NAME

xcheckers - lets you play at draughts ala point and click.

SYNOPSIS

xcheckers [options]

DESCRIPTION

xcheckers draws a checkerboard into an X Window and connects you to an ICDS (international checkers and draughts server) or to a checkers program of your choice. xcheckers comes with simplech, a simple yet strong search engine.

At startup the checkers board is mostly hidden by the help window, which shows two columns of buttons, that send predefind strings to the engine and can be customized by editing resource files.

Keep the terminal window you started xcheckers from to receive messages and prompts from the engine or the server. Now, log into the ICDS, set style 5, match another user, watch a game etc. or set up the engine.

xcheckers passes most of your typing to the engine or to ICDS, and echoes to the terminal window; backspace behaves somehow obscure, though. The Help-key or Ctrl-h brings up the help window. Ctrl-q quits the program, Ctrl-c force quits the program, Ctrl-n draws numbers on the nodes.

To move, left-click on a piece, drag the piece to the destination node and release it there. Right clicking anywhere in the window displays the help window.

The graphics for pieces and patches can be changed by supplying selfmade *.xpm picture files, similar to those installed with the application. (see Readme.artists in the sources distribution.)

OPTIONS

xcheckers recognizes the following command line switches, all of which - to save typing - may be set to defaults of your liking with resources.

-icds: Connect to an ICDS using telnet(1).
-host hostname: Name the ICDS.
-port portnumber: You have to provide one if different from 4444.
-local: Connect to a search engine using sh(1).
-engine program: Name the checkers engine, as of to date simplech(6).
-scene file: Name a pixmap file to design both board and pieces.
-font fontname: Name a font for the status line.
-geometry geometry: Set the x and y offset for the window to appear at. Size is determined by the scene file only!
-display displayname: Set the X server for the window to appear at.

RESOURCES

xcheckers accepts the following defaults set in ~/.Xdefaults, in `pwd`/xcheckersrc, in ~/.xcheckersrc and in /usr/local/lib/X11/app-defaults/XCheckers. (First mentioned places overriding)

icds: true | false: Make connecting to an ICDS the default ("true").
host: hostname: Name your favourite ICDS.
port: portnumber: Use the specified port on this ICDS.
engine: program: Name your favourite checkers engine.
font: fontname: Name a font for the status line.
scene: file: Name a pixmap to design both board and pieces.
button[0-9]_label: string: A descriptive string to be written on the button.
button[0-9]_call: string: A string to send to the engine or to ICDS on clicking the button. Use "\n" to seperate several ICDS commands sent at once.

ENVIRONMENT

LOGNAME: Read in at startup to determine player name.

FILES

/usr/local/lib/X11/app-defaults/XCheckers,
/usr/local/share/xcheckers/scene.xpm,
/usr/local/share/xcheckers/stars.xpm

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA