From: @prism.cs.orst.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.corewar
Subject: Copycat and more
Date: 19 Nov 92 06:32:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: flop.1efceeINN85l
Organization: CS Dept, Oregon State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: prism.cs.orst.edu


I couldn't believe if there is any of us who would rather grab somebody else's
code, rename it without make any reasonable changes, submit it to KotH and 
perceive it as his own thereafter.  Even though we modify one or two lines, 
we still could justify how much contribution we made on the success of 
program. I think it is a very nice thing for people to have ways to accredit 
the author of program they borrowed.

This copycatting is normal as far as we keep respecting the ethics we all know.
To come to the pure and original concepts is a very rare situation. Even though
it is pure, it also has to be success. We wouldn't have programs such as
Charon, Crimp, No Mucking About and others if the original concept (CMP scanner)
is limited to one. And similarly for other concepts such as B-scanner, paper,
slaver, bomber, IMPs, anti-IMPs etc

Now, imagine a situation when somebody submitted his program into KotH. And
somehow, his program inspired two other people who never know each other.
Both developed the same techniques and submitted the almost similar programs.
Both were success. Then who claimed the original ideas? 

This might be the exact situation of the current debate about Impressive and
Imprimis.

And another one: a 'gate'. I called this 'IMPs gate' in my first posting since
there was no other term of using this kind of technique. And then P.Kline 
started referring this to my name and made it public without asking me any 
permission. Not long after, I think it was Campbell Fraser, described that he
also implemented the very same technique in his No More Mucking About. We never
talked each other. But, Beholder's Eyes (Modified B-scanners live in vain)
and No More Mucking About were the two scanners which occupied the very
high positions at the time after Anders published his IMPire. There was
no Campbell's posting (At least my local system doesn't receive it) and my
posting was distributed locally (My apologize to those who didn't receive it).
We both came to the same idea of using pre-decrement DAT to protect scanner
from IMPs independently. I stated this as non-unique (but original) technique
to avoid this kind of copycatting problem.

Below are three source codes. Two of them are repost of my previous ones to
those who haven't received it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
;redcode
;name Beholder's Eye v1.1
;author W. Mintardjo
;strategy Modified B-Scanners Live in Vain (Matt Hastings) with IMPs immunity
;kill Beholder's Eye v1.1

step    EQU 2234
init    EQU -2

main    ADD #step, 3
        JMZ -1, @2
        MOV jump, @1
        MOV snow, <init
        JMN -4, -4
snow    SPL 0, <0
        MOV 2, <-6
jump    JMP -1, 0
        DAT <-92 ,<-2

        END main

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
;redcode
;name Winter Werewolf
;author W. Mintardjo
;strategy SPL/JMP bomber with 2 pass core-clear (SPL/DAT) + self-defense
;strategy against IMPs

step    EQU     153
init    EQU     152
n       EQU     (12*8)-2

        DAT     <-4-n, #0
m       MOV     -1, 0-n
        JMP     2
snow    SPL     0, <-3-step-n
main    MOV     hold, @3
        MOV     snow, <2
        ADD     #step, 1
        JMP     main, init      ; Hit here
        MOV     @-4, <n
hold    JMP     -1, 1

        END     m

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

;redcode
;name Medusa's v2
;author W. Mintardjo
;strategy Old CMP scanner with anti-IMPs
;strategy Submitted: @date@

CDIST   equ 12
IVAL    equ 28
FIRST   equ scan-OFFSET+IVAL
OFFSET  equ 5324

scan    sub data,comp
comp    cmp FIRST-CDIST,FIRST
        slt #data-comp+CDIST+1,comp
        djn scan,<FIRST+163
        mov #CDIST,count
split   mov bomb,<comp
count   djn split,#0
        add #CDIST,comp
        jmz scan,scan-1
bomb    spl 0, <0-IVAL+1
incr    mov data, <bomb-1
        jmp incr, <0-IVAL-1
data    DAT <0-IVAL, <0-IVAL

        end comp

Note about this program: The original version of this is due to Stefan Strack's
Agony 2.4b. Ok, so old cmp-scanner was Agony 2.4b. And I decided to redesign 
this program to create a more sophisticate cmp-scanner with spl carpet bombing 
+ imp defense.
As it can be inspected, the only things unchanged from Agony 2.4b are: 
its constants, variable names, and the way it scan which is implemented in most 
of cmp-scanner: ADD, CMP, SLT and DJN. I have acknowledged Stefan Strack about 
how I derive Medusa's.

--- W. Mintardjo
Newsgroups: rec.games.corewar