Author: Ed Schröder
Date: 14:10:56 03/26/01
Go up one level in this thread
On March 26, 2001 at 13:56:06, Vincent Diepeveen wrote: >Hello People, > >Why design a protocol for auto232 player? > >That is the basic question. > >My interpretation is that this protocol needs to >be followed to play games at the auto232 player then. > >The protocol as designed by Chrilly and Stefan is >having a number of commands. > >The most important is that one is called 'slave' and the >other is 'master'. Now being master says shit about whether >you play better chess, but it says something about what >your function is within the protocol. > >If you are master, then your function is to start the game >and afterwards ship your opponent the command to save the game. > >Let's first discuss the chesspartner interface which is used for >Gambit Tiger. Gambit Tiger is giving very little problems on the >auto232 player, let's start mentionning that. It doesn't have >big demands to play a game. It's happy very soon. No need to >have a machine with zillions of megabytes of RAM, no need to >have 7.5 GB of EGTBs on the harddisk before it start playing. > >It plays no problems there. > >however, WHY does it have an UNMARKED checkbox by default >to let the other guy save the game when Tiger is Master. > >This means the opponent is by default NOT ALLOWED to save the >game. > >This is very unfair behaviour. > >It's like playing a grandmaster for the first time, then >ship the grandmaster to a clinic. They operate him and he has >lost all memories about the game! > >Of course you can avoid this by difficult programming. So saving >the game during the game already. Learning during the game etcetera. > >BUT WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE PROTOCOL THEN? > >In my opinion it is UNFAIR to by default leave this checkbox unmarked. > >In the default settings it must be marked! It is no problem to set the option "marked" as default. I will forward the topic to Lex. Maybe he has his reasons, I don't know. One plausible reason is that people don't have an interest at all to have the games saved twice. Of course you as a programmer want to have the games saved in your own format. But then chess programmers are not in the majority concerning the volume of end-users who only care about a wellknown format such as having the games in PGN. So I think you are in the minority here, buy hey the option is there and that is the main important thing. Ed >The same applies to chessbase products but even worse. > >First it is very worried about having the right openings book to >auto232 play. Secondly it wanted more hashtables and at least a >machine with 128mb RAM. Further it wants all EGTBs installed on harddisk. > >Only after all those criteria are met, then finally fritz wants to >auto232 play. > >The first box you see then it already has by DEFAULT UNMARKED a markbox >which will ship a 'save game' command to the opponent after the game. > >This is pretty unfair! > >So it wants itself the BEST POSSIBLE conditions, like at least 128mb RAM, >a lot of EGTB installed. Hundreds of megabytes of harddisk for a big >openingsbook etcetera. All those criteria it wants in order to not even >by default give the opponent a 'save game' command after the game, >DESPITE THAT THIS IS THE PROTOCOL! > >Now people can legally complain that their protocol looks like Chrilly/Stefans >protocol, but that it is not the same, and that the only differences >are that by default chessbase ships some extra commands in order to >recognize whether on the other side is also a chessbase program and that >the other thing is to by default leave the 'save game' for the opponent >is unmarked. > >all legal crap. JUST GIVE THE SAVE GAME COMMAND by default. > >That chessbase wants their own main product to win the auto232 matches >somehow by shipping commands to other chessbase interfaces to get certain >things done, that is completely their own responsibility and decision. >Quite logical decision actually. I would want Fritz to win too if it was >my main product. I'm not here to speak for how chessbase must run their >company. That is their own business. > >But i'm here for those who want a fair match between non-chessbase products >and a chessbase product, as well as chesspartner-tiger, >which in future also is going to lose from Fritz as i understood. > >I understand that programs not learning are greatly influenced by >this default unmark trick. > >You can produce your own PGNs and only those can get interpreted, whereas >opponent is NOT allowed to show as slave the pgn, except if that >programmer works around this. > >Much easier as everyone doing a hell of a lot of effort is simply to >give everyone that 'save game' command.
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