On Tue, 24 Jan 2006, Tom wrote:
> Any update on when Quackle will be available for general consumption,
> or at least for beta testing? I'm sure there are quite a few on this
> list who would like to start analyzing OWL2 games but don't have any
> suitable tools yet. Any info would be appreciated!
Perchance we'll release something on like February fourth or fifth.
All of Quackle's code is in the CVS repository at the 'quackle' project on
sourceforge.net. It is in the module 'quackle' in this repository. Anybody
can get at it with anonymous CVS access. It requires scons and Qt 4 to
compile and run. It has been tested on Mac OS X and Linux. We will not
help anybody get it running at this point.
John, you never answered the question of where 'Quackle' came from.
I feel silly trying to explain it.
First, it's a Scrabble word (in Sowpods). If you're going to name a Scrabble program, there's plenty of precedent for using a Scrabble word. Some of them are descriptive, like
Maven - though legend has it that BS didn't even know what the word meant
Letterbox - Jason's and my study program
Hafiz - my defunct study program which was both appropriately and inappropriately named
But some are more random, like
QAT - though that is an acronym
Zyzzyva
Quetzal
Martin Landau
Quackle might seem nearer to the random end of the spectrum. Why "Quackle"? Partly because it's OSW-only. I prefer Sowpods, and sometimes I tend to rub people's noses in it. Do I have some kind of deal with ducks and duck calls? Yes, a little bit. It's an inside joke (which explanation will not make any funnier) among my non-Scrabble friends, stemming from a 1998 conference call in which someone (not me) ranted boringly about Linux while unintentionally sounding like a duck. "Kwak" (spelled so) immediately became adjective, noun, and verb referring to a certain kind of geekiness not specific to the typical geek culture of video games, comic books, science fiction, or for that matter, Linux. It's far more generally any form of obsession, pedantry, or train spotting (holy crap, TRAINSPOTTERISH in Collins!). A beerkwak doesn't just drink beer, he brews it, knows everything there is to know about it, and rarely tires of talking on the subject. An audiokwak doesn't buy expensive speakers or amplifiers, he builds them, and probably feels sorry for people who don't, because they're either listening to crappy speakers or throwing money away. And so the scrabkwak doesn't simply play Scrabble, he plays in Scrabble tournaments, writes Scrabble programs, types long emails about Scrabble tournaments and Scrabble programs, and kwakKwwaaaakKWAAKWAAK.
It's funny to me and it was mine to name. Sorry.
John
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