WinBoard/XBoard protocol in Chess for Android

[abik]

I am exploring extending Chess for Android with some rudimentary support for the Chess Engine Communication Protocol (often simply called the XBoard or WinBoard protocol), and a very first prototype is functioning! I made an Android binary of the engine FairyMax (written by H.G. Muller, who was also very helpful providing more background), and imported this in Chess for Android. Some screenshots can be found at this blog posting.

Please let me know if you are interested in testing your Win/XBoard engine on Android (new UCI engines are of course also welcome).

[Adam Hair]

I am exploring extending Chess for Android with some rudimentary support for the Chess Engine Communication Protocol (often simply called the XBoard or WinBoard protocol), and a very first prototype is functioning! I made an Android binary of the engine FairyMax (written by H.G. Muller, who was also very helpful providing more background), and imported this in Chess for Android. Some screenshots can be found at this blog posting.

Please let me know if you are interested in testing your Win/XBoard engine on Android (new UCI engines are of course also welcome).

Pardon me for butting in, but I feel I must say "Great!".

Thank you, Aart.

[michiguel]

I am exploring extending Chess for Android with some rudimentary support for the Chess Engine Communication Protocol (often simply called the XBoard or WinBoard protocol), and a very first prototype is functioning! I made an Android binary of the engine FairyMax (written by H.G. Muller, who was also very helpful providing more background), and imported this in Chess for Android. Some screenshots can be found at this blog posting.

Please let me know if you are interested in testing your Win/XBoard engine on Android (new UCI engines are of course also welcome).

Pardon me for butting in, but I feel I must say "Great!".

Thank you, Aart.

Fantastic!

Gaviota was, is, and will always be winboard Aart! You have another engine there ready!

Miguel

[abik]

Gaviota was, is, and will always be winboard Aart! You have another engine there ready!

Thanks Miguel! I realized that, but in my prototype, the GUI first sends "uci" to attempt the UCI protocol, and if it then gets an error of the xboard form "Error (unknown command) uci" tries the xboard protocol instead with the "xboard" command. So for your engine, this current approach puts it in uci mode right away.

I guess I could send "xboard" first, but I am afraid some UCI and xboard engines will respond in the same way. How do other GUIs properly chose between the two protocols (and can the engine prefer one format over the other)?

[kinderchocolate]

Gaviota was, is, and will always be winboard Aart! You have another engine there ready!

Thanks Miguel! I realized that, but in my prototype, the GUI first sends "uci" to attempt the UCI protocol, and if it then gets an error of the xboard form "Error (unknown command) uci" tries the xboard protocol instead with the "xboard" command. So for your engine, this current approach puts it in uci mode right away.

I guess I could send "xboard" first, but I am afraid some UCI and xboard engines will respond in the same way. How do other GUIs properly chose between the two protocols (and can the engine prefer one format over the other)?

What about trying for more commands if you don't get any response? Like "go", if you receive anything you know it's a UCI engine. I think Arena would ask the user what protocol if it can't detect by the uci command.

[Michel]

I am exploring extending Chess for Android with some rudimentary support for the Chess Engine Communication Protocol (often simply called the XBoard or WinBoard protocol), and a very first prototype is functioning!

Fantastic!

and if it then gets an error of the xboard form "Error (unknown command) uci" tries the xboard protocol instead with the "xboard" command

.

I did something similar in Polyglot. It works well for the well known open source xboard engines (like crafty, scorpio, the old gnuchess, the old sjeng). Of course technically the protocol has not started yet, so it is undefined what, if anything, the engine should send.

The opposite thing, sending "xboard" to an UCI engine, will likely not provoke any response at all. The UCI protocol says that any command (or token) that is not understood should be ignored. Again the caveat
that the protocol has not started applies here as well.

BTW. GNU Chess will behave as Gaviota. It will be auto detected as an uci engine.

[hgm]

Unfortunately auto-detection of engine type is often unreliable. E.g. it seems that Arena thinks that QueeNy is a UCI engine! If you don't allow the user to specify the engine type, there will be some engines you simply will not be able to run.

[Michel]

E.g. it seems that Arena thinks that QueeNy is a UCI engine!

I think this is probably because QueeNy sends output before the gui has sent either "uci" or "xboard". While technically legal I think this should be avoided nonetheless.

GNU Chess is recognized by Arena as an xboard engine (even though it supports both protocols).

A UCI engine running under Polyglot is recognized by Arena as an xboard engine (even though it would also understand the UCI protocol).

This seems to indicate that Arena prefers the xboard protocol.

[hgm]

True, but unfortunately a GUI author will have to endure bad habits of existing engines.

[michiguel]

Gaviota was, is, and will always be winboard Aart! You have another engine there ready!

Thanks Miguel! I realized that, but in my prototype, the GUI first sends "uci" to attempt the UCI protocol, and if it then gets an error of the xboard form "Error (unknown command) uci" tries the xboard protocol instead with the "xboard" command. So for your engine, this current approach puts it in uci mode right away.

I guess I could send "xboard" first, but I am afraid some UCI and xboard engines will respond in the same way. How do other GUIs properly chose between the two protocols (and can the engine prefer one format over the other)?

you can run it as
./gaviota -x
will force it to be xboard

./gaviota -u
will force it to be uci

Miguel