Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 19:23:14 08/31/98
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On August 31, 1998 at 13:00:06, Fernando Villegas wrote: >Hi Bob: > >Of course my idea of a catalog of already invented ideas does not pretend to be >state-or-he art stuff as much, as you say, commercial people will not show not >share his ideas; my purpose is just to avoid fans here to fall in very elemental >mistakes each time they believe that after an hour of thought they have >discovered something that is, since time ago, a comodity of chess programming. >Just to know about algorityhms that are common knowledge for the programmers -so >no secrets involved- BUT hidden misteries for us would be very useful. >Else: I stil think you should imitate people that, althought not trying to >become 100% commercial developpers, nevertheless sell his products with a couple >of frills. Yes, I have said this many times, but I would like to see a Crafty >in a cd rom with all what is needed to play and to know that you are deservedly >going to make some money of it. It is a shame tha very inferior programs than >yours gives some earnings to his developers and you stay giving for free your >ideas, sources, etc. >Best regards >Fernando First, let me set the record completely straight: when I first released the source to Crafty, I made a statement that it would be free from that point in time forward. I made that to a *bunch* of people, a few of which even looked at the source and sent ideas back from time to time. I am not going to change that philosophy now... it has been tempting... but I've put that away as a "never going to happen" idea. That doesn't mean that there won't ever be a "one-install-does-all" type of CD that is for sale... but it won't be done by me, and it won't be done for any profit of any kind... The CD idea will probably happen at some point in time to make things easier... probably once version 15.x becomes stable and the SMP stuff has been finalized to a reasonable extent... I also chose this stance because I grew up in the "good old days" of computer chess, back when I could call Ed Kozdrowicki (Coko program), Dave Slate (chess 4.x), Ken Thompson (Belle), Fred Schwartz (Chaos), Tom Truscott (Duchess), Monty Newborn (Ostrich), Tony Marsland (Awit/etc), Jonathan Schaeffer (Phoenix) and many others, and have discussions about details, ideas and algorithms... and not get "stonewalled" because something was being sold for profit and the details are "worth money". I grew up in that kind of open environment where we could talk on the phone, or sit around the table at ACM/WCCC events and have interesting discussions and reveal everything we did *this* year, knowing that we would do more *next year*... That has been lost. I'm doing my part to keep that era alive... There are a few of us willing to do so... and I suppose that the "few" has to keep this going. Otherwise the field would certainly "die" since there's no good way to pass on such information in a private way... So, to try to repay "computer chess society" by doing for others what was so generously done for me over the years... It's a debt I feel I owe, because I've had so much fun doing this for 30 years now... I'm also quite sure that doing a commercial program would be the beginning of the end... because now I'm not concerned with SSDF-rank, nor total sales. I can take off on the SMP angle, or on the 64-bit angle, and not think about which platform I should target to maximize profits and sales. It's simply a venture I am not willing to embark on... I realize that my approach is really stupid at times, because regardless of what is written here, there's been ample evidence that the commercial guys at least know exactly what I'm doing... I have seen comments about code in the eval that was pretty obscure in functionality. which at least shows that some have looked at it, and not just casually. But that's the way it is going to continue, I suppose... I hope that makes my intention clear... to keep this fun, to keep working, and learn what I can... But not with any commercial aspirations...
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