My interest in computer checkers is waning - partly because the game is solved, partly because other interests are taking more of my time these days. I still sometimes get mail asking for new features in CheckerBoard, but I haven't done much lately. Since I don't think this will change anytime soon, I have made the source code of CheckerBoard (in version 1.651) public. This code can be used in any way you might see fit; I'm not going to bother with some kind of public license.
I am very much aware that the code is neither particularly good nor clean; CheckerBoard was - like perhaps most software - not really designed well, i.e. it started out as a simple program and then I kept on adding more and more things to it, and so the whole program structure isn't nice. Some of the source code is really old, written at a time when my programming skills were even less developed than they are now. And of course, I'm not a trained programmer who learned how to properly develop software. All of this will make the CheckerBoard source code rather hard to understand, but if you have a lot of patience and a decent working knowledge of standard C, then you can probably get to grips with it.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
CheckerBoard 1.651
I just published CheckerBoard 1.651 on my webpage. This release fixes four things:
1) a serious synchronization bug between the multiple threads of CheckerBoard, which could show up in autoplay and engine match mode; on my two newer machines that I usually use for development, this bug didn't show, but on my oldest machine it was very obvious. Even if the bug didn't show clearly on the newer machines, it is possible that it affects engine match outcomes - an upgrade is therefore strongly recommended if you run engine matches.
2) a small bug with graphics updating when changing the piece set (the board would update, the pieces only on the next window resizing).
3) export to HTML now also works from setup positions for Italian checkers (it always worked for English checkers)
4) I forgot to include the file 11man_FEN.txt which is used for 11-man engine matches. It contains 2400 of the 2500 possible 11-man starting positions. 100 of the positions are omitted, because they are likely wins for one side. The newest release includes this file, so that 11-man engine matches with 4800 games can be run (if you have the patience...) for better statistics than with standard engine matches.
If I get no negative feedback on this release, I will also publish the source code of CheckerBoard, since I find it increasingly difficult to find the time to work on CB - making the source public is a better alternative to stopping the development altogether.
But now, enjoy your bug-free 11-man matches!
1) a serious synchronization bug between the multiple threads of CheckerBoard, which could show up in autoplay and engine match mode; on my two newer machines that I usually use for development, this bug didn't show, but on my oldest machine it was very obvious. Even if the bug didn't show clearly on the newer machines, it is possible that it affects engine match outcomes - an upgrade is therefore strongly recommended if you run engine matches.
2) a small bug with graphics updating when changing the piece set (the board would update, the pieces only on the next window resizing).
3) export to HTML now also works from setup positions for Italian checkers (it always worked for English checkers)
4) I forgot to include the file 11man_FEN.txt which is used for 11-man engine matches. It contains 2400 of the 2500 possible 11-man starting positions. 100 of the positions are omitted, because they are likely wins for one side. The newest release includes this file, so that 11-man engine matches with 4800 games can be run (if you have the patience...) for better statistics than with standard engine matches.
If I get no negative feedback on this release, I will also publish the source code of CheckerBoard, since I find it increasingly difficult to find the time to work on CB - making the source public is a better alternative to stopping the development altogether.
But now, enjoy your bug-free 11-man matches!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
CB 1.65 bug
It has been nearly 3 months since I released CheckerBoard 1.65, and I hate to admit that I got bug reports nearly instantly after its release. I finally took the time to look into them (partly because my girlfriend is in Spitzbergen). I cleaned up a lot of my source code in CB 1.65 with the goal of making it public with this release, and unfortunately, I managed to add a rather serious synchronization bug to it. I believe to have found it, some final testing is still required, but probably there will soon be an update available.
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