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If an engine uses the xboard protocol, it sends "post" to it. I do not believe there is any reason for an engine to send PVs to this non-graphical interface. At least, the default should be nopost with an option to turn it on.

The fact is that it generates a lot of traffic that is not needed. It was useful to me because it exposed a bug in my engine:-) but I think a user should have the ability to turn this off.

Thanks!

Miguel

michiguel wrote:If an engine uses the xboard protocol, it sends "post" to it. I do not believe there is any reason for an engine to send PVs to this non-graphical interface. At least, the default should be nopost with an option to turn it on.

The fact is that it generates a lot of traffic that is not needed. It was useful to me because it exposed a bug in my engine:-) but I think a user should have the ability to turn this off.

Thanks!

Miguel

I just realized there is no way to turn off "posting" information in UCI! Did I miss anything?
I will have to make an option "mute 1" and send it at the beginning, but I am out of luck with other engines.

Miguel

I usually want to have score/depth in the PGN, and for that you do need thinking output.

hgm wrote:I usually want to have score/depth in the PGN, and for that you do need thinking output.

Is there a switch (command) to turn this off, so that the pgn just records the moves. I find the extra information distracting when reading through games.

michiguel wrote:If an engine uses the xboard protocol, it sends "post" to it. I do not believe there is any reason for an engine to send PVs to this non-graphical interface. At least, the default should be nopost with an option to turn it on.

The fact is that it generates a lot of traffic that is not needed. It was useful to me because it exposed a bug in my engine:-) but I think a user should have the ability to turn this off.

Thanks!

Miguel

cutechess-cli could always display the PV in the comment of the output PGN (although it doesn't) That could be a reason.

hgm wrote:I usually want to have score/depth in the PGN, and for that you do need thinking output.

Yes, that makes sense. I did not think of that. Still, I think it would be a good idea to turn the feature off with a switch for people who don't use it.

Miguel

Indeed. In WinBoard you can select whether you want scores in the PGN, and if you don't, and also don't have the Eval Graph or Engine Output windows open, it sends a nopost. But you also cannot do score-based adjudication then.

I noticed this thread only now because I took some time off from computer chess. Anyway, I'm back and trying to release something this autumn, so this kind of feature could make it in.

ilari wrote:I noticed this thread only now because I took some time off from computer chess. Anyway, I'm back and trying to release something this autumn, so this kind of feature could make it in.

Hello Ilari, good to hear you are back to computer chess!

As a frequent user of cutechess I'd like to have an option in which you could enable cutechess to flush the pgn file after each move at the game.

Regards,

bhlangonijr wrote: Hello Ilari, good to hear you are back to computer chess!

As a frequent user of cutechess I'd like to have an option in which you could enable cutechess to flush the pgn file after each move at the game.

Regards,

Hi,
Unfortunately there are a couple of problems with that:

1. The Result and Termination tags are at the beginning of a PGN game, but their values can only be determined when the game is over
2. The -concurrency option would have to be disabled or else the resulting PGN file would be a mess. Alternatively multiple output files could be used.

I think the sensible way to do what you want would be to have a separate debug-type file where the moves would be written in real time.