On-line blitz tourney September

[hgm]

1.4.46b is quite an old version. The latest one is 1.4.58b. It exists here
http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algeb ... t-release/

But I suspect that version will behave pretty much the same as the one you have.

I was mentioning 1.4.46b because that was originally included in the WB 4.4.0 bundle. I lost track a bit on Polyglot development. IIRC 1.4.46b was the version that used dual ini files, one named after the engine in the _PG folder, next to the one given on the command line. And I seemed to recall that your later versions abandoned that system, after introduction ofthe -noini option made the use of polyglot_1st.ini unnecessary, and the engine name could be transmitted over the command line. WinBoard 4.4.x does not use that system yet, however.

[hgm]

The "unwanted options" are rather strange, one would expect to either Winboard or the polyglot.ini file to take precedence and not send them both.

Because the WinBoard settings can be changed interactively, they are sent before every game, or sometimes even during games (e.g. when the user decides to change the number of search threads during a game, just like you can switch on and off ponder during a game).

Normal use would not specify hash size or Nalimov path in the polyglot.ini file, and then they would be sent only once. It does not hurt if they are in the polyglot.ini, however, as UCI allows altering the value of previously set option. The point is that we want new Polyglot versions to also work with older WB versions (e.g. some people are still using WB 4.2.6, because they like the Russian translaton...), and there you would rely on the values specified in polyglot.ini, as the GUI would never send new settings. Polyglot.ini should be seen as a way to effectively give the WB engine formed by Polyglot + UCI engine different default settings than the bare UCI engines. But, like any default settings, they will only remain in effect when the GUI does not alter them.

[Michel]

The only genuine difference between 1.4.58b and 1.4.46b is that engine options
are not persistent anymore (since you didn't like that). So instead there is now
an explicit save button which will (like before) will save the engine options
to an ini file derived from the engine name. These are loaded automatically next time.

Other fixes are to deal gracefully with misbehaving engines.

Here is the relevant part of the change log.

========1.4.58b=================
- Implementation of BookDepth in UCI mode.
- Small corrections to the manpage.
========1.4.57b=================
- First attempt at killing engines that do not react to "quit".
========1.4.56b=================
- Better handling of non-existing engine command on Linux. No changes on Windows.
=========1.4.55b================
- Suppression of some error dialogs.
- Small delay in between final error message and actually quitting.
=========1.4.54b================
- More graceful handling of engine crashes.
- New EngineCommand is now passed through wordexp on Linux.
=========1.4.53b================
- Multipv code by HGM.
=========1.4.52b================
- Reexport SyncStop. It is apparently necessary for the Aquarium Book Adapter.
=========1.4.51b================
- Support for new nps command. Code provided by Harm Geert Muller.
=========1.4.50b================
- Change in architecture. Persistence is disabled. The user is required to push the "Save" button explicitly to save the settings. What is retained is that in case PG is invoked with -noini (or as a special exception for WB 4.4.0 when the config files are polyglot_1st.ini or polyglot_2nd.ini) then PG uses a default config file whose name is derived from the engine name.
- New option: OnlyWbOptions (default: true). Restrict the options that PG sends to those that are potentially useful for WinBoard.
=========1.4.47b================
- Try to detect if the engine is not an UCI engine.

[hgm]

OK, so I must have misunderstood you at some point. Then I will include 1.4.58b when i fix the 4.4.4 install, rather than 1.4.46b.

Another quick queston: what is the command-line option name for the EGTB cache size? Since this is in the WB menu dialogs, and was communicated to the engine through polyglot_1st.ini in WB 4.4.x, I guess I should include it in the default /adapterCommand, which so far is only

polyglot -noini -ec "ENGINECOMMAND" -ed "ENGINEPATH"

The memory, egtpath and cores settings are all sent through the WB interface, but it would be unaware of the cache size this way, and always use the negine default. (Making the WB dialog item for this completely disfuncional.)

[Michel]

Another quick queston: what is the command-line option name for the EGTB cache size?

You can set uci options on the command line using the -uci argument. E.g.

polygot .... -uci "NalimovCache=16"

To set polyglot options one should replace -uci by -pg.

[hgm]

Code: Select all

:Tourney Players: Round 10 of 10 
:
:     Name              Rating Score Perfrm Upset  Results 
:     ----------------- ------ ----- ------ ------ ------- 
:  1 +CraftyRB          [2027]  8.5  [2101] [  96] +09w +06w =02b +05b +04w +03b +07w +08b +10b 
:  2 +Thinker           [2219]  8.0  [2035] [   0] +07b +05w =01w +06b =03w +08b +10b +09w +04b 
:  3 +Almere            [1763]  5.5  [1864] [ 417] =04b =07w +09w +08b =02b -01w =05b +10w =06w 
:  4 +Frenzee           [   0]  5.5  [1873] [8961] =03w +09b -05w +07b -01b +10w +08w +06b -02w 
:  5 +Zappa             [1976]  5.0  [1796] [   0] +08w -02b +04b -01w +10b =06w =03w -07b +09b 
:  6 +Nightmare         [1929]  5.0  [1801] [  23] +10w -01b +08w -02w +07b =05b +09w -04w =03b 
:  7 +GaviotaRB         [1747]  4.5  [1777] [ 237] -02w =03b +10b -04w -06w +09w -01b +05w +08b 
:  8 +Jabba             [1472]  2.0  [1585] [  90] -05b +10w -06b -03w +09b -02w -04b -01w -07w 
:  9 +Joker             [1562]  1.0  [1486] [   0] -01b -04w -03b +10w -08w -07b
: 10 +microMax          [1370]  0.0  [1418] [   0] -06b -08b -07w -09b -05w -04b -02w -03b -01w 
:
:     Average Rating    1785.0 
: