Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 18:13:46 04/12/03
Go up one level in this thread
On April 12, 2003 at 20:40:41, emerson tan wrote: >DOS, the best platform for chess programming? > >Ed Shroeder mentioned before that DOS is the best platform for chess >programming, is this true? Does chess program run faster under DOS? if this is >true, what's the explanation? The Ed Shroeders of the world are few and far between. He could have worked in any number of OS's, using any number of languages, and still had a world class program. Rebel is written in assembly language (or at least a good portion of it is), and DOS is a better environment for that. In DOS you are in what is called "real mode", which basically means your program can own the computer. Your program is what is in control when it is running. In Windows, you work in what is called "protected mode", which means there are restrictions to what you can do in assembly language, because you don't control the computer, Windows does. I'm certainly not as qualified as Ed is regarding chess programming, but for most people I think Windows would be the best development environment. However, this has little to do with Windows itself, but rather that there are tools available to strengthen your program easier than in other operating systems. For instance, there are a large number of Winboard and UCI chess engines available for Windows, along with nice GUI's like Arena under which you can run engine vs. engine tournaments. I personally find this to be a good way to gauge whether or not something I added to my program makes a significant difference in playing strength. In DOS, you'd have to write your own software to direct a tournament. In unix (and linux, etc.) you can do the same thing, but there are far fewer engines available, which isn't a huge deal. Also in DOS, you have to write your own GUI, which isn't a huge deal, but I'd personally rather spend that time working on the playing strength of the program.
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.