Re: [XBoard-devel] Plans for 4.4.2

[Arun Persaud]

Hi

HGM wrote:
> I don't think we have the freedom to change how the command-line should
> look. Because XBoard does not support a settings file, almost everyone
> runs it through very elaborate scripts. These scripts must remain valid.

I think we do have that freedom. Winboard and Xboard have different
formats at the moment as you say, so one of them needs to change in the
near future anyway. Why not change both and then use a format that is
also used by other programs and comes with a nice library?

If we ever want to change those things I think doing so when changing
from 4.x to 5.x would be the opportunity.

As for old scripts, we could include a parser that either pops up an
error message, saying that the format is outdated and that you now need
to use XYZ instead or even have a 5.0.x still understand both old
windows and xboard syntax and drop that only in 5.1.x.

As for ini-files my preference would be an options --ini-file or
something like that. At least on unix I have never seen the @ symbol
used for something like this.

> It would be very convenient if WinBoard and XBoard would share the
> list of option definitions; it is a constant pain that they currently do not,
> and every new option has to be added in duplicate.

that is the goal of the gtk version after all... having only one version
and not two anymore...

cheers
     ARUN