Anders wrote:
How would this limit the protocol? In my mind, if there was a 'genmove' and a 'move' command, the color would be an optional parameter (same with 'is_legal'). In most cases, you want to know the best move for the current player, but you always have the option to specify the player to move.
A single "genmove" command which could only be used to generate a move for the color in turn to move would be limiting. I don't see how a "genmove" command with an optional color would be simplifying the protocol.
I'd even argue that it may be a greater burden to require programs to support consecutive moves of the same color, while every program must be able to handle alternating moves and keep track of whose turn it is to play.
No, they don't. E.g. the GTP implementation in GNU Go has no concept of alternating play. I'm aware that existing programs may be written in a way which would make consecutive moves by the same color infeasible to deal with, so a tournament program should only issue "play" and "genmove" commands in an alternating fashion.
/Gunnar