From: H.G. Muller Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:06:16 +0000 (+0100) Subject: Update 4.7.0 news X-Git-Url: http://winboard.nl/cgi-bin?p=xboard.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=2c1df5d1873f474cfe7217f82330e559aa1037e9 Update 4.7.0 news --- diff --git a/whats_new/4.7.0/Border.png b/whats_new/4.7.0/Border.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84517ca Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.7.0/Border.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.7.0/Themes.png b/whats_new/4.7.0/Themes.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83ebd29 Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.7.0/Themes.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.7.0/Transpa.png b/whats_new/4.7.0/Transpa.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..423da2a Binary files /dev/null and b/whats_new/4.7.0/Transpa.png differ diff --git a/whats_new/4.7.0/index.html b/whats_new/4.7.0/index.html index ce5916f..864758e 100644 --- a/whats_new/4.7.0/index.html +++ b/whats_new/4.7.0/index.html @@ -4,11 +4,9 @@ -

What will be new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.7.0?

+

What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.7.0?

-

So far the development version has:

-

Interactive Analysis

Other New Functionality

@@ -34,24 +34,40 @@
  • Starting WinBoard through drag & drop
  • -Recalling configured engines and ICS from the command line +Recalling configured engines and ICS +
  • +Creating an opening book +
  • +Pausing a game
    • +    		 +

    Interface Improvements

    		 @@ -454,6 +470,133 @@ This would imply the -is option. So you can connectto FICS by simply typing "xboard fics".

    +

    Pieces from external bitmap files

    +
    +

    +WinBoard supports user-supplied pieces through piece fonts, which are scalable to any board size. +In addition it is now possible to load bitmaps from an external file. +Because bitmaps are not scalable, this needs a separate set for each square size. +Like the built-in piece bitmaps, it furthermore needs three bitmaps per piece type: +outline (o) for the white pieces, solid (s) for the black pieces, and a mask (w) to indicate the interior. +A difference with the built-ins is that the solid and outline bitmaps can be in full color. +By specifying the folder containing the complete set of bitmaps with the -pieceImageDirectory option, +WinBoard can be made to use them. +Piece bitmaps in this format are available in the Alex Guerrero's WinBoard-Zeta distribution. +Missing bitmaps will automatically be replaced by built-ins. +

    +

    Border around the board

    +

    +The option -useBorder true|false can be used to switch a half-square-wide border around the board, +filled in from an external bitmap specified with the -border option. +Specifying a non-existing file will produce a border in the -whitePieceColor. +When a border is specified, the board coordinates will be drawn in that region. +

    +    		 + +
    +Using WinBoard Zeta's Maya pieces and Wood_2 border +
    + +
    + + +

    Themes

    +

    +WinBoard now allows combinations of graphics settings to be stored and recalled as 'themes'. +A new menu dialog View -> Themes is added to control the settings for board and pieces +that are new, or could not be controlled by the View->Board dialog. +It also contains a 'Theme name' field, and by typing a name there, +the current graphics settings will be added as a theme with that name in the theme list, +displayed in the listbox on the left. +The settings can then be recalled at any time by double-clicking the theme name in that listbox. +

    +The themes are stored as the -themeNames option in the settings file. +This is a multi-line option similar to the list of engines or ICS, +one line per theme, starting with the theme name, +and containing all option settings for that theme. +Only relevant options are included with the theme; +e.g. when the theme uses board textures, there is no need to store square colors. +

    +
    + +

    Creating an opening book from a PGN file

    +

    +It is now possible to 'compile' an opening book (in Polyglot format) from one or more game files. +A new menu item File -> Create Opening Book will add the positions (upto the given -bookDepth) of all games in the file +to a memory buffer. +After all games have been added, the buffer is saved as a Polyglot book of the name specified for GUI book. +The buffer is not cleared afterwards, +so this process could be repeated a number of times, +to accumulate the positions from several game files. +The importance of this feature is that it also works in any of the variants; +for Chess there already existed other oftware that could do this. +

    + +

    Analyzing a position by playing many fast games

    +

    +Another way to create or refine a book is by 'Monte-Carlo' game play. +With the option -mcBookMode the book-probing algorithm is altered: +probing is not done from a book file, but from the memory buffer that is used to create a book. +Games that are played are added to this memory buffer as soon as they finish. +Probing is done in a way to promote diversity, +although moves that on average produce better results are chosen much more frequently than moves with a poor performance record. +When the moves are played in the ratio they deserve, a book miss is reported, so that the choice is left to the engine. +This can then also provide moves that were so far not in the book. +By playing matches with randomizing engines, +or tourneys with many different, approximately equally strong engines in this mode, +a book can be built from scratch. +Of course these match and tourneys could use an arbitrary starting position. +After having collected enough games, a Polyglot book can be made from the resulting PGN file. +

    + +

    Pausing a game

    +

    +The Pause (P) button in the button bar, as well as 'Pause' menu item, +now also function when the engine is thinking. +The pause / resume commands defined in WB protocol will be used to suspend all activity of the engine +(be it thinking or pondering), +for engines that support those commands. +If the currently thinking engine doesn't support them, +the effect of pressing Pause will only commence once the engine moves. +The pondering engine will be suspended with the aid of easy / hard commands if it does not support pause / resume. +

    + +

    Resizable board with anti-aliased pieces

    +
    + + +

    +The graphics code of XBoard now has been re-written to us the Cairo graphics library. +Apart from being a huge cosmetic improvement, this change will affect the user in several ways. +For one, pixmaps (.xpm) and bitmaps (.bm) are no longer supported as formats for user-supplied piece images. +As a consequence the options -bitmapDirectory and -pixmapDirectory have been abolished. +The new XBoard supports two image formats: *.png and *.svg. +The user can specify a piece set of either format through the new option -pieceImageDirectory (short form: -pid). +The naming convention of the piece images has also been changed, +and the image files must now have names like WhiteBishop.png or BlackKnight.svg. +

    +
    +

    +The SVG images are scalable, and this has opened the possibility to allow continuous resizing of the board window. +The Cairo library provides good anti-aliasing, and even PNG graphics can be resized to a certain degree before it starts to look ugly. +Note that the new XBoard no longer contains built-in piece images in its binary, +but relies on a default set of external piece images (stored with its data files) even when you don't specify a -pieceImageDirectory. +

    +The Cairo library also supports transparency, and the background of the supplied piece images has to be fully transparent. +XBoard also uses trasparency when dragging pieces for entering moves to exclude from analysis; +in this case the 'ghost' of the piece that you are dragging will be redered semi-transparently. +

    + +

    An experimental GTK port of XBoard

    +

    +The new source code can optionally be built using the GTK widget set in stead of the (by now very obsolete) Athena widget set. +A simple switch option during configure can be used to request this. +The only difference should be that the dialogs look prettier. +Note that the GTK build is still in an experimental stage, +and could contain many bugs and imperfections, including some things that are simply not implemented yet (such as key bindings). +This holds even for GTK builds made from versions for which the Xaw build is declared stable. +

    +

    Fixed bugs

    Some bugs were encountered and reported during the refactoring process,