Daniel Bump wrote:
> Nils Lohner and Adriaan van Kessel undertook a project
> of rewritting the NNGS server code. They had some idea
> of converting the protocols to XML. But they didn't
> get very far with the protocol revision. Also, as far
> as I know no server uses their code.
I am still working on the code, but at the moment at a very low pace.
I have *never* considered XML. It would solve no problem.
My first objective is still to get the NNGS-sources into
a usable shape. A lot of bloat has been removed already.
There has been an attempt to remerge with a chinese nngs-clone
(they had translated all the text-strings they could find ...),
and that has resulted in a (clumsy, but stable) variable language
-feature.
I have looked at gtp as a candidate protocol. At the moment,
gtp will *not* work. currently, GTP has no notion of a game,
it is just a Q&A like protocol for controlling the knobs and
switches on an engine.
The real problem here IMO is "installed base".
We cannot change the protocol without breaking
clients. And we don't want to loose clients.
Eventually, even the changes/additions to the IGS-protocol
that were introduced by NNGS (embrace and extend ???) should
be removed or become optional.
At the moment the code is probably not used in any production
server, I agree. I hope/expect, however that at one time
nngs.cosmic.org will switch to the newer code base, because
the old code is becoming more and more unmaintainable.
Nils tranformed the codebase to autoconf/automake, and I intend
to replace all hard-coded pathnames/filenames by a configuration-
file mechanism. This kind of change should simplify first-time
installations. Maybe it could help administration of existing
installations, too.
Increasing use of NNGS can be expected for testing purposes:
creation/testing of client programs, local tournaments between
computer programs, etc,
Any hints/tips/thoughts are wellcome ...
AvK
