Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 07:45:28 09/15/98
Go up one level in this thread
On September 15, 1998 at 09:13:26, Amir Ban wrote: >On September 15, 1998 at 07:17:34, Peter Herttrich wrote: > > >>> >>>There is no new protocol and interface planned by anybody. >> >>Amir, so i have a question to you: You will ignore for the future >>the Windboard/Xboard interface/protocol ? >> > >If it becomes important, why should I ignore it ? More precisely, how will I be >able to afford to ignore it ? If it's not important, why should I invest my time >in it ? > >Are there any winboard tournaments being played ? Are the users demanding >winboard compatibility ? Let's ask: SSDF folks ? Shep ? Thorsten (both of you) ? >others ? > >Consider this: > >I implemented auto232 because I wanted to be tested and rated by people (SDDF >and others) who told me they prefer to test automatically, and asked me to >implement this, according to this protocol. Redesigning the protocol was not on >their mind or mine, because they and I knew that the thing would play games >successfully only if done this way. > >I also support PGN. I don't know why it's designed in this way, but I know that >if support it, others can read my games and I can read games. I'm not really >interested in why PGN is as it is, but even if I was and knew how to imporove >it, I wouldn't do it because then I would no longer be able to exchange games >with anyone. > >I can also read EPD, a notation I was never fully able to understand. So what ? >I want to run test-suites, so I support it. > >If you're still not convinced, go into a US electricity shop, and ask them why >they don't sell phones with the much more advantageous French connector ? > this is a bad example. The french connector is not "much more advantageous than the RJ11/RJ45 connectors in use in the US now." 20 years ago we used a dumb little 4-prong connector everywhere. The standard was revised, because the RJ11 is a better connector. It wasn't changed because the *old* connector didn't work. It was changed because the *new* connector is better. Ditto for ethernet, which started on coax and now is on twisted pair cables. Not because the old ethernet didn't work. But because the new standard is better and cheaper. > >> >>No way for a new protocol over a lan? >>Sticking with old unstable/incomplete yunkie-232 Protocol? >> >>In the moment i get the impression, the better way has no chance, >>because it's from the freeware-scene and not from the commercial >>one. Sounds and smells very like Micro$oft behavier. >> >>1.000.000.000 flys can not go wrong, so eat more .... ? >> >>Amir, this is not a personal attack against you. It's against >>the whole group, which favors the old RS232 Interface. >> >> >>Hey, for the xth time, every stupid shoot-em-up-game is able, >>to communicate through a lan. >>We have 1998, not 1979. >> >>If every developer would glue at such old standards, where is >>the progress? >> > >1998 ? progress ? Give us a break, we just want to play games automatically. > >Amir Correct. A way to play a "real" game of chess, with an engine that can resign, offer draws, accept/decline draw offers, underpromote, find out how strong its opponent is supposed to be, find out the name of its opponent, etc. IE the old standard auto232 protocol does work. But it is incomplete. There are probably more winboard compatible programs now than there are auto232 compatible programs. And the winboard protocol is more complete, allowing things like fischer-random chess, starting from a non-standard beginning position (so the nunn-type matches could be automated easily, as could endgame competitions, etc.) and so forth. No one *has* to change. I will just hope we can make the new protocol attractive that most will *want* to change. Ie wouldn't you like to work on your endgame code a bit and then play an "endgame" match with someone without having to go thru the opening and middlegame first? There are lots of neat things that could be done, *iff* the protocol supports it. I am starting a new thread "a new auto-player protocol" with some excerpts from the winboard protocol as a starting point. I have not (yet) included the ability to set an initial position, although the winboard protocol does support that.
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