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Subject: Re: How long to build your chess engine

Author: Reinhard Scharnagl

Date: 10:48:17 01/06/04

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On January 06, 2004 at 13:22:45, Tord Romstad wrote:

>On January 06, 2004 at 11:03:06, Reinhard Scharnagl wrote:
>
>>On January 06, 2004 at 10:40:57, martin fierz wrote:
>>
>>>On January 06, 2004 at 06:53:39, Reinhard Scharnagl wrote:

[...]

>When designing a protocol, you shouldn't think only about your own goals.
>The protocol is for the community, not just for you.  That there is something
>similar to DLLs in Linux (I assume you are right about that, though I don't
>even know what a DLL is) is not good enough.  I want to use exactly the
>same code to compile my engine in MacOS, Linux and Windows.

I am talking on my needs, so can you. Simply make a better and more acceptable
proposal, it would be welcomed to be disussed.

>Thanks to the fact that both of the two wide-spread protocols use console
>IO, it is unimportant that Linux does not work on your hardware.  You could
>still easily port your engine to Linux, by simply borrowing somebody's Linux
>box and recompiling your sources.  My own situation is precisely a mirror
>image of yours:  We have no Windows machines around here, only Macs and Linux
>machines.  I haven't used a Windows machine since the days of Windows 3.0,
>and am therefore almost 100% Windows-illiterate.  But despite this, thanks
>to the wise choices of Tim Mann and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, my engine now
>runs on Windows machines.  Porting it was simply a matter of copying
>my source code to a Windows machine and typing 'make' from the command
>line.  If it were just marginally more complicated, it would never have
>happened.

I do not understand, what your problem is. If you are satisfied with existing
protocols, nobody want to take it away from you. But I see a need for a more
modern protocol supporting also 10x8 boards, exotic chess pieces and a unic
encoding of moves, not like Winboard is doing it with castlings.

>>COM moreover allows to specify events with the interface. That is, what makes
>>that solution "modern". But may be, that somebody has a wonderful and better
>>approach for a modern protocol. I would like to read from that then.

>What is wrong with using console IO for the protocol?  I cannot see any
>disadvantages at all.  It is portable, it works well over the network, and
>it makes it trivial to port an engine to a new OS without having to
>learn how the OS works.  In particular for non-technical people like
>myself, it is extremely convenient.  I don't have the time nor desire
>to learn any programming beyond basic console IO functions, especially
>not for a foreign OS.

As I have told: if you are satisfied with them - fine! I am not. I really do not
understand, what the goal of your posting could be. Are you thinking, that
someone will take something away from you? I am still wondering.

Regards, Reinhard.



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