Re: What is "15", "Unknown cube decision"?

[Philippe Michel]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 04:47:31PM -0600, Murat K wrote:

> Since I have been running experiments using my Python
> scripts that I have shared on my web page, every now
> and then I get the "unknown cube decision" error when
> I call the "gnubg.cfevaluate()" function.
> 
> It's coming from line 3172 of "eval.c" at this link:
> 
> https://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/gnubg/gnubg/eval.c?revision=1.498&view=markup
> 
> In lines 3131-3172, there are 20 possible cases for
> cube decisions. They don't seem to be in the same
> order as "int recommendation" returned by the function
> since the value returned for the above error is "15".
> 
> Checking for the error after the fact is of no use and
> all I can do is to restart the script. I'm completely
> baffled by this pathetic error message that seems to be
> a tracing remnant of a tiny little bug that the GnuBG
> team has never been able to figure out and fix. :(
> 
> Would you be kind enough to look into this if you deem
> it an appropriate subject for this forum? Thanks.

The 15 corresponds to the "cube not available" case. Either there is 
something in your script that makes it occasionally double when it 
doesn't have cube access or there is someting wrong in the way gnubg 
handles beavers and raccoons. Do you have the log of a game where this 
happened ?

Anyway, even if it cannot happen when gnubg makes the cube decisions, 
it was a bit dumb to pass the opportunity to give a more explicit 
message. This will be fixed in the next release.