Author: Vasik Rajlich
Date: 03:51:18 02/16/05
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On February 15, 2005 at 18:38:43, John Merlino wrote: >I'm not trying to start a brutally long thread here, but I'm just curious about >how people feel about a particularly touchy subject -- clones. What, in your >mind, would lead you to the conclusion that an engine is a clone? > >Let's forget trying to find ways to PROVE that a clone is a clone; I'm just >trying to define one. For the sake of argument, assume that the author of this >engine in question tells you exactly what he did and did not do, and you must >decide whether to call it a clone or not. > >Here are some hypothetical questions to start the debate: > >If the author took Crafty and completely rewrote the evaluation code and nothing >else, would it be a clone? > >How about if the author rewrote the evaluation code and search algorithm only, >but left the hashing code, et. al.? > >How about if the author rewrote everything EXCEPT for the evaluation? > >How about if the author rewrote everything EXCEPT for Crafty's evaluation of >passed pawns? > >I think you can see where I'm driving. Obviously, many engine authors have >studied Crafty and other engines whose authors have graciously provided their >source code. But, for an engine to not be considered a clone, does it have to be >absolutely 100% the work of the author? (Forget about Nalimov's EGTB probing >code and any other code that can be used with permission). > >Many thanks in advance for your thoughts, > >jm (who's just preparing for any eventuality during his upcoming stint as >moderator :-) Actually, if somebody wants to make another Crafty or Fruit - of course it's not right - but it's not really a big deal either. If the tournament stakes are higher, there should be code inspections. Maybe at WCCC that's appropriate. Vas
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