Strelkaman wrote:Like what if komodo+critter unify their forces to produce a stable and overpowered engine.Instead this Komodo wants to commercialize an MP version that in a few months would be probably outdated.So whats the point?
A fair question to ask. I suspect that Don and Larry want to make money, which is fine by me.
I also like a system that leaves individuals free to make their own choices, even choices that some may not understand.
By the way, I believe Richard Vida (the author of Critter) provided the source code for Critter-1.4 to the Komodo and Stockfish teams.
"Richard Vida doesn't think he could make a living from computer chess. It is only a hobby and Critter will be always free of charge."
Richard Vida is a nice person indeed.I like the Critter work.His team seems so cooperative.I mean the man tries to help to every question you have.Its the perfect discussion model for what iam saying right now.Cooperation is the key for 2,3 engines to exploit their work.Vida found something useful and wanted to share it?There is no wrong in this.As a matter of fact this is a true love for a work you are passionate with.
I agree that Richard is a fine fellow. And I'm grateful that he is willing to provide Critter as gift to us all. There's certainly nothing wrong with what he has chosen to do.
But if he had decided instead to keep the Critter source code private, or to charge for Critter, I'd fully understand. As I tried to point out earlier, Critter is far from "free" for Richard. I wonder how many hours per week he averaged(averages) writing, testing and tuning Critter? As a hobby, I assume that he enjoys the time he spends working on the engine. But even so, it would not be unreasonable for him to charge for his product.
tomgdrums wrote:But I also agree that Junior is WAY overpriced. I mean WAY overpriced!
The commercial authors DO have realize they can't go berzerk on their priceing (JUNIOR!!) and they must offer a little something something extra as well. Shredder is AWESOME at this and it seems Hiarcs is going to follow that model as well.
Huh? Shredder and Junior are of comparable strength, but Shredder sells for €100 and Junior for €45 (compare to Rybka for €65/95, Houdini for €40 and Hiarcs for €30). Shredder is the engine that is grossly overpriced! I have delayed buying Shredder for years, waiting for them to come to their senses and lower their prices to the new market standard. Or to at least unbundle Deep Shredder from their GUI. Maybe they will finally figure this out when the new Hiarcs UI eats their lunch.
Well,first your price points aren't quite correct. However with Shredder you do get the GUI (which is my favorite!), a great opening book, the 3-4-5 man Shredderbases, access to all 6 man tables through the GUI and the Shredder website...so the price is reasonable. NOW if you don't like that GUI then I would understand and I agree it would be wise for Shredder to make a UCI only purchase option available.
I cannot imagine anyone who, if they used the gui, would ever stop using it. Besides being uncomplicated and user-friendly, like Fritz 11 it just gives no trouble whatsoever. The only thing that ever approached a problem was when I first started using it with Vista- it did not want to let me use an HS-Book. All I had to do was go into Data Execution Prevention and list the gui for it to leave alone. That's not even really what you would call a problem.
Well, not everyone has the same interests as you. It seems to me that I gave two very valid reasons why some people could want to use other interfaces than Shredder... As you just admitted of doing yourself (using BabasChess)!
hgm wrote:Well, not everyone has the same interests as you. It seems to me that I gave two very valid reasons why some people could want to use other interfaces than Shredder... As you just admitted of doing yourself (using BabasChess)!
I know good sir, that all people have different interests. That is why we have different GUIs: to serve those interests. I LOVE the Shredder GUI for almost all things but am also interested to see the new Hiarcs GUI. It might better or it might not be. But I will check it out. I tend to check out all options as best I can.
Now I would kindly ask you to stop trolling me. If you can?
tomgdrums wrote:But I also agree that Junior is WAY overpriced. I mean WAY overpriced!
The commercial authors DO have realize they can't go berzerk on their priceing (JUNIOR!!) and they must offer a little something something extra as well. Shredder is AWESOME at this and it seems Hiarcs is going to follow that model as well.
Huh? Shredder and Junior are of comparable strength, but Shredder sells for €100 and Junior for €45 (compare to Rybka for €65/95, Houdini for €40 and Hiarcs for €30). Shredder is the engine that is grossly overpriced! I have delayed buying Shredder for years, waiting for them to come to their senses and lower their prices to the new market standard. Or to at least unbundle Deep Shredder from their GUI. Maybe they will finally figure this out when the new Hiarcs UI eats their lunch.
Well,first your price points aren't quite correct. However with Shredder you do get the GUI (which is my favorite!), a great opening book, the 3-4-5 man Shredderbases, access to all 6 man tables through the GUI and the Shredder website...so the price is reasonable. NOW if you don't like that GUI then I would understand and I agree it would be wise for Shredder to make a UCI only purchase option available.
I cannot imagine anyone who, if they used the gui, would ever stop using it. Besides being uncomplicated and user-friendly, like Fritz 11 it just gives no trouble whatsoever. The only thing that ever approached a problem was when I first started using it with Vista- it did not want to let me use an HS-Book. All I had to do was go into Data Execution Prevention and list the gui for it to leave alone. That's not even really what you would call a problem.
gts
I meant to ask this for a looong time. Is the loved Classic Shredder GUI the same as the Linux version with the same name? I downloaded the demo version it at the time I was porting Gaviota to be UCI, and I was not very impressed to say the least. I thought it would be "the golden standart for UCI support". I ended up using something else.
tomgdrums wrote:But I also agree that Junior is WAY overpriced. I mean WAY overpriced!
The commercial authors DO have realize they can't go berzerk on their priceing (JUNIOR!!) and they must offer a little something something extra as well. Shredder is AWESOME at this and it seems Hiarcs is going to follow that model as well.
Huh? Shredder and Junior are of comparable strength, but Shredder sells for €100 and Junior for €45 (compare to Rybka for €65/95, Houdini for €40 and Hiarcs for €30). Shredder is the engine that is grossly overpriced! I have delayed buying Shredder for years, waiting for them to come to their senses and lower their prices to the new market standard. Or to at least unbundle Deep Shredder from their GUI. Maybe they will finally figure this out when the new Hiarcs UI eats their lunch.
Well,first your price points aren't quite correct. However with Shredder you do get the GUI (which is my favorite!), a great opening book, the 3-4-5 man Shredderbases, access to all 6 man tables through the GUI and the Shredder website...so the price is reasonable. NOW if you don't like that GUI then I would understand and I agree it would be wise for Shredder to make a UCI only purchase option available.
I cannot imagine anyone who, if they used the gui, would ever stop using it. Besides being uncomplicated and user-friendly, like Fritz 11 it just gives no trouble whatsoever. The only thing that ever approached a problem was when I first started using it with Vista- it did not want to let me use an HS-Book. All I had to do was go into Data Execution Prevention and list the gui for it to leave alone. That's not even really what you would call a problem.
gts
I meant to ask this for a looong time. Is the loved Classic Shredder GUI the same as the Linux version with the same name? I downloaded the demo version it at the time I was porting Gaviota to be UCI, and I was not very impressed to say the least. I thought it would be "the golden standart for UCI support". I ended up using something else.
Maybe the Linux version is different?
Miguel
It may not be. As the screen shots for the Mac version of Shredder look very different so the linux version may be different as well.
