Main things to prioritirize before next master release

[wonderingabout]

So :1234:

history tells us :

• release 5.1 : march 2017
• release 5.3 : march 2018
• release x.x : xxx xxxx

also a lot of new features, improvements, and fixes, have been released since that time, too much to list them all here

but maybe some have words of important things we may want to look again at before making a new major release

mostly directed to code contributors so far, but more generally to everyone @anoek @roy7 @Dorus @windo @lemonsqueeze @tokumotoK

as for me i want to look again at :

• autohandicap issue in #28 : using --noautohandicap removes the issue but doesnt solve it, we want to make automatic handicap dynamically detect min and max handicap, and adjust to rank difference
• simple time support in #116 : does it use main time t.main_time or period time t.per_move, and how to support it again on gtp2ogs ?
• challenge 404 error #100 and #52 : does not crash the bot so far so been given a low priority, but still occuring every while, sometimes it even loops when gtp2ogs fails to reject a game for some reason, we may want to look again at log behaviour as well as reject behaviour
• remove most warnings and replace them with defaults
• rename --maxtotalgames and --maxactivegames to the clearer connected games
• @roy7 maybe you want to have a look again at the --persist behaviour for corr games ? in https://github.com/online-go/gtp2ogs/issues/59
• using a config file instead of argv command line, is easily exportable and much more flexible to add new options, but also easier to read and edit, in #125

will be updated as we add or point more things

feel free to use this issue as a more general discussion of what we want to do more generally before the release and after

[TokumotoK]

56 --maxpausetime is huge in my mind.

It appears I have failed to get the point across to roy7 and wonderingabout how important it is to allow (strong) human players to pause a game against bots without forcing a long time setting. I feel I faced a flat rejection to understand the issue, but am willing to help understanding further.

Even a simple 24 hour clock for --limitpause without any time setting option is a big improvement, and is a shame not to be included in the next big release.

[roy7]

I guess I was thinking if you wanted to let people pause then there was no harm in letting them pause indefinitely? But yeah adding a timeout for max pause length seems like a good option to add.

[TokumotoK]

Perhaps viewing GnuGo or Fuego user profile page would convince you how so many (mostly weak) users pause a game and forget. This makes loading the bot profile page a hassle, and we do depend on the profile page to be viewed by bot users for limitations. The 'forgetting' might be intentional to avoid losing the game.

[wonderingabout]

edit : see #56

[wonderingabout]

edit : see #56

[TokumotoK]

If you are playing a blitzy (shortish) game and if your opponent is a human, pausing the game could be a rude thing to do. This is not the case if the opponent is a bot that allows you to pause. A bot could and would wait patiently while you go to bathroom, have dinner, or take a phone call.

Making the time setting long denies your wish to play a blitzy game, so what I'm saying does not apply to corres games. Hope you are not saying people should not play a short game if there could be unexpected phone calls, or if you have a wife who expects you to come to the dinner table immediately when it is ready. For a polite player, this is a MAJOR advantage of playing a bot as opposed to playing a human.

[wonderingabout]

edit : see #56

[wonderingabout]

edit : see #56

[TokumotoK]

Why would pause defeats the purpose of ranking?? It sounds like you are still not getting what I'm saying.

Let's assume you take about 5 minutes for bathroom. Are you saying you should wait 5 minutes for the bot to play each and all the moves for this contingency even if you want a blitz game? Is it fair for the winner of a major tournament to be decided just because he didn't receive an emergency phone call and the opponent did?

The GnuGo profile page shows so many old games that are paused and left alone, not the current games that are paused for good reasons. Pausing has been allowed as default for a long time for good reasons.

[wonderingabout]

edit : see #56

[Dorus]

Can we please discuss pausing in a separate topic? It's off topic here.

If ready we should include pausing in the next release, but i do not see a reason why it would be a deal breaker.

[wonderingabout]

i was thinking the same @Dorus , but i dont have write rights to hide messages

anyways, let's continue the discussion here for interested people #56 personally, as i said in #56, i dont think this feature makes sense, but i started working on it and if it works its interesting

@roy7 can you flag as offtopic all the maxpausetime messages, i'll repost mine there

[wonderingabout]

so i'll focus on #28, then for #116 i need to have everyone's feedback on what should be done, and finally i'll try to implement autosend games feature if possible (if not, i'll PR it in next devel, likely to take some time)

[wonderingabout]

so first thing, autohandicap issue is addressed in #121 , looking forward to being able to detect and add bot rnak into that, will fix the issue

[wonderingabout]

moving on to these now :

• remove most warnings and replace them with defaults
• rename --maxtotalgames and --maxactivegames to the clearer connected word, maybe --maxconnectedgames or --1cg + maybe --maxconnectedgamesperuser or --1cgpu,
• @roy7 maybe you want to have a look again at the --persist behaviour for corr games ? in https://github.com/online-go/gtp2ogs/issues/59

[windo]

With the amount of configuration options we're discussing, it sounds like we should switch from command line arguments to config files.

[wonderingabout]

oh, thats definitely a nice idea

phoenixgo is doing the same for example, and the ability to export my config files and switch them instantly is very nice,

see an example of config file

https://github.com/wonderingabout/PhoenixGo/blob/faqv2-bazel-master/etc/mcts_1gpu.conf

@windo @roy7 @Dorus

i love this idea really

[wonderingabout]

these 2 are now done in #123 !, with a few extra things added too !!

moving on to simple time issue in #116 now !

[wonderingabout]

fixed simple time control re added in #124

now changing "bot is username" config.username to player_id (grep from server rather than from argv)

[wonderingabout]

i'm also definitely looking at using a config file if possible :

https://github.com/online-go/gtp2ogs/issues/125

would be a major improvement

[wonderingabout]

this issue is getting too aspecific so i'm closing it for now