Author: Wayde Beasley
Date: 15:28:31 01/18/01
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This is what you said: "Tim Mann is the author and the owner of the standard." Prove it. Now, by "standard" I believe you meant WinBoard chess-engine communication protocol. Now, anybody can define a protocol; I'll do so here: it's called the "Idiot's Chess Engine Protocol" or ICEP. To comply with this protocol, which I own, a chess engine must send every third move in SAN format, except on the Sabbath, in which case only coordinates are acceptable. In all other cases, between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 8:48 p.m., moves to the GUI must be coordinate; otherwise, it's SAN again, but the Bishop is indicated by "L" and not "B" and the Queen is "D" and not "Q", except again on the Sabbath when it goes back to American or English SAN, unless of course there's a lunar eclipse. Standards are dictated by an act of collective adoption. If the chess world decides to adopt ICEP as a standard, I cannot come back and disallow that with the claim that I own it, because individuals do not own standards, only groups "own" standards. Nobody owns the PGN, EPD, FEN, ISO, ANSI standards any more than I own the Heimlich Manuever. On January 18, 2001 at 15:42:20, Dann Corbit wrote: >On January 18, 2001 at 14:34:50, Wayde Beasley wrote: >[snip] >>Tim Mann does NOT own the standard. He just owns a PROTOCOL, but not the >>STANDARD. It is the engine-writers that set standards or adopt standards by >>choosing to use Tim Mann's protocol. The standard is just that because the >>engine people have chosen to adhere to a single protocol. Tim Mann is in no >>position to alienate engine-writers from further use of any standard or any >>protocol, for that matter. Just had to make that point. > >No. This is backwards. > >Compiler writers do not own the ANSI standard. > >SQL database systems do not own the ISO standard. > >Chess programs using PGN do not own the PGN standard. > >Winboard programs do not own the Winboard standard. > >The standards dictate how programs must perform, not vice-versa. > >This is the only way to prevent chaos. > >If I write a chess program and say that the standard is wrong and do it my own >way, who is wrong if it does not work properly? I am wrong.
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