$Header: /home/jcb/MahJong/newmj/RCS/README,v 12.0 2009/06/28 20:43:12 jcb Rel $

This is the README file for the Unix mah-jong programs by J. C. Bradfield.


NOTICES:
--------
Please see the file LICENCE for terms and conditions of these
programs.

Source distribution only:
-------------------------
The code in the  tiles-v1/  directory was not written by me; see 
tiles-v1/README  for information and licensing.
The file MANIFEST contains a description of all the files you 
should find in this distribution.

Binary distributions only:
--------------------------
In the distribution directory, you will find the following files:
mj-server   the controller program. ( mj-server.exe in Windows )
mj-player   a computer player.      ( mj-player.exe in Windows )
xmj         a graphical client.     ( xmj.exe in Windows )
README      this file
LICENCE     the licence
rules.txt   the rules as implemented by the programs
use.txt     documentation on how to use the programs
CHANGES     summary of changes between releases
xmj.1       man page (not in Windows)
mj-player.1 man page (not in Windows)
mj-server.1 man page (not in Windows)
tiles-numbered   an alternative tileset with some arabic numbers
tiles-small a set of smaller (3/4 size) tiles
gtkrc-minimal       sample gtkrc files
gtkrc-plain
gtkrc-clearlooks

DESCRIPTION:
------------
These programs allow the user of a Unix (or Windows) computer to play
Mah-Jong, in the Chinese Classical style, against other users (locally
or over the Internet), against programmed players, or both.


OBTAINING:
----------
Latest releases should be available from:
 http://mahjong.julianbradfield.org/MahJong/


CONTACTING:
-----------
If you need to contact me about these programs, please mail me at
mahjong@stevens-bradfield.com .


INSTALLATION - BUILDING FROM SOURCE:
------------------------------------

Systems:
--------
These programs should, in theory, compile on any reasonably modern
32-bit Unix with an ANSI C compiler and the X Window System.
They have been known to compile (and run) under GNU/Linux, recent Solaris
(on Sparc), and recent Irix (on Silicon Graphics workstations).
They also compile and run on MacOS 10 with X Windows.
If you try to compile on any "reasonably modern" system, and have a
problem, do please tell me.
In addition, they should compile and run under Win32 systems with
GNU compilers and utilities; they are known to work under NT 4.0 with
the mingw compiler (you must use the version with the MSVCRT dll).
Adam Kao <mahjong@ideogram.com>  got a pre-release version to compile
with Microsoft Visual C and nmake, but as I don't have these I don't
support them. If you wish to try to do this, the file  makefile.msvc.old
is the makefile Adam used; however, it has not been updated to match the
current release, and is now extremely old.

Prerequisites:
--------------

On Unix, as of version 1.10 of xmj, you need GTK+ 2.0 or later,
preferably with the Clearlooks theme installed. If you are running on
a very old system indeed, or you dislike GTK+2, you can also compile
against GTK+ 1.2 by making the appropriate change in the Makefile.
GTK+ 1.2 specific bugs are unlikely to be fixed in future.

If you do not have GTK+, obtain it from www.gtk.org or mirrors.

On Windows, you need the GTK+ 2 development bundle (note that
GTK+ 2 relies on a lot of other stuff. A bundle is available from
www.gtk.org.)  To compile against GTK+1, you need a 2004 or later
version 1.3 of the gtk+ Windows port.

To compile the program, you need Perl, version 5 (version 4 is almost
certainly OK, but I haven't checked). Perl should be installed on any
decent system. (It is, of course not installed by default on Windows, but
if you do any development, you've probably already installed it.)
You do not need any Perl modules.

You need the GNU make utility. If you do not have this, you will need
to remove the GNU-specific features from the Makefile, as directed therein.
(This may be hard. There is no good reason not to use GNU make, as far
as I know.)
(Windows: see also note above about makefile.msvc.old)

Installing:
-----------
Unpack the distribution, and cd into the distribution directory.

Edit the Makefile, and change as directed by the comments.

Then
 make

You should not see any warnings or errors. If you do get any warning
or error, please complain to me (unless you've switched on lots of
superfluous message via the C debug flags, in which case you know what 
you're doing, so don't complain to me!).

Then (Unix only) su to an appropriate user if you need this for
installation, and 
 make install
will install the binaries in the place you chose. Alternatively,
just copy the three binaries
 mj-server
 mj-player
 xmj
into your chosen directory.

make install.man  (Unix only)
will install the man pages into the appropriate directory.

You may also wish to put the pre-formatted text files  use.txt
and rules.txt (which are basically the two halves of the man page)
somewhere.


INSTALLATION - UNIX BINARY DISTRIBUTIONS:
-----------------------------------------

Unpack the distribution, and cd into the distribution directory.

Just copy the three binaries
 mj-server
 mj-player
 xmj
into your chosen directory. If you don't have GTK+, then see above.

The user documentation is  use.txt  and  rules.txt ; put these in
an appropriate place. 

Alternatively, or as well, copy the man pages  xmj.1, mj-server.1,
mj-player.1  to the appropriate man directory (e.g. /usr/local/man/man1).

Make sure that the binary directory is in your PATH; in particular,
if you run from the source directory, you need to have it in your 
PATH either explicitly or as . .


INSTALLATION - WINDOWS BINARY DISTRIBUTION:
-------------------------------------------

Unpack the distribution. 
Put the three *.exe files into an appropriate directory.
Creating menu items and shortcuts is up to you...

You must have the DLLs for the GTK+ libraries, as specified above.
For your convenience, these can be found in the file  gtk2dlls.zip
in the xmj download directory. Put the DLLs in the same directory as
the xmj binaries.
If you are using the GTK+ 1 version, you need instead the file
gtkdlls1.zip .

Put the documentation  use.txt  and  rules.txt  somewhere sensible.


RUNNING:
--------
Please see the file  use.txt  in the distribution for usage
information. The file  rules.txt  describes the rules applied by
the programs. (Or see the man page.)


PAYMENT & REGISTRATION:
-----------------------
What payment? What registration? These programs are free. However, if
you would like to encourage me to continue development, or thank me
for what I have already done, you can
(a) make a donation to your local branch of Amnesty International
    (please send me a note if you do); or,
(b) send me a donation, either via PayPal, or by credit card by
    the link on the xmj home page.
If you want to be informed when new versions are released, etc.,
please sign up via the web site.


WINDOWS:
--------
The Windows port exists thanks to the efforts of Adam Kao
<mahjong@ideogram.com>, who ported the pre-release version, and thus
showed me what to do.
Only Win32 is catered for.
I do not have a proper development environment for
Windows, so Windows-specific bugs will not have a high priority.


SUGGESTIONS:
------------
xmj is no longer under development. You're welcome to send me suggestions
for improvements, but I'm unlikely to act on them. If I do do any further
work, it will be to develop a new version, with much more flexibility.


BUGS:
-----
Please report any bugs, or anything that might be a bug.
Any known bugs that cannot be fixed are documented in the user manual.

