From: Arun Persaud Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:30:49 +0000 (+0000) Subject: better news page for 4.5.2 X-Git-Url: http://winboard.nl/cgi-bin?a=commitdiff_plain;h=f405e706c3b4fc28670fd582837b5534b0b3593c;p=xboard.git better news page for 4.5.2 --- diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/AdjuOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/AdjuOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63c2a13 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/AdjuOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/BoardOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/BoardOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b335dfb Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/BoardOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/Browse.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/Browse.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b18c909 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/Browse.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/ComOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/ComOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..283cfc5 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/ComOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/GenOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/GenOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..725baa5 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/GenOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/ICSOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/ICSOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfdb25f Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/ICSOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/LoadOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/LoadOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e12b2b Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/LoadOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/MatchOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/MatchOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa71064 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/MatchOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/NewVar.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/NewVar.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb2158c Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/NewVar.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/SaveOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/SaveOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c99572 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/SaveOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/SoundOpt.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/SoundOpt.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2edecb Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/SoundOpt.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/TextMenu.png b/whats_new/4.5.2/TextMenu.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf8964a Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.5.2/TextMenu.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.5.2/index.html b/whats_new/4.5.2/index.html index 4752115..be1fe58 100644 --- a/whats_new/4.5.2/index.html +++ b/whats_new/4.5.2/index.html @@ -2,26 +2,281 @@ XBoard - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation - NEWS

What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.5.2?

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Main new feature:

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  • Added many option dialogs and reworked some of the old ones
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Bugfixes, packaging and install:

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  • Fix nps bug
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  • Fix flipBlack option XBoard with board texture
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  • Fix two bugs in reading position diagram
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  • Fix parsing bug of FRC castling
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  • Fix bugs in FRC castling rights
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  • Fix display of promotion piece in ICS superchess
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  • Fix path browsing in WinBoard
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  • Fix use of game/position file in first match game
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  • Fix build on Mac OS X
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  • install bitmaps and sounds during "make install"
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  • some minor bug fixes
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  • code cleanup (e.g. 64 bit warnings, removed malloc.h)
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New dialogs through a universal dialog constructor

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+XBoard did already have a 'universal' dialog constructor, +for creating the Engine #N Settings popup based on the list of options sent by the engine. +This constructor has been adapted a little to not send the user-specified settings to the engine, +but set XBoard's internal options in stead. +This means that dialogs now can be added with very little effort, +by making a list of options containing the type (spin, check, string, combo, button), +name (= text to appear with the control) and XBoard internal option it should set. +

+This dialog constructor has been used to add Save and Load-Options dialogs +similar to those WinBoard already had to XBoard. +Because it is now totally trivial to add a new option to an existing dialog +(just add one line in the table specifying the options), +the Save-Options dialog has also be made to include the -savePositionFile. +

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A browse button with file or path-name options

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+Note that the dialog constructor now supports browse buttons next to text +fields that are intended for entering a file or path name. +Pressing this button summons up the file-selector dialog, +and the name of the selected file will be copied to the text field +on pressing OK there. +There have been other small improvements in the operation of the dialogs as well, +like checkboxes reacting to clicking on the accompanying text, +positioning the cursor in clicked text edits, and such. +

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Reorganiation of the XBoard Options menu

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+The XBoard 'Options' main menu used to hold all items to set options, +where a checkmark indicated the current stateof the option. +Apart from the fact that this obviously would not work for numeric or text options, +the number of options was growing so large that this became a bit of a clutter. +The univeral dialog constructor was used to group the actual items +sets of dialogs, which are then summoned from the Options main menu. +

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+The existing items roughly came in two kinds: +those that could always be used, +and those that only affected behavior in ICS play. +The latter were greyed-out from the menu in local modes. +The generally useful options were all moved to a "General Options" dialog, +except for "Ponder Next Move", which was really an engine-related option, +and was already contained as a duplicat in the "Common Engine" dialog. +The better capabilities of a dialog compared to a simple menu +were used to allow better specification of the "Flash Moves" option: +one can now actually enter the -flashRate and -flashCount settings through a spin control. +

+The ICS-related options were all moved to an "ICS Options" dialog, +which is then greyed-out as a whole in the main Options menu. +The new capabilities of the dialog were exploited for adding +options to set intial black and white premove texts, +the ICS Alarm setting, +and the text colorization in the ICS console. +

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Sounds and XBoard

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+The sounds in XBoards were a bit of a neglected feature. +Binary distribtions (such as Debian, Ubuntu) often did not even contain any sounds, +and a normal 'make install' from source left the sound files untouched in the source directory. +Configuring XBoard to use the sounds was therefore cumbersome, through many command-line options +not in the least because an external sound player is needed. +

+The new Sound Options dialog changes all that! +For every event there is a combobox where you can select a standard sound +(as supplied in the XBoard source package), +or a user-specified file (in a text edit at the top of the dialog). +A new option -soundDirectory has been added, which can also be set from the dialog, +where all the standard sounds will be sought. +(So if you just build XBoard and the binary is still sitting in the source directory, +setting the sound directory to "sounds"makes all the WAV files with the standard sounds +distributed in this subdirectory available.) +

+An extra combobox plus a 'Play' button for trying out a sound has been incorporated +in the dialog as well. +It still has to be decided if in the future sound files will be shipped with XBoard, +and if so, which will be included in the standard package. +

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Conducting engine matches interactively

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+A menu item has been added in XBoard to start an engine match. (WinBoard already had this.) +Formerly this was only possible by using the -mm (-matchMode) and -mg (-matchGames) on the comamand line, +and after the match XBoard would terminate automatically (possibly with an Exit popup with the match result). +When a match is started from the meu, you still will get this popup, but XBoard will not terminate. +

+To define the parameters for the match, XBoard now has a new "Match Options" dialog. +Here you can set the number of games, +the file to use for opening lines (-lgf = -loadGameFile) or start positions (-lpf = -loadPositionFile), +and the number of game or position to use from this file (-lgi / -loadGameIndex or -lpi / -loadPositionIndex). +As in the command-line option, a value of -1 for the index will specify it should increment after every game +(always starting at 1), and -2 after every 2 games. +The value at which the index should 'rewind' to 1 can also be given, all through spin controls. +

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Redesigning existing dialogs

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+Some of the existing dialogs (Common Engine, Adjudication Options, New Variant) have been redesigned, +to simplify the XBoard code, and to make use of the new features offered by the universal dialog constructor. +In this way the New Variant dialog has now be equipped with spin controls to set overrule the default board size +of the selected variant, +and operation has been made easier by using the variant selection button as menu items, +rather than selection buttons that you have to OK afterwards. +Clicking a variant now imemdiately selects it and closes the dialog. +

+The Common Engine settings and Adjudication Options dialogs now can use spin controls +rather than simple text edits for the numeric values. +

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Selecting files of a given type only

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+The file-selection dialog of XBoard now has the capability +to filter the files it displays by extension. +This is useful, as typically you are only interested in *.fen or *.epd +files when you are browsing for the purpose of opening a position file. +Without this feature the files you are looking for would easily drawn +in the background of other files. +

+The file-selection dialog now has an extra text field where you can +write one or more extensions (separated by spaces), +and only filenames that contain one of these as a substring are displayed. +(And directories; these are always displayed, in order to browse.) +XBoard initializes this field according to what command invoked +the file selector. +E.g. Load Game will ask for *.pgn and *.game files, +Load Position for *.fen, *.epd and *.pos files, +Save Game for *.pgn or *.pos files +(depending on if you have selected "old save style" or not), etc. +

+When the file selector is invoked through a browse buttonin another dialog, +it selects those files with the same extenstion as what is currently +in the field that you are selecting for. +Of course you can change the extension field by erasing what is there, +or typing your own extensions. +To have such a change take effect, you should type <Enter> while in this field. +

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Using the mouse wheel

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+An experimental feature in the file browser is the use of the mouse wheel. +Because of the way scroll bars work in X-applications, +they are rather hard to operate if you do not have a middle mouse button. +Laptops nowadays often use the right edge of the mouse touch pad +as mouse wheel, however. +Therefore operaton of the mouse wheel in the area of the file lists +or vertical scroll bars are made to scroll these lists. +Other refinements of the file-browse dialog are that double-clicking a filename counts as if you pressed 'OK', +as does typing <Enter> in the filename field. +Typing <Esc> there is equivaent to pressing 'cancel'. +

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Configuring the board look from the menu

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+There also has been created a new XBoard dialog for setting the Board Options, +such as square and piece colors (in the View menu). +This is still in an experimental stage, and probably not fully functional, or even buggy. +This is not so much because the dialog does not work, +but because the XBoard code is not really designed to change these during the session, +as many preparatory steps are done at startup, +which have to be redone with the new option settings for the latter to take effect, +and I have not yet identified them all. +But in any case changing the settings, quitting XBoard, and restarting it will work, +because the option changes are persistent. +

+The color settings of the various board elements can be changed by retyping the RGB code, +but it is also possible to slightly adjust the colors by spinlike buttons. +Because colors form a 3-dimensional space, this cannot be done by simple '+' and '-' buttons, +but requires four different adjustment directions: +buttons to make the color redder, greener, bluer or whiter. +

+Text-edits are provided to specify filenames for board texture, +and the directories with alternate piece images +(corresponding to the -bitmapDirectory and -pixmapDirectory command-line options). +

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Sending prepared commands to an ICS

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+This is an attempt to equip XBoard with something similar to the +WinBoard ICS context menu. +The user can define a set of buttons and a set of commands +to be send to the ICS when these buttons are pressed, +through the -icsMenu option. +The commands can be complete, such as "who" or "ptell I need a Queen!", +in which case they are sent to the ICS immediately. +But they can also contain the keyword $input, +in which case they will be placed in the ICS Input Box, +with the cursor at the place where the $input was +(which is deleted). +The user can then type something to complete the command, +and press <Enter> to send it. +E.g. "shout $input". +

+It is also possible to let the command contain something you select +with the mouse elsewhere. +Usually this is an ICS handle from the ICS console. +This is done by having the command contain the keyword $name, +e.g. "finger $name", or "tell $name $input". +You can also specify a command should not replace what is in the Input Box, +but rather append to it, +by having it start with $add. +This can be useful for bughouse players, +to quickly ask for a list of pieces. +

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