My personal opinion about this controversial topic: The Inso

[A8A]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: A8A at 05 May 2000 03:56:00:
This is my personal opinion about the Topic.
When you decide to be a Beta Tester of some program, you have to be respectful of the Author's wishes.
Actually, I am evaluating Zchess1.51b. I have spent hundreds of hours with this program only, by studying his book of openings, by analysing as much its positional and tactical game, how it solves the strategic tasks, its handling of the transition of the midle game into the end game, how it values the pawn structures, etc., etc...
Several weeks ago, I published a Message in this Forum with my first impressions about Zchess1.51b. Nevertheless, I had guaranteed to the Zchess author that the results would be sent directly to him. In fact, after this report, I have never returned to publish some report, unless the Author indicates me.
We must remember that the program is an intellectual property of the author until he indicates the opposite. I think and feel that the about fifty Winboard free and available programs are a very lucky gift. I'm sure these free programs have taken several years to be developed by their authors. We can also do many interesting Tests like Dann Corbit does.
The first program, that I reviewed, was Crux and I must accept that my work could have been more extensive. Later, I was interested in Zchess because I like its game style. I supposed wrongly I'd have the enough time for evaluating LGoliath2000v2.6 too. The result was I didn't have the enough time for LGoliath, since I dedicated the total time to Zchess. In the same say, it happened to me with Zephyr. Today I feel a great shame with the authors of LGoliath and Zephyr, because I feel I have failed.
A single program for me has been more than sufficient. I have a full time job and I'm finishing my Master too. All people in this Forum have a lot of personal responsibilities. The Hobby of evaluating programs is admirable, but it's certainly very hard if we do it with the required rigor.
Quite often, the Authors don't respond in the early time that we, the Beta Tester, expect. However, we must remember they also have personal responsibilities. Of course, we, the Beta Testers, must request some feed back from the Authors about our results. Thus, we can be sure that we're going on the right way about the wanted evaluations of the Authors.
Finally, if the author of Insomniac doesn't want to release new Versions freely, we must respect its position is either logical or no for us. It's the same situation when the musical composers discover the illicit distribution of their songs through Internet: Their property is being released without their consent and authorization. It is the same thing for the private and beta chess programs.
Best Regards for all Winboarders.

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 05 May 2000 09:20:37:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: My personal opinion about this controversial topic: The Insomniac Matter geschrieben von: / posted by: A8A at 05 May 2000 03:56:00:
Over and done with. All parties have had their say, and I think (in essense) we are all in agreement.


my FTP site

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 05 May 2000 12:59:04:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Close the book geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 05 May 2000 09:20:37:

Over and done with. All parties have had their say, and I think (in essense) >we are all in agreement.

That's the nice thing about this forum..We all get along, unlike at CCC..