Re: Progress - OpenGo...

[Heikki Levanto <heikki@xxxxxx>]

Antti Huima (huima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote in lsd.compgo:

: IMHO, Go Modem Protocol is horrible. It could have been suitable for modem
: communications many years ago, but now that TCP/IP "rules", the parity
: bits and the amount of compression used is obsolete, I think. I think we
: should develop a new protocol for 2000's.

I do not know the Go Modem Protocol at all, but it seems that it has
established itself as the standard to be used in computer go tournaments
(and elsewhere?). 

Would it not be better to provide some good standard libraries that
implement this protocol, so that no programmer needs to worry about the
"horrible" technical details in it?

If a new protocol is to be developed, should we not at least consider using
other protocols first? As far as I know (not much, I admit) there are some
protocols used for the go servers, perhaps they could be used for
computer-to-computer playing as well? Or how do things like cgoban
communicate?

But let me repeat the advice of caution in developing new protocols. The old
one seems to serve, and has been implemented in many programs. Switching to
a new one will require a considerable amount of work from go programmers
around the world, work that could be put to more productive use in improving
the game-play of their programs. Especially during the transition phase,
most program would need to support two protocols, doubling he amount of work
"wasted" on details of little relevance to the main goal, playing Go.

Humbly
	Heikki Levanto
	who has started several GO programs, 
	and will finish one "some day real soon now"

--
Heikki Levanto  LSD - Levanto Software Development   <heikki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>