Tony 'LLama' Acero May 26 1992, 11:32 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Followup-To: rec.games.chess From: a...@quads.uchicago.edu (Tony 'LLama' Acero) - Find messages by this author Date: Tue, 26 May 1992 19:33:05 GMT Local: Tues, May 26 1992 12:33 pm Subject: ICS Users: Alpha release of GIICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse I have uploaded to wuarchive.wustl.edu:/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS giics01.zip. This is an ALPHA release. I need a few people to help me test what I have so far. If you want to help, please obtain the file above; if you cannot anonymous ftp send me email and I will send you a uuencoded copy. Please read the document file below before you request/download the program. **************************************************************** GI_ICS: A Graphical Interfacer to the ICS (for the PC) v. 0.1 by Tony Acero a...@quads.uchicago.edu HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: 286 OR BETTER VGA MOUSE MODEM/SERIAL PORT (these requirements may be relaxed in future versions) FEATURES: Graphical board display (using the XICS bitmaps) Move pieces by dragging w/ mouse (except castling) Log file keeps record of session Rudimentary 20 line terminal Can use program while observing or playing (or both) Baud rates up to 19200 The source code is provided for your amusement! (more features to come!) INTRODUCTION to this Version (0.1): This is an ALPHA release of GIICS. There are many features which are not yet implemented, and several others that need testing that I cannot provide (most notably, untested support for modems on COM3 or COM4). Basically, GIICS is an XICS clone in development. You can move your pieces with a mouse and observe the game on a graphical chess board. Features to be implemented in the next release: * Castling by dragging the King. * Clocks (real time). * Other information currently missing from the display. * Replay games from log file. * 'Buttons' for common server commands (ie refresh, quit, who) * Auto-login to the various servers Features to be added when appropriate: * Support for an abbreviated board style, ie: "RNBQKBNRPPPPPPPP pppppppprnbqkbnr"; When such a style becomes available, those of us playing at slower speeds will stand a chance at the faster time controls. Thanks to the people on the Net who suggested this idea. (Attributions currently not available). * Support for more kinds of graphics (EGA/CGA/Herc) if there is demand. * Piece movement by arrow keys? * Scrollback of the terminal window STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Use at your own risk. NO WARRANTY. I've had NO PROBLEMS -- BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THERE ARE NO BUGS!!! I will attempt to fix things ASAP after they're brought to my attention. INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Unpack the archive, preferably into its own directory. Required files: giics.exe, giics.cnf, pieces.dat 2. Edit the GIICS.CNF so that it corresponds to your system. THIS IS _VERY_, _VERY_ IMPORTANT. If you damage the configuration file while editing it, just delete it. GIICS will make a new (unedited) one for you. 3. Make sure your mouse driver/TSR is loaded. 4. Run GIICS: if a chessboard with all the pieces is drawn, and you can see and move the mouse cursor, things are going well. **** Typing a ^D will exit GIICS. **** Typing a ^C should abort GIICS. (not good!) **** Typing a ^P will beginning echoing output to the printer. (bad) **** IF YOU MUST HIT A CONTROL CHARACTER, please, make it a ^D. 5. Log on to the server: a. If you have a direct serial connection to your mainframe, just log in and connect to the server the way you normally would, ie telnet eve.assumption.edu 5000 b. If you have a modem that's hayes compatible: i. Type 'at': you should see an 'ok' echo back ii. To dial your mainframe and log in Type 'atdt' (w/o the '<>') - this assumes you have touch tone, else 'atdp' iii. log into the server as normal c. NOTE: GIICS is expecting 8 data and 1 stop bits, NO PARITY please configure the terminal accordingly! 6. VERY IMPORTANT: Set the board style to 7, ie: style 7 GIICS can only update the display if the board is sent in this style. 7. Observe a game to make sure everything is ok. Note that you're going to have to watch the (admittedly ugly) console display to see the times, strengths and who's on the move. This will be fixed with the next release. 8. I will not be responsible for lost rating points! ;-) Play unregistered games until you get the hang of it/the bugs are gone. 9. To move a piece, press the left button when the mouse pointer is in the square with piece, and release the button after moving the pointer to the destination square; in other words, drag the piece from the start square to the destination square. The RIGHT button toggles the perspective of the board (rotates the board 180 degress). If you need to castle type o-o or o-o-o. 10. To report bugs, suggest features and give feedback in general, please email me at: a...@midway.uchicago.edu Enjoy! Tony Acero ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Michael Moore -- creator of this great service, ICS Anonymous -- author of XICS, the inspiration for this program & the bitmaps "onlooker" -- the gentleman who patiently played meaningless games with me until (most) of the bugs were worked out. Information Technology, Ltd. -- the LiteComm Toolbox, an excellent shareware interface to the com ports (available at an FTP site near you as tcomm50.zip) Gene McManus -- the mouse interface (available at an FTP site near you as cmouse2.zip) Richard V. Nash May 27 1992, 1:54 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: n...@visus.com (Richard V. Nash) - Find messages by this author Date: 27 May 92 14:02:06 GMT Local: Wed, May 27 1992 7:02 am Subject: Re: ICS Users: Alpha release of GIICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse Is anyone thinking of doing a NeXTICS? -- +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Richard V. Nash | Visual Understanding Systems, Inc. | | n...@visus.com | Tel. (412)-488-3600 Fax. (412)-488-3611 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Tony 'LLama' Acero May 27 1992, 7:36 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Followup-To: rec.games.chess From: a...@quads.uchicago.edu (Tony 'LLama' Acero) - Find messages by this author Date: Wed, 27 May 1992 19:21:25 GMT Local: Wed, May 27 1992 12:21 pm Subject: Re: ICS Users: Alpha release of GIICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse Thanks to the testing of Frank Gomez, several bugs were uncovered when GIICS tries to access COM3/4. The latest ALPHA version is still at wuarchive.wustl.edu:/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/giics02.zip; please read the root message of this thread to help you decide if you wish to obtain the program at this time. Thanks to Frank and the other testers of GIICS! tony acero a...@midway.uchicago.edu Tony 'LLama' Acero May 28 1992, 7:37 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Followup-To: rec.games.chess From: a...@quads.uchicago.edu (Tony 'LLama' Acero) - Find messages by this author Date: 28 May 92 03:36:03 GMT Local: Wed, May 27 1992 8:36 pm Subject: Re: ICS Users: Alpha release of GIICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse I was just informed that the latest version of GIICS (0.2a) which I uploaded to wuarchive is corrupt. While I tried to upload the zip file again I have repeatedly received the following message: netout: Broken pipe Until such time as I can upload the file to wuarchive, I will email a uuencoded copy to those who request it. Tony Acero a...@quads.uchicago.edu PS The most recent version works on COM3 and COM4 and has switches for PARITY and DATABITS (before 8bits/no parity was hardwired into the code). Tony 'LLama' Acero May 28 1992, 8:40 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Followup-To: rec.games.chess From: a...@quads.uchicago.edu (Tony 'LLama' Acero) - Find messages by this author Date: Thu, 28 May 1992 14:22:22 GMT Local: Thurs, May 28 1992 7:22 am Subject: Re: ICS Users: Alpha release of GIICS Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse The sysadmin confirmed that the disk was overloaded at wuarchive. I have now successfully uploaded giics03.zip to /put/MSDOS_UPLOADS at wuarchive.wustl.edu; I've appended giics.rev to the end of this announcement. Thanks to everyone involved for the patience, enthusiasm and support! Tony Acero a...@quads.uchicago.edu ======================== giics.rev 0.1 5/25/92 GIICS is unleashed on an unsuspecting world... as Alpha, of course, ALPHA 0.2 5/27/92 1pm COM3 and COM4 bugs fixed (thanks Frank!) 0.2a 5/27/92 5pm Added PARITY and DATABITS parameters to config. This version was corrupted being uploaded to wuarchive. This version convinced me that GIICS would only work on MY machine -- until I found out about that insiduous tab!! (Thanks Frank and breck) 0.3 5/28/92 The tab problem fixed (parser would choke if tabs were received instead of spaces) A mouse is now optional instead of required (will attribute the idea when I get to work). Tony 'LLama' Acero Jun 1 1992, 2:30 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Followup-To: rec.games.chess From: a...@quads.uchicago.edu (Tony 'LLama' Acero) - Find messages by this author Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1992 13:03:23 GMT Local: Mon, Jun 1 1992 6:03 am Subject: GIICS final beta now available at msdos.archive.umich.edu Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse The the last beta version of Giics is at msdos.archive.umich.edu in the msdos/UPLOADS directory as giics08.zip. There were some memory allocation bugs found since version 0.5; anyone who was having trouble with earlier releases is encouraged to try this version. I'd like to clear up as many problems as possible before the general release. The hardware requirements are now 8088+, EGA/VGA, modem/serial port. A mouse is optional, but recommended, as is VGA. I will upload this version to wuarchive.wustl.edu in pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS as soon as wuarchive comes back up. As before, I'd be happy to email anyone without anonymous ftp capability a uuencoded version, but be aware that the zip file is 82500 bytes; a uuencoded file is 33% larger. As a side note, does anyone know what's involved, or that could help bring me up to speed, in adapting GIICS to be the front end to GNUCHESS for the PC? (next project :-) Enjoy! Tony Acero Tony 'LLama' Acero Jun 4 1992, 6:25 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Followup-To: rec.games.chess From: a...@quads.uchicago.edu (Tony 'LLama' Acero) - Find messages by this author Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 06:06:33 GMT Local: Thurs, Jun 4 1992 11:06 pm Subject: GIICS is released Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse I have uploaded GIICS110.ZIP to wuarchive.wustl.edu in the pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS directory. This is the first official release -- giics now supports the cursorpad for the mouseless among us as well as all the earlier features: mouse input, many of the basic server commands available at the click of a button or touch of a function key. Limited playback capability (from the commandline) and probably the worst documentation of any program I've ever seen -- now that I'm done coding I will try to address this issue. BTW GIICS is completely free. I'm not expecting anything except bug reports :-). I hope whoever is keeping an archive of ICS-related material will grab this release and all future ones. Thanks to the many people who helped me test GIICS. Tony Acero a...@quads.uchicago.edu PS If anyone has gotten giics to work on a PS/2 please let me know... 'Mayor' is having trouble getting giics up on his system and I have no idea what the trouble is... Tony 'LLama' Acero Jun 5 1992, 7:08 am show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess Followup-To: rec.games.chess From: a...@quads.uchicago.edu (Tony 'LLama' Acero) - Find messages by this author Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 19:19:13 GMT Local: Fri, Jun 5 1992 12:19 pm Subject: Re: GIICS is released Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse GIICS v. 1.11 is out; it fixes the problem Mayor (Eliot Jacobsen) was having with NULL characters. I hope this is it for a while... tony acero