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Subject: List - Ruffian - ?

Author: Palmer

Date: 05:17:31 11/29/03


I just remembered that some time ago there was a discussion here on CCC if
ruffian is a crafty clone or not.
Here some comments form robert hyatt to that topic:

...I agree. The real test is in tactics. It is not easy to make a copy of
Crafty either better or worse at tactics, but particularly making it better is
non-trivial. It's far easier to twiddle with a few eval terms to make it
play significantly different...

...In the case of Ruffian, I'm not sure it is anything at all, other than
a very unlikely happening.
Ruffian could be any of the following, in decreasing order of probability:
1. A copy of a freeware engine with some changes or additions.
2. A copy of a commercial engine, aided by a hex editor to change strings
to disguise what has happened.
3. A copy of a commercial engine, modified, after someone found access to
the un-released source code somehow.
4. A program written by a current commercial (or amateur) author and released
anonymously, for reasons I wouldn't try to guess.
5. A completely new program, developed by a completely new author, sight-
unseen by anybody until very recently.
It _could_ be any of those. I don't have an opinion yet, except that the
above list is written in decreasing probability order....



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