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diff --git a/gnu/games/chess/DOCUMENTATION/ARTICLE.2 b/gnu/games/chess/DOCUMENTATION/ARTICLE.2 deleted file mode 100644 index 031ae18..0000000 --- a/gnu/games/chess/DOCUMENTATION/ARTICLE.2 +++ /dev/null @@ -1,123 +0,0 @@ - - - GNU Chess: Experiences Learned - with Communal Sharing - by Stuart Cracraft - (and contributors to the GNU Project) - - -Limited sharing has characterized the computer chess community -for the past two decades. Occasional research articles give hints -and suggestions for useful features, but rarely reveal the real -details of the critically important advances. We will here -describe an effort underway (titled "GNU Chess") to create a more -open and friendly environment of sharing. - -GNU Chess is part of Project GNU, a large-scale effort in which -the philosophical goals are far-reaching. We will not go into any -great depth about these goals as they relate to the larger pro- -ject, because these are described elsewhere [1]. However, we will -mention the basic issues and the changes we hope to encourage. - -The start of the GNU Chess project was a natural result of the -experiences gleaned in writing a chess program. While the author -was at a progressive academic location [2], he was able to con- -ceive the idea of a communal chess program only after much heart- -ache. During the period of writing the initial version (which -has since undergone many improvements and whole revisions), it -became clear that the best features and most useful hints, the -very best of the heuristics, were hidden and difficult to find in -the literature. - -Sprinkled across many books, research papers, magazine articles, -accumulated in the community, during the past 25 years, there was -literally a void of true, empirical programs. Locating usable -programs was difficult. Many programs were the result of academic -work in "ivory towers", and hence were inaccessible to the common -man. Other programs were sequestered in research think-tanks. Na- -turally, developers of commercial programs carefully guarded -their source in order to protect their investment. On the other -hand, a few chess program source listings had actually been pub- -lished, but these were not really very strong, often written in a -non-general language, and frequently more pedantic than practi- -cal. - -The idea of a reasonably strong communal program solidified. -When we refer to a communal program, we do not regard this as -public-domain software. Rather, we refer to a program which is -under the shared authority of a number of individuals, the prin- -cipal contributors. These individuals have experienced and real- -ized the positive results of a sharing community and the rapid -improvements that come through contributing in such a community. -Further, these individuals devote time and energy to coordinating -the contributions of other individuals. While they exercise a -certain editorial right, this is usually not exercised arbitrari- -ly; instead, a discussion is often undertaken. - -Eventually, a working C program that played chess was available. -The coordinating institution for Project GNU [3], accepted our -suggestion of inclusion of a chess program in the GNU distribu- -tion. Initial distribution of GNU Chess commenced in October of -1986. Interest in the project increased rapidly. - -Contributions came in from many places and people. Interfaces to -X-windows and SUN-windows were donated, thus allowing very fancy -chess fonts on bit-mapped screens. Also, contributions involving -large portions of opening books such as MCO and collections of -master games were added to the distribution. Additionally, -tree-search modifications and heuristics were provided, and occa- -sionally even entire rewrites. - -The program advanced in strength by several USCF class intervals -during a period of less than one year. During this time, many -unusual features and enhancements were added to the program, usu- -ally under the coordination of two or more people, with one work- -ing in a distant-advisory capacity to the other. Frequently, gra- -duate students would give up significant time from their thesis -work to devote energy to contributing. Their corporate counter- -parts would often give up project time to make their donation. - -Contributors would often enter the project in a very forceful way -and then having made their contribution, learn the viability of -communal sharing once others had stepped in and contributed to -them, thus providing considerable reinforcement. Frequently, con- -tributors would then go into "hibernation" for a long period of -time, but most of them remained open to contributing and were -helpful when asked to reprogram their particular contribution in -a more recent version. - -GNU Chess has made great strides in relatively little time. It -has run on many different hardware architectures and has been -compiled by a number of C compilers [4]. A sampling of the com- -puters on which the program has run is: National 32032, Vax -11/750, 8550, 8600, 8650, Motorola 68020, CCI 5/32, CCI 6/32 -(tahoe), Cray XMP. - -It is our belief that GNU Chess will stimulate graduate research -in computer chess theory and practice. When students are able to -easily obtain a state-of-the-art program in order to test out -their ideas, they will no longer need to reinvent the wheel. The -students will be able to investigate their research areas much -more thoroughly, because they will spend more time on the specif- -ic research areas they are concerned about. Basically, GNU Chess -"frees up" time in order to get on to more fundamental issues. - -We also feel that as other researchers gain trust in the GNU -Chess project, they will be more likely to release their results -directly and rapidly, through journal articles, or directly to -the GNU project, and in fact become contributors and join the -present list [5]. At the very least, a communal, ever-growing -program will encourage the few "closeted" researchers to be some- -what more open in their approach to disseminating advances. - -In whatever form it takes, the progress toward elaboration of -machine chess is ongoing, and we hope that GNU chess will be -helpful to the community. Copies of GNU Chess source and "book", -as well as additional experimental code are available from the -Free Software Foundation [3] or the author [6]. - - -[1] The GNU Manifesto, Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation, Inc. - -[2] University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute. - |
