xboard and WinBoard 4.0.4 released

[Tim Mann]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Tim Mann am 04. Dezember 1999 08:41:28:
** Announcing the release of XBoard and WinBoard, version 4.0.4 **
A new release of both XBoard and WinBoard is now available. Version
4.0.4 is an update that fixes several small bugs and adds a few minor
features. It has not been extensively tested, so please report any
apparent new bugs. Some known bugs and deficiencies in 4.0.3 have not
been addressed. It is not necessary to report your favorite bug again
if you have reported it before, unless the ChangeLog erroneously says
it has been fixed. Most known bugs, deficiencies, and suggestions
received are now listed in the ToDo file.
You can get both programs from my Chess page on the World Wide Web.
In addition, they should soon be available from GNU FTP sites and the
Internet Chess Library FTP site.
- http://www.research.compaq.com/SRC/pers ... chess.html
- ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/X/xboard-4.0.4.tar.gz
- ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/Win3/ ... -4_0_4.exe
- ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/
- ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/winboard/
XBoard is a graphical chessboard for the X Window System that can
serve as a user interface for GNU Chess, Crafty, and other chess
engines, for the Internet Chess Servers, and for electronic mail
correspondence chess. XBoard can also be used by itself. It can read
and write game files in PGN (portable game notation).
WinBoard is a similar program for Microsoft Windows 95/98 and Windows
NT. It includes all the major features of XBoard except email
correspondence chess. Warning: WinBoard does not work on Windows 3.1
or 3.11, not even with Win32s.
Report bugs in XBoard and WinBoard to me.
--Tim Mann
=== New ChangeLog entries in 4.0.4 ===
* Bug fix: formerly if you invoked SaveGame from EditPosition mode
with black to play, the position was not saved properly. As a quick
fix, SaveGame now takes you out of EditPosition mode before saving.
* Changed -matchGames to keep track of the score (won-lost-drawn) and
display it in the banner. The final score is displayed in a modal
popup before the program exits.
* Changed "Connection closed by ICS" to display in a model popup
before the program exits.
* Added -popupExitMessage option, default on. Setting this to false
suppresses the modal popups that you sometimes get just before
xboard/winboard exits -- both the two new ones listed above and the
existing Fatal Error popup. This is useful when running Zippy
unattended from a shell script (or .bat file) that loops and starts a
new copy after a time delay when there is an error.
* In xboard, added missing support for WM_DELETE_WINDOW to all
windows. This makes xboard a better citizen, and is much needed with
the newer X window managers that put an [X] button on every window and
bind it to "kill application" if the applicationd does not support
"delete window". We can't allow xboard to be thoughtlessly killed,
since that leaves the chess engine running in the background.
* We now avoid positioning tops of xboard dialog boxes offscreen.
* zippy.lines can now use the caret ('^') character as an inter-saying
separator. You no longer need to dig up a text editor that can put NUL
('\000') characters in text files.
* Bugfix: In traditional chess clock mode, White now gets time added
to its clock as soon as it makes time control. Previously both White
and Black got their time added only when Black made time control,
which would cause some engines to make their 41st move as White too
quickly, thinking they were low on time.
* The zippyAcceptOnly feature no longer sends a decline command or
a tell. Thus you can use it to put Zippy into a manual accept mode.
* Bugfix: "tell 50 foo tells you: bar" no longer gets colored as a
personal tell; similarly for "...whispers:" and "...kibitzes:".
* WinBoard no longer blanks the message line when you start a new
move, unless there was an error message there from the previous move.
* WinBoard now never puts the white piece drop menu on the middle
mouse button. Both colors are always on the right button. Windows
users often don't think to look for a middle button menu, or don't
really have a working middle button despite what Windows says.
* Guest login handles on ICC are now parsed again; an ICC wording
change had broken this feature.

* Autodetect when the engine does not support the "draw" command and
don't relay the command to it in that case. Needed because sending an
unsupported command to GNU Chess makes it move immediately, so people
could make Zippy move without thinking by continually offering a draw.
Thanks to Frank Walker for the problem report.
* Small changes based on code from Robert Jurjevic: The WinBoard
analysis window can be minimized (though not to the taskbar). The
WinBoard ICS Interaction window will autoscroll if you drag the mouse
above or below the window while selecting, and password entry mode
leaves the entry line as the background color instead of using 75%
gray. Seeks are now colorized with a new color of their own.
* Added -zippyMaxGames feature.

* -zippyNoplayCrafty command line option was missing in xboard; fixed.
Thanks to John Perry.
* Fixed bug in detecting when Zippy loses his bughouse partner.
Thanks to Ben Dean-Kawamura.
* allobs fix in 4.0.3 didn't work; corrected it.
* WinBoard will now update the board immediately if a move is made
while the window is being moved or resized.


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