Author: Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
Date: 21:51:19 01/11/98
Go up one level in this thread
On January 11, 1998 at 15:50:43, William Dozier wrote: >Hi! Richard, thank you for responding to my questions about Crafty for >the Mac. Who is this programmer working on the new version of crafty >12.9 PPc? I believe the programmer wishes to remain anonymous. >Do you think that i can get a version the way it is now? I'm afraid that only enough of it was running to run the benchmark. If the programmer is willing to let me give it to you, I will. I still have it, certainly. >if not, then let us encourage this programmer to carry this project >through. Fair enough. However, apparently Crafty is in a bit of flux at the moment. Traditionally one thing that discourages keeping the Mac version current is the rapid evolution of Crafty, since people have been unsuccessful at convincing Robert Hyatt to carry the Mac compatible code with the basic Crafty package. >A thought i want to put forth,is that every time a chess >program is written for the Mac, it seems to be second class chess >engines. And first class for the Pc chess engines. ?! HIARCS is the top-rated program on the SSDF (though, in fairness, it and Rebel are too close to call). And HIARCS Mac runs just fine. The CM4000 engine is second tier, granted (though pretty darn strong), and Virtual Chess is supposedly coming to the Mac ... while it is hard to place it accurately, it has done pretty darn well in the last two World MicroComputer Chess Championships. If your point is that the top programs seem to be written for machines other than the Mac, then perhaps ported there, true enough. Although Deep Thought wasn't written on a PC either. If it is any comfort, I believe the first versions of most of the top programs (Rebel/HIARCS/etc.) began on non-PCs, (68020 dedicated machines and the like) and now live on PCs because that is what most customers willing to buy chess software have. I remember the days when folks plugged a 68020 card into an IBM PC when they wanted serious horsepower. Actually, the computer chess software industry is rather small. If you'd like a pleasant fantasy ... suppose that Apple was convinced (as apparently IBM was - Deep Blue, and Intel - PCA) that computer chess was an opportunity to score some (badly needed) publicity. Apple decides to allocate a paltry $50 million or so of Bill Gate's investment into making things happen. Computer chess is not a huge market - some heavy financial support could skew things a good bit. For example - Apple offers to cover the $1000 entry fee, travel expenses, and to provide top-end Macs (and backups) to WMCCC entrants using them. Heck, a fair number of the entrants at the last WMCCC have Mac versions. Apple offers to cover expenses (and provide programmers) to develop Mac versions of the top chess programs in parallel with the PC versions, and to include advertising for them in every Mac shipped. Apple donates enough Macs and software to the SSDF (who might refuse, I suppose) to get Mac chess software rated on the SSDF. Apple funds keeping Crafty Mac up to date. Apple funds a chess toolkit for the Mac (highly optimized bitboard libraries, chess communication toolkit for Auto232/FICS/ICC compatability, modular GUI, etc., and provides it for Mac programmers. Apple pays the compiler vendors to tweak Mac compilers to add optimized chess support, and works with Motorola/IBM to build "Popcount" and the like into the PowerPC <not to mention a Deep Blue Jr. socket in the Mac motherboards). A little cleverly leveraged investment could make a lot of impact. (Wake up! Dream over!) >Ps. Richard! there doesnt look like that there is maney Mac users for >the the Computer Chess Club. Not that maney people play Chess on the >Mac, perhaps they are not aware of the chess programs out there for the >Mac. Yes, I agree that people generally are unaware how much chess software is available for the Mac. My current hobbyhorse is publicizing Macintosh software. In aid if this, see, for example: My Macintosh Chess page: http://members.aol.com/Macchess/ My HIARCS 6.0 Mac review http://www.gambitsoft.com/chess/games/hiar6me.htm My Chessmaster 4000 Mac review: http://www.imgmagazine.com/issues/vol5_issue5/chessmaster_review.html I've contributed a fair bit to the (in need of updating) Mac Chess FAQ http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/6827/ I've also written many other reviews of Macintosh chess software for Inside Mac Games, a survey review in the BMUG Newsletter, etc. And I try to help developers of chess software for the Mac - I beta tested HIARCS 6.0 Mac, SigmaChess 4.0 Mac (not quite out yet), Chess Mentor Mac (not quite out yet), and MacChess 2.5, 3.0, 3.0e, 4.0. If you use DejaNews to see what I post about, you'll see I've been active there, too. If you have some good ideas about how a volunteer advocate like myself could be more effective, I'd be interested, but we should probably take this to email, rather than clutter up this board. <snip> >And we Mac owners could have gotten over big, if the was advertise as a >Mac window machine, no telling where Mac would be now. Please Richard >tell me your thoughts about the subject./ Resectfully William Dozier. Certainly things could have turned out differently. However, it is more fruitful to try to affect the future than to regret the past. If you'd like to discuss this further, send me email. fowell@netcom.com (Richard A. Fowell)
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.