Re: [computer-go] Wishlist for playing programs on KGS

[Adrian Petrescu <adrianp@xxxxxxxxx>]

I agree whole-heartedly, particularly on point #2. I've even gone to the 
extent of trying to decompile kgsGTP, and to make it exit KGS after 
EVERY game, then rely on a shell script to keep re-executing the bot 
until I set a certain environment variable. Needless to say, this hasn't 
worked (kgsGTP too heavily obfuscated). A fix for #2 would be greatly 
appreciated by all, I think. There's no reason why there shouldn't be an 
easy way to have the bot exit KGS.

Peter McKenzie wrote:

> In general I've found KGS a good place to run my computer program.  
> There is a good range of opponents available and it is very easy to 
> get up and running with kgtGTP.  And of course Nick's monthly 
> tournaments are an added bonus.
>  
> There are a few things that are less than ideal though, so here is my 
> wishlist of things that I'd like changed/fixed (in rough order of 
> priority).  Interested to see what others think.
>  
> 1. Unable to examine unfinished games.
>  
>  This is a basic restriction of KGS that I find quite annoying.  Say I 
> leave my program running on KGS overnight and go to check up on it in 
> the morning.  I will usually see that it has one or more unfinished 
> games in its history.  I have no way of viewing the unfinished games 
> and therefore no way of knowing why the games were unfinished.  I 
> suspect that the opponent has usually escaped in a losing position but 
> that is just speculation.  It could have been a scoring dispute for 
> example.
>  
> I realise that this 'feature' is designed to stop cheating but to me 
> the disadvantages seem to outweigh this factor.  A determined person 
> could still cheat anyway.  If it really is undesirable to let the 
> escaper load and view an unfinished game, then how about at least 
> letting their opponent load the game?
>  
> 2. No easy way to tell kgsGTP to exit once the current game is finished.
>  
> I tend to find myself sitting around waiting for my program to finish 
> a game before I disconnect it.  The problem can be worse if my program 
> is playing a match vs another program, as they start another game 
> practically immediately.
>  
> I'd like to be able to enter a command into kgsGTP (a simple text 
> command) that would tell kgsGTP to disconnect from KGS once the 
> current game is finished.
>  
> 3. Unable to enforce settings when advertising a game.
>  
> Sometimes I leave my program open for rated 19x19 games.  When I do 
> this, I don't want my program to play unrated games.  However there is 
> no way (that I know of) to tell kgsGTP to decline unrated games.  I 
> would prefer to be able to insist upon rated games only.
>  
> 4. Engine isn't told the opponent's name.
>  
> I would like kgsGTP to tell the program the name of the opponent. This 
> would allow my program to write the opponent's name to its log, which 
> would make it easier for me to track down the appropriate place in the 
> log when I am diagnosing why the program made a particular move.
>  
> 5. Engine isn't able to write a message into the game window.
>  
> I'd like to be able to make my engine write the occasional piece of 
> diagnostic information to the game window.
>  
> thats all!
>  
> cheers,
> Peter
>  
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