Author: David Eppstein
Date: 10:59:14 09/20/98
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On September 20, 1998 at 05:24:38, Roberto Waldteufel wrote: >I think the idea is to support everything - DOS, Windows, UNIX, Linnux and >MacIntosh, maybe others as well (eg OS2?). ... >The interface is to be a separate >program that resides on the same machine as the engine, so several versions of >interface program are needed for different operating systems. ... >The engine communicates >via stdin and stdout, and the iterface does all the computer - computer >communication. Pipes (what you seem to mean when you say to communicate with stdin/stdout) are a very Unix-centric view of the world. Maybe Windows and DOS have them but I don't think the Mac does, instead programs communicate with AppleEvents which are closer to a packet based than stream based protocol. So if you are intending to use this pipe model and support Mac, you already have a problem. Fortunately the protocol so far sounds like it would work perfectly well stuffed into AppleEvents (one per command or response) or streamed over a TCP connection. What happens if the pipe or network connection breaks? Should there be some provision for resuming an interrupted game? Why must there be two separate program-interface and interface-interface protocols, wouldn't it be less work to devise a single protocol that would work for both functions? Then maybe also one could do program-program directly with the same protocol and avoid the overhead of the interface program. I realize the interface program is a useful thing to have (similar function to tournament moderator) but not always necessary (you don't need a moderator if you're playing a friendly game for no stakes). Also, there is already an AppleEvent protocol for chess engines to communicate with ExaChess (www.exachess.com, a very nice chess database and user interface). Does anyone know where to find the documentation for this protocol? It probably has some useful ideas although I'd guess it's likely too Mac-specific to be adapted to this more general purpose.
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