Re: [computer-go] GTP and Tourney in SmartGo 1.4

[A van Kessel <adriaan.van.kessel@xxxxxxx>]

> translated into \r\n pairs... I don't know if this will be happening in
> this case, but I'd rather not have to worry about it at all.

This is a historic pain. We 'll have to deal with it.
I think the simplest way to handle \r is to just ignore
them. (or cleanup the input string before counting the \n characters)

> ... -If you make a mistake in passing
> some incorrect combinations of end-of-line characters it is going to be
> a pain to print out clear diagnostics.

Don't output incorrect combinations of \r \n, then :-]
Just stick with \n, fewer chances to get it wrong ...
BTW most commands just yield a single line of output
(plus, an extra bare \n, off course) , so this is a
relatively small problem, IMO.

> Another thing I don't like about GTP is the fact that the controller does
> not have to wait for an answer before sending its next message. I see no
> merit in this. It simply makes debugging harder.

I fully agree. But: there is no other way.
Since the program's response is influenced
by it's internal (board)state, it is -in general-
not possible to think of the next GTP-command before
having read the first one's response.
a related topic is the implicit ordering of commands.
[ it would be a nice feature to inspect a program's internals,
while it is executing/processing a command. GTP won't let you]
The sequencenumbers in the GTP request/respons lines serve
*no* purpose. They are just grep-beef.

Personally, I think GTP is not rich enough (yet) for
computer go tournament use. It's primary use is to
communicate with a program (while developing it) ,
not to play games. The absence of rules and timing
causes these to be handled in a program-specific way.
The timing is the wordt part: it causes too much
logic to be placed into the GTP controller ("driver")
program. This logic is program specific, and since
there is no "language" for expressing them (to the
other end of the connection) it is also tournament-
specific...

GTP is not ready yet. IMHO

AvK
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