    xmj, mj-server, mj-player - programs for playing Mah-Jong

SYNOPSIS
--------

  xmj  [ --id  IDNUMBER]
     [ --server  ADDRESS]
     [ --name  PLAYERNAME]
     [ --connect ]
     [ --show-wall  |  --no-show-wall ]
     [ --size N ]
     [ --animate |  --no-animate]
     [ --tileset  DIRECTORY]
     [ --tileset-path  DIRECTORY-PATH]
     [ --dialogs-popup  |  --dialogs-below  |  --dialogs-central ]
     [ --use-system-gtkrc  |  --no-use-system-gtkrc ]
     [ --gtk2-rcfile  FILE]
     [ --echo-server ]
     [ --pass-stdin ]
     [ --monitor ]

  mj-server  [ --server  ADDRESS]  [ --timeout  SECONDS]
     [ --pause  DECISECONDS]
     [ --random-seats | --id-order-seats ]
     [ --disconnect-penalties  N1,N2,N3]
     [ --end-on-disconnect ]
     [ --exit-on-disconnect ]
     [ --save-on-exit ]
     [ --option-file  FILE]
     [ --load-game  FILE]
     [ --no-id-required ]
     [ --no-manager ]
     [ --auth-basic  ID:PASSWORD]*4
     [ --debug ]
     [ --logfile  FILE]
     [ --no-special-scores ]
     [ --seed N ]
     [ --wallfile  FILE]
     [ --hand-history ]
     [ --nohist ]

  mj-player  [ --id  IDNUMBER] [ --name  PLAYERNAME]
     [ --server  ADDRESS] [ --password  PASSWORD]
      [STRATEGY OPTIONS]
    

DESCRIPTION
-----------
A set of three programs to play Mah-Jong on Unix systems, against
people or programs, over the Internet.

  mj-server 
    is the program that handles communications and control of
    the game; the rules and scoring are enforced there. Players, human or
    computer, connect to a server via the network.

  mj-player 
    is a computer player. At present, it is fairly simplistic, 
    having only offensive tactics with no knowledge of defensive play.

  xmj 
    is the X client for human players.
    

QUICK START
-----------
If you don't want to read this long document: to start a game against
three computer players, start  xmj , select "New local game..." from the 
"Game" menu, and click "Start Game". (Wait about ten seconds for
everything to start up.)


OPTIONS
-------

All Programs
------------

  --server  ADDRESS
    specifies the network address to listen on (for  mj-server ) or to
    connect to (for  mj-player  and  xmj ).
    If ADDRESS contains a colon, it specifies an Internet socket, and
    should have the form HOST:PORT . If ADDRESS does not contain a colon, it 
    is interpreted as a Unix file name and a Unix socket is used.
    The default value for ADDRESS is  localhost:5000 .
    ADDRESS can also be set in a dialog box in  xmj .
    
xmj and mj-player
-----------------

  --id  IDNUMBER
    The server assigns a unique integer ID (which is currently just 1 to 4 
    in order of connection) to each player. This ID should be quoted when
    reconnecting to a game in progress (after, for example, losing a
    network connection or accidentally killing  xmj ). The default ID
    is 0, which denotes no pre-assigned ID. 

  --name  NAME
    Players can give themselves names which will be used by client
    programs. This option specifies the name. For  xmj , the default
    is the value of the environment variable LOGNAME, or failing that the
    username of the logged in user. For  mj-player , the default is
    "Robot(PID)" where PID is the process id.
    
xmj
---

  --connect 
    By default,  xmj  does not automatically connect to a server,
    but waits for the user to connect via a menu. If this option is
    specified,  xmj  immediately connects.

  --show-wall 
  --no-show-wall 
    Tells  xmj  (not) to display the wall. By default, the wall is shown
    only if running on a big enough screen. This option is also
    controllable via the Display Options preference panel.

  --size  NUMBER
    This option adjusts the size of the main window. It should be thought
    of as the length of a tile rack, measured in tiles. The default, and
    the largest value accepted, is 19, or 18 if on an 800x600 display. The
    smallest usable value is 14. This option is also controllable via the
    Display Options preference panel.
    If the  --show-wall  option is given, a  --size  smaller than 19 will
    have no effect.

  --animate 
  --no-animate 
    This option switches on (off) some animation. Not all tile movements
    are animated: only those that involve moving tiles to or from
    a hand from outside. This option is also controllable via the 
    Display Options preference panel.

  --tileset  DIRECTORY
    xmj  needs pixmaps to display the tiles and the tong box.
    This option tells it which directory to find them in.
    The default is set at compilation time; the default default
    is to use the compiled-in tiles.

  --tileset-path  DIRECTORY-PATH
    This gives a colon-separated (or semicolon-separated under Microsoft
    Windows) list of directories in which to look for the directory named
    by the  --tileset  option.

  --dialogs-popup 
    By default, most of the dialog boxes for player actions are
    part of the main window. If this option is used, they will
    instead appear as separate transient windows.

  --dialogs-below 
    By default, dialog boxes appear in the centre of the table.
    If this option is given, dialogs (apart from some popups) 
    are positioned below the table area. Please let me know
    which style you prefer!

  --dialogs-central 
    The default: dialog boxes appear in the middle of the table.
    These options are also controllable via the Display Options
    preference panel.

  --gtk2-rcfile  FILE
    If xmj is compiled with GTK+2, this option specifies a GTK rc file to
    be used instead of the program's compiled-in style file. This may be
    used to change the appearance of the program. See description under
    the Display Options... panel for more details. The FILE should
    be an absolute filename; if it is relative, it will be sought in the
    current directory (Unix) or the program directory (Windows). This
    option is also controllable via the Display Options preference panel.

  --use-system-gtkrc 
  --no-use-system-gtkrc 
    When xmj is compiled with GTK+2, by default it ignores the system
    provided settings, to ensure a consistent behaviour across systems.
    If you wish it to use your system settings, set this option.
    This option is also controllable via the Display Options preference panel.

  --echo-server 
    If this option is given,  xmj  will echo to  stdout  all the
    protocol messages received from the server. This option is for use
    in debugging.

  --pass-stdin 
    If this option is given,  xmj  will send any text given on stdin
    to the server. This option is for use in debugging.

  --monitor 
    If this option is given,  xmj  will send requests to the server only
    in direct response to user actions; it will take no action itself (and
    hence all auto-declaring and playing is also disabled). This option is
    for use in debugging.
    
mj-server
---------

  --timeout  SECONDS
    When a discard is made, there is a limit on the time players have
    to claim it. This option sets the timeout; a value of
    zero disables it. The default is 15 seconds.
    This value can also be set via a GameOption request from a player.

  --pause  DECISECONDS
    This will make the server enforce a delay of DECISECONDS/10
    seconds between each action in the game; the purpose is to slow
    programmed players down to human speed (or, in a teaching situation,
    to slow the game even more). The current server considers that 50
    (i.e. 5 seconds) is the maximum reasonable value for this option.
    The option can also be requested by players, via a PlayerOption
    protocol request.

  --random-seats 
    By default, players are seated in order of connection to the
    server. This option seats them randomly. It will become the
    default later.

  --id-order-seats 
    This option causes the players to be seated in numerical order of
    their ids. It is used by the xmj program to make the New local game..
    work as expected.

  --disconnect-penalties  N1,N2,N3
    This specifies the penalties applied by the following option for
    players who disconnect before the end of a game. N1 is the
    penalty for disconnecting in the middle of a hand; N2 at the end
    of a hand but in the middle of a round; N3 at the end of a round
    (other than end of game). They all default to 0 if not specified.

  --end-on-disconnect 
    If this option is given, a disconnection by one player will gracefully
    terminate the game. Mid-hand, the hand is declared a wash-out; after
    Mah-Jong has been declared, then if a losing player disconnects, their
    tiles are shown, the hand is scored, and then the game ends; if a
    winning player disconnects, the hand is a wash-out. The disconnecting
    player may be assigned a penalty, according to the
    --disconnect-penalties  option, which will be included in the
    scores printed out by the server. (The penalties will not be visible
    to the other players.)

  --exit-on-disconnect 
    If this option is given, the server will quit if any player
    disconnects, rather than waiting indefinitely for reconnection.

  --save-on-exit 
    If this option is given, the server will save the state of the game
    if it quits as a result of a player disconnecting. (It will not save
    the state if it quits as the result of an internal error.)

  --option-file  FILE
    This names a file of protocol commands which will be applied to every
    game when it starts. Its main purpose is to set non-default game
    options, via the GameOption protocol message (note that this is a
    CMsg, not a PMsg). However, users will normally set options and
    preferences via the  xmj  control panel, not by this means.

  --load-game  FILE
    This names a file containing a saved game (as a suitable sequence of
    protocol commands). The server will load the game; clients connecting
    will be treated as if they had disconnected and rejoined the game.

  --no-id-required 
    In the most common case of resuming a saved game, namely one human
    playing against three robots, the robots will not have the same names
    or ids as the robots in the original game. This option tells the
    server that if it cannot match a reconnecting player by id or name,
    it should anyway match it to one of the previously disconnected
    players. (In this case, the human normally connects first with the
    same name, so is correctly matched.)

  --no-manager 
    Usually, the first player to connect becomes the game manager, and
    can change all the game settings. If this option is given, no player
    will be allowed to change the game settings.

  --auth-basic  ID:PASSWORD
    This provides basic (insecure, since the password is transmitted in
    plaintext) authorization: the player with id ID must give the
    specified password to connect. Note that if this argument is given, it
    must be given four times, once for each authorized player - any player
    id not mentioned will not be allowed to connect. A player may be
    allowed to connect without a password by making PASSWORD empty.

  --debug 
    This enables various debugging features. In particular, it
    enables protocol commands that allow one to change the tiles
    in a hand...

  --logfile  FILE
    The server will write a complete record of the game to FILE;
    this will be quite large, and is only useful for automatic comparison of
    different computer players.

  --no-special-scores 
    This option suppresses the scoring of points and doubles for flowers
    and seasons. It is primarily intended for running tests of different
    players; for human use, a game option will be provided to eliminate
    the specials altogether.

  --seed  N
    This option specifies the seed for the random number functions.
    Used for repeatable tests.

  --wallfile  FILE
    This names a file containing space separated tile codes giving the
    wall; used for repeatable tests. (This is a testing option; it is
    not robust.)

  --hand-history 
    This is an option to facilitate certain automatic analyses; if set, 
    a history of each hand is dumped to the file hand-NN.mjs .

  --nohist 
    Another option only used in automatic comparison: this saves some
    CPU time by disabling the book-keeping required to allow players
    to disconnect and reconnect.
    
mj-player
---------

  --password  PASSWORD
    sets the password if basic authorization is in use.

  STRATEGY OPTIONS
    The player has some options which can be used to change its
    "personality". The meanings are rather approximate, since they
    actually change parameters which are used in a rather complex way, but
    the idea is right. These options, each of which takes a floating point
    value in the given range, are:

  --chowness  -1.0 .. 1.0
    This affects how much the player likes chows: at 1.0, it will go all
    out for the chicken hand, at -1.0 it will never chow. The default is
    0.0.

  --hiddenness  0.0 .. 1.0
    Increasing this makes the player reluctant to make exposed sets. At 1.0, it
    will never claim (except possibly to go mah-jong). The default is 0.0.

  --majorness  0.0 .. 1.0
    Increasing this biases the player towards collecting major tiles. At
    1.0, it will discard all minor tiles, if possible. The default is 0.0.

  --suitness  0.0 .. 1.0
    Increasing this makes the player try to go for one-suit hands. The
    default is 0.0

In practice, the  --majorness  option seems not to be very useful,
but the other options change the personality without completely
destroying the playing ability.

In fact, all these options take a comma-separated list of values,
which allows the specifications of a set of strategies, which the
player will switch between. In this case, the --hysteresis
HHH option specifies how much better a strategy should be to
switch to it. However, use of this option, and multiple strategies, is
probably only useful if you first read the code to see how it works.


USING THE XMJ PROGRAM
---------------------
The main window contains a menu-bar and a table area; the table is
in a tasteful shade of dark green. The table displays a stylized
version of the game: stylized in that there is no jazzy graphics or
perspective, and the tiles are not intended to be pictures of real
objects, and so on. Otherwise, the layout is as one would expect of a
real game. However, the wall may or may not be displayed, depending on
option settings and screen size. (See above.)

Specifically, the four players are arranged around the four edges of
the table, with "us" at the bottom. For each player, the concealed
tiles are displayed nearest the edge of the table; our own tiles are
visible, the other players' tiles are face-down. The rightmost
concealed tile of other players is highlighted in red when it is their
turn to discard.

In front of the concealed tiles are (to the player's left) any
declared sets, and (to the player's right) flowers and seasons, and
the tong box if the player is East. The tong box displays the wind of
the round in a white circle. If necessary, the flowers and seasons
will overflow into the concealed row.

The discards are displayed face-up in the middle of the board: they
are laid down in order by each player, in the natural
orientation. TODO: add options to display discards randomly, or
face-down.
If animation (see  --animate  option) is not being used, then the
most recent discard will be highlighted in red.

The name of a face-up tile can be displayed by right-clicking in the
tile. Alternatively, the Tiletips display option can be set, in which
case the name of a tile is displayed whenever the mouse enters it.

Our tiles are displayed in sorted order, which happens to be
Bamboos (1-9), Characters (1-9), Circles (1-9), Winds (ESWN),
Dragons (RWG), Flowers, Seasons. We can also arrange the
tiles ourselves - see the "Sort tiles in hand" display preference
described below.



Actions are generally carried out by clicking a button in a dialog box 
that appears in the middle of the board. For many actions, a tile must 
be selected. A tile is selected or unselected by single-clicking it;
when selected, it appears as a depressed button.
The program will generally pre-select a sensible tile:
specifically:
during the initial declaration of special tiles, the rightmost
special is selected;
after we draw a tile from the wall, the drawn tile is selected;
when declaring concealed sets after going Mah Jong, the first
undeclared tile is selected.

To describe the possible actions, let us run through the course of a
game.

First select "New local game..." from the "Game" menu. A panel will
appear. The default options are to play a game against the computer,
so click "Start Game". 
After a second or two, a game will start. (NOTE: this assumes correct
installation. If this fails, start a server and players manually, and
use the "Join server..." menu item.)

The first thing that happens is a dialog box "Ready to start next
hand".  The server will not start playing a hand until all players
have indicated their willingness to continue play.

Next, the tiles are dealt. Then each player in turn is expected to
declare flowers and seasons. When it is our turn, a dialog will appear 
with the following buttons:

  Declare
    declare the selected flower or season. (Note: the
    program auto-selects the rightmost special tile.)
    If no tile is selected, this finishes declarations.
    This button will not appear if the game is being played without
    flowers and seasons.

  Kong
    If we have a concealed kong, we can declare it now with
    this button.

  Finish
    Finish declaring specials and kongs.

When all players have finished declaring specials and kongs, a dialog
box appears, asking (on East's behalf) permission to continue.

During play, when we draw a tile from the wall, it will be
auto-selected. We may also of course select a different tile.
A dialog will appear giving us the following possibilities:

  Discard
    discard the selected tile. This button also serves
    to declare a flower or season, and the label changes to "Declare"
    when one is selected.

  &Calling
    discard the selected tile and declare a calling hand.
    This button is only shown when calling is allowed
    (by default, only Original Call is allowed).

  Kong
    declare a concealed kong of the selected tile, or
    add the selected tile to an exposed pung, as appropriate.
    Note:  In most rules, a concealed kong can only be declared (or a tile
    added to an existing pung) immediately after drawing from the wall,
    but not after claiming somebody else's discard. Up to and including
    version 1.10, the server enforced this rule strictly. As from version
    1.11, it allows a tile to be added to a pung that you have just
    claimed: in real life, this corresponds to correcting your Pung! claim
    to a Kong! claim, which is allowed by all rules. (Obscure note: if you
    are playing the KongHas3Types option, the resulting kong will be
    counted as annexed, instead of the exposed kong that would have
    resulted from a genuine change of claim. This is a bug, but not worth
    the trouble of fixing.)

  Mah Jong!
    declare Mah Jong! (no selection needed)

If the wall is not being shown, the dialog will note the number
of tiles left in the live wall.

A tile can also be discarded simply by double-clicking it.

When another player discards, a dialog appears to allow us to claim
it. If the dialogs are in the middle of the table, the dialog displays
the tile in a position and orientation to indicate the player who discarded;
if the dialogs are at the bottom, this is not done, to save space.
In any case the dialog displays the name of the tile, and buttons
for the possible claims.
If the wall is not being shown, the dialog will note the number
of tiles left in the live wall.
There is also a `progress bar' which shows how time is running out.
The buttons use one variant of traditional English terminology, viz:

  No claim
    we don't claim this tile. If there is no timeout in
    operation, it is necessary to click this to indicate
    a "pass", and in any case it is desirable to speed up
    play.

  Chow
    claim for a sequence.
    If our claim is successful and there is more than one
    possible sequence to be made, a dialog will appear asking
    us to specify which one.

  Pung
    claim for a triplet.

  Kong
    claim for quadruplet.

  Mah Jong!
    claim for Mah Jong.
    If the claim succeeds, a dialog box will appear asking
    whether we want the tile for "Eyes", "Chow", "Pung", or a
    "Special Hand" (such as Thirteen Unique Wonders).
    (The term "Eyes" is used instead of "Pair" so that in the
    keyboard accelerators, E can be used, leaving P for "Pung".)

When a player (including us) claims, the word "Chow!" etc. will appear
(in big letters on a yellow background, by default) for a couple of seconds
above the player's tiles.

When all players have claimed, or timed out, the successful claim is
implemented; no additional announcement is made of this.

If a player adds a tile to an exposed pung, and that tile would give
us Mah Jong, then a dialog box pops up to ask whether we wish to rob the kong.

After somebody goes Mah Jong, we are asked to declare our concealed
sets. A dialog appears with buttons for "Eyes", "Chow", "Pung". To declare a
set, select a tile, which must be the  first  tile in the set for a
chow, and click the appropriate button. (If we are going Mah Jong, the
first undeclared tile is auto-selected.) When finished, click "Finished" to
reveal the remaining tiles to the other players. 
If we are the winner, there will be a button for "Special Hand": this is 
used to declare hands of non-standard shape, such as Thirteen Unique
Wonders. (Note: the Seven Pairs hand, if in use, should be declared
by means of the "Eyes" button, not the "Special Hand" button.)

At this point, a new top-level window appears to display the scoring
information. The scoring is done entirely by the server, not by the
players; the server sends a text description of the score calculation, 
and this is displayed for each player in the Scoring window. 
The information in the Scoring window remains there until the next
hand is scored; the window can be brought up at any time via the
"Show" menu.

Finally, the "continue with next hand" dialog appears. The hand just
completed will remain visible on the table until the next hand starts.


Keyboard Accelerators 
There are keyboard accelerators for all the actions in the course of
play. For selecting tiles, the Left and Right arrow keys can be used
to move the selection left or right along the row of tiles. In all
dialogs, Space or Return will activate the shadowed button, which is
usually the commonest choice. Each button can also be activated by
typing the underlined letter. (In the Windows GTK1 build, use l (ell)
and r instead of Left and Right. The button accelerators do not work,
for reasons unknown to me.)
The menus are also accessible via accelerators. To open a menu, 
press Meta-X (Alt-X on Windows), where X is the underlined letter in
the menu name. (Meta-X is often (confusingly) Alt-X on Linux systems.)
Then each entry has an underlined letter which if pressed will activate it.


An additional top-level window showing the state of the game can be
obtained by selecting "Game info" from the "Show" menu.


A record of the scores so far in the game can be found by selecting 
"Scoring history" from the "Show" menu. The players are listed in
board order, with the original east marked by @. In each hand, the
player's hand score appears in parentheses, and then their gain
or loss for the hand, beneath which is the running total


There is also a facility for sending text messages to the other
players. Select "Messages" from the "Show" menu, and a window will
appear: in the top is a display of all messages sent, and below
is a single line in which you can enter your message. It will be
sent when you hit Return. The message window pops up automatically 
whenever a message is received, unless prevented by a display
preference. If the "Display status and messages in main window"
display option is set, then this window will instead appear in the
main window, above the table. In that case, there is a checkbox 
"Keep cursor here" next to the message entry line. Checking this box
will ensure that the keyboard focus stays in the message entry field,
even when you click on buttons in the game. (Consequently, you will be
unable to use keyboard accelerators while this option is checked.)

Starting games and re-connecting
--------------------------------
The "Game" menu has the "New local game..." item to start a new game
on your local computer, and the "Join server..." item to connect to an
existing game. The dialogs for both these have the following entries:

  Checkboxes for Internet/Unix server
    These specify whether the server is listening on an Internet socket
    or a Unix socket. If an Internet (TCP) socket, the host name ("Join
    Game..." only) and port number should be entered in the appropriate
    boxes; if a Unix socket, the file name of the socket may be entered,
    or if it is left blank, a temporary file will be used.
    These fields are remembered from game to game.

  "Player ID" and "Name" fields
    The "Player ID" should be left at 0, unless reconnecting to an
    existing game, in which case it should be the ID assigned by the
    server on first connecting to that game. The "Name" field can be
    anything. When reconnecting to an existing game, if the ID is given as 
    0, the server will try to use the "Name" to identify the player. (This
    may not be true in future.) The "Name" field is remembered from game
    to game.

The "Join server..." dialog then simply has a "Connect" button
to establish the connection. The "New local game..." has the following
fields:

  For each of three further players,
    A checkbox to say whether to start a computer player. (Some of) these
    should be unchecked if you wish other humans to join the games.
    If checked, there is a text entry to set the players' names, and a
    text entry field in which options can be given to the players; the
    latter should only be used if you understand the options! The options
    are remembered from game to game.

  An "allow disconnection" checkbox
    If this is checked, the server that is started will continue to run
    even if players disconnect. If it is not checked, the server will quit 
    if any player disconnects. If you are playing one against the
    computer, this should generally be left unchecked, in order to avoid
    server processes accidentally being left lying around. If playing
    against people, it should be checked, to allow players to go away, or
    to guard against network outages.

  As "save game state on exit" checkbox
    If this is checked, the server will save the game state (see below on
    on saving and resuming games) when a player disconnects and causes it
    to quit.

  A "seat players randomly" checkbox
    If this is left unchecked, players will be initially seated as East,
    South, West, North in order of connection. (We always connect first.)
    If it is checked, the seating will be random.

  A numeric entry field
    to specify the time limit for claiming discards.
    If set to 0, there will be no time limit.

  A button to start the game
    Note that it takes a few seconds to start a game, during which time
    the dialog stays up with the button pressed. (TODO: fix this!)
    
Saving and resuming games
-------------------------
At any time during the play of a game, you can choose the "Save" entry
from the "Game" menu. This causes the server to save the current state
of the game in a file. The file will be named  game- DATE .mjs  by
default; if a name has previously been specified, or if the game was
resumed from a file, that name will be used. To specify a name, use
the "Save as..." entry in the "Game" menu. Note that for security,
directories cannot be specified (except by resuming a game), so the
file will be created in the working directory of the server.

To resume a saved game, use the "Resume game..." entry from the "Game"
menu. This is just like the "New local game..." panel, but it has a box to
specify the file containing the saved game. You can either type the
file name into the box, or click the "Browse..." button to get a file
chooser dialog. (File chooser not available on Windows GTK1 build.)

Setting display and game options
--------------------------------
The "Options" menu of  xmj  brings up panels to set various
options related to the display and to the game rules.
Most of these options can be stored in the preferences file,
which is  .xmjrc  in your home directory on Unix, and  xmj.ini 
in your home (whatever that means) directory on Microsoft Windows.

Display Options
---------------
This panel controls options related to the local display.
At the bottom are three buttons: "Save & Apply" applies changes and
saves them in the preferences file for future sessions; "Apply (no
save)" applies any changes, but does not save them; "Cancel" ignores changes.
Note that many display options can also be controlled by command-line
arguments; if an option is specified both in the preferences file and
on the command line, the command line takes priority.

  Position of action dialogs.
    This determines where the dialogs for user actions in the game are
    popped up; see the description of the  --dialogs-central  etc.
    options above. This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display DialogPosition POSN
    where POSN is one of "central", "below" or "popup".

  Animation
    determines whether tile movements are animated (see the  --animate 
    option above). This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display Animate BOOL
    where BOOL is "0" or "1".

  Display status and messages in main window
    puts the game status and message (chat) windows in the main window,
    above the table, instead of having separate popup windows. This option
    is stored in the preferences file as 
    Display InfoInMain BOOL
    where BOOL is "0" or "1".

  Don't popup scoring/message windows
    will prevent the automatic popup of the scoring window at the end of
    a hand, the message window on the arrival of a message, and the game
    status window at the end of the game. This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display NoPopups BOOL
    where BOOL is "0" or "1".

  Tiletips always shown
    means that the name of a tile is displayed whenever the mouse enters
    it, and the name of the selected tile is always shown. (Otherwise,
    right-click to display the name.) This option is stored in the
    preferences file as
    Display Tiletips BOOL
    where BOOL is "0" or "1".

  Rotate player info text
    determines whether the player information labels on the main board are
    rotated vertically for the left and right players, or kept horizontal.
    The default is to rotate them.  This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display RotateLabels BOOL
    where BOOL is "0" or "1".

  Show when players are thinking
    When this is on, "..." will be displayed in other player's claim
    alerts while they are "thinking", that is, have not yet claimed or
    passed. This option requires a recent server.
    The default is off. This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display ThinkingClaim BOOL
    where BOOL is "0" or "1".

  Alert on possible mah-jong
    determines whether to pop up an alert when a discard or drawn tile
    makes mah-jong possible. Beware that only the server knows the full
    rules, so this is not infallible.
    The default is off.  This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display AlertMahjong BOOL
    where BOOL is "0" or "1".

  Display size
    This drop-down list specifies the size of the display. The size should
    be thought of as the length of a tile rack. This is only relevant if
    the wall is not being displayed. Values range from 14 to 19; if
    "(auto)" (the default) is specified, the client tries to choose a size
    as big as will fit in the display. This option can also be specified
    by the command line  --size  argument. This option is stored in the
    preferences file as 
    Display Size N

  Show the wall
    "always" is equivalent to the  --show-wall  option; "never" is
    equivalent to the  --no-show-wall  option; and "when room" is the
    default. This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display ShowWall WHEN
    where WHEN is one of "always", "when-room" or "never".

  Sort tiles in hand
    By default, the program maintains your own tiles in sorted order.
    If you prefer to leave them unsorted (which is often recommended in
    real life, to avoid giving information to your opponents), or to
    arrange them yourself, you can set this option to "never", or to "on
    deal" if you want them to be sorted at the beginning, but then left
    alone. To rearrange tiles, use the Shift-Left and Shift-Right
    (i.e. the left and right arrow keys while holding Shift) - these move
    the selected tile left or right in your hand. (In the Windows GTK1
    build, use L (Shift-l) and R (Shift-r) instead.) On GTK2 builds, you
    can also drag a tile to its new position with the mouse.
    This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display SortTiles WHEN
    where WHEN is one of "always", "deal" or "never".

  Iconify all windows with main
    If this option is set (the default), then when the main xmj window is
    iconified, (almost) all other open windows such as dialogs will also
    be iconified; when the main window is uniconified, the other windows
    will also be uniconified. If it is not set, all windows are
    independent of one another. This option is stored in the preferences file as 
    Display IconifyDialogs BOOL
    This option is not currently supported under Microsoft Windows.

  Tileset
    this is the tile pixmap directory, also given by the  --tileset 
    option. This option is stored in the preferences file as
    Display Tileset DIRNAME

  Tileset Path
    this is the search path for tileset directories, also given by the
    --tileset-path  option. This option is stored in the preferences
    file as 
    Display TilesetPath SEARCH-PATH

  Main font selection...
    This button brings up a font selection dialog to choose the font
    used in buttons, menus, etc. in the client. This option is stored in
    the preferences file as 
    Display MainFont FONT-NAME
    where FONT-NAME is a font name, which may be an X LFD in the
    Unix GTK+1 version, or a Pango font name in the Windows and Unix GTK+2
    versions.

  Text font selection...
    This button brings up a font selection dialog to choose the font
    used in text display (such as scoring info and chat) in the
    client. This option is stored in the preferences file as 
    Display TextFont FONT-NAME

  Table colour selection...
    Unaccountably, not everybody likes my choice of dark green for the
    table background. This button brings up a colour selection box to
    allow the table colour to be changed.This option is stored in the
    preferences file as  
    Display TableColour COL
    where COL is a GTK colour specification. The format depends
    on whether xmj is built with GTK+1 - in which case it is an X color
    of the form rgb:RRRR/GGGG/BBBB - or GTK+2 - in which case it is a
    GTK2 color of the form #RRRRGGGGBBBB. GTK+2 programs will convert
    an old GTK1 specification.

  Gtk2 Rcfile:
    In the GTK+2 build, xmj by default ignores completely the system and
    user settings for look and feel, and uses its own built in settings.
    These settings use the Clearlooks theme, if it is available, to
    provide a simple but clean look with slightly rounded tiles; and fall
    back to a plain theme, as compact as possible with the standard
    engine. If you wish, you can use this option to specify the name of
    a GTK rcfile which will be read instead of the built in settings.
    A minimal set of settings will be read before your file is read.
    Such a file can specify many details of the appearance, provided that
    you know how to write a GTK rcfile. You will need to know that xmj
    uses the following styles and bindings:
    gtk-font-name = FONTNAME
    can be used to change the overall font used by widgets. This will
    overridden by the font specified by the Main Font option, if set.
    style "table"
    is used to give the green (or whatever you set) colour to the
    table. All widgets that should have this style are named "table", so
    the appropriate binding (already set in the minimal set) is
         widget "*.table" style "table"
    style "playerlabel"
    is used to give the white text colour to the player status labels
    in the corners of the board (if shown). All widgets that should have
    this style are named "playerlabel", so the appropriate binding
    (already set in the minimal set) is
         widget "*.playerlabel" style "playerlabel"
    style "tile"
    is used in the default settings for all widgets named "tile", which
    are all tiles except the tiles in your own concealed hand. This style
    is not used in the minimal settings, but if set it should be bound
    with
         widget "*.tile" style "tile"
    style "mytile"
    is used in the default settings for the concealed tiles in your hand,
    which are active buttons. These tiles are all named "mytile". This style
    is not used in the minimal settings, but if set it should be bound with
         widget "*.mytile" style "mytile"
    style "claim"
    is used to set the yellow background and large font of the claim
    announcement popups. These popups are named "claim", so the
    appropriate binding (already set in the minimal set) is
         widget "*.claim" style "claim"
    style "text"
    is used to change the font for the text widgets such as message boxes
    and input fields. In the minimal settings, it is empty, but is defined
    and bound to the relevant widgets. The binding should not be changed,
    but the style itself can be redefined. If the Text Font option is set,
    this style will be redefined in order to implement it.
    binding "topwindow"
    is defined and bound to the top-level window to implement the use of
    the left and right arrow keys to change the selected tile. It is
    probably not helpful to change this.
    The distribution contains three example gtkrc files, called
    gtkrc-minimal ,  gtkrc-plain , and  gtkrc-clearlooks ,
    which contain the program's compiled in settings.
    This option is stored in the preferences files as
    Display Gtk2Rcfile FILE-NAME
    Note that if the file-name is relative, it will be interpreted
    relative to the current directory in Unix, or the program directory in
    Windows.

  Use system gtkrc
    As noted above, xmj does not normally load the system settings in the
    GTK+2 build. If this option is checked, it will (after the minimal
    settings, but before the default or user-specified settings).
    This option is stored in the preferences files as
    Display UseSystemGtkrc BOOL
    where BOOL is 0 or 1.

  Note for GTK+1 builds
    Under a GTK+1 build, xmj does what any other application does. This
    should allow the use of a .gtkrc file to change colours, using the
    styles and bindings given above. However, this is not a supported
    activity.
    
Playing Preferences
-------------------
This panel controls what actions the client may take on your behalf.
The first (and currently only) section specifies when the client
should declare tiles and sets for you. It has the following checkboxes:

  flowers and seasons
    if checked, will be automatically declared as soon as drawn.

  losing hands
    if this is checked, then when somebody else goes out, the client will
    declare your closed sets. It declares in the order pungs, pairs,
    chows.

  winning hands
    this is the same for when you go out.

The panel has "Save & Apply", "Apply (no save)" and "Cancel" buttons,
as in the display options panel.

Game Option Preferences
-----------------------
This panel controls preferred game options which will be sent to the
server when a game starts. Preferences will only be applied if we are
the game manager, or the game has no manager. (Normally, the first
human player to connect to the server becomes the game manager.)
For details of options and their meanings, see the Game Options
section in the rules.
The panel has two action buttons, "Save Changes" and "Cancel", with
the obvious meanings. Note if a game is in progress, changed
preferences are NOT applied to it; however, there is a button
in the Current Game Options panel to apply preferences.
The main body of the panel is a scrollable window listing all the
known options. If no preference is stored for the FooBar option,
then there is an "Add pref" button next to a description of the FooBar 
option. If this button is clicked, an entry for setting the option
appears. The format of this entry depends on the type of the option
(see the Game Options section of the rules for details of types):

  Boolean (on/off) options
    have a checkbox.

  Integer options
    have a spinbutton for numerical entry: the value can be typed in, or
    the up and down arrows can be used to change it

  Score options
    have radio buttons for selecting Limit, Half-Limit, or other; for
    other, the number of doubles and/or points is entered with
    spinbuttons. (Note: the underlying protocol allows percentages
    (possibly more than 100%) of limits to be specified for scores;
    however, the current graphical interfaces allow only limits or
    half-limits. Even half-limits are pretty strange, but some bizarre
    sets of rules, such as those of the British Mah-Jong Association
    (which plays a weird American/Western/Chinese mix), allow other
    fractions of limits.)

  String options
    have a simple text entry field.

All option entries have a "Reset" button which returns the entry to
its previous state.
A preference is removed by clicking the "Remove pref" button.

Current Game Options
--------------------
When there is a connected game, this panel allows its game options to
be modified (if we have permission to do so). The three action buttons 
are "Apply changes", which applies the panel's settings to the current 
game; "Apply prefs", which applies our preferences (as described
above) to the current game; and "Cancel".
The body of the panel contains entries for all the options of the
current game, in the same format as the preferences panel (see above).


UPDATES
-------
The latest release of the Unix Mah-Jong programs should be available at
http://mahjong.julianbradfield.org/ 

