Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: What is engine protocol besides Winboard?

Author: Jonas Cohonas

Date: 07:13:11 04/10/03

Go up one level in this thread


On April 09, 2003 at 17:04:33, Russell Reagan wrote:

>On April 09, 2003 at 15:38:13, Jonas Cohonas wrote:
>
>>That must be "UCI" you are referring to, personally i think it gives the average
>>user more possibilities, not to mention ease of use. For the more experienced
>>user winboard might be better, i don't know though.
>
>IMO, this debate is along the same lines as actors vs. directors vs. screen
>writers, etc. The screen writer wrote his script, and it's that person's baby.
>They don't want some director or producer adding in fluff or taking things away.
>The director usually has a big ego, so they want to put their mark on a film,
>impose their "style" on it. The actor also has a big ego and thinks they know
>best how to act a part, and they also want to leave their mark on the film. Each
>person sees it from a different point of view and each has different (usually
>self serving) motives. The Winboard vs. UCI argument is similar, I think.
>
>The user wants features and wants to be able to configure anything and
>everything to their liking, without having to learn how to program, so things
>like specifying ponder off, hash size, etc. via the GUI is something a user
>wants. UCI is probably the closest thing to this (aside from commercial
>protocols maybe).
>
>The GUI/protocol creator wants to add support for all kinds of features, because
>this person is usually more "user centered".
>
>Then you have the engine programmer, who has his own ideas about what he wants
>to user to be messing with. Most engine authors aren't concerned with what the
>user wants. They are more concerned with their engine being as strong as
>possible, and so they don't want the GUI/user/protocol to interfere or limit
>what they can or can't do (now or in the future).
>
>I think most engine authors view GUI's as simple methods to play engine-engine
>matches, or simple ways to play against people on ICS's. If they want to change
>a feature or configure something, they probably change a config file or
>recompile.
>
>Personally, I think the GUI shouldn't tell your program what to do. I think it
>should be the other way around. The engine should be able to tell the program
>what to do, how to look (colors, etc.). Maybe the engine author would like to
>see the current coverage of the board by one side (for developing a new
>evaluation parameter, or whatever), and if the GUI was really just that (a
>graphical user interface to the ENGINE), then the engine could highlight certain
>squares or whatever it chose.
>
>I guess it all boils down to how you see things. Is the GUI serving the engine,
>or is the engine serving the GUI?



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.