Author: Roger D Davis
Date: 11:02:41 06/09/05
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On June 08, 2005 at 18:34:35, Steven Edwards wrote: >Symbolic: Status report 2005.06.08 > >I made a pass through Symbolic's Lisp source narration code and made a number of >naming and structural changes to enable a greater consistency between the HTML >and text output formatters. These routines now share as much code where >possible, otherwise they at least share a very common structure and naming >convention. The changes effectively removed the kruft that had accumulated >during the deletion of the voice narration and the addition of the HTML >narration. Also, a healthy number of Lisp "assert" function calls were added to >assuage coder's paranoia. > >The new StoryToText function now outputs position diagrams in monochrome >suitable for a typical interactive text pager. Prior to the modification >position diagrams were output in color using ANSI escape sequences; >unfortunately, these are changed into unreadable trash when passed through a >Unix more command. The new StoryToHTML function retains the prior HTML position >diagram encoding capability. > >StoryToText also knows about CCC style FEN diagram encoding and will generate >diagrams in this style instead of the default monochrome ASCII board diagram, if >commanded by a run time option. > >StoryToHTML, if activated by option, produces the HTML narrative on the file >"Story.html". StoryToText, if activated by option, produces the text narrative >on the file "Story.txt". The WriteStatReport function, if activated by option, >produces a brief text statistics report on the file "Report.txt". All three >file names are defaults and can be changed; indeed, for a whole game, changes >are needed as otherwise the files are overwritten after each search. > >The regular real time text narrative, if activated by option, appears on the >console. It uses ANSI color position diagram encoding by default. > >-------- > >The ChessLisp source file that had most of the GA subproject code (SexLib.lsp) >has been split with all of the code needed for actual chess search real time >support deposited into the new file BioLib.lsp. Also, the initialization and >application of the MateAttack move suggesting organism has been integrated into >the main code. Testing of this using the MateIn10 BWTC.0031 position along the >19 ply main line results in some encouraging data: in nine of the ten choice >points for the first mover, the MateAttack suggester ranked the key move as best >of all the available moves; in the tenth choice point, the key move was also >ranked as best but had several equally scored alternatives. > >This is a good result, although it's tempered a bit by the fact that it's >somewhat specialized. More testing is needed to see if the above suggester >works as well for other MateAttack theme instances. Less encouraging is the >amount of time needed to apply the suggester organism to a complicated position: >about a full second when running on a 400 MHz PPC. I have some ideas on how >this can be improved, but simply moving to a faster machine is seen as a last >resort. > >-------- > >As you may already know, I've been a big fan of the PPC architecture vs. the >thirty years kludges of the iAPX86 alternative. So it was a big disappointment >to hear of Apple Computer switching from PPC to iAPX86 starting next year. This >will not affect Symbolic's development; it has only a single line of PPC >assembly language that can be easily changed or elided, also, Symbolic's binary >data is already normalized for endian status. Also to ensure portablilty, >Symbolic has been tested from day one on iAPX86 Linux platforms. > >If only IBM has devoted the resources to follow up on its promises of a 3 GHz >PPC in 2004 and a 4 GHz PPC in 2005, then Apple would surely not have had to >switch. Maybe there is still hope of a switch back to PPC if IBM can catch up >and pass Intel. > >-------- > >A recent visit to the doctor has revealed a new heart problem and so tomorrow I >get to spend some time with the Cardiac Care prognosticators at the local >hospital for further testing. Depending on the results, it may be a while until >the next update. You're the only one working on this approach, dude, so you gotta come through. :) Best wishes for a speedy recovery. We all want you healthy and you can bet that everyone here is cheering for you. Roger
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