Author: Vasik Rajlich
Date: 03:35:36 05/27/04
Go up one level in this thread
On May 27, 2004 at 05:24:32, Odd Gunnar Malin wrote: >On May 26, 2004 at 14:43:14, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>On May 26, 2004 at 09:17:46, AndrewFan wrote: >> >>>On May 25, 2004 at 20:47:11, Mike Byrne wrote: >>> >>>>The UCI specs say : >>>> >>>>* all command strings the engine receives will end with '\n', >>>> >>>>Yet, Arena sends the double command "go movetime xxxx" -> I'm just wondering >>>>why Arena insists on sending the go and movetime on one line - also - shouldn't >>>>the command "movetime" be sent before the "go" command" ? >>>> >>>>It also sends the command "position startpos moves e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 <etc>" >>>> >>>>So the startpos == "setboard rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w >>>>KQkq" I am not sure the best way to get Crafty to read the moves in within the >>>>current Crafty commands. Any suggestions >>> >>>I added UCI commands to my chess engine in 2 days. Here's what I did: >>> >>> >>>1. Added a UCI command parser. >>> >>>2. If in UCI mode, call the UCI command processor, else call the Winboard/XBoard >>>processor for reading inputs. >>> >>>3. For each UCI command, map it to it's WB equivalent and use the winboard >>>processor to execute this mapped command. >>> >>>Simple. Of course some UCI commands are not so simple to translate. >>> >>> >>>Andrew. >> >> >>It isn't so easy for me. Crafty ponders automatically unless it is turned off. >>If it is turned off, it never ponders. It decides which move to ponder by >>itself, and has code to do that pretty well. UCI wants to handle everything. >>IE the engine is a small part of the whole "thing" while Crafty considers the >>engine to be _the_ whole thing. IE it handles its own book, book learning, >>needs to know when/how a game ends, etc. Crafty correctly claims draws, mates, >>resigns, and all of that. >> >>To disable all of that to work with UCI is simply not worth the effort, when the >>winboard protocol works just fine and has for years. >> >>IE at the root, I want to decide whether a position is a tablebase draw or not, >>and use my "swindle mode" if it is. I can't do that in UCI. There are too many >>things I can't do, or which I have to drastically change, to make it work. >> >>"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is my motto here. :) > >I agree that to play a normal game the Winboard approx is supperior if you isn't >the gui author too. A game of chess doesn't only means to find the best move, >you should also handle things like draw-offer/accept, resign, easy and >interesting bookhandling, and things like your swindle mode. To leave all this >up to the gui-author would make your engine 'polite' for some users and maybe >the opposite for other users. One sample: if you have a contemt factor set to >-0.25, how to get the gui to offer draw in a dead drawn endgame like KRkr? > Well, this is all the old eternal debate of course. I chose UCI for my engine about a year or so ago - of course a very uninformed decision at the time, as all beginner decisions are - but in retrospect it was a good choice. (Despite the fact that it's caused me hell to play on ICC. :-)) At the moment, I have a very long to-do list for my engine, which grows faster than it shrinks. I suspect that this is the case for all computer chess programmers. The more of the mundane tasks the GUI can take off our shoulders, the better ... Just my 2 cents of course ... Vas >With this said there is a (nice) plus too to the uci-protocol. Since it handle >an engine like a pure searcher with defined methods to report back div search >information, this allow (more easy) creative gui-authors to make interesting >analysis features. >Also with the latest version of the uci-protocol you get more information of who >the user are and what he wants. Eg. he can tell you that he want you to play at >a certain Eco level, you get his name and Elo too (like Winboard in ICC mode). >So on a lower level you can give the user a very interesting and personal game. > >So I think it isn't a question of either Winboard or Uci, but: >Winboard or Uci? Yes, thanks! > >Odd Gunnar
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