Re: [XBoard-devel] WinBoard installer

[Eric Mullins]

h.g. muller wrote:
> > C:\chess\WinBoard>objdump -p gnuches5.exe | grep DLL
> > vma:            Hint    Time      Forward  DLL       First
> >       DLL Name: cygwin1.dll
> >       DLL Name: cygreadline5.dll
> >       DLL Name: KERNEL32.dll
> >
> > From my chess utils path:
> > 08/10/2003  04:17 PM           151,552 cygreadline5.dll
> > 06/12/2008  11:35 AM         1,872,884 cygwin1.dll
>
> Yes, we definitely should NOT include a cygwin1.dll or anything that 
> depends on it. Cygwin1.dll cause nothing but trouble.
> Some engines depend on cygwin1.dll, and can only run with a specific 
> version of it, which then usually is dfferent from
> a specific cygwin1.dll another engine needs. And I don't think you an 
> have two different cygwin1.dll at the same time...
> So apart from that it is huge, there are plenty other reasons to stay 
> away from cygwin1.dll.
>
> If GNU Chess 5 needs it, then GNU Chess 5 is out of all packages, as 
> far as I am concerned.
I wasn't knocking cygwin1.dll, just pointing out the dependency.  Lots 
of chess software requires POSIX, so including cygwin1.dll seems a good 
move to me.  All the back compatibility issues of it are gone-- if you 
include the most recent DLL, there shouldn't be any issues.  But 
certainly omitting gnuchess wouldn't bother me at all.


> > Polyglot may also depend on cygwin1.dll, depending where you got it.
> > There is a version that doesn't depend on it though.  I'm not sure 
> > I'd recommend that one, however.
>
> I use a version of Polyglot in the Gold Pack that does not need 
> cygwin1.dll. I don't thnk it ever gave rise to any problems.
> At least I never received any complaints about it.
The problem with the polyglot that doesn't require cygwin1.dll is it 
doesn't work in windows 95 because of the new affinity option.  I tried 
to assist that project briefly, including changes for win95 support, but 
they disappeared in the very next version.  I have my own custom version 
of it that does work in win95 though.  Still, I'm not sure I consider it 
tested enough.  I never really understood the point of getting rid of 
the cygwin1 dependency anyway.  However, I do like the windows native 
version for one reason: in windows 9x and NT4, it doesn't open an extra 
command window for the forked polyglot process.

Of course, I haven't tested the new version of winboard in win95 yet.
> > I have a .REG file that I use to set up the PGN file type to invoke 
> > winboard in analysis mode.  This has fcp as polyglot, and then I just 
> > hand-modify the INI file for whatever engine I want to analyze with.
> > That process could be fine-tuned and automated to make it easy on end 
> > users to select the analysis engine.  I don't ever use WB engines 
> > though, so I'm not sure what else might be necessary to support 
> > crafty in that process.
>
> This is essentially what WinBoard does automatically, when you give the
> -fUCI / -sUCI option. It writes the original argument of -fcp / -scp 
> to a INI file,
> and replaces the engine command by "polyglot".
Is there an association between .pgn (and .fen) files and winboard that 
the installer creates?  That's mostly what my .reg file sets up, 
including the black-yellow icon from winboard.exe as the PGN icon.  So 
when you d/l a pgn file, it has the correct icon, and when you 
double-click it, it launches winboard in analysis mode.

I used to set it up manually without a .reg file, but when I was testing 
Vista, I discovered there is no advanced option in the file association 
tool it provides.