Include Crafty with Winboard package?

[jhaglund]

Vote to include or not include Crafty in the Winboard package.

[jdart]

Winboard is GPL and Crafty is not.

It is not a big deal to me, but many software sites will not host non-GPL software or will want to put it in a separate repository.

[hgm]

Well, that in itself would be no problem. They also don't want to host the current bundle. We cannot even host it at GNU, as long as we bundle with timestamp and timeseal. As I consider these a must in any WinBoard bundle, we only distribute sources from GNU.

Of course WinBoard is not intended to be a vector for spreading someones favorite engine, so this whole vote is a bit silly anyway. The only reason to include engines in the WinBoard bundle is to demonstrate the capabilities of WinBoard. Crafty does a particularly bad job at this; it only demonstrates its own capabilities. But those can never be an argument to bundle it with WinBoard. If people want Crafty, they should download a Crafty package, that nicely installs it.

[mariaclara]

OMG !

so it's not included anymore?

( hey, like wow. I'm really outta touch.......

too much outdoors/fresh air , I guess ....... )

[mhull]

OMG !

so it's not included anymore?

( hey, like wow. I'm really outta touch.......

Gnuchess is usually bundled with [WX]board, not crafty.

[hgm]

You are also out of touch...

Currently it is bundled with Fairy-Max, Pulsar and Fruit. (The latter two optional.)

And those that really like exotic things can optionally select HaQiKi D, Elephant Eye, or Joker80.

[Michel]

Fairy-Max, Pulsar and Fruit.

Wouldn't it be more sensible to replace Fruit by Stockfish? Stockfish is much stronger (I assume the point of including Fruit is having a strong engine).

[Dann Corbit]

Fairy-Max, Pulsar and Fruit.

Wouldn't it be more sensible to replace Fruit by Stockfish? Stockfish is much stronger (I assume the point of including Fruit is having a strong engine).

Here's an idea:

Have a checkbox of the engines you want.

After checking all the boxes you like, web requests collect the engines and install them.

[hgm]

Here's an idea:

Have a checkbox of the engines you want.

After checking all the boxes you like, web requests collect the engines and install them.

That is a great idea, and originally how I wanted to do it. But nobody knew how to make a web installer, I least of all. So we are stuck with a simple nsis script. We had someone who knew how to do that.

My vision for the future is this, however:
1) The nsis installer will also bundle an InstallTool with WinBoard.
2) When invoked, this InstallTool will start with downloading a descption file from you favorite maintainer website. (E.g. WBEC, RWBC, as you configure it)
3) This description file will contain a list of engines, (engine versions), together with info like:

Code: Select all

URL where it is hosted, 
installation folder, 
required command line to unpack the download, 
command line to run the engine, 
author,
country,
Elo rating,
supported variants,
remarks

The user will see this info displayed in the InstallTool window in columnar form, and can sort it on any column.
4) The user can click on an engine line to download and install the engine, in the winboard.ini or PSWBTM engine database, or both, as the InstallTool settings indicate.

The idea is that the people who now habitually keep track of the existence and wherabouts of engines, would volunteer as maintainers, and cast the results of their efforts in a machine-readable format for the InstallTool.


But, unfortunately, all this has to wait until I have finished my Shogi engine...

[hgm]

Wouldn't it be more sensible to replace Fruit by Stockfish? Stockfish is much stronger (I assume the point of including Fruit is having a strong engine).

Strong and a UCI example. Stockfish fits both, so I agree. But some people just can't take "no" for an answer, and even start polls in a pathetic attempt to get their way...