Doch 1.3 by Don Dailey - Update Available

[swami]

The 32-bit windows exe is working fine for me under two different GUIs, just leaving the personality file as it is.

I guess you're using Arena, right?
Well, then try the following:
Open the UCI options window for Doch (it should contain <empty> in the field "personalityFile"), and click on <OK> in this options window.
Now Arena sends this string <empty> to Doch, and the engine crashes immediately!

PS. Of course I also didn't change anything in the personality file itself.

Yes, you're right but why the need to open the UCI options if you don't want to supply the personality file? It doesn't crash if you don't open. It will use default settings.

[swami]

Yes, the engine was using default settings. Looks like all the tuned up evaluation values present in previous version have been removed and instead was left to us for the contest!

Perhaps someone can come up with good personality, I shall run the STS to see if that personality really scores better relative to the default.

Perhaps thats why swami got bad results with STS test? Is the engine's default value <empty> in the personality section using the default settings?

Doch 1.3 JA by Don Dailey

There's an annoying bug in this new version:
(I'm talking about the w32 version)

The new UCI option "personalityFile" uses <empty> as default, but when the GUI is sending this string to the engine it just crashes. The same is true if you remove this entry in the "personalityFile" option or if you enter the name of any non-existing file.
So in fact you're _forced_ to always use an _existing_ *.per file, and that was certainly not intended.
I would say that it's a bit sloppy programming if there's no simple 'fileexist'-check - not to speak of not even accepting the engine's default value <empty>.

[F.Huber]

I'm using the ChessGUI and Fritz GUIs. Must be an Arena issue.

No, the only Arena (1.1) 'issue' might be that it always sends all UCI options even if they haven't changed at all - not every other GUI does this.
So you just may not see this bug in these other GUIs, but it definitely exist!
Try to enter any other non-existing filename (e.g. "abc") in this option field and you'll see this crashing and the error message (except your OS would simply suppress this runtime error).

Whether it happens in all GUIs or only in one doesn't matter, this bug exists and it's not a good programming style if a program crashes because of a non-existing file - that's all I wanted to say.

Regards,
Franz

[DomLeste]

Thanks swami will wait for these results Don always works in strange ways I'm sure a few here will be entering the Doch 1.3 personality contest. I need to work on this over the weekend. Need to find a name for it. Doch Jeryll? LOL i take that name! We just need a deadline for this contest

Yes, the engine was using default settings. Looks like all the tuned up evaluation values present in previous version have been removed and instead was left to us for the contest!

Perhaps someone can come up with good personality, I shall run the STS to see if that personality really scores better relative to the default.

Perhaps thats why swami got bad results with STS test? Is the engine's default value <empty> in the personality section using the default settings?

Doch 1.3 JA by Don Dailey

There's an annoying bug in this new version:
(I'm talking about the w32 version)

The new UCI option "personalityFile" uses <empty> as default, but when the GUI is sending this string to the engine it just crashes. The same is true if you remove this entry in the "personalityFile" option or if you enter the name of any non-existing file.
So in fact you're _forced_ to always use an _existing_ *.per file, and that was certainly not intended.
I would say that it's a bit sloppy programming if there's no simple 'fileexist'-check - not to speak of not even accepting the engine's default value <empty>.

[F.Huber]

Yes, you're right but why the need to open the UCI options if you don't want to supply the personality file? It doesn't crash if you don't open. It will use default settings.

It's really amazing, can't you think farther than the length of your nose?
What if you want to change the hashsize? Is that so absurd?:P

[swami]

Yes, you're right but why the need to open the UCI options if you don't want to supply the personality file? It doesn't crash if you don't open. It will use default settings.

It's really amazing, can't you think farther than the length of your nose?
What if you want to change the hashsize? Is that so absurd?:P

Default Hash size was really Ok for me when I did the test.

There seems to be nothing in the configuration file opened via Arena window except the options for pondering/source to personality txt.

All I'm saying is that you sound as if Doch doesn't seem to work at all in Arena or crashes or exhibits strange playing style etc. Perhaps I misread.

[F.Huber]

All I'm saying is that you sound as if Doch doesn't seem to work at all in Arena or crashes or exhibits strange playing style etc. Perhaps I misread.

No you didn't misread.
For me it IS NOT working at all, if I can't even change the hashsize, point.

[Don]

I can make a new version in order to remove this little glitch.

I don't check for the existence of the personality file as the UCI concept is that the interface does the work for you, but I think in this case I deserve a big "duhhh!" because of course the interface has no way of knowing this string is supposed to represent a file.

Doch 1.3 JA by Don Dailey

There's an annoying bug in this new version:
(I'm talking about the w32 version)

The new UCI option "personalityFile" uses <empty> as default, but when the GUI is sending this string to the engine it just crashes. The same is true if you remove this entry in the "personalityFile" option or if you enter the name of any non-existing file.
So in fact you're _forced_ to always use an _existing_ *.per file, and that was certainly not intended.
I would say that it's a bit sloppy programming if there's no simple 'fileexist'-check - not to speak of not even accepting the engine's default value <empty>.

[Don]

I'm using the ChessGUI and Fritz GUIs. Must be an Arena issue.

No, the only Arena (1.1) 'issue' might be that it always sends all UCI options even if they haven't changed at all - not every other GUI does this.
So you just may not see this bug in these other GUIs, but it definitely exist!
Try to enter any other non-existing filename (e.g. "abc") in this option field and you'll see this crashing and the error message (except your OS would simply suppress this runtime error).

Whether it happens in all GUIs or only in one doesn't matter, this bug exists and it's not a good programming style if a program crashes because of a non-existing file - that's all I wanted to say.

Regards,
Franz

Hi Franz,

It's not good programming I agree. But I don't claim to be a good programmer. I am going to fix this glitch.

[Don]

The sample personality shows all the current defaults.

However, it's my wish that we don't just get minor variations of the defaults. I would like to see personalities that have completely rethought settings.

Yes, the engine was using default settings. Looks like all the tuned up evaluation values present in previous version have been removed and instead was left to us for the contest!

Perhaps someone can come up with good personality, I shall run the STS to see if that personality really scores better relative to the default.

Perhaps thats why swami got bad results with STS test? Is the engine's default value <empty> in the personality section using the default settings?

Doch 1.3 JA by Don Dailey

There's an annoying bug in this new version:
(I'm talking about the w32 version)

The new UCI option "personalityFile" uses <empty> as default, but when the GUI is sending this string to the engine it just crashes. The same is true if you remove this entry in the "personalityFile" option or if you enter the name of any non-existing file.
So in fact you're _forced_ to always use an _existing_ *.per file, and that was certainly not intended.
I would say that it's a bit sloppy programming if there's no simple 'fileexist'-check - not to speak of not even accepting the engine's default value <empty>.