gnuchess/xboard protocol

[Ethan A Burns]

Hello,
        I have questions about gnuchess (5.07) and the xboard protocol.
I found a document on the xboard protocol at the following url:

http://www.tim-mann.org/xboard/engine-intf.html

Looking at this page and comparing with output from ``gnuchess --xboard''
doesn't match up.

Does anyone have input for this?  Is this document out dated now?


Also, (on linux) I have a program that opens up a couple pipes (for input and
output) and dup2's them to a ``gnuchess --xboard'' process's stdin and stdout.
Upon reading from the output end of the gnuchess's stdout pipe (reading the 
stdout from gnuchess) my program blocks.
If just running ``gnuchess --xboard'' from the console, I notice that it starts
up by outputting:

Chess
Adjusting HashSize to 1024 slots

I would suspect that my initial read would see this output...
I also find, however, that if I send a move (b2b3 for example), that a 
subsequent read will get the initial string:

Chess
Adjusting HashSize to 1024 slots

followed by the appropriate output for my move.

Testing around a bit, sending and reading (reading in a seperate thread), I 
found that gnuchess only seems to send output to my pipe AFTER receiving a 
move from my program.

When running gnuchess with out the --xboard option, my pipe is written to 
immediatly as I would suspect, without waiting for a move to be sent to 
gnuchess.

Is this the desired behavior, or is there a chance that I am setting up my 
pipes/dup2s wrong?

        Thanks,
                --Ethan Burns