tlug: Re: Many Faces on Linux

[David Fotland <fotland@example.com>]

Hi,

Darren forwarded this to me so I could answer for myself :)

There is an HP-UX port of Many Faces.  I wrote the X11 GUI more than
5 years ago, and it is based on the code from the DOS version of
Many Faces, not the Win-95 version, so it doesn't have all of the
new features.  You can probably still find it for download at
the IGS archive site.

I keep it compatible with the latest engine since I use it on my workstation
at HP to run on IGS and NNGS, the internet go servers.  But I don't
give away or sell and recent HP-UX version, since the current version
is rather buggy.

The main issue with doing a Linux port is finding the time.  I work full
time for HP, have two young children, and need to spend the rest of my time
upgrading the engine to remain competitive.  

I do enjoy writing user interfaces, since I get more immediate gratification
than I can get form time spent on the engine.  But most of my GUI time
is budgeted to adding new features to the Win-95 interface.  I've written
at least 7 GUI interfaces for Many Faces already :)

The engine is extremely portable, written in simple ANSI C, without
endianness sensitivities.

I would be more interested in a Linux port if I thought I could make some
money from it, since time I spent on it would take away time from
other projects that are money-makers.  I don't use Linux myself, but
my impression of the Linux community is that they would not be interested
in paying for game software.

David Fotland

>
>---------------------------
>>> I highly recommend the commercial version of ManyFaces by the way.  Do a
>>> web search on the keys "fotland many faces of go".  A little pricey (US
>>> $89 from samarkand) but well worth it, IMHO.
>>
>>I found out that there's an HPUX port of ManyFaces as well.  Apparently
>>the author works for HP... wonder if he could do a Linux port?
>
>Bringing this thread a bit more back on topic, here's why I think you'll
>have trouble convincing him. I'd like to hear counter-arguments, as this
>will apply for lots of Windows software:
>
>1.ManyFaces (the recent versions) uses MFC for the user interface. AFAIK
>there is no easy way to port this, so the user interface would have to be
>done from scratch.
>
>2.The user interface is the least enjoyable part of the project.
>
>3.Are there enough Linux users who'd be interested in *paying* for go
>software?
>
>
>The author has been reluctant to do even a Windows CE port because the
>differences between normal MFC and MFC for CE are significant.
>
>OTOH, the non-interface part should just be a recompile. The HPUX port is
>probably just compiled with a telnet interface for playing on IGS/NNGS.
>I've not heard it's commercially available.
>
>Darren
>
>
>

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