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

[Dave Denholm <dave.denholm@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Arend Bayer <arend.bayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Nick wrote:
>> 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".
>

I agree with Nick here. A protocol needs an agreed transport to be useful.


>> 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.


Here you have specified that the "hardware" is a tcp connection
initiated from controller to a particular port on the engine. That's a
lot more restrictive than "any program which knows GTP can play".


But as you go on to say, you can use various bits of glue to redirect
GTP on one stream onto GTP on another stream. Some o/s make this
easier than others.


> 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.
>

In this case, there's no reason for the tournament to specify that GTP
is a requirement. NNGS client protocol is the requirement. However, a
program which understands GTP can use also play, using a standard bit
of glue to proxy between NNGS and GTP.

(Maybe I'm being pendantic, but if someone has a program which already
 works with NNGS directly, or they have GMP and an NNGS<->GMP proxy,
 there's no reason for them to add support for GTP just to enter such
 a tournament.
)


dd
-- 
Dave Denholm              <ddenholm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>       http://www.esmertec.com
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