Re: [XBoard-devel] getting closer to a release: updated Changelog, AUTHORS and copyright

[Eric Mullins]

h.g. muller wrote:
> The best way to get more beta testers is to release. I am quite 
> confident that
> WinBoard is good. I have been using it all the time during the 
> development
> since 4.3.15 for a variety of purposes, and most of the changes were 
> not very
> risky anyway. It was furthermore intensively tested by Mike Adams for
> running Pulsar in many variants as a FICS bot, and by the 'JAWS team'.

This I mostly agree with, except for one point.  If the purpose is to 
beta-test, then I would not recommend a "formal" release.  We don't need 
an elaborate installer for a beta test, so for beta purposes, a simple 
zip would suffice.

> XBoard I hardly use, and the changes there were more risky, so there 
> could
> be surprises there.
>
> What I see as major black marks in the current situation:
>
> 1) We don't have an installer for WinBoard yet, and I have no idea if any
> progress is being made at all in that area.

I don't know the status on that either.  I'm willing to throw something 
together for this if required, but I know NOTHING about selective 
installation from an online repository.  I remember discussing that 
possibility, but I don't know if that's still on the agenda or not.
> 2) The Desktop-Effects problem makes that XBoard will almost universally
> not work when people try it.

This must be fixed before a formal release, otherwise 4.2.7 will be 
remain the best bet for any distro.  Speaking of xboard, there are a 
number of things we can do:

* at least create ubuntu packages (such as using ppa launchpad)
* we could even write a script to act like the startup dialog, launching 
xboard with various options the user selects when running it
* provide sample .Xdefaults and or FICS or ICS scripts, or at least a 
good HOWTO

I think it's worth waiting until xboard works properly before formally 
releasing.  I have NO IDEA how to fix the focus problem we're seeing 
with desktop effects.  However, since I run linux with desktop effects, 
I'm a good candidate to at least TRY. Heh.

> 3) The jaws.rc is not yet merged with winboard.rc. This also means the
> standard version does not support all the accelerator keys yet.

This was on my agenda today, but I didn't get to it because it seemed 
like we were heavily pushing for a quick release and I wanted to make 
sure anyone could compile the source first.  I'm happy to look further 
into this as well, but HGM indicated he wanted to as well, so we'll have 
to coordinate.

> Now as far as I am concerned the JAWS release does not have to be an
> integral part of the normal release; it is set up in such a way that 
> it can be
> patched on top of a normal release. The accelerator keys we should put in
> though, I think.
>
> Since there seems no possibility to remedy (2) we better ignore it.