New engine test for the IPON list is running
Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:41 pm
Hello
It's been more than 6 months that a 'loosly called' clone appeared. The accusation - right or wrong -
is, that it is a decompiled Rybka 3.
Within these 6 months I collected every littly hint which might lead to some criminal act. As the
programmer of Rybka did not give any evidence (which is understandable as it is difficult) and I am
not an expert on programming I asked a dozent programmers about their thoughts on that source code.
I got 9 answers with a lot of indications - but no proof. Still I had and have a bad feeling about the
engine. On the other hand it is for sure more than a 'simple' decompile. It seems to be understood and
enhanced in many ways. I personaly think that this has a bad taste, if it is illegal might vary from
county to country.
The 'original clone' intensionaly does not have a real, known person as an author which make it difficult
if not impossible for someone to claim it's intellectual property but there are some new enigenes which
openly admit their use of the doubtfull sources. At the same time there are more and more enignes emerging
with remarkable increases in playing strength in a very short time and as a very strong source code is
available the assumtion that some of these enignes have borrowed something from that source code is likely.
All rating lists are already testing and supporting these engines as they do not have any other possibility
besides stop testing enignes at all.
So we have capable programmers who openly admit to use the source and we have a few who dont, some use more
of the code some less.
To end this dillema I decided to test one engine of a person who, right from the beginning, never tried to
hide the origin of his engine, who seems to be a professional programmer without to much of an ego. Additionaly
it seems that no one tried to stop these engine despite the fact that everything about the author is known. I
will remove the engine from my list the day I hear something different.
I will only allow one of those enignes, which individually might be changed in the future, in my list to
avoid having to play 10 nearly identical motors.
Current IPON Test: http://www.inwoba.de
Please be aware that the actual elo calculation on my web site is provisional. It assumes a fixed elo rate for the opponents, which of course is faulty. The final elo number might be different!
Bye
Ingo
It's been more than 6 months that a 'loosly called' clone appeared. The accusation - right or wrong -
is, that it is a decompiled Rybka 3.
Within these 6 months I collected every littly hint which might lead to some criminal act. As the
programmer of Rybka did not give any evidence (which is understandable as it is difficult) and I am
not an expert on programming I asked a dozent programmers about their thoughts on that source code.
I got 9 answers with a lot of indications - but no proof. Still I had and have a bad feeling about the
engine. On the other hand it is for sure more than a 'simple' decompile. It seems to be understood and
enhanced in many ways. I personaly think that this has a bad taste, if it is illegal might vary from
county to country.
The 'original clone' intensionaly does not have a real, known person as an author which make it difficult
if not impossible for someone to claim it's intellectual property but there are some new enigenes which
openly admit their use of the doubtfull sources. At the same time there are more and more enignes emerging
with remarkable increases in playing strength in a very short time and as a very strong source code is
available the assumtion that some of these enignes have borrowed something from that source code is likely.
All rating lists are already testing and supporting these engines as they do not have any other possibility
besides stop testing enignes at all.
So we have capable programmers who openly admit to use the source and we have a few who dont, some use more
of the code some less.
To end this dillema I decided to test one engine of a person who, right from the beginning, never tried to
hide the origin of his engine, who seems to be a professional programmer without to much of an ego. Additionaly
it seems that no one tried to stop these engine despite the fact that everything about the author is known. I
will remove the engine from my list the day I hear something different.
I will only allow one of those enignes, which individually might be changed in the future, in my list to
avoid having to play 10 nearly identical motors.
Current IPON Test: http://www.inwoba.de
Please be aware that the actual elo calculation on my web site is provisional. It assumes a fixed elo rate for the opponents, which of course is faulty. The final elo number might be different!
Bye
Ingo
