[ggo-discussion] New glGo sneak preview available

Cheers,
new version of glGo is available for download at 
http://panda-igs.joyjoy.net/java/gGo/glGo/
It includes support for GNU Go, some OpenGL fixes and a translation support 
(german included).

The GNU Go binary must be in the same path as glGo.exe, else it won't find 
gnugo.exe (no configuration available yet as in gGo for this). Handicap is 
supported, clocks and undo not yet. Resume also not yet supported - no 
miracle without SGF loading. :*)
To start a GNU Go game, select Connect GTP in the GTP menu. To finish a 
session, select Close GTP. It right now all happens in a single board 
window, it won't open an extra board. It's probably a bit confusing. Once 
you start GNU Go, the board gets into "GTP mode", once you close GTP again, 
the board is back to normal mode. But you really cannot see the difference, 
as the window doesn't change. Well, it's a start.

I tuned the OpenGL display a little, I forced software rendering mode by 
dropping the standard Microsoft OpenGL libs from my Windows98 CD into the 
glGo directory. It actually looks ok now and speed is acceptable if most 
OpenGL options in the View are disabled and you don't rotate with 200 
stones on the board. However, default settings are not software-mode 
friendly, so its some effort to switch them off every time. Configuration 
is not yet saved and restored (soon). Still, a working 3D driver is to be 
prefered.

Translation support is there, I personally find that one of the nifty 
things in gGo to have it in several languages (praises to the translators). 
Translating glGo already is much too early, I won't ask for assistance yet 
but simply keep doing german test translating. Too much is changing at the 
moment. But I was interested to see if and how easy international support 
is available.

As things look, I will probably port gGo/Java to 
C++/wxWindows/OpenGL/(DirectX?). That will be a long way, though. The 3D 
mode is cool, if it runs. If it does not run, the program is pretty 
useless. So I will have to find a solution for this, let's see. The already 
included 2D-only mode might be an alternative, but right now it's plain ugly.

The Java gGo won't die, but it seems quite impossible to actively program 
both clients at the same time. I will try to get the bugfixes for gGo done 
while working on the C++ port. But don't expect new gGo/Java stuff in the 
near future. I will keep the code quite similar, so new features can be 
added to both programs without much pain. Porting the GNU Go code from Java 
gGo actually was a comfortable copy&paste session.

As usual, feedback welcome. :)


  Peter

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