Author: David Eppstein
Date: 10:56:25 11/29/00
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On November 28, 2000 at 09:15:30, Stefan Meyer-Kahlen wrote: > >UCI (=universal chess interface) > >This is the description of a new interface between a chess engine and a >graphical user interface called UCI. It was designed by Rudolf Huber and Stefan >Meyer-Kahlen and is used in the chess engines SOS 11/2000 and Shredder 5 as well >as in the Shredder 5 graphical user interface. Also the new version 6 of Chess >Assistant will support this engine interface. The UCI interface is free to use >for everyone, so you can use it in your own program without any licence fees or >restrictions. If you make any additions or modifications to the interface it >might be a good idea to contact me before so we can keep compatibility. > >The interface is similar to Winboard, keeping its easiness but eliminating the >disadvantages of it. It should be not much work to adept an chess engine to UCI >especially if it’s already supporting winboard. It is also possible to support >both UCI and winboard in the same exe file. > >What are the advantages of UCI compared to Winboard? > >· All engine options can be modified within the graphical user interface so >there is no need to deal with ini files. >· Much better capabilities to display search information of the engine, >· Definition of a principal variation is included, >· It’s more robust, the GUI always knows exactly what the engine is doing. >· It’s supporting multi variation mode, >· Support for endgame tablebases >· Flexible time controls, >· The engine can identify itself >· UCI is supporting a copy protection mechanism (for the professionals) > > >The advantages to other engine interfaces are: > >· It’s free >· It’s easy to use >· It’s easy to extent >· It’s independent of the operating system >· It’s capable of network play > > >Below is the “formal” definition of the engine interface, if you have any more >question concerning UCI I will try to answer them. > >Stefan > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >* The specification is independend of the operationg system. For Windows, > the engine is a normal exe file, either a console or "real" windows >application. > >* all communication is done via standard input and output with plain text >commands, These two statements contradict each other. Some of us run operating systems without any "pipe" facility (i.e., MacOS versions 9 or earlier).
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