K I Hyams wrote:I assume that you would have no objection to 2 programmers working on an engine jointly if they state in the notes that this is what they have done. If this is the case, why would you object to one programmer working on an engine after another programmer has left it, if he states clearly that this is what he has done?
These are two very different things.
In the first situation you have a cooperating team. Both working together to produce something. They might succeed better than when doing things on their own. One of the very clear examples of this is Spike.
In the second case there is no cooperation. This is not necessarily a bad thing as the result might be a more complete product that would benefit its audience. This one of the cornerstones of the GPL. Toga is one example of this. It is also a good example of the fact that the original author did not accept the cooperation. Fabien wrote some time ago that whatever changes he made to Fruit were his own. Nonetheless, Toga has been valued as a nice piece of software by quite a few people and as an honest GPL program earned its place in the software collection of many.
However, any competition and especially the world championships are not really about establishing which entry is better than the other. It is a sporting event. And in sporting events there are rules to make the competition a fair one. In the WCCC it has afaik always been the rule that all authors of an entry should be in the same team. This prevents entering multiple versions of the same program which would enlarge the chances of winning the competition. In my opinion that also excludes the second type of cooperation. There is no gridchess team that includes all programmers. Neither is there a Toga team. And in case both would like to register and the original authors just give permission to both: Who decides which entry should register?
Another viewpoint.
Suppose that entering programs like Toga in the WCCC would be legal.
Then why should I 'be so silly' to reinvent the wheel and not take Fruit or Glaurung myself as the base for my development? Why should anyone build something themselves? Why would anyone be interested in participating in such a tournament? I would not, Stan obviously would not, and many others I spoke with would not either. Which is exactly why I try to prevent that.
Richard.