Re: [Bug-gnubg] gnubg "personalities"

[Douglas Zare]

On 7/7/06, Christian Anthon <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 7/7/06, Douglas Zare <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > I've contributed many ideas to gnubg, but I'd like to ask that you not
> > start working on this idea of mine before the end of 2006. I'm pretty
> > confident that this idea was not "in the air."
> >
>
> Well, to quote from zbots homepage,

Why would that mean anyone else has come up with the idea, or that
anyone else is on the verge of coming up with it? You wouldn't be
having this discussion without the post I made to the Gammonline
bulletin board.

Thanks for reminding me of that obsolete page, btw.

> So I would say that your idea has been known for some time, and to my
> knowledge you have not participated in the development of gnubg since
> the announcement of zbot, so your request seems a little misplaced to
> me. To say the least.

I have been working on Zbot since 2001. Most of my contributions to
gnubg have occured after that. Some are as recent as this week (a
suggestion for handling table stakes in a private e-mail sent to a gnu
developer). I usually don't respond to this mailing list, but I read
much of it, and I see when someone brings up an idea from my
GammonVillage column a few days after it appears.

> Of course I would like to see zbot actually on the market and that it
> gets every bit of market share that it deserves. But don't be
> surprised or even offended when we reverse engineer and on occasion
> improve on features that zbot has or is announced to have in the
> future.

Your tendency to copy my ideas (particularly without attribution) has
decreased the amount I am willing to say, and has decreased the amount
of public work I do in backgammon theory. While you may have the right
to use my ideas with attribution, I think it is quite reasonable to
ask that you not try to copy this particular one for a few more months
out of respect for what you have gained from me in the past. Such
restraint would let us both benefit when I state my ideas publicly.

Douglas Zare