
xgammon.0.98.tar.gz, a prerelease backgammon program for Linux.

1.  Intro, description and changes
2.  How to make xgammon
2.1 Requirements
2.2 Troubles compiling xgammon ?
2.2 Troubles running xgammon ?
3.  Portations
4.  Bugs
5.  General Happiness


1.  Intro, description and changes:

    It is again still a prerelease.
   
    And it still has the same features:
   
    xgammon contains an X11/Xaw interface, 
    a simple file selector and saving dialog,
    You can edit positions and perform rollouts.
    Position dump to a mail file in the format used in backgammon newsgroups.
   
    They will probably really work now.
   
    And there are new features:
   
    Easier movement of stones, by simple button clicks.
    You can play against an opponent on a remote X-Terminal. (experimental).  
    See man page for detail.
   
    Additionally:

    The endgame database shrunk from 6.5Mb to only 3.2Mb now.
    An Imakefile is provided now.
    Thanks to thomas@ghpc8.ihf.rwth-aachen.de and
              Bart Skinner (bart@skinner.cs.uoregon.edu)
	   

    There were a LOT of bugfixes!
    But, it's playing abilities didn't increase ... (Sorry.)


2.  How to make xgammon

    First of all unpack the xgammon-0.98.tar.gz 

    gunzip xgammon-0.98.tar.gz
    tar xf xgammon-0.98.tar

    will do.

    xmkmf
    or
    imake

    generates the Makefile.

    make

    creates xgammon, lib/db lib/xgammon.db

    Before you

    make install 

    edit the last line of xgammon.ad file
    where you put the database. (Only if not in /usr/X386/lib/X11/xgammon)

    Then make install.

    
    There are precompiled binaries for linux in this packages,
    so you probably only need to install these.

    The default install section of the Makefile looks like this:
    install -c -s xgammon /usr/X386/bin
    install -c -m 0444 XGammon.ad /usr/X386/lib/X11/app-defaults/XGammon
    install -c -m 0444 lib/xgammon.db  /usr/X386/lib/X11/xgammon

    For "private" use change them to your liking.
    and either:

    cat xgammon.ad >> ~/.Xdefaults
    or
    xrdb -load xgammon.ad
    or
    fill in a line in your ~/.Xdefaults like
    "include "xgammon.ad"


    If you have trouble compiling xgammon, there is a simple makefile.1.
    cp makefile.1 makefile
    make
    make database
    will probably do the job in most cases.

2.1 Requirements

    To make xgammon requires a lexer.
    Using flex version 2.3 or above will surely do.
    But any other will be also all right.

    You also need an Xaw library.

2.2 Troubles compiling xgammon ?

    1. xgammon uses the usleep() function, which is not
       available on all systems. Either install gcc and
       libc on your system (a little afford, I know) or you may
       #define usleep(a) sleep (a)
       or some like that in xgammon.c, and set the
       .delaytime resource in xgammon.ad according to this definition. 
    
    2. the Xaw library is missing on some systems. You
       have to archie and ftp for it, no way.

    3. Some verions of imake on linux don't set $(LEXLIB).
       Append the entry -lf to your LOCAL_LIBRARIES, or
       whatever library your lexer needs.

2.3 Troubles running xgammon ?

    1. Sometimes xgammon comes up and at once crashes with
       an error message about a Bad Cursor parameter, or
       somthing alike. Most the times you only need to install
       the xgammon.ad file. (see above.)

    2. Sometimes starting xgammon on two displays will not work.
       Make sure the other display has set xhost +
       and the application defaults are set properly.

    3. With buttonmove true and playing on two displays,
       there seems to be no room for doubling, caused by some
       additional events. Play with buttonmove set false.
       

3.   Portations
     
     xgammon is ported to some systems:
     
     BSD	    thomas@ghpc8.ihf.rwth-aachen.de
     AIX    3.1     It was us.
     SunOS  4.1 4.2 bart@skinner.cs.uoregon.edu, was the first and many others.
     IRIX   5.5     jay@midas.syrres.com, Paul.Emsley@chem.gla.ac.uk
     
     Thanks for your help.
     
4.   Bugs

     1. There are bugs, please report them all.
        If you found one, email to the authors with the
        closest discription possible.

     2. Playing on 2 diplays will sometimes cause colors
        get lost. We couldn't work around this yet.
        Worse you may have a wrong cursor color on the other display.

     3. Events on the menus aren't checked with 2 displays open.
     

5.   General Happiness
     
     If you have any comments, suggestions or other information,
     please email:
          klasen@asterix.uni-muenster.de (Lambert Klasen)
          steuer@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de (Detlef Steuer)
     We would to very happy.
     We are still interested in further reports, porting this programs 
     to other systems.



	Thanks in advance.


	Lambert Klasen		Detlef Steuer

	klasen@asterix.uni-muenster.de (Lambert Klasen)
	steuer@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de (Detlef Steuer)

