Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 19:42:39 10/14/97
Go up one level in this thread
On October 14, 1997 at 21:12:21, Amir Ban wrote: >This seems to be the key point you are making: You cannot reliably >change your clock. Later here you say that you don't even know what it >is. I agree that this would make it hard for you to follow the >suggestion, but I am curious: Do you then never adjust the time ? If due >to circumstances your clock runs idle for more than 5 minutes an hour, >would you lose on time ? And since you don't see the clock, you don't >even know that this will happen ? The main point I am making is that it is too late to make changes in the rules, unless those changes could reasonably be conformed to by any program that met the rules at some arbitrary point in the past, say, the application deadline. On the application deadline, it was not a requirement that you display your clock. On the application deadline it was not required that your program have its own internal fudge factor, or other internal means of handling operator time. I exploit both of these non-requirements by: Not displaying my clock. Setting my time control to 30 in 55, and 40 in 55. In order to meet these new requirements I would have to: Display my clock. I don't want to display my clock, since my clock is not an optimized part of the program. Setting the time control to 30 in 55, and 40 in 55, would run afoul of this rule about being off by two minutes. I would instantly be in violation, unless you assumed the time on my clock to represent elapsed time, in which case I would be in violation around move 40. In order to fix this, I would have to add an internal fudge factor of some sort. I do not wish to destabilize this aspect of my program with less than two weeks until my flight. >If this is what you do, how would you feel about a modification that >allows a program to not set the right clock on demand, provided they >NEVER touch the clock ? This is what I have done in the past. I have assumed that I wouldn't overstep the time limit, given a suitable fudge factor. I have also assumed that if something disastrous did happen, like a power fail, an illegal move, or a clock failure, that I would be allowed to set my time at that point, regardless of whether the program asked me, "Was there just a major calamity?" The reason that Marsland is making a change in the clock handling, is very likely because I have complained about it several times. I got into a big discussion with him in Jakarta last year, I suggested that putting, "Is my time correct" into the title bar was a sham (you might as well name your program "check my time", in which case you are automatically in compliance always, as long as your program's name is somewhere on the screen), and that the rule was oriented toward modal (command-line) programs, and that not everyone had a modal program. I didn't expect that the response would be to suggest new *requirements* two weeks before the tournament. Personally, all I really need is to be able to change my time if there is an operator error or some other calamity. In the past, I didn't feel that there was a legal way for me to do this, without introducing a clunky mode such as a dialog popping up every five moves (disgusting). Now that they have said, fine, it is OK to be sane about time checks, I would hope that the rule would be that I can check my time whenever I want, and set the time on the clock to approximately what it would be had the chess clock been as accurate as the computer's clock, had the operator not forgotten to press the clock, etc. This would be perfectly fair, assuming you can come to agreement about what should be on the clock, and are not attempting to manipulate the rules in such a way as to influence the course of the gaed about it several times. I got into a big discussion with him in Jakarta last year, I suggested that putting, "Is my time correct" into the title bar was a sham (you might as well name your program "check my time", in which case you are automatically in compliance always, as long as your program's name is somewhere on the screen), and that the rule was oriented toward modal (command-line) programs, and that not everyone had a modal program. I didn't expect that the response would be to suggest new *requirements* two weeks before the tournament. Personally, all I really need is to be able to change my time if there is an operator error or some other calamity. In the past, I didn't feel that there was a legal way for me to do this, without introducing a clunky mode such as a dialog popping up every five moves (disgusting). Now that they have said, fine, it is OK to be sane about time checks, I would hope that the rule would be that I can ch
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