Here’s where I’ve got to - hope some of it proves helpful. I contacted the USBGF and UKBGF asking for any feedback / interest and / or recommendations re generating fresh input from a new generation of coders (also posted similar messages out to a few C programming forums).
Not much joy here I’m afraid. I think the main issue at USBGF & UKBGF (ie for professional or competitive players / club players or serious hobbyists) is how far gnu has fallen behind XG now (unlike Snowie in its day, XG is generally affordable, available for mobiles & a new version with enhanced neural nets, compatible with Mac as well as Windows for the first time, is due for release at the end of the year). But ‘free to all’ is still a significant USP for GNUBG especially among younger players (and in other parts of the world) & GNUBG is still cited up there as best of the rest on more general games forums. But as far as I can tell (in the UK at least) there are no clubs / tournaments / forums ringfenced for younger players so hard to know how to tap into this for feedback / enthusiasm / new coding talent. I also contacted Chris Bray, one of the UK’s leading writers and promoters of the game. He’s the one who filled me in on the latest re XG. In his opinion: ‘…gnubg always had creditable neural net engines but never had a friendly User Interface which held it back considerably. I always felt it was written by technical programmers with little commercial awareness of how people would use it in the real world.’ I don’t share this view. I’m not a techie but I prefer the gnu layout / interface to XG’s. Having said that, I’m not a professional / competitive player either, which no doubt involves different priorities. Also I’ve been playing GNU for a long time & it probably took a few goes to get it set up the way I wanted (not sure that’s how big a deal that is, though). In Bray’s opinion, ‘for gnubg to reemerge as a viable alternative to XG it will need an enhanced user interface and well-integrated app version for apple & android tablets / phones, as well as upgraded neural nets.’ In my opinion, a phone version would broaden appeal / access but the most critical issue is the neural nets. XG feels like a very different animal as an opponent - noticeably more opportunistic & aggressive, so some degree of congruence asap seems critical for gnubg to hold ground. A final note from Chris: ‘FYI on my ToDo list is to talk to DeepMind about whether they intend to create an AlphaZero Backgammon.’ No update from him on this as yet. How about contacting them yourself to propose a gnubg / DeepMind collaboration? Alternatively (or also): In a subsequent email Chris mentioned ‘seeing an emerging group of highly-talented younger players, many of them Japanese.’ How about a Japanese collaboration / appeal for new coders? Language is clearly a barrier to this, but would it be possible to find some bilingual volunteers via the main gnu project to act as go-between? I don’t know how global the main project is, but backgammon is huge in parts of the Middle East so appeals here / Africa / India (where English is also more widely spoken) could also prove fruitful. Finally, whilst I haven’t had any specific responses from UKBGF or USBGF to my general inquiries, it should be possible to put out a broadcast with either or both of these organisations (& via them to the local club networks) with specific announcements or requests for feedback eg for or from younger players / coders interested in collaboration. You may want to consider this. If it’s general player feedback you want, you probably need to frame some very specific questions. Oystein said: ‘First we need an idea, then we have to verify that idea, and then we have to set it into life, which might trigger a bigger VM or a cluster.’ As a non-techie I get the gist of this (and as a description of the work process find it intriguing!) but I’m in the dark as to what type of ideas you mean, or what kind of information you want. There we are, then: my progress to date. Still happy to help, for what it’s worth, and I would love to be kept updated on any progress your end. All best with that, & a Happy New Year to you all – thanks once again for all the fine work to date. Sarah Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10 ________________________________ From: Øystein Schønning-Johansen <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2019 5:48:59 PM To: Sarah Payne <[email protected]> Subject: Re: current development Yes. Just give it some thought. If you post to the mailing list or to just me, you can decide yourself. I'm not the most active developer at the time, so maybe posting to the mailing list is a good idea. -Øystein On Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 6:10 PM Sarah Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Ok I’ll give this some thought. Do I reply to you or reply all? Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10 ________________________________ From: Øystein Schønning-Johansen <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Monday, December 9, 2019 10:08:34 PM To: Sarah Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: Re: current development Hi, Sarah! Thanks for your gratitude. I think all involved developers are busy with other day time jobs, and GNU Backgammon is hence just a spare time project for us. We hence have what we need for a living through our daily jobs. However, as you see development has slowed down the later years. I think what we need in this project is: - Motivation - Enthusiasm - Cheering so, I think that you email started some sparks. You saw that! Maybe if we just continue to post some messages to this mailing list, maybe something will even happen. Keep posting suggestions and question and be positive and cheer up the life of the readers. That will probably be the best contribution back to the project. There might be occasion where some hard money can contribute and that might be when/if we start training something on big virtual servers, and these virtual servers can have some cost attached. But that is only guesswork from me. First we need an idea, then we have to verify that idea, and then we have to set it into life, which might trigger a bigger VM or a cluster. In that case we can discuss how to fund that. Sponsors or we chip in or we get voluntary gifts from backgammon enthusiast? Anyway -- It's far ahead. Maybe fresh blood among the developers might help? Do you go to a local backgammon club? Are there any computer geeks and nerds in you club? (apart from you?). The developers in this projects are old nerds with gray hair or no hair at all (like me), who learned to develop software last millennium, and maybe some of the code can be improved if fresh blood was added. If you are playing in a club, your contribution could be to go over to the young (younger than me and the other guys in the development team) geek in the corner and ask him/her if he she has seen GNU Backgammon, or knows neural network, or like programming, and knows the C programming language... so on.... if you get a developer interested that can also be your contribution back. :-) That's how it goes. And thank you so much for the spark you started. It means a lot. Best rolls and regards -Øystein On Sun, Dec 8, 2019 at 6:36 PM Sarah Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi Oystein Unfortunately I’m not a coder but I’ve used this software so often for no charge I was wondering if it’s possible to give money sometimes to the backgammon project to help keep it going / up to date. I’m sure I can’t be the only person to feel this way. You should all be very proud of this programme which has remained competitive for so long even without much recent development. In my opinion, it’s still the most user friendly set-up as well - v flexible & intuitive. What are the biggest hurdles to keeping it competitive? Man hours, computer hours? Does the neural networking approach used up until this point need to evolve / become more resource hungry to keep up with something like Extreme Gammon for example? Forgive my ignorance in this area – I’m very interested but understand very little of this area. And if this is not appropriate conversation for these lists, no problem, just let me know. Thanks – and please, yes, feel encouraged to get going again! :) Sarah Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10 ________________________________ From: Øystein Schønning-Johansen <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 5:01:50 PM To: Sarah Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Cc: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: Re: current development Hi Sarah! Thanks for taking contact. Good to hear that you like GNU Backgammon. Is it still under development? Hmmm... debatable. There has not been many major improvements the last few years. Take a look at the projects ChangeLog. http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/gnubg/gnubg/ChangeLog?revision=1.2654&view=markup As you see there isn't much happening. Of course you can contribute if you want. After all this project is Open Source an anyone can do whatever changes they want. Just post comments here on the mailing list, and it can shear up some of the sleeping developers. If you are a developer and want to contribute with code, we can of course provide you write access to the cvs repository. (Yes, it is as old that it's using cvs to do code revision). Since everyone is more or less "sleeping", there is no real TODO list. Maybe some code janitor work? Refactoring? Maybe c99-ify some of the code. Maybe you can suggest a feature? Or report a bug? Even though I'm not doing much on GNU Backgammon (I've not done much the last 10 years) these days, I guess if we just chat about some details, it might be the spark that starts up a new motivation among us. There are some discussions still on this mailing list, last week there was a new Match Equity Table presented (Thanks Ian). If we just chat more, maybe something can start flowing again. I'm getting more time as my kids grow older. So, who knows what happens. Best regards, -Øystein On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 3:58 PM Sarah Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hello there. Been a huge fan for many years of gnu backgammon, many thanks to everyone involved. Is the software still under development with new versions coming? Is it possible to contribute directly to this project? Thanks Sarah Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10
