RE: computer-go: Engineering (was: Most simple Go rules)

[Jean-Pierre Vesinet <jpvesinet@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> White: These stones are dead <a5,a4,f5,g7>
> Black: <assesses life&death> I wish to challenge
> White: Accepted
> Black: plays move
> White: plays move
> ....
> Black: I give up
> White: These stones are dead <a5,a4,f5,g7,new stones>
> Black: <retrieves cached result> Agree
> 
> Why is this difficult to implement?
> 
> Christian
> 

It's not the protocol that is difficult to implement. It is the semantics of
"dead".
I have never seen a convincing interpretation of the full Japanese L&D
definition. There have been lots of discussion on rec.games.go about them.
However, all endeavours fail to convey the full meaning and cover all
precedents.
Since computer programs have no incentive to agree to anything unfavourable
to them (i.e. their stones being dead), some will never agree. Then how are
you going to prove something that doesn't have a logical definition?

Jean-Pierre