🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3CF73657.33A7B689@esa.int>, Linares wrote:
> Then, to avoid confussing, I am talking of Tim's work, i.e., the xboard
> interface. I am not proposing to program a chess player for PalmOS, but a
> chess interface that could connect with Tim's xboard. 

xboard is a chess interface, so I don't know in what way it would
"connect" with another chess interface.

> I would write both pieces of software:
> 
> 1. The chess interface itself for PalmOS 3.5 and higher (current version
> is 4.0).

What would the chess interface be an interface to?  A chess program
like GNU Chess also running on the Palm?  Or would it just let you
make moves and load/save PGN files?

> 2. The conduit for syncronizing games played in the PalmOS with pgn files
> readable by xboard and to download games directly from the xboard to the
> PalmOS interface. However, pgn files should be downloadable as well
> directly to the PalmOS.

PGN files are plain, human-readable text files.  I don't understand
why some special "conduit" for "synchronizing" them would be needed,
or why you would want to download a game directly from xboard instead
of saving it to a file and downloading the file.  Can't you copy plain
text files to/from a Palm, and read/write them from programs running
on the Palm?

> The idea is not so much to make something general (though this is one of
> the targets I would like to achieve) but to allow xboard to use it as well.
> So, xboard would be the first chess interface (for my knowledge) with
> such an option.

I don't understand why or how xboard would be involved in using the
software running on the Palm.

> Now, think of mail chess players who can download their games to the
> Palm. Think of their moves there, make their annotations, everything and then
> to download it to the xboard and send the e-mail. Or chess students who
> can download lessons or positions to study.

There's nothing xboard-specific about that.  If you make a PGN
viewer/editor for the Palm, it will work with any other software that
reads PGN -- which means just about any chess software there is.

> I think this would not be much work for Tim or people maintaining
> xboard.

As far as I can tell, it's no work at all for me, because there seems
to be nothing needed in xboard.  If there is, you need to explain what.

> Another question, could I try to reuse the same pieces used in xboard?
> (though they should be dramatically reduced! :)

The piece images used in xboard are GPL'ed, so you can use them freely
if your program will be GPL'ed, just like any other GNU code.

> thank you very much!
> 
> 
> --
> Carlos Linares Lopez
> Ground Systems Engineering Division
> Payload Data Segment
> ESRIN - European Space Agency
> 00044 Frascati
> Italy
> 
> +39 06 94 180 527

-- 
Tim Mann  usenet@tim-mann.org  http://www.tim-mann.org/