Re: [gnugo-devel] endgame module for GNU Go

[Paul Pogonyshev]

Eric wrote:

> > Are you interested in getting it into
> > the mainline GNU Go
> > or do you regard it as a private research project?
> 
> Not really sure what you mean by this, but I'll take a
> stab at it:
> 
> The Semsyn engine itself has already been completed,
> and is proprietary. However, most planning systems
> being developed these days adhere to the "standard"
> PDDL (Planning Domain Definition Language) which
> originated from Yale University.
> 
> If GNU Go treats the planner as a black box, then it
> is not necessary to distribute the planner as integral
> to the GNU Go engine. Users of GNU Go can simply
> "plug-in" their favorite flavor of planner.

This does not sound acceptable.  While GNU GPL allows
communicating with a proprietary program (i.e. when that
program is a separate process), there is a number of
serious technical and other problems:

* We cannot distribute your program (it is proprietary)
  along with GNU Go.

* We cannot even put links to your program, because GNU
  servers don't advertise proprietary software.

* I don't think it is worth the inconvenience of plugging
  in a planner into GNU Go.  Most users would not even
  know what a planner was and that GNU Go had a use for
  one.  We hardly want to make GNU Go depend on another
  program (even if optionally) other than a GUI.

> The bulk of the work being proposed currently involves
> writing the endgame module and modelling the Go
> domain, i.e. designing the domain operators. And yes,
> I intend to leave these pieces in the public domain
> (or free, or whatever is the proper terminology).

As far as I understood, this endgame module would
essentially be an interface to a planner.  Then, as I
explained above, without a free software planner which
can be compiled into GNU Go, this is hardly of any use.

In general, your program's being proprietory is the
show stopper.  I understand that you will not change
your license because of this, but we cannot change our
policy either.

Paul Pogonyshev (a GNU Go co-maintainer)

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