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3. Development progress

3.1 Release notes for 2.1

Overview

From version 2.0g (see NEWS section) the major overhaul of xBill code was done. Last changes by Psychosoft were done in version 2.0. During 2.0g and 2.1 the most noticable changes list:

Added network support

Note: Implemented by subpackage found in ggn directory, network still considered *alpha*.

Quick enable: ./configure --with-ggn

Support for network play has been added, although this library was never tested too much. Moreover real run were done only on Linux systems and so even when coding was done with compatibility in mind, there will be sure serious problems when using this library on other systems. These glitches will have to been sorted out during the future development, if you make any changes, send them to maintainer (noted as authors.

Due to this expected incompatibilities and alpha quality of the code, it is currently disabled by default. If you are brave soul and you want to try it, please specify --with-ggn during configuration (“./configure --with-ggn”). Any success or failure stories are welcomed, although depending on the amount of time required, I make no promises about quick fixes of it. This doesn't apply to working patches which are ALWAYS welcomed and credited in the accompanying documentation/notes. The chance for the fame is lying before you! :-)

Added GTK+ widget set support

Since Xaw and Motif were dropped, GTK+ library is required now. GTK+ is the famous GIMP ToolKit, you can download it from: http://www.gtk.org/

xBill should be happy with any reasonable versions starting with 0.99.7, although latest 1.2 releases are best to use, of course. If you make any source-level changes and want them to be incorporated into the mainstream, please try to keep this compatibility, some framework to achieve it can be found in configure.in or src/gtk10.[ch].

Use of modern configuration tools

Currently this package has integrated usage of the following tools to be as much cross-platform compatible as possible: gnome, automake, autoconf, libtool, getopt, gettext (i18n). All the tools should be transparent to the casual user. If Gnome isn't installed, non-Gnome aware version is compiled as a fallback. Internationalized catalogs should really be enhaned with more languages, please send some to the maintainer. There are very few messages in the whole code so it doesn't take too long to translate it.

C++ kickoff, converted to plain ANSI C

To maintain wider systems compatibility, C++ was dropped in favor of ANSI C. Not much more to say about it -- probably only that you should keep the current coding style when enhancing the code.

Image compression in the main binary

Original xBill 2.0 required a lot of xpm/xbm images to be installed separately along it. With 2.0g and up these images are compiled into the main program binary. This policy should be made optional at configure time, volunteers for such change are welcomed. I don't know whether some compatibility problems may arise in the phase of inclusion during the image include. To improve the behaviour even more, if zlib library is found on your system, it is used to reduce the overall size of the binary (by around 120KB). zlib can be downloaded from: http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/

Targetting cross for multiplayer games

To support multiplayer gaming, targetting cross was developed (src/pixmaps/bang.xpm). This targetting cross remains visible even during single player games as I found it useful. Possibility of disabling should be probably made in future versions.

3.2 Status of porting

Here's the status of the various ports:

Mac

Josh Adams <jadams@hyperimage.com> mostly finished this, based on a beta of 2.0, but never released it for some reason.

Java

Greg Seidman <anthro@cs.umd.edu> and Brian Wellington <bwelling@tis.com> were working on this, but it's been stalled for a while. We'll finish it at some point.

XFree86 for OS/2

Darwin O'Connor <doconno@cc.UManitoba.CA> ported it, and you can get it from http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~doconno/xprogs.html.

Linux SVGA

Brian Wellington <bwelling@tis.com> got this mostly working on a beta of 2.0, but it had a couple problems (mouse support wasn't very good, no menus or windows), and is now hopelessly outdated. It does have an XPM and XBM reader. So, if anyone wants to finish this (write the missing parts and the new parts), let me know.

3.3 NEWS file

2.1.2 (6/21/2000)

2.1.1 (10/10/1999)

2.1.0 (9/22/1999)

2.0g (1/11/1999)

2.0 ()

1.1a (9/22/1995)

1.1 (4/16/1995)

1.0 (4/5/1995-4/9/1995)

0.9 (11/28/1994 - a bit busier during school)

0.32 (9/18/1994)

0.31 (8/24/1994)

0.3 (8/23/1994)

0.22 (8/16/1994)

0.21 (8/15/1994)

0.2 (8/14/1994)

0.1 (7/26/1994):

0.04 (7/25/1994):

0.03 (7/24/1994):

0.02 (7/22/1994):

0.01 (7/21/1994):


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