Author: David H. McClain
Date: 08:57:30 08/25/05
Go up one level in this thread
On August 25, 2005 at 11:27:50, Roger Brown wrote: >Hello all, > >I read with a sense of despair the petulant demands that this or that author >release (at the minimum) their executable for the free enjoyment of all. > >This is distressing to me because I believe that we are missing a the golden >forest for the trees. I believe that we are in a golden age of computerchess. >It was only a few years ago that the competitive free engine standard was Crafty >and Yace, two of my favourite engines of all time. > >Then the landscape exploded with the advent of Ruffian (yes I know that my >chronology is a severe distortion but this is not a historical essay on >computerchess developments) and we had a program that was free that was also >ready to climb into the ring with the big boys. > >I guess that did it..... > >I say that because now we are blase about Fruit and Zappa. We now expect the >free stuff to be UCI and Winboard compliant (actually with the invention of >polyglot, another piece of genius taken for granted in my opinion, the necessity >to be both disappears). We now expect the free stuff to be competitive with the >commercial products, the authors of which can learn from the freely available >engines but not so much the other way. > >We now expect the free stuff. > >Why? > >What right do we have to another person's intellectual creations? > >What right do we have to get it? > >NONE. > >Now before someone starts to wonder, please put me in the line for the free >stuff. I am a huge fan of the free stuff. I want the latest engine and I want >it to be better than the previous version and I want clear readme files in each >one and I want it to be useable in all interfaces flawlessly and I want it to >to tell me that it has found its book and the six man TB's......and I want it >now. > >Wow. > >Whatever happens, I have been fortunate to have witnessed a free (let us not say >professional because anyone looking at Crafty's or Yace's feature set cannot >help but realise that they are professionally done) engine explosion that has >made sure that the box cannot go back to the size it was. > >Deal with it. > >As much as they will never acknowledge it, the authors of Yace, Crafty, Ruffian, >Fruit and Zappa have taken us to somewhere else, somewhere remarkable. > >I cannot imagine what comes next. > >I get tingly thinking about it. > >I would just like to see some more courtesy and acknowledgement, not just for >performance (which is to be given, make no mistake) but also for the spirit of >generosity that allowed us to share in the wonder of a creative mind. > >It still makes me shake my head when I look over at ProDeo (and the last freely >released DOS version of Rebel which I enjoy using!) and realise that its author >gave us that for free. > >I am speechless with gratitude. Perhaps that is why I wrote this, to share with >you the possibility that perhaps we have been taking far too much for granted. > >Ah well, that is just my rambling thought on it..... > >You were warned though. > >Later. Roger, Without knowing the logistics, politics and legalities of going "professional," I would be disappointed that if sometime in the near future Zappa and Fruit did not go professional. Gandalf did and it's a fine program. The competition benefits us all. It's completely up to the authors to go professional with the caveats above I mentioned. However, as in professional boxing, if you are not ranked in the Top 10, you really don't make any money at it. Let's see what happens. DHM
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