$Header: /home/jcb/newmj/RCS/README,v 10.3 2001/01/22 00:27:37 jcb Rel $ This is the README file for the Unix mah-jong programs by J. C. Bradfield. NOTICES: -------- Please see the file LICENCE for terms and conditions of these programs. Source distribution only: ------------------------- The code in the tiles-v1/ directory was not written by me; see tiles-v1/README for information and licensing. The file MANIFEST contains a description of all the files you should find in this distribution. Binary distributions only: -------------------------- In the distribution directory, you will find the following files: mj-server the controller program. ( mj-server.exe in Windows ) mj-player a computer player. ( mj-player.exe in Windows ) xmj a graphical client. ( xmj.exe in Windows ) README this file LICENCE the licence rules.txt the rules as implemented by the programs use.txt documentation on how to use the programs CHANGES summary of changes between releases xmj.1 man page (not in Windows) mj-player.1 man page (not in Windows) mj-server.1 man page (not in Windows) If this is a statically linked distribution, there will also be xmj-static the X client with the GTK+ libraries linked DESCRIPTION: ------------ These programs allow the user of a Unix (or Windows) computer to play Mah-Jong, in the Chinese Classical style, against other users (locally or over the Internet), against programmed players, or both. OBTAINING: ---------- Latest releases should be available from at least one of: http://www.stevens-bradfield.com/MahJong/ http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jcb/MahJong/ CONTACTING: ----------- If you need to contact me about these programs, please mail me at mahjong@stevens-bradfield.com (preferred address), or at jcb+mj@dcs.ed.ac.uk . INSTALLATION - BUILDING FROM SOURCE: ------------------------------------ Systems: -------- These programs should, in theory, compile on any reasonably modern 32-bit Unix with an ANSI C compiler and the X Window System. They are known to compile (and run) under GNU/Linux, recent Solaris (on Sparc), and recent Irix (on Silicon Graphics workstations). If you try to compile on any "reasonably modern" system, and have a problem, do please tell me. In addition, they should compile and run under Win32 systems with GNU compilers and utilities; they are known to work under NT 4.0 with the mingw compiler (you must use the version with the MSVCRT dll). Adam Kao <mahjong@ideogram.com> got a pre-release version to compile with Microsoft Visual C and nmake, but as I don't have these I don't support them. If you wish to try to do this, the file makefile.msvc.old is the makefile Adam used; however, it has not been updated with to match the current release. Prerequisites: -------------- On Unix you need version 1.2 (later versions may work, depending on what changes) of the GTK+ toolkit. This is included with modern Linux distributions. To check your installation, do gtk-config --version If you do not have GTK+, obtain it from www.gtk.org or mirrors. Alternatively, if you are running Linux-x86, a binary distribution with the GTK+ libraries linked-in is available from the sites above. On Windows, you need version 1.3 of the gtk+ Windows port, version of 2000-12-26 (or later, presumably). Earlier versions will not work. To compile the program, you need Perl, version 5 (version 4 is almost certainly OK, but I haven't checked). Perl should be installed on any decent system. You do not need any Perl modules. You need the GNU make utility. If you do not have this, you will need to remove the GNU-specific features from the Makefile, as directed therein. (Windows: see also note above about makefile.msvc.old) Installing: ----------- Unpack the distribution, and cd into the distribution directory. Edit the Makefile, and change as directed by the comments. Then make You should not see any warnings or errors. If you do get any warning or error, please complain to me (unless you've switched on lots of superfluous message via the C debug flags, in which case you know what you're doing, so don't complain to me!). Then (Unix only) su to an appropriate user if you need this for installation, and make install will install the binaries in the place you chose. Alternatively, just copy the three binaries mj-server mj-player xmj into your chosen directory. make install.man (Unix only) will install the man pages into the appropriate directory. You may also wish to put the pre-formatted text files use.txt and rules.txt (which are basically the two halves of the man page) somewhere. INSTALLATION - UNIX BINARY DISTRIBUTIONS: ----------------------------------------- Unpack the distribution, and cd into the distribution directory. Just copy the three binaries mj-server mj-player xmj into your chosen directory. If you don't have GTK+, then see above. The user documentation is use.txt and rules.txt ; put these in an appropriate place. Alternatively, or as well, copy the man pages xmj.1, mj-server.1, mj-player.1 to the appropriate man directory (e.g. /usr/local/man/man1). Problems: --------- The most likely problem is: you appear to have GTK+ installed, but when you try to run xmj you get a message about missing libgtk . This means your GTK+ libraries are not in the same place mine are, and are not in the default search path. If this happens, the following may work: rename xmj to xmj.exe , and make xmj the following two line script: #!/bin/sh LD_LIBRARY_PATH="`gtk-config --prefix`/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" xmj.exe "$@" If that doesn't work, then you're probably on a system weird enough that you know what to do anyway, because you've had to do it before. Alternatively, use the static version of xmj . INSTALLATION - WINDOWS BINARY DISTRIBUTION: ------------------------------------------- Unpack the distribution. Put the three *.exe files into an appropriate directory. Creating menu items and shortcuts is up to you... You must have the DLLs for the GTK+ libraries, as specified above. For your convenience, these can be found in the file gtkdlls.zip in the xmj download directory. Put the DLLs in the same directory as the xmj binaries. Put the documentation use.txt and rules.txt somewhere sensible. RUNNING: -------- Please see the file use.txt in the distribution for usage information. The file rules.txt describes the rules applied by the programs. (Or see the man page.) PAYMENT & REGISTRATION: ----------------------- What payment? What registration? These programs are free. However, if you find yourself unable to resist the urge to reward me for my efforts, you can: (a) make a donation to your local branch of Amnesty International (please send me a note if you do); or if you don't want to do that, you can (b) send me money via PayPal, to help me build up my Mah-Jong library:-) If you want to be informed when new versions are released, etc., then send me a note (to the addresses above), and I'll add you to a mailing list. WINDOWS: -------- The Windows port exists thanks to the efforts of Adam Kao <mahjong@ideogram.com>, who ported the pre-release version, and thus showed me what to do. Only Win32 is catered for. I do not have a proper development environment for Windows, so Windows-specific bugs will not have a high priority. SUGGESTIONS: ------------ Please send me your suggestions/requests for improvements. I've gone to a lot of trouble to make it fairly painless to add variations in rules, scoring, etc.; so I need some requests to make the trouble worthwhile! BUGS: ----- Please report any bugs, or anything that might be a bug. There are probably lots, although I have obviously eliminated all I've seen so far. Known problems: --------------- GTK+ has some subtle and elusive bugs. In particular, you may occasionally see labels (such as the "Pung!" announcements, or the name of the discarded tile) appearing blank instead of with text. I've tried and failed to track this one down, and am not willing to spend any more time on it. So don't bother to report this one! On Windows, if the server is running on the same machine as the graphical client, and is forcibly killed, the graphical client generates an application exception. This is probably some subtle bug deep inside the Windows port of gtk+, so I'm not going to investigate it. There are other gtk+ bugs on Windows; mangled text windows have been reported.