<!-- language, where necessary. -->
-<p>XBoard is a graphical user interface for chess in all its major forms, including international chess, xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess), in addition to many minor variants such as Losers Chess, Crazyhouse, Chess960 and Capabanca Chess. It displays a chessboard on the screen, accepts moves made with the mouse, and loads and saves games in Portable Game Notation (PGN). It serves as a front-end for many different chess services, including:</p>
+<p>XBoard is a graphical user interface for chess in all its major
+forms, including international chess, xiangqi (Chinese chess),
+shogi (Japanese chess) and Makruk, in addition to many minor variants such as
+Losers Chess, Crazyhouse, Chess960 and Capabanca Chess. It displays a
+chessboard on the screen, accepts moves made with the mouse, and loads
+and saves games in Portable Game Notation (PGN). It serves as a
+front-end for many different chess services, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>
-Chess engines that will run on your machine and play a game against you or help you analyze, such as GNU Chess, Crafty, or many others.</li>
-
-<li>Chess servers on the Internet, where you can connect to play chess with people from all over the world, watch other users play, or just hang out and chat.</li>
-
-<li>Correspondence chess played by electronic mail. The CMail program automates the tasks of parsing email from your opponent, playing his moves out on your board, and mailing your reply move after you've chosen it.</li>
+Chess engines that will run on your machine and play a game against
+you or help you analyze, such as GNU Chess, Crafty, or many
+others.</li>
+
+<li>Chess servers on the Internet, where you can connect to play chess
+with people from all over the world, watch other users play, or just
+hang out and chat.</li>
+
+<li>Correspondence chess played by electronic mail. The CMail program
+automates the tasks of parsing email from your opponent, playing his
+moves out on your board, and mailing your reply move after you've
+chosen it.</li>
</ul>
-<p>XBoard runs on Unix and Unix-like systems that use the X Window System. </p>
+<p>XBoard runs on Unix and Unix-like systems that use the X Window
+System. </p>
<h3>Winboard</h3>
-<p>The project also includes a port to 32-bit Windows systems called WinBoard.</p>
-<p>Development for Winboard as well as downloading it, reporting bugs and any other requests can be done at the same places as for XBoard.</p>
+<p>The project also includes a port to 32-bit Windows systems called
+WinBoard.</p>
+
+<p>You can find the download section for the stable version of Winboard at
+the <a href="http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewforum.php?f=19">Winboard
+Forum</a> or try the link to a beta-version in the <a href="#download">download section</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Development for Winboard, reporting bugs and any other requests can
+also be done at the same places as for XBoard (see below).</p>
+
+<h3> What's new </h3>
+<p> Starting from 4.5.0 we will summarize the latest changes at <a href="whats_new.html">these</a> webpages. You can also find information about the next upcoming release here.
+Have a look, try it out (download links below) and let us know what you think.</p>
+
+<h3>Help needed</h3>
+
+<p>We can always need more people to help out with XBoard/Winboard. Have a look at the following list in case you are interested:</p>
+
+<h4>Testers </h4>
+<p> We are always looking for people who are willing to test the latest new features and give us feedback or new ideas. If you are interested, please send an email to our list at <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org"><xboard-devel@gnu.org></a> or just try out the program and reports bugs either to the email list or to the bug-tracker (see <a href="#download">below</a> for links).</p>
+
+<h4>GTK developer needed</h4>
+<p> We are also working on merging Winboard and XBoard back into one version using a cross platform GTK-front end. This will help us clean up the code and make things like internationalization easier. Progress is slow though, so if you know want to help out there are lots of things waiting to be done. Email the <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org">mailing list</a> for more information. </p>
+
+<h4>EPD test-suite capability</h4>
+<p>A sort of match mode where one engine automatically does a number of 'games',
+(using a position file filled with EPDs as starting positions),
+except that each 'game' lasts only for one move, and the 'result' is then computed
+by XBoard depending on if this move was the correct solution specified in the EPD.</p>
+
+<h4>Multi-board ICS mode</h4>
+<p>Implement a slave mode where XBoard forks itself, connecting a pipe between
+what normally would be the ICS socket of the child, and a new output channel
+of the parent, so that the parent can forward board and move lists belonging to
+a specific game to the slave dedicated to display it.</p>
+
+<h4>Allow run-time loading / unloading of engines</h4>
+<p>A tricky issue, because in the current code initializing the engine is intertwined
+with initializing XBoard. And the whole idea is to be able to switch engine without
+losing your current settings or indeed your current game. So it will require some
+good thought about which options need to be reset (like -fd, for sure), and which
+should be kept.</p>
+
+<h4>Implement a tournament manager in XBoard</h4>
+<p>Currently XBoard supports only two-player matches. If run-time changing of the
+engine becomes possible, it wold be nice if people could also perform automatic
+round-robins or gauntlets between a group of engines.</p>
+
+<h4>Processing of engine PVs before display</h4>
+<p>Currently XBoard just displays what the engine prints for PV in its thinking output
+literally. Which often means long algebraic. It would be nice if the user can choose
+the display format, so it can be SAN or even some other format (e.g. descriptive
+notation or some specific Xangqi or Shogi format), possibly through invoking an
+external processor.</p>
+
+<h4>Update the documentation</h4>
+<p>The documentation could need some updates. In our effort to merge
+Winboard and XBoard back together, we also want to merge the RTF file
+back into the XBoard texinfo file. This will take some effort though,
+since the two versions still differ in several areas and this would
+need to be highlighted. The benefit would be though that we could
+prepare a much better and up to date Windows documentation.
+</p>
-<h3>Downloading XBoard/Winboard</h3>
+<h4>Update the webpage</h4>
+<p>The content of the webpage could be updated with screenshots from
+the latest version. We also have a new tutorial that could be
+integrated. The webpage should also be integrated with git, so that
+all developers have access to it.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="download"></a>Downloading XBoard</h3>
<h4>stable version</h4>
-<p>The current stable version is: <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">4.2.7</a></p>
+<p>The current stable version
+is: <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">4.5.2a</a></p>
+
<p>It can be found on the main GNU ftp server:
<a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/</a> (via http) and
<a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/</a> (via ftp).</p>
-<p>The Winboard binaries can also be found at those locations in the winboard directory (<a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/winboard/">http</a>,<a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/winboard/">ftp</a>)</p>
-<p>It can also be found on one of the <a href="/prep/ftp.html">mirrors of
-ftp.gnu.org</a>;
+<p>It can also be found on one of the <a href="/prep/ftp.html">mirrors
+of ftp.gnu.org</a>;
please <a href="http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/xboard">use a mirror</a> if
possible.</p>
-<h4>Popular stable forks (will be merged back in the next release)</h4>
+<p>Precompiled versions are available
+for <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Factory:/Contrib/">openSUSE</a>
+and <a href="http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/xboard">debian-squeeze</a>
+(if you know of other distribution that package it, please let us
+know).</p>
+
+<h4>development version</h4>
+
+<p>It would be great if people would like to help in the developing process. We can use all kinds of help, from people who just use the software and have a feature request (send them to developer mailing list), to people who can update/check the documentation and especially people who test development versions (send problems to the developer mailing list). </p>
+
+<p>At the moment we have three developer versions:</p>
+
<ul>
-<li>Winboard_x 4.2.7b by Alessandro Scotti (<a href="http://www.ascotti.org/programming/chess/winboard_x.htm">http://www.ascotti.org/programming/chess/winboard_x.htm</a>)</li>
-<li> XBoard / WinBoard 4.3.15 by H.G.Muler (<a href="http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=49439">http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=49439</a>)</li>
+<li>A snapshot of the v4.5.x branch: <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/"> (4.5.2 is the latest, so nothing new here) </a>. <br />
+This will become version 4.5.3. Precompiled packaged versions are/will be available for <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/apersaud/">openSUSE </a>, <a href="http://packages.debian.org/experimental/xboard">debian</a> and <a href="http://hgm.nubati.net/ ">Windows</a>.
+
+<li>A snapshot of the master branch: <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/"> master-20110411 </a>. <br />
+The master branch includes the development for v4.5.x and also has some more experimental features that need more testing and/or debugging. Precompiled packaged versions are available for <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/apersaud/">openSUSE </a>, <a href="http://packages.debian.org/experimental/xboard">debian</a> and <a href="http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-4.5.0.exe ">Windows</a>.
+
+</li>
+<li>A snapshot of the gtk branch: <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">gtk-20100806</a>. <br />
+ In the gtk branch we are working on merging Winboard and Xboard back together using a gtk-frontend. This code doesn't work 100% yet, it will crash quite often, but you can almost play normal games against a machine already. A precompiled version is available for <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/apersaud/">openSUSE</a>.</li>
</ul>
-<h4>development version</h4>
+<h5>How to build the development version</h5>
+
+<h6>git version</h6>
+<p> After cloning the git-repository, do ./autogen.sh, ./configure and then a make.</p>
-<p>Current unstable version: <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">4.4.0.beta1</a> (2009-07-15)</p>
+<h6>tar-balls</h6>
+<p> Unpack the tar ball and do ./configure followed by make.</p>
-<p>For development sources and other information, please see the <a
-href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/">XBoard project page</a> at <a
-href="http://savannah.gnu.org">savannah.gnu.org</a>.</p>
-<p>At the moment we are working hard on version 4.4.0, which should be out soon (that is summer 2009)</p>
-<p>A snapshot of the latest source code is available at the <a href="http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/xboard.git">git repository</a> on Savannah.</p>
-<p> We also have test-packages available for debian (link will be available in the next few days, that is mid of 2009-07) and <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/apersaud/">opensuse</a> (rpm). Furthermore you can get a .tar.gz and a Windows executable from <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard</a>. Keep in mind that these are still <strong>beta</strong>.</p>
+<p>For development sources and other information, please see
+the <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/">XBoard project
+page</a> at <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org">savannah.gnu.org</a>.</p>
+
+<p>A snapshot of the latest source code for all branches is available at
+the <a href="http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/xboard.git">git
+repository</a> on Savannah.</p>
+
+<h4>archive</h4>
+
+<p>You can also find an archive of old versions on <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/old-gnu/xboard/">the ftp server</a>.</p>
<h3>Documentation</h3>
-<p><a href="manual/">Documentation for XBoard</a> is available online, as
-is <a href="/manual/">documentation for most GNU software</a>. You may
-also find more information about XBoard by running <em>info xboard</em>
-or <em>man xboard</em>, or by looking at <em>/usr/doc/xboard/</em>,
+<p><a href="manual/">Documentation for XBoard</a> is available online,
+as is <a href="/manual/">documentation for most GNU software</a>. You
+may also find more information about XBoard by
+running <em>info xboard</em> or <em>man xboard</em>, or by
+looking at <em>/usr/doc/xboard/</em>,
<em>/usr/local/doc/xboard/</em>, or similar directories on your system.</p>
+<p>The Chess Engine Communication Protocol can be found <a href="engine-intf.html">here</a>.</p>
<h3>Screenshots</h3>
-<p>These are screenshots taken from the development version 4.4.0 (click to enlarge).</p>
+<p>These are screenshots taken from version 4.4.0 (click to enlarge).</p>
<a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0.png" alt=" [screenshot normal game] " height="200" /></a>
<a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-variant.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-variant.png" alt=" [screenshot bughouse game] " height="200" /></a>
<a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-showgi.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-showgi.png" alt=" [screenshot bughouse game] " height="200" /></a>
<li> XBoard/Winboard
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html">Tim's original pages</a> are still available.</li>
- <li> XBoard can also run engines that use the UCI protocol, with the aid of the Polyglot protocol adapter.
- A new Polyglot version, (1.4.30b), especially adapted to support the new features of XBoard 4.4.0, can
- be found <a href="http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algebra/Toga/polyglot-release/">here</a>.</li>
+ <li> XBoard can also run engines that use the UCI protocol, with
+ the aid of the Polyglot protocol adapter. A new Polyglot
+ version, (1.4.30b), especially adapted to support the new
+ features of XBoard 4.4.0, can be
+ found <a href="http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algebra/Toga/polyglot-release/">here</a>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Incomplete list of computer engines that work with XBoard
<p>A very active forum is the <a href="http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/">WinBoard Forum</a> (where our current main developer HGM can be found).</p>
-<h3>Reporting Bugs</h3>
+<h3>Reporting Bugs and Requesting New Features</h3>
<p> If you think you found a bug, please check the <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=xboard">bugtracker</a> for open and already closed bugs. If you found a new bug, please, file a bug-report either via our bug-related email list or in the <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=xboard">bugtracker</a>.
-<!-- will be in the next release
+<p> For feature requests, please use our mailinglist: <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org"><xboard-devel@gnu.org></a>.</p>
+
+<!-- will be in one of the next releases
-<h3>Translating XBoard</h3>
<p>To translate XBoard's messages into other languages, please see the <a
<p>Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date$
+$Date: 2011/05/02 03:58:14 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
projects / xboard.git / blobdiff