Computer go programming: Encyclopedia II - Computer go programming - Language choice

Computer go programming - Language choice

Several languages have been used to make successful computer Go playing software, and each language has it's own advantages and disadvantages. C and C++ are generally considered to result in faster executables than many other languages, and for this reason programs which perform extensive searches, or have other large performance bottlenecks will often be programmed in C or C++. Examples include GnuGo, Many Faces of Go, and Go++.

Java as well has been a popular choice for Go software as it provided speeds close to that of C and C++, but offers more memory management support and platform independency. This language has been used for several online Go playing applets as well stand-alone projects. The program Gosharp is programmed in C#, which also compiles to speeds close to that of C and C++ and provides memory management assistance. C#, like Java, also has the benefit of a wide variety of standard libraries to assist in programming.

Several other languages have been used for making Go programs, especially when speed is not as large a concern. Lisp, and Prolog were both designed for AI tasks and are especially well suited for rule based systems.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Language choice", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki