Dear list,
first of all, my intention is by any means to hurt anyone's feeling nor to start any flame war.
This said, IMHO i think this spec is a little shortsighted ...
Here are at least three reasons why :
1- the BOARD command should accept to create rectangular gobans... the question is why restrict it to square only ? I understand gtp is designed to enable testing on software programs ? then please let the possibility to foster some diversity... It would be good to see gnugo on a 4x7 board for instance :-)
2- "Boards larger than 25x25 are not supported by the protocol." Why ? Is it so complex to use another coordinate systems as 1,1 instead of A1 ? I know SGF has the same limitations, but why imposing such limitations ? is that another heresy to think about a 51x53 board ? played by two softwares for instance ? OK i'm definitely an heretic... for now :-)
3- the last but not the least concerns the time_settings. And here it's a special request : why not offer the possibility to set different time settings for each player ? again i think it would be fun to afford more time for gnugo than for myself. That would put more pressure on me...
ok i talk a lot about gnugo but i understand that the spec is tightly bound to gnugo or the opposite ...
Hope that i'm not off topic.
Best regards. Rodrigue.