Miniature/Development/Phase 2.0: Real-time P2P Miniature/P2P-Protocol
Protocol draft for Miniature-P2P
================================ We will assume that P1 and P2 have already found each other, use a Miniature client** and are able to chat ("match nick" in FICS). (**) For now. We will want to lift this restriction and offer Miniature/Telepathy-Chess plugins for other applications (in the far distant future, that is).
A Chat ====== * "tell [nick|#channel] msg" Why nick and #channel? Because later we migt want observers in P2P (so there'd be a channel #obs, because you dont want the players so see the chat of kibitzs). * http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/tell.html * This command is the *only* one that will work in every situation, without exception. It does not change the current game state.
B Game mode negotiation ======================= * Both of the players can now propose a game mode, similar to http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/seek.html * We can skip the parameters we dont support yet, so we need at least be able to send/parse this: "seek [time inc] [rated|unrated] [white|black|any]" * If the seeker offers "any" colors it means he his indifferent wrt. color choice. Such games the game can be accepted by people who had choosen black, white or any. * Examples: "seek 5 0 r w": 5 minutes, no incr, rated, seeker wants white, "seek 5 0 rated white": same as above, "seek 2 10 u b": 2 minutes, 10s incr, unrated, seeker wants black "seek 2 12 r a": 2 minutes, 12s incr, rated, seeker wants black or white * When the other player receives a seek, he can either accept the offer or ignore it. Both players could propose game modes sending as many seeks as they want, and at any time! But that would be silly in our case, so let's simplify this dramatically: 1 host player (P1) sends seek, A client player (P2) accepts seek: send "play" → 2 B P2 ignores seek: P2 can now send a seek A P1 accepts seek: send "play" → 2 B P1 ignores seek: → 1 2 game starts (http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/play.html) * A seek is accepted by sending the same seek back (with the exception of color choosing, where "any" always matches). >>jukey>> There is possible a special situation if you opponent is not using Miniature (which not allows the players to choose if they want to start the game manually or automaticly) and don't automaticly accept games. See fourth paragraph in http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/play.html : "If the ad calls for a manual start, the other user will be notified that you are challenging him/her to a match; he/she then can accept or decline your offer to play that match." In this case the description above changes into: 1 host player (P1) sends seek, A client player (P2) accepts seek: send "play" → 2 B P2 ignores seek: P2 can now send a seek A P1 accepts seek: send "play" → 2 A P2 using manual as seek parameter accepts the offer to play from P1 → 2 B P2 using manual as seek parameter declines the offer to play from P1 → 1 C P2 using manual as seek parameter accepts the offer to play from P1 but P1 is no more available (for example in an other game) → 3 B P1 ignores seek: → 1 2 game starts (http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/play.html) 3 P1 is shown as not ready to play >>mikhas>> telepathy has the concept of channels and resources. one channel would be the one of available players, and you would probably set your availibility much like in normal jabber chats if I understood that part correctly. <<mikhas<< <<jukey<<
C Moves ======= * In FICS, once it is your turn, it is sufficient to enter "e2-e4" to move your pawn, for example. * FICS sends the new position to each player, obviously this simplifies sync issues. So I think we should send sth like "move e2-e4; fen rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4/P/3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b". The FEN position string can be seen as checksum for the move, so we are able to always detect sync issues. In case of an sync issue, the FEN position *overrides* the move, and the error is logged (maybe even send "sync error" back to sender, so both peers are aware). How to handle that beyond logging the error, I do not know. Let's see if it really happens first. The more general approach is to have the receiving peer always confirm a move with a checksum, based on the position info it was able to compute, and the sending peer then compares this checksum, and complains. * The peers compute the status (check, checkmate, ...) themselves, based on the position info send * Move requests that are sent when it is not the player's turn should be silently discarded. >>jukey>> Maybe the client also should not be able to send a request if it is the opponents move. >>mikhas>> Not really needed, and one should not rely on that because of the inherent raciness. It is better to mostly define the protocol from the "what data should I accept in which state" point of view. <<mikhas<< <<jukey<<
D Takeback ========== * FICS is a bit funny here, showing its age wrt verbose & racy protocol implementation "takeback 2 - accept - withdraw", note how accept and withdraw can happen at the same time. http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/takeback.html * Again, let's simplify: "takeback n", request to take back n moves, answered by "takeback n" (the same n) to accept. Now it doesn't even matter who sends it first. 1 P1 sends "takeback n", A P2 accepts: send "takeback n" → 2 B P2 declines: nothing happens → 3. 2 N half-moves are taken back. 3 P2 or P1 sends his next move (notice how this can clash with a "takeback n" confirmation in case it was P1's turn, in which case the takeback confirmation should win, as P2 is free to ignore P1's move after confirming the takeback). * Same as with moves, we send: "takeback n; fen current/fen/pos/ w|b", so that the fen position is the one to be expected after takeback n would be performed (assuming we go without the general approach of sending checksums after every position change). * A takeback request can be simply ignored without further actions.
E Draw ====== * http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/draw.html * We don't support claiming a draw yet, but that will be easy to implement: before the other peer gets chance to say ok, "draw", we query the logic analyzer, which is entitled to enforce a technical "draw". * Otherwise, same as in takeback, without position sending: 1 P1 sends "draw", A P2 accepts: send "draw" → 2 B P2 declines: nothing happens → 3. 2 Game ends in draw. 3 P1 sends his next move (P2 is not allowed to demand a draw if it is not his turn, also, same conflict resolution as in takeback: draw confirmation wins over P1's move, and P2 is free to ignore the move).
F Resign ======== * http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/resign.html * Players can resign at any time, I guess? No confirmation by other player needed, game ends.
G Adjourn ========= * http://www.freechess.org/Help/HelpFiles/adjourn.html * I like the 2 cases presented on FICS, esp. the courtesy adjourn which handles time-outs gracefully. * Similar to draw and takeback: 1 P1 ran out of time, unresponsive A P2 sends "adjourn" → 3 (B P2 claims the win, not important yet for our case) 2 P1 sends "adjourn" A P2 accepts: send "adjourn" → 3 B P2 declines: nothing happens 3 Game is adjourned, both sides save the current position locally, game ends.
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