Re: [gnugo-devel] Running GnuGo with an IRC bot

[Evan Daniel]

On 5/3/05, Steve Kroon <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi there.
> 
> I am trying to set up an IRC bot where the channel can play against GnuGo,
> using roughly the following format:
> 
> Player1> !bot start
> Bot> Starting GnuGo...
> Bot> <Outputs board>
> <Players discuss move>
> Player2>!bot move d4
> Bot> <Outputs board after GnuGo has responded>
> 
> etc. etc.
> 
> To do this, I need to know how to send data to and receive data from
> GnuGo.  I've tried using pipes (I'm using linux), and I can type my moves
> in on the console, and GnuGo can pipe my moves out into a file, but I
> cannot pipe moves into GnuGo.
> 
> My understanding is that my IRC Bot will have to implement (at least part
> of) GTP.  If so, can you point me to a webpage or similar which explains
> (a) how to connect to GnuGo with GTP, and (b) gives more details on GTP's
> list of commands.
> 
> Thanks,

Speaking GTP over pipes would be the normal way to do this.  The
easiest way is probably to launch a GNU Go process as 'gnugo --mode
gtp', send GTP commands to stdin, recieve answers from stdout.

The basic commands you'll want are probably play, genmove, undo,
boardsize, komi, clear_board, and showboard.

The easiest way to learn more is probably to look at one of the
programs that ships with GNU Go and speaks GTP; I would recommend
twogtp-a or twogtp.pike (in interface/gtp_examples) as a good starting
point.

Hope this helps,

Evan