Author: Jaime Benito de Valle Ruiz
Date: 11:15:55 11/28/03
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On November 28, 2003 at 13:04:51, José Carlos wrote: > If I was requested to show my source code in a tournament, would I be allowed >to: > > - Say I wrote it in assembly and provide the exe's asm file? > - Remove all the comments? > - Obfuscate the code by eliminating spaces and blank lines, changing variable >names (u64AllPieces to a, u64WhitePieces to b, etc...), changing function names >to something different (GenerateCaptures to GenerateChecks, Quiesce to >EvaluateRooks, etc...), any other obfuscation technique? > - Add some files with non used code, for example from my Othello program, with >a #define that is not defined (#if define(PLAY_FAST)...)? > - Remove some unimportant code (printfs for console mode, ...)? > - ... > > Any of these changes would not change a bit how the program plays, and the >program would comile just fine and show the same behaviour of the inspected exe. > My question: is there any rule against that? And if so, how can it be proven? > > José C. I won't say I've never had a look at Crafty's code, but the most part of my clumsy program is fairly original (including parts such as the move generator), and no one who saw it would think that has been cloned from Crafty... except for I use similar names for similar files and functions, of course; I'm not going to re-invent words like sixtfouribitblock instead of bitboard!!!. The thing is, if someone asked me to explain what does every part of my code do, I wouldn't be able to answer without spending at least half an hour trying to "decode" it, and remember why did I do what I did here and there. I haven't touched several functions in a long time, and I just know they work, so I forgot lots of details. I'm pretty sure some people have photographic memory, or are extremely organized, but I'm not. If I had gone to this tournament(haha), and I had been asked to explain my code in detail, I'd be disqualified by now for sure according to their rules! I don't really know whether in this case List was a clone or not, but I find these rules a bit "dodgy" anyway. Jaime
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