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Subject: Re: Leiden depressions

Author: Miguel A. Ballicora

Date: 10:03:27 11/07/01

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On November 07, 2001 at 11:11:31, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On November 07, 2001 at 10:07:37, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:
>
>>
>>Well, xboard was not design for internet either. It came later with the zippy
>>code.
>
>That is actually incorrect.  Xboard was _originally_ designed as a human
>interface to play on a chess server.  Support for gnuchess was added much
>later by Tim Mann.  And then the protocol developed beyond that point.  But
>its original function was to connect a human to a chess server to play chess
>with other people that were connected...
>
>
>>
>>>clock in human vs engine games, or in engine vs engine games, but accept the
>>>clock updates when on a server.  It was never envisioned as an interface that
>>>would be used to operate a program in a tournament with a human operator and
>>>a _real_ chess clock as well.
>>>
>>>It can be used like that, but not very conveniently.  What is needed is a quick
>>>"adjust clock" option so that the clock can easily be synchronized with the game
>>>clock (manually) when needed.
>>
>>That would be cool. Maybe and engine message to the interface saying
>>that "2 minutes has to be taken out of the clock" or "set remaining
>>time to 15 minutes" or something like that. Then, the engine can ask
>>the user and act. That will keep the spirit of the engine taking
>>control of the interface.
>>
>I think you can already do this.  You can use some keystroke that says "I
>want to type a command that goes directly to the engine" to tell the engine
>anything you want. There are warnings about entering moves like this, of
>course, as things get out of sync.

I mean that the engine sends the "adjust clock" to winboard.


>>>>>short, it turns into a kludge one way or another.  When I play in tournaments,
>>>>>I use "text mode" always.  And have absolutely no problems of any kind doing
>>>>>so either...
>>>>
>>>>Of course, the discussion is whether we can do this in WB or not.
>>>>
>>>
>>>Right.  And it means debugging two sets of code, one that ignores winboard's
>>>clock values, one that trusts them explicitly, and hoping that one doesn't
>>>screw up the other...  And it is almost a certainty that the server code will
>>>be tested the most, since that is the most common way of using it.  Leaving
>>>potential bugs/holes in the "tournament mode".
>>
>>For what I read, most people have already a "operator time" feature for these
>>tournaments. What I proposed does not add any code to debug except a
>>substraction line. I do not think it is a big deal.
>
>
>Operator time is trivial to implement.  But what if you have to suddenly run
>to the rest room, and lost 10 minutes on the clock while you are gone.  And
>you had only set up for 10 minutes of operator time?

I do not know, how do you handle it? I would do the same with my suggestion.

Regards,
Miguel



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