Author: Dieter Buerssner
Date: 10:51:57 12/08/02
Go up one level in this thread
On December 08, 2002 at 11:46:34, Daniel Clausen wrote: > >On December 07, 2002 at 10:25:53, Joachim Rang wrote: > >[...] > >>I, like a customer, >>prefer UCI, becasue it's easier and quicker to change some values within the GUI >>instead of editing an Ini-File and restarting the engine. > >I fail to see what the functionality a GUI offers (ie turning off nullmove, >switching opening books, you-name-it) has to do with the protocol between the >GUI and the engine. > >The GUI could change the configuration file (.rc, .ini or whatever) and send the >engine a command to re-read the configuration file. Sounds pretty simple to me. >Or it could simple terminate the engine and start it again. (which has some >drawbacks, but is even simpler to implement as there is no command like >'REREAD_CONFIG' needed. > >Just because no xboard/winboard-GUI does that, doesn't mean it's not possible to >do. IMO, it would mean, that you need to enhance the WB/XB protocol and to find somebody, to implement such enhancements. I believe to remember, that Steffen Jakob made suggestions in this direction already some years ago (before UCI was known). Actually, a very similar interface for this would be possible, like the one currently in UCI. I certainly would try to support such an enhancement. As I see the status quo, I have no doubt, that the engine options settable in UCI interfaces are a significant advantage compared to WB/XB. Also, the "philosophy" behind the protocols may make it more difficult in the WB-protocol. The UCI protocol defaults to some sort of "force mode". Only when you get a command, the engine starts to search (usually, you will get this command immediatly after any move). But the GUI will know easily, when the engine is in this force mode, and can then give commands to set up some engine parameters. In WB, with ponder on, there is normally no such situation, where the engine just waits for a new command. It implicetly will start to search immediately in a normal game situation. Regards, Dieter
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