Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: What's the deal with Crafty?

Author: Will Singleton

Date: 13:37:03 02/15/99

Go up one level in this thread


On February 15, 1999 at 16:27:21, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On February 15, 1999 at 16:08:35, Will Singleton wrote:
>
>>On February 15, 1999 at 15:13:18, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>On February 15, 1999 at 15:04:15, Will Singleton wrote:
>>>[snip]
>>>>But regarding your main point, this has been discussed before, and it's of
>>>>course up to Bob to make that decision.  However, the cat is out of the bag as
>>>>far as the source goes, in it's present form it will be stronger that any
>>>>amateur program for the near term.  So restricting it will have little effect
>>>>(the effects having already occurred).
>>>>
>>>>Long term, though, it would be a good thing to take it private.
>>>New programmers, coming on to the scene, will be severely stunted.  It is a
>>>very, very, very bad thing.  Only it may become a necessary thing.  Tragic, in
>>>my mind.  Of course, GNUChess is strong and freely available.  So now what?
>>>Hide the source of a copyleft program?
>>
>>GNUchess isn't in Crafty's league.  There are only 8 GNUchess clones on ICC, as
>>opposed to 175 active crafty clones.  I think that indicates something.
>True, but on sufficiently advanced hardware, it seems to do pretty well.  Better
>than a large fraction of current ameteur programs.
>
>If we just want the most primitive programs, then perhaps only TSCP gets
>exposed.
>If we want to share the most advanced techniques, then we only write papers
>about it but not share code (apparently).  So that means that the advanced
>techniques will be harder to learn than before.  State of the art stuff is very
>hard to absorb without an example.  Something that is very complex often has a
>simple base explanation, but the devil is in the implementation details.
>Without seeing that sort of thing, every programmer will have to cross the same
>hurdles that have already been discovered.
>
>What it means is that now we want to hide some work.  That's because there are
>those round about who are unscrupulous and will use the information for selfish
>purposes without being willing to expend their own effort.
>
>Paraphrasing:
>A few stinkers spoil it for everyone else.
>Typical.

Exactly.

Will




This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.