SLICS is a new ICS client that works with Winsock (TCP/IP). it is essentially a new version of the chess viewer CHESSBD with some new dialogs tacked on, thus it incorporates all the viewer functionality of CHESSBD version 1.1d . you must have Winsock to use SLICS. ICS client features: * the usual GUI game playing functions * separate GUI dialogs for chats and challenges * you can enter any ICS command via a telnet window * alternative setups for small or large monitors * can be used thru a firewall (thanks to Tim Mann) * 16 user programmable buttons for your favorite ICS commands * colors and fonts can be customized. distribution includes 2 alternative sets of pieces contributed by users (thanks to Nico Koolsbergen and Eric Churchill) many new ICS features - see release notes below. * scalable board windows * dialing directory for switching between different servers * user programmable menu - like the arena buttons, but in a menu * capture windows * tty mode dialog * optional multiple .ini files chess viewer (CHESSBD) features: * understands both algebraic and descriptive notation * can read and write PGN, including nested variations * can read "almost any" ascii game file, including natural "sloppy" input with implicit comments and variations * can be used to convert "almost any" ascii game file to PGN * can build an index to speed up loading of large game collections as of 18 april 95, the most recent version is slics20i. the file slics20i.exe is a self-extracting archive. the FICS server seems to be in a state of flux for the moment. it is usable, but there are annoying incompatibilities that cause some SLICS features not to work, or not to work as well as on ICS (ICC). it is my intention to make SLICS fully functional under FICS, once the server stabilizes. comments, suggestions, and bug reports are welcome. SLICS is shareware. if you find this program useful, please contribute $5, thanks. --- don fong (dfong@igc.apc.org) ============================================================== RELEASE NOTES * scalable boards. the main board window and observation windows are now scalable via the usual windows decorations. * improved ConnectInfo dialog. there is a new a "dialing directory" box that lets you easily switch back and forth between ICC and FICS or other servers. edit the file "icsprofs.dat" to have your name and other server-dependent settings available at the click of a button. there is also a checkbox to tell the program whether you are connecting to a FICS server vs an ICC server. i added it because there are enough annoying little incompatibilities between the two that it seemd like a waste of time to try to make SLICS context free. * capture window . alt-T brings up a dialog that lets you run a command while saving the output in a window of the appropriate size. this solves 2 problems: you don't have to scroll the window to see long lines (as long as the output is a reasonable size); and the output won't get scrolled off by chats and other server messages. * tty mode dialog . alt-M brings up a dialog that lets you control tty like parameters of the control window. you probably don't want to mess with the default settings, unless you are logging in thru a firewall. in that case, you can set rawmode on, local echo off, fullduplex on. but under normal operation making a TCP/IP connection directly to the ICS server, the best settings are rawmode off, local echo on, and fullduplex off. there is an additional setting, to turn on/off line wrap in the ICS textport. it's a matter of taste. i added it because the default window sizes are too small to see the important info in challenges without having to scroll back and forth. * user definable menu. dropdown "U" menu for up to 50 user defined commands. (this is in addition to the 16 user definable buttons in the ARENA dialog.) NOTE: i also changed the method of specifying programmable arena buttons. the old method will still work for now, but i encourage everyone to switch to the new method. see the online help. * multiple .ini files . if you have customized the chessbd.ini file (like with your own arena button bindings), you can now put these custom settings in a separate .ini file and SLICS will read them after reading chessbd.ini . the first line of additional ini files must be ``[chessbd]''. to use it, give the filename as a command line argument when calling chessbd.exe from the program manager. you can specify multiple .ini files if you want. they will be processed in left to right order. these files will NOT be changed if you alter a variable at runtime using the Options dialog. such changes will be written to chessbd.ini . if you want to change these additional .ini files, just use a text editor. * i also added support for direct modem connections, without winsock. this is still experimental. you still need to have winsock installed in order to use SLICS, otherwise the program won't load. but if for some reason you wanted to use a direct modem connection instead of thru winsock. try it and let me know if it works. bug fixes: * "maximize" should work right, or at least better. this should also fix the problems where the dialogs did not have all their stuff if you were using a small screen. * previous versions had a problem with maximizing the ICS control window on a small screen. the fix was to insert a line "icswinmax=1000x1000+0+0" in your chessbd.ini . i changed the default so that should no longer be necessary. the problem should be fixed now. * the problem with "sposition" being off-screen is now fixed. * widened the challenge listbox in the arena dialog. this isn't really a bug, but in previous versions the listbox was a little too narrow. depending on the length of the challenger's name, you had to scroll the window to see the time control. i also made the default font smaller, for the same reason. you can change it back if you don't like it. * tweaked the "match" dialog to work with FICS. for this to work right, you must inform SLICS when you are using a FICS, vs ICC. see above regarding the ConnectInfo dialog. * if you find the board starts out upside-down when you start a game, it probably means you forgot to set the "icshandle" variable to your login name. you need to do it, because FICS does not automatically set the board orientation. your "icshandle" the only way the program knows which side should go at the bottom. * in the games file, move numbers are now followed by a period as they should be.