HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: lidl@uunet.uu.net (Kurt J. Lidl)
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 93 17:18:23 -0500
To: jason@stimpy.hq.ileaf.com, xtank@eng.umd.edu
Subject: Re: Compiling xtank on sun4os5?
Organization: AlterNet -- Falls Church, Virginia, USA
Cc: 

In article <9301071851.AA01252@stimpy.HQ.Ileaf.COM> you write:
>I'm having all kinds of problems compiling xtank on a sun4 with the
>solaris os and sun's compiler. I finally hacked everything up enough to
>get it to link, but xtank dies rather quickly when executed.
>
>Have any other efforts been made to get xtank to work under solaris?

None yet.   I've gone so far as to talk to the Sun Reps who work
in Reston, VA, about getting info on the Threading support for Solaris 2.X.

The problem is, while they have white papers out the ying-yang describing
(in vague terms) exactly why Solaris 2.X will save the world, most have
blessed little in the way of real information.   I've pressured a couple
of the more technical people, and gotten something close to the following
as their answer:

(I'm taking the liberty of paraphrasing this a bit, as the conversation
happened a while ago, and I do not have notes on the conversation)

Me:  So, does Solaris support the "standard" SVR4 threading library calls?
SE:  Well, we have our own threading library.
Me:  Oh.  Is it call compatible?
SE:  Uh, no.

Me:  How can I get some programmers info on the threading support?
SE:  We have this one-week long class.
Me:  How about just paper copies or on-line copies of the info?
SE:  We're not distributing that at this time.
Me:  Why?
SE:  <launches into long story about CORE graphics and so forth>
     <Basic gist of story -- they have a POSIX threads interface, but don't
     want to distribute it until the POSIX spec is real and released>
Me:  Is there any way I can get access to the pre-release stuff?
SE:  Well, if you sign this non-disclosure, we can get you copies of the
     libraries and programmer docs.  However, you also cannot distribute
     any application linked with this code, as it is all subject to change.

Thus, I would guess that the Solaris 2.X threading code isn't quite ready
for prime time...  When Sun is ready to make it such that we can distribute
Xtank with working Solaris threading support, and not be held to some
bogus clause, we might just do it.  Until then, I've got other things to
worry about.

>Running a version compiled under the old sun OS works, but dumps core
>when I quit.

Not too surprizing.

-Kurt
-- 
/* Kurt J. Lidl (lidl@uunet.uu.net)   | Unix is the answer, but only if you */
/*                                    | phrase the question very carefully. */
/* Don't even think of confusing my opinions with my employer's opinions!   */
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,alt.sys.intergraph
From: ken@point.b17d.ingr.com (Ken Poore)
Subject: Re: compiling xtank under CLIX
Keywords: xwindows SVR3 CLIX intergraph
Organization: Intergraph
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 15:20:49 GMT

ken@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M) writes:

>lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl) writes:

>>In article <1992Dec31.042451.5442@cs.UAlberta.CA> ken@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M) writes:
>>>I'm trying to port xtank to CLIX - intergraph's SVR3(?) unix, running on an
>>>intergraph 2400 series machine.  Anyways, I've got it to compile, but it
>>>will not run properly.
>>>
>>Good luck.  Please let us know if you get it working...

>Ok.  I got it working.  Everything except for the computer players
>( I have no thread library, and I do not know if one is availabile, and
>writing some assembler to make that THREAD_MP hack work is a bit above
>my head on an intergraph box unfortunately ).  There really wasn't much
>that I had to do to get it to compile.  The big job will be getting the
>thread hack to work ( any volunteers? ).

>It seems to run slowly however.  I turned on that feature that is supposed
>to limit the number of frames used in explosions, but it didn't seem to help.
>The game is almost unplayable, especially when two people are fighting it
>goes really slow.  I'm sure part of this is the network, but I've run it
>on other slower sun3 machines and had it perform *much* better even under
>similar network conditions.

I've seen this run *much* faster on IP2000's running *Native X*; the hybrid
EnvironV/X environment is significantly slower than Native X.  If you have
a 2000, try reloading X and specify the Native X Server.  If you're clever,
you can make some shell scripts to switch between Native X and Hybrid X without
rebooting.

>I'll have to play with it some more...

>ken

>ken@cs.ualberta.ca

--
|Ken Poore              | Technical Information Management Marketing 
|ken@point.b30.ingr.com | Senior System Engineer/Benchmarks, Demos & Prototypes 
|..!ingr!b30!point!ken  | Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, Alabama 
* All opinions are mine and do not represent Intergraph or its subsidiaries  *
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,alt.sys.intergraph
From: ken@point.b17d.ingr.com (Ken Poore)
Subject: Re: compiling xtank under CLIX (GAMES)
Keywords: xwindows SVR3 CLIX intergraph
Organization: Intergraph
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 16:51:12 GMT

bmu@sbfdk.sbf.dk (Boerge Mueller) writes:

>Is there by any chance, a way that we could distrbute GAMES for CLIX/environ-V
>and/or CLIX/X-window.

>Maybe someone already have collected some games, if so, please step forward.

Several are included in the free XCONTRIB product, distributed on the 
product CD-ROMS.  Most of these 'games' have been ported by Intergraphers
in their off hours.  Xtank, however, is not currently in the XCONTRIB product.

Keep in mind that the XCONTRIB product is provided free and is not supported
by Intergraph.

>See you

>-- 
>From:
>Boerge Mueller  (Project manager CAD & Technical information systems)
>Great Belt Ltd.                    |--------------------------------|
>Phone  : +45 3393 5200 x 222       | I don't know what the          |
--
|Ken Poore              | Technical Information Management Marketing 
|ken@point.b30.ingr.com | Senior System Engineer/Benchmarks, Demos & Prototypes 
|..!ingr!b30!point!ken  | Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, Alabama 
* All opinions are mine and do not represent Intergraph or its subsidiaries  *
From: pjp@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (paul.j.powers)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Problems getting xtank to compile and run correctly
Keywords: xtank
Date: 11 Jan 93 22:45:31 GMT
Organization: AT&T

I am currently running AT&T System V Release 4.0 on a
AT&T 6386 WGS Platform with X11R5.  When I compile xtank
per the suggestions, (i.e. -DUNIX -DX11 -DS1024x864 -DTHREAD_MP),
everything compiles and installs correctly.

When running xtank, all the initialization works correctly, but
when a game is started as standard, the tanks and all info is
displayed, then a Memory Fault occurs.  When I select Customize, the
tanks and info is displayed, a memory fault does not occur, however
the ground speed varies all over the place and I cannot control
the speed.  Additionally, I can fire.

I have tried to compile with the THREAD_SVR4 option, but there are
conflicts in program.c which prevent it from compiling:

"/usr/include/sys/user.h", line 268: syntax error before or at: stack_t
"/usr/include/sys/user.h", line 268: cannot recover from previous errors
*** Error code 1 (bu21)

Thanks in advance,

Paul Powers
cbnews!pjp
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,alt.sys.intergraph
From: ken@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M)
Subject: Re: compiling xtank under CLIX
Keywords: xwindows SVR3 CLIX intergraph
Organization: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 06:42:03 GMT

lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl) writes:

>In article <1992Dec31.042451.5442@cs.UAlberta.CA> ken@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M) writes:
>>I'm trying to port xtank to CLIX - intergraph's SVR3(?) unix, running on an
>>intergraph 2400 series machine.  Anyways, I've got it to compile, but it
>>will not run properly.
>>
>Good luck.  Please let us know if you get it working...

Ok.  I got it working.  Everything except for the computer players
( I have no thread library, and I do not know if one is availabile, and
writing some assembler to make that THREAD_MP hack work is a bit above
my head on an intergraph box unfortunately ).  There really wasn't much
that I had to do to get it to compile.  The big job will be getting the
thread hack to work ( any volunteers? ).

It seems to run slowly however.  I turned on that feature that is supposed
to limit the number of frames used in explosions, but it didn't seem to help.
The game is almost unplayable, especially when two people are fighting it
goes really slow.  I'm sure part of this is the network, but I've run it
on other slower sun3 machines and had it perform *much* better even under
similar network conditions.

I'll have to play with it some more...

ken

ken@cs.ualberta.ca
From: lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Re: Problems getting xtank to compile and run correctly
Date: 11 Jan 1993 18:08:09 -0500
Organization: AlterNet -- Falls Church, Virginia, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net
Keywords: xtank

In article <1993Jan11.224531.1501@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> pjp@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (paul.j.powers) writes:
>I am currently running AT&T System V Release 4.0 on a
>AT&T 6386 WGS Platform with X11R5.  When I compile xtank
>per the suggestions, (i.e. -DUNIX -DX11 -DS1024x864 -DTHREAD_MP),
>everything compiles and installs correctly.

Exactly which flags?  Could you run "xtank -V"  -- that should blat
out a bunch of flags...

>When running xtank, all the initialization works correctly, but
>when a game is started as standard, the tanks and all info is
>displayed, then a Memory Fault occurs.

This is most likely happening when it first tries to switch contexts.

>When I select Customize, the
>tanks and info is displayed, a memory fault does not occur, however
>the ground speed varies all over the place and I cannot control
>the speed.  Additionally, I can fire.

With no other players defined, or no robot programs, this generally works.

>I have tried to compile with the THREAD_SVR4 option, but there are
>conflicts in program.c which prevent it from compiling:
>
>"/usr/include/sys/user.h", line 268: syntax error before or at: stack_t
>"/usr/include/sys/user.h", line 268: cannot recover from previous errors
>*** Error code 1 (bu21)

You really need to get this licked.  The SVR4 threading was put in there
so people wouldn't have to hack up the THREAD_MP code any more than it
is already done...  I would suggest a good industrial strength debug
session to get this working...

-Kurt
-- 
/* Kurt J. Lidl (lidl@uunet.uu.net)   | Unix is the answer, but only if you */
/*                                    | phrase the question very carefully. */
/* Don't even think of confusing my opinions with my employer's opinions!   */
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play
From: jensen@peruvian.cs.utah.edu (travis jensen)
Subject: getting an FAQ?
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 93 05:27:12 GMT

Could you please tell me where I can get a current
copy of the FAQ for xtank.  

Thanks in advance,

Travis





Travis A. Jensen             "Who needs a life if you have 
Brain Dead Student            lots of money?  Who needs money 
Overworked Employee           if you have no life?" 
Ugggghhhh                     --T. Jensen (relating his life)
From: plantee@JSP.UMontreal.CA (Plante Eric)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play
Subject: Problem with battletech
Date: 4 Jan 93 15:57:25 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Universite de Montreal

My problem is that I lost my documentation for battletech and I don't remember
the password in the map's room(the one with the planets);if you have the game,
email me at 'plantee@jsp.umontreal.ca'
            
                  thanks!
From: tundra@sam.ksu.ksu.edu (Daniel G. McDaniel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Scum Scum Scum Scum
Date: 12 Jan 1993 10:38:00 -0600
Organization: Kansas State University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sam.ksu.ksu.edu


Tis a new season and a new crop of newbies is about to
roll in again.  Excuse me if I forget any ive been
busy for a while and just now caught up on my reading.
A few terms you will see in up coming articles.

/////////////////////// DISCLAIMER ////////////////////////
The poster of this article does not take responsibility
for any newbies that pick up these skills some are 
useless and annoying some are useful and possible clueful.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Scum Scum And More Scum:

T-Mode Scum, Rank/DI Scum, Runner Scum, Cloaker Scum, 
Traiter Scum, Plasma Scum, Ogger Scum, 3rd Space Scum,
Name Scum, Res Scum, Gang Bang Scum, I'm Clueless Scum,
I'm Out Of Fuel Scum, Starbase Scum, Guest Scum, 
Ghost Buster/Ping Scum, Message Scum, Borg Scum, Bot Scum,
Pop/Food Run Scum, Clued Scum, Team Scum, GA Wennie Scum,
Bomb Scum, Phazer Scum, Det Scum, Wall Plaz Scum, 
Independent Scum (*sigh*), Defence Scum, Tractor Scum,
Refit Scum, Bored/Sleepy Scum, Multiple Name Scum, Blank
Spaces Scum, Good Old PIG Scum, UDP Scum, Blessed Binary 
Scum, RSA Scum, Info Scum, Meta Scum, Annoying Lag Scum,
Line Feed Scum, Quote Scum, Post Scum, Flame Scum,
Knightly Scum, Gender Scum, and Plain Old Slimy Scum...

===============================================================================
--Tundra/Dan | "Scum rises to the Top.... Slime sinks to the bottom..."
     aka     |            -- Camel 1992 
 Rudder Duck | "I wonder when the Local servers going to get a blessed client?"
 ED209, etc. |            -- Me
             | "What you get isn't always what you want ;)"
             |            -- Revised Me   
===============================================================================

Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu (have clue, will travel)
Subject: Re: Was that the real PIG BOY?
Originator: jecoleb@c00547-106ps.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: The Ghost Of Christmas Past Society
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 20:48:05 GMT


piperno@mars.Colorado.EDU (Serge Piperno)
>In article <1ijhr5INN1ma@magna.ksu.ksu.edu>, camelsho@magna.ksu.ksu.edu (  
>James A Seymour) writes:
> >    There was a Mucus Pig on bronco this evening.
> >    I am just curious if he was the real Pig Boy.
> >    At one point, he told me he was Lord Bug Ass,
> >    or some such.

> >    Was he real, or just memorex?

>I propose a new(?) logging in procedure:

>1. The player writes his name.
>2. All invisible characters are replaced by a space ' '.
>3. All series of 1 or more spaces are then replaced by one space ' '.
>4. Follow the rest of the current procedure.

>We may get rid of unwanted "aliases"...

A few comments:

1)  If you're THAT worried about it, either check the login id (if it's
a player of name you're wondering about, their login is usually a familiar
sight after a while), or use this general rule of thumb--

If it's                WINS  LOSSES  DI
Admiral WHOEVER       25400  25150  1400.44, it's probably him.
If it's
Ensign WHOEVER_          12     25   2.2, start to wonder.

2)  If you're THAT worried about name-scummers, you should probably
get out more often.  The good players will make themselves known by their
actions/style, and I'm not particularly worried about the rest.

3)  Don't knock Memorex.  I use their tapes all the time.

		--Lt. Cmdr. CrossEyed Tammy, NCSU (in a Dickies mood)
		--"Besides, eliminating spaces'd put Chung out of business."  
-- 
     jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu      \\              To KLH:
 "I don't know where you took   --=--      Love ya, Katya!
 me, but I didn't want to leave."   \\  have clue, will travel.
       ---------------------------------------------------
From: sl7sg@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Servers sharing player databases
Date: 4 Jan 93 21:22:24 MDT
Organization: Utah State University


	When thinking of ways for servers to share databases, I thought of a
way, that would be feasable, and easy.  If this has already been discussed,
sorry.
	Anyhow, what I was thinking, is to have a server call up all other
servers on its list (not for the game, a different connection).  When the
server is connected, it simply downloads the stats of all of the players who
have played since it last connected.  Now, the database would somehow have to
be modified, so the server calling would get only the updates to the stats, but
not their complete stats. 
	Perhaps the second server could have two separate lists?
	After the server has called all of the other servers on its list, it
could compare the players with players on its list.  If that player is on its
list, it takes all of the updates, and figures them together, giving a newer DI
etc.
	Any comments?


		-Lynx
		 Brandon Gillespie
		
	Oh, yea, it would also be nice, to have a toggle that the player could
use, where it tells the server to not figure its stats with those of other
servers...?
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: mummert+@AUK.WARP.CS.CMU.EDU (Todd Mummert)
Subject: Re: INL pop code
Reply-To: mummert+@CS.CMU.EDU
Organization: Carnegie Mellon
	<1ifubuINNrb9@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 09:10:41 GMT

>>>>> sfd@soda.berkeley.edu (Scott Drellishak) said:

Scott> I don't think the proper solution is reducing the chances of a pop
Scott> by a factor of 4 and then popping 4 times as often -- there is still
Scott> a galaxy-wide pop every 10 seconds, although a smaller one.  This is
Scott> still too "discrete" of an army growth pattern.  The solution I
Scott> implemented on bezier, ages ago, was to randomly pick one planet
Scott> every second and give it a chance to pop.  The total army growth
Scott> rate of the galaxy is unchanged, but now players can't easily
Scott> predict and prepare for a galaxy-wide pop.

Scott> Comments?

Just assume that arrivals are chosen from a Poisson distribution,
calculate the exponentially distributed interarrival times,
and store a single time for each planet.   When that time arrives
increment the army count, recalculate for the next arrival, and
move on.   Has the advantage that you could have more than one planet
pop in the same instant, more than a single army may appear when it does
pop (well, not in continuous time, but since we live in ticks, it would
appear as such), total army growth rate remains the same, fast to
calculate, and only needs to be calculated after a pop not at each tick.

from the automated pig borg (don't ask why)...

float poisson_interval(rate)
   float rate;
{
  double tmp;
  while ((tmp=urand()) == 0);    /* just to be safe */
  return (float) (-log(tmp)/rate);
}

where urand() returns a uniform random number [0,1).   take the
result, divide by the number of ticks/second, truncate, and use this
as the delta til the next pop for this planet.  if delta is 0, immediately
add another, and repeat.

agris and non-agris have different rates or you can make the rate based on
the number extant, whatever you want..

BP
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: New INL season
Date: 11 Jan 93 23:18:48 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

Couple questions...
A) When does it start?
B) Do most people have their team rosters figured out?
C) Is scheduling going to be more ladder-based, or swiss-based, or
	Tom-based?

Finally, would anybody like to scrimmage TWNN this upcoming weekend?
Preferably on Saturday - there are some *awesome* football games on Sunday :)

God, I miss INL flame-wars :)

Brian
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: INL pop code
Date: 11 Jan 93 16:20:00 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <2B50ED0C.22619@ics.uci.edu> hadley@vlsi.ics.uci.edu (Tedd Hadley) writes:

)   I did a simulation once just to set my mind at ease about the total
)   army growth of each method.  They both came out close enough to be
)   the same but I've finally put my finger on what made me uneasy about
)   it in the first place.  The old method was guaranteed to put at least
)   1 army on an agri at < 4 every 40 seconds - nothing random about it.
)   There's no such guarantee for the new method and that explains why on
)   bronco I've seen scouts take an agri after it's been sitting at 1 for
)   over a minute and a half - which originally made me think that agris
)   popped less often in the new method.

People must really have my name in a kill file :)

I posted a fix to this problem in the middle of last week.  If you want
the fix, either look up old news, or send me mail.

Brian
From: tom@soda.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Traitors
Date: 4 Jan 1993 10:34:03 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

In article <EfFyv1600VB6420FMo@andrew.cmu.edu> el0g+@andrew.cmu.edu (Erik Lauer) writes:
)leonard@mimsy.umd.edu (Leonard Dickens) [Wreck, Dirty Rat] writes:
)
)>Bert Enderton writes:
)>>When you've got the enemy team down to an LPS (or near to
)>>that) involving their home or core world(s),
)>>During phase two, killing any enemy
)>>and enabling him to reappear nearer the target planet is a big mistake.
)>>Doing so consistently is treachery.  Understand?
)>
)>>Starbases are almost always traitors in these situations.  A starbase
)>>with two escorts trying to keep it alive, that constitutes three
)>>traitors.  (On the other hand a SB can be very useful in phase one).
)>
)>...  Plus, enemy oggers (who tend to be an LPSs
)>best players), will often brave the base's fire trying to ogg, in
)>which case it is sometimes possible for the base to trap the player,
)>det his fuel, phaser him to warp 2 and then hold him with tractors
)>from suiciding on local planets while the taker makes his move.
)
)I am amazed at how long some good people can be held.  Look at all your
)options:
)
)Repair
)Warp 0, shields down, without repair  [These two make a guessing game
)for the base]

Yeah: "Is that guy in the bathroom, or is he just clueless?"
I don't see how this achieves your objective, which is to get a
useful ship as soon as possible.

)Move under your maxwarp [Won't fool a great base, but most seem to just
)info you]

"Move under your maxwarp?"  There's no reason for a base to be getting
info on you; if you try to get away, he tractors, and if you try to 
suicide, he pressors.  Why does he care what your max warp is?

)With fuel you can cloak at warp 0.  If you are not tractored, go.  If
)the SB  pressors (or realeses you and is moving away)  when you uncloak,
)cloak. Otherwise you fire point blank, with sheilds down going warp 0
)while the base is tractoring you - about as efficient as an attack gets.

Obviously, this scenario happens only when the ogger is out of fuel; I
doubt Wreck or any other good base is going to fool around with a good
ogger when he (the ogger) has fuel.  And if you fire point blank with
shields down going warp 0 on a base that has even a little bit of a brain,
you will do exactly 100 points of damage.  Not what I would call an
efficient attack.

The only real option, if the base is good, is to look for a clueless
opponent, or to wait for a teammate to ogg the base.  Well, the real
option is not to survive the ogg in the first place, but that's not
always possible.
 -Mojo