Iphone Chess Apps

[Cubeman]

I have Chess Genius, plays very well and has good easy to navigate gui.It has been upgraded to 2.0 which gives more options (same engine).For quick games I like playing on the ipod-touch and listen to my favourite music in the backgroud.For serious PDA chess I use my PPC which has more grunty performace than the ipod.

[Tord Romstad]

The only way to have GPL'ed code on the iPhone is for the copyright holders to provide a GPL exception. Since apparently this did not happen in this case, I think this would be genuinly a GPL violation.

Are you sure this is still the case? I knew GPL'ed programs were not possible while Apple had an NDA on the iPhone SDK, but I thought there were no more problems after the NDA was lifted. The GPL does not demand that it must be possible to build the program using free tools, does it?

If you are right, this is a serious problem for me -- I was planning an iPhone version of Glaurung early next year.

Tord

[Tord Romstad]

Writing an interface is easy for an experienced programmer but writing a good chess program from scratch is extremely difficult.

Actually, it's the other way around. I've done both in Mac OS X, and writing a chess engine is at least an order of magnitude easier. On the iPhone, the difference is even bigger. Designing a good interface for the tiny screen and finger input is a very difficult task.

Tord

[Cubeman]

Or you can put it another way, that the number of people in the world that know how design an interface for the ipod,pda etc is probably in the order of magnitude of 100x larger than those that know how to create a working chess engine.
Richard Lang has done a good job on the iphone with ChessGenius.
Every day more and more official apps are released and I think you have to know what you are looking for since there aren't many with demo's.I think I will limit myself to just one chess application for my ipod.

[Michel]

If you are right, this is a serious problem for me -- I was planning an iPhone version of Glaurung early next year. Sad

Hi Tord,

I think for Glaurung there would not be a problem. You are the copyright holder. So you can provide exceptions in the license to overcome whatever legal hurdles there might be to make Glaurung run on the iPhone. Or just have a separate license altogether. The copyright holder of a program can do whatever he wants with a program.

The iPhone/GPL issue is discussed here

http://www.linux.com/feature/131752

But maybe the situation has changed recently as you say. To be absolutely sure you could write to the FSF I think.

Actually, it's the other way around. I've done both in Mac OS X, and writing a chess engine is at least an order of magnitude easier. On the iPhone, the difference is even bigger. Designing a good interface for the tiny screen and finger input is a very difficult task.

Ok. What I was saying is that writing a good chess engine requires skills which are in very limited supply. There are many more Mac OS X programmers than there are chess programmers.

Regards,
Michel

[Tord Romstad]

Or you can put it another way, that the number of people in the world that know how design an interface for the ipod,pda etc is probably in the order of magnitude of 100x larger than those that know how to create a working chess engine.

This might be true, but is not particularly relevant, as any average programmer can easily acquire the necessary knowledge. It is neither more difficult nor more time-consuming than mastering the iPhone SDK.

I think the myth that chess engine programming is difficult is a very harmful one, because it probably scares away many who would have been able to write world-class chess engines. Please don't perpetuate this myth!

Richard Lang has done a good job on the iphone with ChessGenius.

Quite predictably, he has. Chess Genius for the iPhone is, as expected, an excellent product, and by far the best available iPhone chess program at the moment.

Every day more and more official apps are released and I think you have to know what you are looking for since there aren't many with demo's.I think I will limit myself to just one chess application for my ipod.

I hope you will at least give a free iPhone chess program a try some time next year.


Tord

[Tord Romstad]

Hi Michel,

Thanks for your reply!

If you are right, this is a serious problem for me -- I was planning an iPhone version of Glaurung early next year. Sad

I think for Glaurung there would not be a problem. You are the copyright holder. So you can provide exceptions in the license to overcome whatever legal hurdles there might be to make Glaurung run on the iPhone. Or just have a separate license altogether. The copyright holder of a program can do whatever he wants with a program.

He can, but a separate license or additions or exceptions in the license is not an option to me. Glaurung is and remains a GPLed program. If I can't distribute Glaurung for the iPhone with an unmodified GPL v3 license, I won't distribute it at all.

The iPhone/GPL issue is discussed here

http://www.linux.com/feature/131752

But maybe the situation has changed recently as you say.

That article was written before the NDA on the SDK was removed. I hope the situation is different now.

To be absolutely sure you could write to the FSF I think.

I will look around for information, and ask FSF directly if I can't find an answer elsewhere. In the worst case, I can consider making a version of Glaurung for jailbroken phones, but this isn't a very attractive option, as it would be unusable to the vast majority of iPhone users.

Ok. What I was saying is that writing a good chess engine requires skills which are in very limited supply. There are many more Mac OS X programmers than there are chess programmers.

See my previous post in this thread for my opinion about this.

Tord

[mephisto]

Hi Thord
Do you know about this being offered for free in the iApp Store?
http://www.chesso.org/
Regards
Bryan

[Mark]

Hi Thord
Do you know about this being offered for free in the iApp Store?
http://www.chesso.org/
Regards
Bryan

Seems like the program causes a lot of phone crashes. The reviews were pretty bad...

[Cubeman]

This is one free app that I have just tried,Chees O has poor features,only drag and drop imput, no set up board, if you lose on time that is game over (can't carry on game), slower to load, no analysis functions.
I guess I will be deleting this app when I next sync.