_/|            __
  // o\         /    )           ,        /    /
  || ._)    ----\---------__----------__-/----/__-
  //__\          \      /   '  /    /   /    /   )
  )___(     _(____/____(___ __/____(___/____(___/_


  *Scidb is a *Chess *Information *Data *Base

=====================================================================

http://scidb.sourceforge.net
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scidb/

Email-Address of the author:
gcramer@users.sourceforge.net

=====================================================================

---------------------------------------------------------------------
How to compile?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Read file INSTALL.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wanted:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Testers are welcome for the preliminary version. Volunteers should
sign up, so that the testing can be coordinated. Please send a
message to the author.

How a message can be sent:

   1. A membership in Sourceforge is needed (open
      <https://sourceforge.net/user/registration?>).
      The membership is free of charge and duties.
   2. Open <https://sourceforge.net/u/gcramer/profile/send_message>,
      you must be logged in.

For additional wanted functionalities feature requests can be entered.
These requests will partly be a basis of decision-making for further
development.

How to enter feature requests:

   1. Open <https://sourceforge.net/p/scidb/feature-requests/>.
   2. Click "Create Ticket", you must be logged in.

These request should consider that Scidb is a pure database application.
That means the following functionalities are not destined for Scidb:

   - FICS connection
   - correspondence/Email chess support
   - automatic game analysis
   - chess training
   - playing against external chess programs
   - other chess program specific tasks

For such functionalities another project is in planning stage:
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/jessy>. In this way an overloading
of the database application Scidb will be prevented. Jessy will
have a connection to the Scidb bases.

Furthermore project help is welcome. The following tasks are open:

   Tcl/Tk
   ------------------

   - The windows inside the main window should be dockable/undockable.
     Furthermore the sub-windows should be movable (with drag&drop),
     currently the positions of the sub-windows are fixed.

   - Writing HTML help pages.

   - Printing PDF documents.

   C++
   ------------------

   - Windows porting. Although the development is platform independent,
     Windows does not provide the functions fopencookie() and
     open_memstream(). Unfortunately the effort will be high. The basis
     for this task is the library 'newlib' (only the stdio part).
     More programming effort for the porting shouldn't be neccessary.

   - LaTeX generation with the help of the already existing TeXt library.
     The TeXt library supports the generation of text documents with
     TeX like scripts. Realizing this task will test the TeXt library
     for the first time.

   - HTML generation (see LaTeX generation).

   - The SVG library Anti-Grain (AGG) delivers dissatisfying results for
     line drawing. The lines are not anti-aliased, but they should be.
     This part of the library has to be modified/overworked. Apparently
     the author Maxim Shemanarev abondend the development of this library.
     A real alternative for this library is not exisiting. The use of
     Cairo would imply too many dependencies (besides Cairo is deemed to
     be relatively slow). Furthermore the drawing of gradients,
     implemented by the author, needs improvements (userSpaceOnUse/
     objectBoundingBox is not realized).

     For the drawing of pie charts the function arc() is required.
     This function currently delivers anything but circular arcs, rework of
     the function is neccessary (requires much know-how!).

   - Reading of ChessBase databases is tested only for ChessBase version 9.
     ChessBase version 10 supports chess 960 games. For that ChessBase
     must have extended the format (X-Fen/Shredder-Fen, castling).
     This has to be tested and to adapted. Currently the decoding
     of chess 960 games may be faulty (the application may crash).

   - Testing (and appropriate adaptions) of the internal chess program.
     Some of the move computations, especially in the opening phase,
     are still dissatisfying.
   
---------------------------------------------------------------------
How did Scidb arise?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In the first time the author tried to re-engineer the existing
application Scid. The current version of Scid is a bit disliked by
the author for different reasons. After many weeks of work the author
noticed that the development of a new application will not take more
effort than re-engineering.

Scidb makes use of the excellent pioneering feat of Shane Hudson,
as well it makes use of new and improved development libraries which
where not available for Shane Hudson. The author likes to provide at
least the stability and correctness as Shane Hudson did provide --
and the newer versions do not provide.  Further goals are simplicity,
user friendliness, convinience, and a beautiful design.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Which path does Scidb adopt?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Principally Scidb is adopting the path of Scid; the choosen name
Scidb is suggesting this. Therefore Scidb will not be a ChessBase
clone. ChessBase has his advantages, for example the lightning-fast
opening of huge databases. However this has his own drawbacks,
(resulting due to the required programming technique), and Scidb
is avoiding these drawbacks as well as Scid. Which advantages are
appreciated, and which drawbacks are accepted, is depending on the
requirements of the particluar user. Because of that no application
is superior or worse. But Scidb will be different from Scid as
well, and similarities to ChessBase in certain dialogs are
unavoidable.

Scidb is solely a chess database, this means Scidb is not suitable
to play against external chess programs, or to play in the internet.
For this purpose another project (http://sourceforge.net/projects/jessy)
is scheduled, that will have an appropriate interface to the the
Scidb databases, and a similar look and feel. This application is in
preparation, but will be released not before 2011. Scidb should be
usable very easy; this includes it will not be overload with
functionalities. The functions, provided by Scidb, will be user-friendly,
and should work with highest reliability.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Why again Tcl/Tk?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Often improvement suggestions for Scid were demanded, for example
a migration from Tcl/Tk to other GUI libraries; among them Gtk and
Qt. The author, who has over 25 years of experience, decided after
an analysis that Tcl/Tk is one of the best alternatives (for
non-commercial software development). It does not bring dependencies
to gigantic libraries, and the refered tools are not as flexible
and expandable as Tcl/Tk. The possibilities of the text widget
as well of the canvas widget in Tk is almosst unsurpassable. And the
tree control (http://tktreectrl.sourceforge.net) for Tk is setting
new standards.

Furtermore the development cycle with a script language is much
faster than with C or C++. One example might be the project ChessX
(http://chessx.sourceforge.net); after year-long development with
multiple developers this project has not reached the current
level of Scidb. Most of the development for the preliminary version
is already done or in the final phase. One drawback of Tcl/Tk is
the lack of useful extensions. Furthermore the developer team of
Tcl/Tk is quite unwilling to fix bugs. The author reported many
bugs, some of them are quite serious, to the team of Tcl/Tk. Many
of them were simply ignored, or insufficiently explored. Hence the
author decided to fix the errors himself, as far as it is possible
within the script language, or he programmed workarounds. One can only
wait for, that the developer team of Tcl/Tk wishes to have more
quality in Tcl/Tk. Currently, in the face of this situation, Tcl/Tk
seems not be attractive for the use in commercial programs.

The screenshots of Scidb (see
http://scidb.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html) might show that
Tcl/Tk can keep up with the look & feel.

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