Re: [computer-go] How to play go with other programe?

[Arend Bayer <arend.bayer@xxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:
> > But I can see your point that we should somewhere have a short
> > introduction to GTP where these problems are adressed. (But still it has
> > as much to do with GTP as an introduction to using a web browser would
> > have to do in an introduction to the Dragon Go Server.)
> 
> That is a good analogy.  If I want to use the Dragon Go Server, I had better
> be, or become, familiar with how to use a web browser.  If I want to use GTP,

Still, for some reason, there is no such introduction in the help files
of the Drgaon Go Server, and I haven't heard any complaints about the
lack thereof :)

> I had better become familiar with some other technology, but I have not yet
> figured out what.
> 
> Next August, I may be helping to run the computer Go event that will form part
> of the European Go Congress, in Prague.  Suppose I find:
>     An entrant with a Macintosh and a program running on it
>     An entrant with his own fast Windows PC and a program running on it
>     Six entrants with Windows programs
>     Eight Windows PCs provided by the sponsor
> and all the programs are able to support GTP.
> 
> What do I do next?  Some kind of cable must be involved somewhere.  So let's

Whether you choose Ethernet or WLAN or whatever -- the GTP programs
don't care, so I still dont understand what you mean by "inventing the
hardware part".

> assume that the sponsor's PCs are on a LAN, and I can add the other two
> computers to the LAN.  Then what?

I assume that you have one spare PC on which you want to run the
controller programs.

Solution 1:
Use the tool suite of gogui. You tell every program that it should wait
for a GTP connection an a specified port, say 1234.
(Programs using stdin/stdout for their GTP stream can trivially do so by
using gtpserver, which is included in the gogui tools.)
Assuming you want to pair program on computer with IP 192.168.1.55
against the program listening on IP 192.168.1.99, the latter playing
black. Start Gogui. File->Attach Program and use
	twogtp -games 1 -sgffile 55-99 \
		[options for time settings omitted] \
		-black "-netgtp 192.168.1.99 1234" \
		-white "-netgtp 192.168.1.55 1234"
as command line. Choose Game->Computer Color->Both and watcht the fun.
(You might also want to add gtpadapter as a layer betweeen twogtp and
netgtp to log the complete GTP stream, in case any problem occurs.)
Only downside is that time control is not yet implemented in gogui, but
that is no regression from GMP (programs will have to control their own
time), and if you ask nicely it might be included by then :)

Btw, the gogui tool suite also includes a GMP to GTP bridge.

This setup requires an installed java on the controller PC, and an
installed java on the "programmer's PC" _or_ knowledge how to make a
program listen on a port by the programmer.

Solution 2:

Similar, but using twogtp.pike and tcplisten as described by Gunnar on
this mailing list a while ago. You would have to ask every program to
connect to a specified port (which would be different for each program)
on your controller PC. Gunnar described how to do this on Unix. It
should be easy on Windows, too. Alternatively, the programmers can use
gtpserver with the -remote option.

Solution 3: 
Install NNGS on the control PC and tell everyone to use gnugoclient.
(Resp. use their own NNGS client if they don't have GTP implemented.)
I have no idea how complex it is to install NNGS, though.

Arend

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