OpenChess

Fruit > Rybka > Ippolit + RobboLito + Igorrit + IvanHoe > FireBird + Houdini
lie or not lie This is the question
Fruit = not lie
The other = lie
Small and not need to all these topics

Not bad for a first post.

From a purely logical standpoint, how can you make an absolute statement about something that you cannot possibly be absolute about? The problem with the whole program X is a clone of Y or that X used cloned code in the design is so complex that the best anyone can do without access to the source code of all programs involved is to express a 'belief' or an 'opinion'. To say unequivocally that the programmer of X is a liar based on hearsay is foolish at best and libelous and worst.

Now in the case of the original programmer recognizing his/her own code in another program, they have more information, but then they could be lying about it too. The whole thing becomes a Gordian knot to try to sort out, and it is simply impossible to assert with certainty that one person is telling the truth and all others are lying with regards to this whole clone situation unless you are one of the programmers involved or have the actual source code at your disposal.

Now if you have someone claiming that a program is his based on knowing the code, as in the case with Vasik Rajlich claiming Strelka as his own), and if Strelka is proven beyond the shadow of a doubt to be a clone of Fruit, you have a bona fide guilty party on your hands. He would be a cloner in spite of the fact that he has strenuously denied this. Another way to catch someone in a lie is for them to go in record saying one thing and then later saying the opposite. It's the law of non-contradiction. Like Bill Clinton saying he did not have sex with Monica Lewinski in front of a congressional hearing, and then saying the exact opposite at another congressional hearing. Both statements cannot be true.

I've been following some of the clone threads on this site for a few weeks now and there is so much anger and frustration of things that we cannot know for certain. Maybe we should think more and speak less.

Just my $0.02