Author: ujecrh
Date: 16:19:55 04/03/00
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This is an issue I and probably others raised some time ago here on CCC, and Tim certainly explains this better than I did: "...What I've heard from posts in the various discussion forums is that under at least one of the adapters, the engines are not used in the intended way. Normally, xboard/WinBoard conducts a game against an engine by alternating moves with the engine. After an engine makes its move, the engine knows the resulting position and is able to "ponder" (think on its opponent's time). Also, even if pondering is turned off, the engine is able to save the results of the "thinking" that it did on the last move to speed up its search on the next one. As I understand it, under at least one of the adapters, the GUI does not send individual moves to the engine in this way. Instead, after the user makes each move, the GUI sends the engine a complete new board image, using the protocol feature that is meant to support xboard/WinBoard's "Edit Position" mode. As a result, the engine does not "realize" that the new position is only one move away from the previous position, so it throws away all the information it has saved from past thinking and pondering. Obviously this will weaken its play." This probably weakens winboard engines but it is also a compatibility problem. It means that a winboard engine which do not support the board setup procedure will not work in such interfaces. Is there any legitimate reason for it, why not supporting the original winboard protocol which consists in sending the moves ? Ujecrh
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