[Gnushogi-devel] GNU shogi and XBoard

[h . g . muller]

I just pushed a new commit to my XBoard repository at hgm.nubati.net (xchu
branch) that pre-configures a number of oriental teams, each with their
own user settings file (e.g. ~/.xboard-shogi-rc in stead of ~/.xboardrc),
so that settings cannot leak between themes, but nevertheless are
persistent within a theme. They can be invoked by commands like

xboard @shogi

as XBoard now by default looks amongst its installed files for settings
files it could not find in the current directory. So if the user doesn't
have a file 'shogi', XBoard tries
/usr/share/games/xboard/themes/conf/shogi instead.

The file defines display settings (in this case with the supplied SVG
shogi pieces in .../themes/shogi). To make this possible I let XBoard now
expand ~~ at the beginning of any filename to its private data directory
/usr/share/games/xboard. (So I can say in the 'shogi' settings file things
like

-pieceImageDirectory ~~/themes/shogi

These theme settings files also define the variant and default engine
(when fairymax does not play that variant). Like

-variant shogi
-fcp gnushogi
-scp gnushogi

in the shogi file, and

-variant chu
-fcp hachu
-scp hachu

in the chu file. Peopl can still define their own engine if they take care
to do it AFTER the settings file, e.g.

xboard @shogi -fcp shokidoki

would overrule the -fcp definition in 'shogi'.

I also added some minor settings file to define a variant without
affecting display style (mini and sho). These can be used in the same way
as the theme settings files, alone or in combination with them. They might
also redefine the default engine, so the should be put on the command line
behind the theme settings file:

xboard @shogi @mini

which would then automatically invoke gnuminishogi, as that is the default
defines in ~~/themes/conf/mini, and overruled what ~/themes/conf/shogi
defined. Similarly,

xboard @shogi @sho

should invoke hachu by default. To play 'western style' you can use

xboard @sho
xboard @chu
xboard @mini
xboard @mini -fcp shokidoki

to get hachu, hachu, gnuminishogi and shokidoki, respectively.

H.G.