General intro

[Gamila Macrury]

Hey guy's,
My name is Gamila MacRury and I'm from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Australia.
I am currently about to start my 4th yr of Computer Systems Eng.
I also have a friend, David Poole, who is about to start 4th yr Software sys eng.

As part of our degree, we have to complete an 18 month project. We've decided to focus on Go!
The original idea was to write a fantasic new Go algorithim, but honestly, we don't have a chance!!
Our main concept was also to create a UI that could be used to bring Go to the average person. In other words to create a greater Go community.

The three main components of this would be:
A tutorial, where the computer would play a game by itself, and would explain what it was doing and why;
A test level to ensure the user has absorbed the information; and
Finally a game play that started easy, and as each game is won by the user, the computer steps up a level in difficulty.
The final point is similar to what 'igowin' has done, but their game is quite easy to beat and you see a lot of repetition in the game play.

Our main questions are, would it be ok to use GNUGo for this?

Do you think it is possible and practical, considering we have no Go programming experience?

We have a mentor/supervisor at uni, his main knowledge areas are coding as a whole, but he lived in Japan for a number of years and fell in love with the game, so we might be asking a few questions if that would be ok?

Well I hope to hear from u soon, can understand the whole chirstmas issue!

Ciao Gamila





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[Bump-2]

> Our main questions are, would it be ok to use GNUGo for this?

Yes, as long as the GNU license (GPL) is respected. If you
produce a program that includes part of GNU Go, and if you
distribute, it then the GPL requires you to distribute your
source code with the program.

If you write a client program that communicates with GNU Go
through some channel, then you may not be required to
distribute your source code. Anyway you should read the license.

> Do you think it is possible and practical, considering we
> have no Go programming experience?

GNU Go can communicate with a client program using the
Go Text Protocol (GTP). The client can ask GNU Go questions
(such as what is the next move, or what is GNU Go's
estimate of the score.)

> The three main components of this would be: A tutorial,
> where the computer would play a game by itself, and would
> explain what it was doing and why;

GNU Go is capable of explaining its reasons, since there
is a GTP command move_reasons. For example I issue the
command

move_reasons h1

and it tells me

Move reasons:
Move at H1 threatens to attack G1
Move at H1 is an antisuji
Move at H1 expands territory

But really knowing what it means is often for someone
knowledgeable about the program, and sometimes its reasons
are wrong. (Which is why it sometimes makes bad moves.)

> A test level to ensure
> the user has absorbed the information; and Finally a game
> play that started easy, and as each game is won by the
> user, the computer steps up a level in difficulty.  The
> final point is similar to what 'igowin' has done, but their
> game is quite easy to beat and you see a lot of repetition
> in the game play.

It sounds as if you want to write a client that has
tutorial extensions. Possibly you could start with
an existing client such as quarry.

Daniel Bump



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[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

"Gamila Macrury" <S3052393@...> writes:

> A tutorial, where the computer would play a game by itself,
> and would explain what it was doing and why;

if you are adventurous, you may try building on gnugo.el
(i.e., using emacs).  as a tutorial platform, emacs has some
nice facilities built-in: interactive, text-oriented but also
supports images (which can be created/modified on-the-fly),
rich set of data types, subprocess management, network
connectivity (both client and server), and many many fellow
programmers (some of whom have been hacking for a long time).
this last point is to be underestimated at your own risk!

furthermore, gnugo.el can talk GTP, manage multiple games, go
into a gnugo-v-gnugo mode (see gnugo-extra.el for how), read
and write SGF files, browse gnugo.info directly, and "animate"
selected groups (of stones).

if, on the other hand, you are not adventurous, never mind...

thi


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