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Subject: Re: Is it time for the Winboard Protocol to go the way of the Dodo?

Author: Vasik Rajlich

Date: 02:32:07 03/11/05

Go up one level in this thread


On March 10, 2005 at 16:36:30, Frank Phillips wrote:

>On March 10, 2005 at 09:24:14, Andrew Williams wrote:
>
>>On March 10, 2005 at 08:29:02, Vasik Rajlich wrote:
>>
>>>On March 09, 2005 at 12:13:26, Anthony Cozzie wrote:
>>>
>>>>After the post on how Daniel Mehrmann is still working on XBoard/Winboard, I
>>>>immediately starting thinking of ways to waste his time.  My question is: Does
>>>>Winboard really have any advantages over UCI any more?
>>>>
>>>>The Anthony WB/UCI comparison:
>>>>
>>>>+UCI:
>>>>
>>>>Interface is cleaner & easier to implement, not being based on the crappy GNU
>>>>chess protocol.
>>>>
>>>>Supports Multiple PVs, refutations, etc.
>>>>
>>>>Graphical configuration of engines.
>>>>
>>>>+WinBoard:
>>>>
>>>>Can operate in text mode.
>>>>
>>>>And this comparison is (obviously) quite favorable to UCI, although I may have
>>>>missed things.  Anyway, I'd be willing to help Daniel out over the next few
>>>>weeks if it meant a new version of Xboard with UCI support, and I'm guessing
>>>>there would be a few other people willing to help out as well.
>>>>
>>>>anthony
>>>
>>>The current situation is quite ok - every author implements the protocol he
>>>prefers, and adapters exist to make sure that every engine runs in every GUI.
>>>(Except Fritz & Junior -- gggrrrr :)).
>>>
>>>Personally, I'm quite sure that UCI support requires less code and less of a
>>>mess in your engine - but it's really a minor issue. It was quite easy for me to
>>>decide for UCI.
>>>
>>>As for GUIs - if you haven't already done so, I'd suggest you at least try the
>>>professional GUIs. I doubt it's worth it to try to get winboard caught up ..
>>>
>>>Vas
>>
>>Lots of people develop on Linux. I'm not going to suddenly start using Windows
>>to do chess programming when I use Linux for everything else.
>>
>>Andrew
>
>I would like to second that.
>
>It is depressing if the suggestion is that all (hobby) chess programmers should
>have to agree to the MS licence and fund their 'business' tactics - or write
>their own GUI.
>
>Frank

Yes, this is a good point. I worked in Unix until 2003 and can sympathize with
this.

You shouldn't kid yourselves though - and probably you don't - in many cases you
pay a price when you cannot use Windows apps. Maybe it's not right but it's just
the reality.

Vas



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