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Subject: Re: Shredder not fair judging auto232 player results

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 08:52:18 03/30/01

Go up one level in this thread


On March 28, 2001 at 23:52:35, Chessfun wrote:

>On March 28, 2001 at 14:12:49, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On March 28, 2001 at 00:56:14, James T. Walker wrote:
>>
>>>On March 27, 2001 at 17:11:48, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 27, 2001 at 16:21:09, James T. Walker wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On March 27, 2001 at 12:11:02, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On March 27, 2001 at 11:12:13, James T. Walker wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On March 27, 2001 at 10:52:43, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On March 27, 2001 at 10:34:29, James T. Walker wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>As a non-programmer I have to say this is one of the silliest threads I have
>>>>>>>>>ever read.  It brings up a few questions to programmers.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>1. Why would you let another program decide for you when/how to save a game or
>>>>>>>>>any other info you think is important??
>>>>>>>>>2. Does being desiginated as "Slave" prohibit you from saving information when
>>>>>>>>>terminating/starting a game??
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I notice when playing two chessbase programs vs each other in auto232 mode they
>>>>>>>>>both save the game WITHOUT the box being checked.  This seems reasonable to me.
>>>>>>>>>Where's the beef?
>>>>>>>>>Jim
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Being the "slave" you are dependant from the commands send by the "master".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>This includes the "save game", "new game" and "force move" commands.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>The option "save opponent game" is there because the "save game" may cause
>>>>>>>>troubles on the remote program. If it does you turn it off.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Ed
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Hello Ed,
>>>>>>>As you know I'm not a programmer and know nothing about it but what do you mean
>>>>>>>by "dependant"??  Sure you need to be told "lets start a new game/It's your
>>>>>>>move" but seems to me letting your opponent control if you save info or not is
>>>>>>>crazy.  How can the "master" stop you from saving info before starting a new
>>>>>>>game?
>>>>>>>Jim
>>>>>>
>>>>>>"Dependant" is the key-word of the auto232 protocol. The slave in principle
>>>>>>has nothing to do and the master is in full control sending commands (mainly
>>>>>>moves) to the slave. That's why the expression master-slave is a good chosen
>>>>>>one.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Of course you can add your own stuff such as controlling "save game" yourself
>>>>>>for instance when the slave retrieves the "new game" command from the master
>>>>>>you could decide to do a "save game" being the slave. However if the "save
>>>>>>opponent game" box is checked on the remote PC the game is saved twice which
>>>>>>isn't desirable also.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Ed
>>>>>
>>>>>Hello Ed,
>>>>>Well naturally that's what I was thinking.  Also if you decide to save the info
>>>>>at the "new game" command you could also decide to ignore any "save game"
>>>>>commands from the master.  I just don't see any sense in putting any more
>>>>>control of your program than necessarey into the hands of the opponent.  You
>>>>>should be able to make your program do anything you want.  And I see no reason
>>>>>to complain about someone else's program sending or not sending "save game"
>>>>>commands.
>>>>>Jim
>>>>
>>>>When was I complaining?
>>>>
>>>>I was only explaining.
>>>>
>>>>Ed
>>>
>>>Hello Ed,
>>>No, Not YOu.  I was just responding to the thread at the end.  You just happened
>>>to be the last poster.  Vincent was the one starting this thread and he's such a
>>>great programmer I can't understand why he would have a problem with auto232
>>>causing his program problems.
>>>Best Regards,
>>>Jim
>>
>>
>>I have said this before, but I have not said it recently, so here goes:
>>
>>"auto232 is a piece of trash".
>>
>>Nothing else to be said.  When a protocol has built-in timing dependencies
>>that get fried when they are not met, such a protocol is trash.  At one point
>>Crafty worked perfectly.  Then someone got a faster CPU.  I had to add a delay
>>to not move _too_ quickly else auto232 would miss the move and the game would
>>hang.  If I probe endgame databases too hard, the interrupts somehow cause
>>auto232 to hang.
>>
>>To have to have a function "Delay()" in your code, and to have to have a
>>command "delay N" where N is in milliseconds, is terrible.  But when you then
>>have to tell users "you have to find N for yourself.  Try the default and if
>>it hangs, try other values until it doesn't" makes my software engineering
>>skin crawl.  Think about how many different values there are for up to a one
>>second delay.  :(
>>
>>And a user has to experiment to find the right one?  And then he upgrades
>>something (faster processor, faster disks, more memory, new operating system,
>>faster/slower version of the chess engine) and then he has to go Easter-egg
>>hunting again trying to find the right delay value?
>>
>>trash, trash, trash.  Can't say it enough.  :)
>
>
>Interesting post as I know Jim as well as I have had problems running
>Tiger at auto 232. And from reading Vincent's original post on the subject
>of Tiger autoplaying seems he don't have any problems at all.
>
>I always felt the problem was something to do with timing receipt of the
>move, as it seems it often hangs when the other program makes an instant
>reply.
>
>Sarah.


There are some timing constraints that are not known.  If you run on a 1.2ghz
machine you might see problems that the same program on a 800mhz machine won't
produce.  IE faster hardware sends characters/moves faster, etc.  If you use a
newer/better I/O library it might drive the serial UART better and screw up the
auto232 driver with data that comes in too quickly.  It really is gross...



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