Files to be included in the install. The dirctory "chess" sould be made
only if it is not pre-existing,
and the name should be user-selectable. (The idea is that the user installs
in the folder where he
normally keeps all his engine folders.) To get a better idea what we are
talking about, I listed the
sizes (and zipped sizes in parentheses) in KB with each component. (Note I
remembered the
size of Polyglot.exe wrong; it is in slightly larger than I remembered, but
still only 8% of WB.)
Minimal Install:
FILES
chess/ 0
chess/winboard/ 0
chess/winboard/winboard.exe 1277 (446)
chess/winboard/winboard.ini 10 (3)
chess/winboard/winboard.hlp 186 (63)
chess/winboard/FAQ.html 75 (24)
chess/winboard/theme1.ini 1 (1)
chess/winboard/polyglot.exe 84 (42)
chess/winboard/default_book.bin 663 (377)
chess/winboard/timeseal.exe 48 (22)
chess/winboard/timestamp.exe 52 (24)
chess/winboard/textures/wood_l.bmp 48 (18)
chess/winboard/textures/wood_d.bmp 48 (25)
chess/PSWBTM/ 0
chess/bitbases/ 0
chess/nalimov/ 0
chess/Fairy-Max/ 0
chess/Fairy-Max/fmax.exe 19 (9)
chess/Fairy-Max/fmax.ini 16 (5)
windows/fonts/chessmark.ttf 50 (14)
MENUs
Program Files -> WinBoard -> WB StartUp Dialog
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Game Viewer
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Chess Server - FICS
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Chess Server - ICC
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Help
Program Files -> WinBoard -> UnInstall
Extras for engine testers:
FILES
chess/PSWBTM/PSWBTM.exe 2416 (923)
chess/PSWBTM/config.pswbtm 1 (1)
chess/PSWBTM/engines.pswbtm 1 (1)
chess/PSWBTM/ntls.pswbtm 1 (1)
chess/PSWBTM/README.txt 7 (3)
chess/PSWBTM/positions/ 0
chess/PSWBTM/positions/nunn.pgn 6 (1)
chess/PSWBTM/positions/silver.pgn 5 (2)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/ 0 (total docs 74 (52))
chess/PSWBTM/doc/configure.html 3 (2)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/install.html 10 (4)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/running.html 5 (2)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/tourney.html 6 (3)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/UCI.html 8 (3)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/conf.png 3 (3)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/eman.png 7 (6)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/menu.png 5 (4)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/PGfruit.png 10 (10)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/pswbtm.png 6 (5)
chess/PSWBTM/doc/tour.png 11 (10)
chess/PSWBTM/games 0
Extras for engine collectors (perhaps selectable by engine):
FILES
chess/Crafty/... ~6MB
Chess/GNUChess5/... 4MB (or 5.8MB, with cygwin1.dll)
chess/Toga/... ?
chess/Glaurung/... ?
MODIFIES FILES (is this possible?)
chess/winboard/winboard.ini
chess/PSWBTM/engines.pswbtm
MENUS
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Crafty
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Toga
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Glaurung
Extras for Variantist profile:
FILES
chess/joker/
chess/joker/Joker80.exe 59 (28)
chess/joker/JokerKM.exe 52 (26)
chess/SMIRF/ 0
chess/SMIRF/Smirfoglot.exe 14 (6)
chess/Fairy-Max/ShaMax.exe 16 (9)
chess/Fairy-Max/MaxQi.exe 15 (8)
chess/Fairy-Max/qmax.ini 1 (1)
MODIFIES FILES
chess/winboard/winboard.ini
chess/PSWBTM/engines.pswbtm
MENUS
Program Files -> WinBoard -> Gothic Chess
Extras for XiangQi profile:
FILES
chess/winboard/UCCI2WB.exe 40 (19)
chess/winboard/QH2WB.exe 15 (5)
chess/winboard/xq_book.bin 109 (60)
chess/winboard/textures/xq.bmp 634 (201)
chess/Fairy-Max/MaxQi.exe 15 (8)
chess/Fairy-Max/qmax.ini 1 (1)
chess/HaQi/ 0
chess/HaQi/HaQiKiD.exe 30 (12)
windows/fonts/XIANGQI.ttf 12 (6)
Rationalization:
The minimal install contains, next to winboard.exe and necessary
documentation, some empty folders (to guide people where to put things in
such a way that the supplied winboard.ini file makes WinBoard automatically
find them; takes no space anyway), and some components the user might or
might not need, but which are too small to justify driving up the
complexity of the installation procedure by making them optional (timeseal,
Polyglot, Fairy-Max, etc.). The main question mark is the opening book
here; the mentioned book drives up the download size by 50%, and people
that would never. I think the mentioned book is affordable; if not, we
could make a smaller one. But I would like to include at least one book, no
matter how small, so the book options of WinBoard will work.
I think the board-texture bitmaps are affordable, now that I shrunk them to
129x129 (the largest WB square size). This means that at this size all
squares would look the same, but with backTextureMode=2 this can be partly
disguised, and at smaller board sizes (which most people use) there still
is some variety in how the squaes are cut out of the bitmap. Perhaps we
should even supply a second theme, next to the wood (e.g. marmoleum), and a
second font as well.
Engine-testers get a separate profile because PSWBTM, (which would be
completely useless for those that do not want to run complex engine-engine
tourneys) is twice the size of WinBoard.
Chess engines in gneral are huge in comparison with anything else,
especially if we would ship them with their native books. Even a package
that contains only a single engine such as Crafty or GNU Chess is dedicated
for 80-90% size-wise to that engine. It thus woud have more the character
of a Crafty or a GNU Chess package, that includes WinBoard as an
afterthought and minor component, just in case someone wouldn't have it,
than of a WinBoard distribution. IMO this is a very good reason not to
include such engines. Let the engine suppliers take care of the
distribution of their engines, and let people interested in a particular
engine get it from its source. Definitely no reason to force them on, say,
ICS users, whuch will likely never use them. So they shoud be optonal at best.
The Variantist profile is separate, not because the componets are so big,
but because they are very specialized, and virtualy no one would want them.
The XiangQi profile is separate mainly because the bitmap for the XiangQi
board is rather large. This could be prevented by not using a wood-texture
board, but an even-colored board in stead. This would compress to almost
nothing. If we want to expand our market share in Asia, we should
definitely consider to make the XIANGQI font and such a highly compressible
board bitmap, plus MaxQi as engine and UCCI2WB as adapter part of the
minimal install. The number of Xiangqi players work-wide is much larger
than the number of Chess players!
H.G.
