Currently, at least with GNU Go there doesn't seem to be any way to get the engine's opinion about boardsize, komi, etc.
Normally the gtp controller will know these before the engine does but there is an exception after the command loadsgf is executed.
Because of this exception, there should be a way of getting the boardsize from the engine.
Actually there should be a way of getting the whole position from the engine but for my purposes just getting the boardsize will be enough.
There seem to be two obvious ways of doing this:
(1) allow the command 'boardsize' without arguments. The gtp response is to return the boardsize without setting it.
(2) a new command query_boardsize with obvious functionality:
loadsgf games/nicklas/nicklas9.sgf = black
query_boardsize = 9
I've patched GNU Go 3.1.2 to add this command (because I need it) but I wonder if this is something that is likely to become part of the protocol or not.
Dan