Zippy README file
For version xboard/WinBoard 4.2.4 and later only
-$Id$
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Zippy is a program that lets GNU Chess act as a computer player on an
tends to work poorly because it is dull when shouted in isolated
250-character chunks.
- --Tim Mann <tim@tim-mann.org>
+ --Tim Mann
http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html
* * *
If you have problems building or running Zippy, see the rest of the
xboard documentation: INSTALL documents the configure program, while
-READ_ME and xboard.man (or xboard.doc) document xboard itself, and
+READ_ME and xboard.man (or xboard.txt) document xboard itself, and
WinBoard.hlp documents WinBoard. FAQ answers some frequently asked
questions. The file engine-intf.html contains some information about
the interface between xboard/WinBoard and GNU Chess (or other chess
does not work. Instead, use the -zippyGameEnd option to have
a string of several commands sent, with newlines in between.
For example, you could give WinBoard the command line option
- -zippyGameEnd='say thanks\nseek 5 0\nseek 2 12\n'
- You could give xboard the command line option
- -xrm '*zippyGameEnd: say thanks\nseek 5 0\nseek 2 12\n'
+ -zippyGameEnd=\"say thanks\\nseek 5 0\\nseek 2 12\\n\"
+ Note the extra backslashes: these are essential, because the
+ shell will strip them from the command before passing it to
+ XBoard, and XBoard needs to see the quotes (which would
+ otherwise be stripped by the shell as well), because only within
+ quotes it will recognize the \n as a linefeed.
-zippyAdjourn True/False or -zadj/-xzadj
Zippy will allow its opponent to adjourn if this option is
starts a game between Zippy and the first opponent to respond,
giving Zippy no choice about whether to accept or decline.
+ -zippyShortGame int
+ If zippyShortGame > 0, Zippy will decline all challenges
+ from an opponent that terminated a game before the given number
+ of ply (with an explanatory tell) until either someone else has
+ played or zippyReplayTimeout seconds have elapsed. Do not set
+ the number of moves to large; the number of ply during which
+ opponents can abort a game without rating change would be a
+ good setting. Default: zippyShortGame=0.
+
=====================
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
=====================
the middle (as with resuming from adjournments or switching opponents
in a simul).
+As noted under -zippyPlay above, you should have -getMoveList on to
+ensure that the engine knows the game history after switching boards
+and thus handles draw by repetition and by the 50-move rule correctly.
+It should, however, also work to turn off this option to speed things
+up and reduce network bandwidth, if you don't mind the engine
+occasionally failing to see draw possibilities. Unfortunately,
+though, with Crafty 18.3 (and probably other versions too) as the
+engine, users trying this have experienced Crafty crashes. This looks
+to me like a Crafty bug, but I wasn't able to reproduce it, so it
+remains a mystery.
+
+
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EXAMPLES
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