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What should I support, UCI or Winboard?
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Don Dailey



Joined: 29 Apr 2008
Posts: 4312
PostPost subject: Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard?    Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:44 pm Reply to topic Reply with quote
asimpereira wrote:
Hi,

I am planning to include engine support in my Chess apps.
I have never worked on UCI or Winboard protocols before and hence wanted your opinion on what protocol should I support, to begin with.
Which protocol will be easier to work with?

Note I am NOT planning to write my own engine but just provide an interface to existing popular engines.

Regards,
Asim


I hope this does not degrade to a protocol war.

I don't have an answer for you, but for a time I have seriously considered creating a new protocol, to address the weaknesses of both protocols. Now before you say, "we don't need yet another protocol" read on.

The new protocol would have built in support to interface with both UCI and WINBOARD. Although you could build GUI's and tools to interface directly with it, you would not be obligated to. So if nothing else it would make it easier for programs to support all three protocols.

The new protocol would be designed with the goal in mind of making it as easy as possible for the chess engine author as well as the tool designer. And based on our experience with protocols so far and what has been posted on this forum we would explicitly address all the warts we have encountered and any questions that have come up with a definite answer. For example, how do you do multiPV? There should not be multiple ways to do things that are ill-defined. Can you send a null move? If so, how? All of those things should have an answer.

The reason I have considered this at all is that I personally have a lot of my own criticisms of both protocols. Although I definitely prefer UCI (and I have worked with both) I see some strengths and weaknesses in both protocols.

The protocol would be implemented as a library for C/C++ and if used simply to provide both winboard and UCI support it would in effect be like an adapter build in to your chess program and it would essentially provide a reference implementation for those protocols sp I would try to make it as conforming as possible.

Anyway, I am not going to start anything like this anytime soon, but if any chess program authors are interested, please contact me privately. I don't pretend that I have thought everything through. For example the very biggest question for a new protocol would be one that is already hotly debated and this is how to define the role of the engine. Is it servant or master? Can a protocol be designed that allows for both without making GUI and/or protocol design really complicated?
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Subject Author Date/Time
What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Asim Pereira Sun Apr 22, 2012 5:28 am
      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Ted Wong Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:26 am
            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Asim Pereira Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:39 am
                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Ted Wong Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:14 am
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:32 am
      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:27 am
            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Aart Bik Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:54 pm
                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:17 am
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:55 am
                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:57 pm
      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Matthias Gemuh Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:04 pm
            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:48 pm
                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Matthias Gemuh Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:14 pm
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:10 pm
                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Miguel A. Ballicora Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:19 pm
                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Evert Glebbeek Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:25 am
                                          Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:54 am
                                                Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Evert Glebbeek Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:50 am
                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Ronald de Man Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:23 pm
                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Carlos Pesce Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:34 pm
                                          Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:11 am
                                                Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Carlos Pesce Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:12 am
                                                      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:18 pm
                                                            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:25 pm
                                                                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:34 pm
                                                                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:37 pm
                                                                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:45 pm
                                                                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:53 pm
                                                                                          Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Tue Apr 24, 2012 2:27 pm
      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:42 pm
            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:07 am
                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Ted Wong Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:43 am
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:16 am
                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:00 pm
                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:04 pm
                                          Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Christopher Conkie Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:09 pm
                                                Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:50 pm
                                                      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Asim Pereira Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:29 pm
                                                            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Michel Van den Bergh Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:07 pm
                                                            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Miguel A. Ballicora Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:16 pm
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Evert Glebbeek Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:25 am
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Tony Mokonen Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:00 pm
      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Don Dailey Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:44 pm
            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:11 pm
                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Don Dailey Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:51 pm
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:01 pm
                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Ronald de Man Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:33 pm
                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:49 pm
                                          Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Ronald de Man Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:03 pm
                                                Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:31 pm
                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Don Dailey Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:34 pm
                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:15 pm
                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Michel Van den Bergh Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:23 am
                                          Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:19 am
                                                Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Evert Glebbeek Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:39 am
      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:49 pm
            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:08 pm
                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:42 pm
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:36 am
                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:50 am
                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:17 am
                                          Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:42 am
                                                Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:49 am
                                                      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:16 am
                                                            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:35 am
                                                                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:50 am
                                                                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:08 am
                                                                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Ed Schroder Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:16 am
                                                                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:57 am
                                                                              Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Daniel Mehrmann Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:45 pm
                                                                                    Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:06 pm
      Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Jon Dart Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:45 am
            Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:44 am
                  Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? Jon Dart Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:15 am
                        Re: What should I support, UCI or Winboard? H.G.Muller Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:32 pm
      Winboard ftw Daniel Shawul Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:10 pm
            Re: Winboard ftw H.G.Muller Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:45 pm
                  Re: Winboard ftw Daniel Shawul Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:21 pm
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