject: Re: Question to Bruce Moreland

Author: Bruce Moreland

Date: 00:21:58 03/22/99

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On March 21, 1999 at 01:59:10, Hannu Wegner wrote:

>Hi Bruce,
>I did read so many things about you program Ferret. What are your futere plans
>with Ferret. I thin that there are alot of Chessplayer who would like to buy
>your Program (Engine!?!). Fritz 5.32 or the Millenium Chess System offer good
>possibilities to sell your program in a comercial way.
>So let me play against Ferret :-)).

I think it is clearly strong enough to sell, and I'm not adverse to doing this.
I would like to sell it.

I feel that my current options are:  1) package it for Millenium or ChessBase,
2) finish it myself and either distribute it myself or distribute it some other
way, or 3) let someone else finish it (write a custom UI) and distribute it.

I actually had a signed deal to go the third route, and that kept me occupied
for a year, waiting for something to happen, which never did.

I've also had minor dealings with a couple of other people about this third
route, and while they always sound very enthusiastic, I always try to set it up
so that I am not the first one who has to do some work on the project, in order
that my time not be wasted by losers who can't follow through.  Some of these
people might not be losers, but nobody has proven it yet.

I have no personal problems (that I know of) with either Ossi or ChessBase, but
that is not something I want to do now.

As for writing something myself, the standard is getting higher all the time, so
there is always more expected of a commercial chess program each year.  My time
is broken into little chunks.  I can be interrupted at any time unless everyone
here is asleep, in which case I am usually pretty tired as well.  It is hard to
deal with starting something that would require a lot of sustained effort, I am
always racing against exhaustion or the needs of some little kid.  Lately when
I've had to do something big (like a parallel search), my wife has been kind
enough to take the kids out of the house for the day, but this is not a solution
that maximizes domestic tranquility.

I am able to do little bits of work on the engine, and this is still enjoyable.
Sometimes I make a little progress, and I am more or less free to do what I want
with the project.

bruce



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