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

[Chris Fant <chrisfant@xxxxxxxxx>]

#2 has a fairly easiy solution which I'm pretty sure I have mentioned
on this list before.  Here it is again:

Don't support the clear_board command.  Your program will terminate
when the game is over.  You then have full control over whether it
restarts or not.

In my setup, I can click on start.bat to start the engine and stop.bat
to neglect to restart the engine after the game is over.


On 10/5/05, Peter McKenzie <peter.mckenzie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> computer-go mailing list
> computer-go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
>
>
_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
computer-go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/