Author: Ricardo Gibert
Date: 14:09:44 08/15/05
Go up one level in this thread
On August 15, 2005 at 16:54:38, Dann Corbit wrote: >On August 15, 2005 at 14:19:21, Juan Pablo Naar C. wrote: > >>Hi, >> >>I'm completely new to programming and I want to learn a language to program a >>chess engine, it will be a long work. I'm planning to learn C++ first, its >>basics but my brother keeps telling me that C++ is old and is not used anymore, > >Computer languages don't die. That is a myth. Most of the code in the world is >STILL in COBOL. [FCOL]. > >C++ is also one of the .NET languages (fully supported). > >>that Visual Basic.NET is easier and shorter to program. > >True. It is easier. It will not make a good chess engine, though. > >>What do you guys think? > >VB.NET is for front ends to things (It's a RAD knockup tool, for the most part). >Nobody in their right mind would choose it to do a chess engine if the final >goal were to write the world's best engine. But if you are already familiar >with VB and you just want to ponder over the intrinsices of writing a chess >engine for your first try, then it would be OK. > >If you already have a programming language that you know well, it might be a >good alternative. > >Suggestion: >Don't start with chess. That is not a good first programming problem for a >beginner. > >Start with an alpha-beta Tic-Tac-Toe (Naughts and Crosses for the other side of >the pond) program. You will learn most of the basic ideas that you need to >understand and it will be a lot less frustrating. Then, once you have done >that, try a chess engine. Your latter suggestion of using a simple game instead is not a bad suggestion, but I think a better game is one that has a constant BF (Branching Factor). With a constant BF he could get the theoretical formulas to match up and also gauge improvements better, etc. It should make it easier to debug the search.
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