Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 22:53:07 05/27/01
Go up one level in this thread
On May 27, 2001 at 22:57:39, Peter McKenzie wrote:
>On May 27, 2001 at 20:26:47, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>
><snip>
>>
>>I think it is interesting that so many people use the Nalimov stuff without any
>>concern that at some point while the program is playing, it is not their program
>>actually playing. That idea bothered me enough that I wrote my own stuff.
>
>Yes, this is one of the reasons (if not the main one) that I haven't put them
>into LambChop. It just goes against the grain for me to copy someone elses code
>into my program. I don't think this is a cut and dry issue and I have nothing
>against those using tablebases, but the more I think about it the more I suspect
>that I'll never include Nalimov support in my program.
>
>There are a number of ways to look at it. You could say that I didn't write the
>standard C library either, and yet I see fit to link that into my chess program.
> How are tablebases any different? Well, in some sense they aren't, and really
>the Nalimov user should be applauded for demonstrating excellent software
>re-use!
>
>But then writing a chess program isn't an exercise in software re-use otherwise
>we wouldn't do it at all, we'd all just go out and buy the latest Fritz or
>Shredder or Tiger or whatever. At some point you have to draw the line about
>what you are *not* going to re-use, of course that is a personal choice but
>there are also rules that apply for tournaments.
>
>Tablebase use is accepted practice these days, although I think it violates the
>old ICCA rules and I'm not sure if they've updated those rules yet. Those rules
>were there to stop things like people taking crafty and modifying a few lines
>and entering it into a tournament. Now this isn't quite the same as using
>tablebases, though there are *similarities* - both involve using someone else's
>chess algorithm code. The fundamental differene being that convention has come
>down in favour of using tablebases which is fine by me but not fine for me.
>
>Well, enough rambling from me - got to go work on my new 7 man tablebase
>compression scheme.
>
>Peter
I generally agree with you about the ethics and reluctance to use the Nalimov
tablebases.
On the other hand, here is how I justify to myself using them in Tiger: almost
everybody else is using them, from amateurs to professionals. They get an unfair
advantage with this.
By using them myself, I just nullify the unfait advantage of my opponents. So we
all get back to the interesting part of the job: finding new original ideas to
improve our programs.
Christophe
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