icsdroneng 0.23 released

[Michel]

icsdroneng 0.23 is available here

http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algeb ... g-release/

icsdroneng now works both on ICC and FICS (the port to the former was done by Marcel van Kervinck).
Playing on HGM's ICS works as well but currently pgn generation is broken.

icsdroneng acts as an interface between an ICS (Internet Chess Server)
and a chess engine supporting the XBoard protocol. It does not use a
GUI and is mostly used for unattended 24/7 bots.

As usual UCI engines may be used through polgylot.

icsdroneng started its life a fork of icsdrone by Henrik Gram. It was
originally developed for FICS but currently ICC works as well.

See here for a full description

http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algeb ... ERVIEW.txt

[jshriver]

Wonderful, especially the HGM support! Thank you so very much.

-Josh

[marcelk]

icsdroneng 0.23 is available here

http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algeb ... g-release/

icsdroneng now works both on ICC and FICS (the port to the former was done by Marcel van Kervinck).
Playing on HGM's ICS works as well but currently pgn generation is broken.

icsdroneng acts as an interface between an ICS (Internet Chess Server)
and a chess engine supporting the XBoard protocol. It does not use a
GUI and is mostly used for unattended 24/7 bots.

As usual UCI engines may be used through polgylot.

icsdroneng started its life a fork of icsdrone by Henrik Gram. It was
originally developed for FICS but currently ICC works as well.

See here for a full description

http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algeb ... ERVIEW.txt

This weekend Rookie(C) stumbled into an ICC quirk during ACCA: ICC sets up tournament games differently from regular games (and different from FICS and HGM): ICC's "Creating" message has a different layout and therefore some game initialization is missed.

Result is that the engine doesn't know who it is playing, what is the time control and icsdrone sends 'time 0' to the engine, causing immediate move making on the engine's side.

I have just mailed you some logs and my analysis of what happens.

PS: Possibly Arena is also affected by this, because one player reported the same symptom there...

[Michel]

Thanks for the logs.

I am very sorry that this issue caused you to lose games. Tournament behaviour on ICC was never tested (are there ever computer tournaments on ICC like on FICS?).

Of course it will be fixed.

[marcelk]

Thanks for the logs.

I am very sorry that this issue caused you to lose games. Tournament behaviour on ICC was never tested (are there ever computer tournaments on ICC like on FICS?).

Of course it will be fixed.

Absolutely no need to be sorry! I feel just as responsible for the ICC port and I knew very well that tournaments were not tested, so the risk is 100% mine (and it didn't help that I couldn't operate during the first day, so make that 150%).

It is more a heads-up to those interested in switching over to icsdroneng for 24/7 bot operation: don't do it right before a tournament... It is perfectly good otherwise: Rookie(C), mscp(C) and GnuCheese(C) are already happily playing on ICC now for weeks in a row without hick-ups. I like it a lot: it is a huge improvement over the ancient robofics/icsdrone/roboicc series. I thank you very much for the effort you've put in it.