Go for BeOS

Go for BeOS
Usage instructions for Go for BeOS, an IGS go client for playing the ancient game of go through the net.

installation

to install the required and included F3cPixel.so, libHTTP.so and libreadline.so.4 shared libraries, move (or link) them to /boot/home/config/lib. I also suggest to create a link of the Go binary to /boot/home/config/bin so you can access it from anywhere.

to verify that the client is working on your system call it from a Terminal like this: go -l 9. This will open just a go board window without any server connection. Place some stones and close the window.

playing against a computer program

to play against a locally running computer program start Go as follows: Go -l 19 -b gnugo.
I have included a gnugo binary (version 3.2) for your convenience. The program has to implement the GTP (Go Text Protocol). Currently, I think, only GnuGo does this.
I do not recommend to play against computer programs. They play too well for a beginner and they screw up your brain. You should rather play against a human.
Note that there are a lot of computer players on the servers, too.

registering an account

to register an account at igs.joyjoy.net, go to their registration page igs.joyjoy.net/English/register. Wait for the email containing your password.

getting started

to login using the client, simply start it up with the following options: go -h igs.joyjoy.net -p 6969 -u <username> -p <password>. These options will be stored for you, so no need to enter them next time, just Go
The client will now hopefully log in. You can now enter any igs-command in the Terminal window. Try games for example to see a list of currently played games. (All commands you can enter are server-commands, there are no client-specific commands).

to observe a game being played, type observe <game_num> All commands may be abbreviated, therefore you can also use ob <game_num>.

to get help for an igs-command type help <command_name>. For a list of commands, use help commands.

playing go

to see who's open for matches do a who 20k-30k o. This will get you a list of all players open for matches that have a rank of 20-30 kyu. to start a game use match <player> [B|W] <size> <time> <byo yomi time>. For example: match molecular2 W 13 1 10. For more info of course, use help match. Black begins.

to greet your opponent type say hello

to place a piece on the board press the left mouse button.

to make a pass enter pass in the terminal or middle-click.

if the board becomes inconsistent enter status <game_num> to sync the board to the status it has on the server.

in case the client crashes, don't panic. Start it back up and use load <player1>-<player2> to reload the game and say sorry to your opponent. Also, if you can reconstruct the situation that lead to the crash and capture a stack trace (enter debugger and type sc), send this to me.

the title bar states some important information: First the number of the game. (All games on the server have a number you can use in many commands. This is it). The player's names and rank, the time they have left (and if in byo-yomi, also the stones left to play within that time), and who's turn it is (indicated by the > and < characters dividing the two player infos. To update the title bar, you can enter time

In this example TY is playing as White against happiness, who is Black. Both are 2 dan, approved by server (the *). It's TY's turn with 3 minutes left for 13 stones to play.

after three successive passes the game enters scoring mode. You can now remove dead groups by clicking on them. Check your score with score and type done when done.

to thank your opponent for the game type tell . thanks for the game. The . is a server variable. It will be set to your last opponent or the last user you told something.

to change the look of the pieces on the board right-click.

to get alerted when the author logs into the igs.joyjoy.net server, use notify molecular2.

to change the sounds use the BeOS sounds preferences panel.

the update manager checks a script on goforbeos.dyndns.org to determine wether there is a new version available for you. The link will be displayed in case there is. A few words about privacy: Variables transmitted to the server are: the name of the program ("go"), the version, system_time() and your igs username. There is a flag to turn off update checking completely (-m 0) or to do it anonymously without transmitting the username(-m 1).
Of course I'm logging the info so I can do some statistic later (which I will make public and post the link through the update manager to everybody). These statistics will include number of discrete users and stuff like that, so please consider transmitting your username, it's important for me to judge the userbase and therefor you will support development of the client by not being anonymous coward ;). You can check goforbeos.dyndns.org in case you're interested.. maybe I've put up stats already.
Please forgive this invasion into your privacy.

to report a bug or suggestion or send a flame or praise or whatever kind of feedback mail nick@f3c.com.

Thanks go to mark and dan for heavy beta-testing.
This page is homed here.
(= enjoy and feed back =)



http://f3c.com/software/go/docAugust 16, 2002