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Subject: Re: Why cant Zappa, Diep etc implement as Shredder did? Fritz too ftm.

Author: Zheng Zhixian

Date: 14:23:42 09/07/05

Go up one level in this thread


On September 07, 2005 at 13:26:32, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On September 07, 2005 at 13:04:26, Zheng Zhixian wrote:
>
>>On September 06, 2005 at 17:32:51, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>On September 06, 2005 at 16:45:20, Marc Lacrosse wrote:
>>>
>>>>On September 06, 2005 at 15:54:57, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Xboard is the best protocol for play, I think, but it is useless for
>>>>>configuration.
>>>>>
>>>>>UCI is far better for that.
>>>>>
>>>>>I would like to see the two protocols merged.
>>>>
>>>>With both Wb2UCI (thanks Odd Gunnar) and Polyglot (thanks Fabien) we have them
>>>>merged. Today.
>>>
>>>NOthing close to that.
>>>
>>>You want to set up your Winboard for 256 MB hash and to find the Nalimov
>>>tablebase files on e:/nalimov;f:/nalimov-overflow
>>>How will Wb2UCI or Polglot help at all?
>>>
>>>I do not want to edit any ini files.
>>>
>>>>Just a little rough on the edges...
>>>>
>>>>An example: combining TheKing chessmaster engine with WB2uci and PG you can
>>>>adjust any parameter and have it play under WB with your own book choice.
>>>>This is impossible in any other modern GUI or configuration without horribly
>>>>painful manoeuvers.
>>>>
>>>>If we could get WB2UCI + Polyglot working in a little more user-friendly
>>>>interface, than we would have the perfect intermediate solution between any
>>>>engine and any GUI.
>>>>
>>>>... at the exception of the deliberately schizophrenic chessbase engines, but
>>>>this is another story, and we can begin to hope that their hegemonic story is
>>>>beginning to go to its lonely end.
>>>
>>>The way to fix it is to provide a comprehensive single protocol that has all the
>>>strengths of both protocols and none of the weaknesses.
>>
>>That's not going to help.
>>
>>Chessbase products has already set the dangerous precedent of supporting
>>UCI/WInboard in their interface but their engines aren't/
>>
>>Now vendors of other professional products are starting to use that as an excuse
>>to do the same thing.
>>
>>Why wouldn't they? It forces people to buy their GUI, it ensures that their
>>engine will always be running as expected since they control the GUI...
>>
>>With time, every product will have their own GUI which supports
>>UCI/Winboard/whatever but with their engines locked in to the GUI.
>>
>>What use is if every interface supports UCI/WB but their engines don't??
>
>It's better than nothing.
>
>And Shredder (on the other hand) has taken the precedent of making the main
>engine a UCI engine.  So if you like the approach taken by Shredder then buy
>that one and don't buy ChessBase.  That will force change if it is impotrant
>enough to the users that they change their buying habits.

Yes and zappa falls into this category now. Personally, I don't understand what
they are thinking. Chessbase products while not as popular as Chessmaster, has
at least a solid base of users ,well known enough to the none-cc fans. This is a
base large enough to ignore the computer chess fans anyway.

Zappa is a new unknown unestablished product, its claim to fame is that it won
the WCCC, a fact known only to some people, most of them CC fans. My guess is a
very large percentage of buyers are going to be CC fans.

To piss them off by withholding UCI in Zappa on purpose just because chessbase
does it , is most certainly going to hurt them a lot more than chessbase.




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