[gnugo-devel] Toying with ideas

[Heikki Levanto]

Hi,

I have an old idea of playing aroud with a neural network for estimating the
winning propability of any given situation. So far it is only a wild dream
in my mind, but it has started to bother me, and I may have some time
available soon, so I may want to start experimenting with it. 

Knowing myself, it will be along time before anything useful will come out
of this, if ever. That is no problem in itself, but it introduces a tricky
question: How can I keep my changes up to date with the ever improving GnuGo
itself. I can see two possibilities:
  1) I make a personal fork, work on that, and if I ever get around to 
     something useful, take the trouble to merge my improvements into the
     main line of GnuGo. 
  2) I introduce a configure option and a pile of #ifdefs into the GnuGo
     line and work inside that. If it ever works, we just make that config
     default.
     
The second solution would be easier for me, but would distract anyone else
reading those parts of the source. The first solution is nicest for everyone
else, but may mean lots of trouble merging later.

I think I start with my own version anyway, to see if I run into a wall
immediately. Do we have a policy on creating such "private" options inside
GnuGo? When would it be proper to do so?

- Heikki

-- 
Heikki Levanto  LSD - Levanto Software Development   <address@hidden>