I am re-posting this, because it might have been overlooked, buried somewhere down in the big thread:
I have just tried it, yes also with disabled EGTBs I encounter this problem on my configuration. (Win2k, Athlon TB 1,1Ghz, Winboard 4.2.7). I ran 3 tests now, one with Ruffian (an engine that sends feature done=0, and two with Gothmog 0.4.7, with EGTBs enabled and finally disabled. All 3 debug files below.One question: Does the problem persist even if you disable tablebases?
Tord
The way I would interpret this:
the second engine receives the xboard and protover 2. If the second engine is Ruffian, it immediately sends back feature done=0 to Winboard and then initialises, sends its features and only after having sent done=1 it receives the new etc. All is synchronised and in sequence.
When Gothmog as second engine however receives xboard and protover 2 it does not react at all, Winboard waits and after a timeout of 10000 it just continues to send the new etc.. 4000 (without EGTBs) or 12000 (with EGTBs) after that Gothmog however starts sending its features, too late. Maybe my machine is slow, on other machines Gothmog may send its features already after 9000 (instead of 14000 and 22000 respectively) and the problem does not hit, because it is still within the timeout. So the problem may only occur on certain machines, but on those machines it is reproducable. Disabling the tablebases changes the timing but not enough, Gothmog is still 4000 too slow. But anyway the clean solution is to synchronise by sending the feature done=0 and done=1.
Robert
Ruffian:
recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
WinBoard 4.2.7 + Ruffian
Reset(1, 0) from gameMode 0
recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
GameEnds(0, (null), 2)
StartChildProcess (dir="f:\chess\ruffian") Ruffian
621 >first : xboard
protover 2
651 second: go
21631 first : time 30185
otim 30193
21641 >first : g8f6
21731 second: time 30193
otim 30375
21741 >second: c2c4
21811 first : time 30375
otim 30385
21821 >first : e7e6
21891 second: time 30385
otim 30567
21891 >second: g1f3
21992 first : time 30567
otim 30574
22002 >first : f8b4
22092 second: time 30574
otim 30756
22102 >second: c1d2
22182 first : time 30756
otim 30766
22182 >first : d8e7
22252 second: time 30766
otim 30949
22262 >second: g2g3
22332 first : time 30949
otim 30958
22342 >first : b7b6
22412 second: time 30958
otim 31141
22412 >second: f1g2
22492 first : time 31141
otim 31149
22502 >first : c8b7
22572 second: time 31149
otim 31333
22582 >second: e1g1
22653 first : time 31333
otim 31341
22663 >first : b4d2
22753 second: time 31341
otim 31524
22753 >second: d1d2
22833 first : time 31524
otim 31533
22833 >first : e8g8
22913 second: time 31533
otim 31716
22923 >second: b1c3
23013 first : time 31716
otim 31723
23023 >first : d7d5
23093 second: time 31723
otim 31908
23103 >second: c4d5
23173 first : time 31908
otim 31915
23173 >first : e6d5
25857 first : force
26608 >first : ping 2
26608 >second: force
26608 >second: ping 2
26618 >first : new
random
26618 >first : level 0 5 2
26618 >first : post
26618 >first : hard
26618 >first : easy
26618 >first : ping 3
26638 second: quit
gothmog with EGTBs:
recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
WinBoard 4.2.7 + Ruffian
Reset(1, 0) from gameMode 0
recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
GameEnds(0, (null), 2)
StartChildProcess (dir="f:\chess\ruffian") Ruffian
601 >first : xboard
protover 2
631 second: hard
22122 >second: easy
22122 >second: force
22122 >first : computer
22122 >second: computer
22122 >first : black
22122 >first : time 30000
otim 30000
22122 >first : white
22122 >first : go
22132 second: time 30000
otim 30199
22132 >second: d2d4
22132 >second: black
22132 >second: go
34480 second: accepted ping
34490 second: accepted setboard
34490 second: accepted san
34490 second: accepted usermove
34490 second: accepted time
34490 second: accepted sigint
34490 second: accepted sigterm
34490 second: accepted reuse
34490 second: accepted analyze
34490 second: accepted ics
34490 second: accepted colors
34490 second: accepted myname
34490 second: accepted done
34540 first : d2d4
34550 first : force
43523 >first : ping 2
43523 >second: force
43523 >second: ping 1
43533 >first : new
random
43533 >first : level 0 5 2
43533 >first : post
43533 >first : hard
43533 >first : easy
43533 >first : ping 3
43533 first : quit
45886 >second: quit
Gothmog without EGTBs:
recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
WinBoard 4.2.7 + Ruffian
Reset(1, 0) from gameMode 0
recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
GameEnds(0, (null), 2)
StartChildProcess (dir="f:\chess\ruffian") Ruffian
601 >first : xboard
protover 2
631 second: hard
22893 >second: easy
22893 >second: force
22893 >first : computer
22893 >second: computer
22893 >first : black
22893 >first : time 30000
otim 30000
22893 >first : white
22893 >first : go
22903 second: time 30000
otim 30199
22903 >second: d2d4
22903 >second: black
22903 >second: go
26759 second: accepted ping
26759 second: accepted setboard
26759 second: accepted san
26759 second: accepted usermove
26759 second: accepted time
26759 second: accepted sigint
26759 second: accepted sigterm
26759 second: accepted reuse
26759 second: accepted analyze
26759 second: accepted ics
26769 second: accepted colors
26779 second: accepted myname
26779 second: accepted done
26779 first : c2c4
26869 first : force
33739 >first : ping 2
33739 >second: force
33739 >second: ping 1
33749 >first : new
random
33749 >first : level 0 5 2
33749 >first : post
33749 >first : hard
33749 >first : easy
33749 >first : ping 3
33749 first : quit
36002 >second: quit