Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 15:31:00 08/20/01
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On August 20, 2001 at 17:57:28, Mogens Larsen wrote: >On August 20, 2001 at 17:39:18, Dann Corbit wrote: > >>On the other hand, it does not seem to have hurt Christophe Theron any. >>He's active here, and his program kicks butt [and has made rapid advancement >>over the last couple years]. > >Somehow I think that's more to do with actual talent. And if I may be as bold as >to suggest that Christophe have been more active in promoting his program rather >than sharing ideas IIRC. Nothing wrong with that, since it's his livelihood. But >most of the programmers starting out wouldn't notice if he stopped posting >altogether IMHO. I disagree. He does give technical posts from time to time, and also discusses specifics about Chess Tiger (for instance, it is not bitboard based, but 0x88 with an over-sized board). I especially like his posts on probability because they often get me thinking. He's also an interesting character. I think if he left, a lot of programmers would notice. Maybe not the experts, but the beginners for sure. Ed Schroder also gives technical tips from time to time, though he says less than Christophe. I see it like this [from the programming standpoint]: Robert Hyatt becomes involved in lots of technical discussion and gives precise technical comments, often including code snippets or careful explanations. Nobody else posts nearly so much on techical questions. There is a second tier of people who offer a lot of help and insight: Vincent Diepeveen will always tell you what is wrong with something. He sees everything in clear black and white, no matter what shade of grey. But you should listen to his comments because they are always good objections. Bruce Moreland has the best illustrations of technical content I have ever heard. If he were to write a book on chess programming, I would buy it in a twinkling. I have to admit, his explanation of alpha-beta with bags of coins was the clearest explanation I have ever heard. In addition, he seems to become more and more helpful as time goes along. Dieter Buerssner is very helpful both in explanations and examples. Gian Carlo Pascutto is very helpful, especially with seldom used ideas like special pruning functions. Peter McKenzie is very helpful from time to time. Remi Coulom is very helpful. Too bad they became less active: Ernst Heinz used to post a lot of information, but since he left MIT, he seems a lot less active here. James Robertson does not seem to post here nearly so much as he used to. Don Dailey was one of my favorite posters, but he found much better things to do with his time. Jon Dart used to post a lot more frequently too. Ren Wu had some interesting insights. Stefan Meyer-Kahlen and Steffen Jakob both used to post here a lot more. I have not seen Steven J. Edwards for a long time. I wonder if he got bored with it all? Stuart Cracraft used to post here, but I have not seen him post for some time. Tom Kerrigan left also, and he used to have a lot of good ideas for beginners. Ulrich Tuerke still posts from time to time, but he seems more active in the Winboard Forum. Other notes: Amir Ban will often give helpful information. I remember him sharing (in great detail) his ideas about opening books. In short, the amateur programmers offer the most insights, with Robert Hyatt proving the most helpful. Even so, the professional programmers also contribute quite a bit. Some of the best got bored with it, but I suspect [at least some of them] they will be back from time to time. >>So I doubt that the harm is very great, if any. > >If he's just an active reader then I would agree. However, I doubt that actual >participation would be terribly beneficial. It would be naive to assume that his >policy would differ from Theron's and Chessbase does the advertising quite well >as it is. The troublemakers would probably also emerge from the woodwork. Well, there is that. But the'll emerge from the woodwork with or without him. unfortunately.
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