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- This document describes the changes made to GoServant from version
- 0.60->0.70->0.72->1.00. Users of older versions may read this to
- become familiar with the new features. New users should READ THE
- GS0.60.DOC FILE FIRST!! PLEASE!! (Particularly the first secion of
- that manual.)
-
-
- GoServant 0.70 Additions
- ========================
-
- 1) Client mode
-
- GoServant 0.70 now handles client mode, so you can "toggle client on"
- and it will work. The major (only?) advantage to this is that non-
- verbose moves will contain the time remaining for each player, and
- GoServant will process these time values (see section 2). Everything
- in client mode will look the same, except that there will be numbers
- at the start of most lines (just ignore them), and you will no longer
- see the "#>" prompt. Instead, a line beginning with 1 is the prompt.
- In particular, when logging on, you will NOT see "Password:" if you
- have client mode on. Instead, you will see "1 1". Type your password
- as soon as you see this.
-
- 2) Time clocks
-
- GoServant 0.70 will now display running time clocks for any game. You
- MUST be using either client mode or verbose mode for them to operate
- (I suggest client mode, for obvious reasons). In the dialog box that
- appears when you create a new board window, check the "Show captives/
- score/time" box. A time display, with running clocks, will appear
- below the board, along with the captives. Whenever a move is received,
- these clocks will be updated, and this may cause them to jump around
- a bit. This is due to net-lag and cannot be avoided. Remember that the
- times shown are ESTIMATES and are not 100% accurate. If you do not like
- to see a ticking clock all the time, you may use the "Hide Clocks" menu
- item under the "Board" menu (or more likely command-T (for "time")) to
- make them disappear. They will still be running, though, and at any time
- you can use "Show Clocks" (command-T again) to take a quick peek at
- them. This is much faster, easier, and more accurate than typing the
- "time" command to the server. Speaking of the "time" command, GoServant
- will NOT recognize the output from that command. Use "refresh" instead
- if you want the clocks updated.
-
- NOTE: Tim has said that the clock information will soon be added to moves
- even in non-client mode. When that happens, you will no longer need to
- use client mode, and in fact there will be no reason to do so.
-
- GoServant 0.72 Additions
- ========================
-
- 3) Dialogs
-
- The first editable text item is now automatically selected in all dialogs, so
- that you can, for example, type command-O,4,<return> to quickly observe game 4
- with no mouse needed. The OK button is circled to show what will happen if
- return is pressed, and tab will select the next editable text field.
-
- 4) Windows menu
-
- There is now a windows menu. Selecting the name of a window will bring that
- window to the top. One of the windows is an "input" window, which is
- described later.
-
- 5) Plain serial port use
-
- There is now an option (in the serial settings dialog) which will prevent
- GoServant from closing the serial ports when it quits. The settings dialog
- can also be called up at any time with the "Serial Port Parms..." item in
- the Terminal menu (but you cannot switch ports at that time, nor choose
- "do not set parameters when opening", for obvious reasons).
-
- GoServant 1.00 Additions
- ========================
-
- 6) Background use
-
- GS should now keep running even if it is not the front application. Windows will
- be updated and moves made even in the background.
-
- 7) Saving Smart Go files
-
- Any board window may be saved into a Smart Go file. Only the board size, handicap
- stones, and moves (including passes) will be saved. NOTE: As for the undo command,
- GS can only save (or undo) moves that IT HAS SEEN PLAYED. This does NOT include
- stones that appeared on the board as the result of a verbose board refresh. To
- get a proper record of the moves that can be saved, you MUST use "moves" and
- NOT "toggle verbose/refresh/toggle verbose" to initialize the board.
-
- 8) Changing board windows at any time
-
- The "Board Info.." item under the Board menu will now allow you to change the
- size, scale, move number, komi, coordinates, icons, and captives/clocks of any
- board window at any time. The window will be resized and redrawn. NOTE: Adjusting
- the size of the board (eg. from 19x19 to 13x13) is hazardous. Do this at your
- own risk. Adjusting the "scale" (making the stones larger or smaller) is OK.
-
- 9) Break
-
- The "Send Break" item in the Terminal menu (or command-Y) will now send a
- "break" signal.
-
- 10) Input window
-
- There is now an input buffer window which can be used to type and edit lines to be
- sent to the server without having them interrupted by incoming data. To open this
- window, choose "Input" from the Windows menu (or use command-I). A very short and
- wide window will appear at the top of the screen. It can be closed by using the
- "Close" item in the File menu (there is no go away box). It can be moved by dragging
- the '#>' symbol on the left end. It can be resized, but only in a horizontal
- direction. If this window is in front of the terminal window, all typing will
- take place in this window. The usual Macintosh editing operations, including
- cut/copy/paste are supported. Whenever return is pressed, the contents of this
- window will be sent to the terminal window. (If the terminal window is in front
- of the input window, however, then all typing will again go directly to the
- terminal window and the input window will be dormant.)
-
- 11) Echo When Pasting
-
- When a terminal tool is being used, GS has no way of knowing whether or not
- local echoing of characters is required. When then contents of the input window
- or the clipboard are sned/pasted to the terminal window, the "Echo When Pasting"
- option in the Terminal menu will control whether or not these characters are
- echoed locally. If you see such characters twice, or not at all, simply toggle
- this item. (This item is only enabled and needed when a terminal tool is used.)
-
- 12) Macros
-
- There are now 10 user-definable macros available. The "Set Macros..." item under
- the Goodies menu can be used to set them to whatever you like. Each macro may have
- up to 254 characters, and may include return characters. (Although you should be
- warned that sending a sequence of commands to the server like "toggle verbose",
- "refresh", "toggle verbose" does NOT work reliably with the current version of
- the server.) You can then select a macro using the Goodies menu, or use the
- command-digit equivalents. When you do, that macro will be pasted to either the
- input or terminal window (whichever is frontmost). If the macro contains returns,
- then the returns and any characters in front of them will not stay in the input
- window, but will be passed on to the terminal immediately. (It acts exactly
- as if you had typed those characters.)
-
- 13) Colour and Sound
-
- GS now supports colour boards and stones, and will use sounds for stone clicks
- ("plonks") and "atari" if desired. These features may be enabled or disabled
- by the top four items in the Goodies menu. If you don't like the colours or the
- sounds, you can customize them by changing the appropriate resources in the
- GoServant file using ResEdit. (If you know how to do that, of course.)
- There is also a monochrome pattern for the board which is used if colour is
- unavailable or disabled, which is currently all white. You can also change that one
- if you like (but I've never found one that I like better than white.) I won't
- tell you which resources they are. Finding them is half the fun. :-)
-
- 14) Retry Communications
-
- When communications do not open properly when GS is first started, you are now
- given the option of trying again.
-
- 15) Unobserve
-
- When a window which is being used to observe a game is closed, GS now issues
- an "unobserve" command automatically.
-
- 16) Separate play/observe defaults
-
- There are now two sets of default settings for the board window, one for the
- playing window, and another for observing windows.
-
- 17) Automatic "moves" command
-
- When you start observing a game, you now have an option in the dialog that
- appears which will cause a "moves" command to be sent to the server to
- initialize the board. (The alternative of "toggle verbose" and "refresh" is
- not possible at the current time, and it also does not allow proper undoing
- of moves, or saving of the window in Smart Go format.) NOTE: You will likely
- want to turn off the sounds before doing this. Otherwise all of the old
- moves wil make "click" and "atari" sounds, too.
-
- 18) Bug fixes
-
- Several bugs were found and fixed, particularly in the scroll bars and in
- the mode icons (does anyone actually use those?).
-
- 19) New Telnet Tool
-
- For users with a Macintosh connected directly to a network, I am happy to
- report that there is a public domain telnet tool which will allow you use
- GoServant in that situation. (The VersaTerm Telnet Tool also works, but it
- is a commercial software product.) The free one is the "TGE TCP Tool" and
- it can be found at several ftp sites:
-
- Host plaza.aarnet.edu.au
-
- Location: /micros/mac/umich/system.extensions/commtoolbox
- FILE -r--r--r-- 24206 Oct 3 02:54 tgetcptool1.0v1.cpt.hqx
-
- Host nigel.msen.com
-
- Location: /pub/vendor/ice
- FILE -rw-r--r-- 24206 Sep 30 18:30 TGETCPTool.hqx
-
- Host quepasa.cs.tu-berlin.de
-
- Location: /pub/mac/sys/comm
- FILE -rw-rw-r-- 17920 Oct 23 01:45 TGETCPTool.cpt.bin
- FILE -rw-rw-r-- 841 Oct 23 01:45 TGETCPTool.intro
-
- Host wuarchive.wustl.edu
-
- Location: /mirrors2/rascal.ics.utexas.edu/communications
- FILE -r--r--r-- 881 Sep 30 17:19 TGETCPTool_intro
- Location: /mirrors3/archive.umich.edu/mac/system.extensions/commtoolbox
- FILE -r--r--r-- 24206 Oct 2 21:54 tgetcptool1.0v1.cpt.hqx
-
- Host ftp.luth.se
-
- Location: /pub/OS/mac/comm/toolbox
- FILE -rw-r--r-- 17920 Dec 18 17:29 TGETCPTool.cpt.bin
-
- ==================================
- Have fun with GoServant 1.00. Except for bug fixes, this will probably be the
- last upgrade for quite a while. I have implemented almost everything that was
- on my "to do" list, and I consider it to be completed. The only other feature
- that was requested was the ability to scroll backwards and forwards through
- the moves in a game. This is a difficult feature to implement reliably without
- effectively rewriting most of the Smart Go program and including it as part
- of GoServant. That would be an awful lot of work. Someday I may implement this
- feature, but it will not be soon. Sorry.
- ==================================
-
- John Bate
- bate@cs.umanitoba.ca
-