[Kde-games-devel] a new chess interface for KDE

[Alan Horkan]

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006, Paolo Capriotti wrote:

> Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 05:34:34 +0100
> From: Paolo Capriotti <p.capriotti at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: For developers interested in developing games in KDE
>     <kde-games-devel at kde.org>
> To: kde-games-devel at kde.org
> Subject: [Kde-games-devel] a new chess interface for KDE
>
> I'm working on a fully featured chess interface based on QT and KDE
> libraries. It will support many chess and shogi variants, and
> (hopefully) be fully customizable and scriptable.

Dont suppose it is cross platform?  (I like cross platform software, some
employers do not give users much choice of OS even though I can install
applications.)

> I would like to call it 'kboard', but this is already the name of a
> forum software. Uhm.. any suggestions?

I'm not a fan of supposedly "funny" gnaming konventions.  To quote the
Simpsons: "We need a name that sounds funny at first but less funny each
time you hear it.  B-Sharps!"

However "King Board" might be suitable small variation on your current
name which also gives some suggestion of chess and retains the leter K.
You could probably do better though.

> You can find some screenshots here: linuz.sns.it/~paolo/kboard.
> I'd like to hear opinions of kde developers about this project (most
> wanted features, general ui design suggestions, etc...). I also would

Do you have a general roadmap of your own?  How do you plan to
differentiate from good old xboard?

(I could make suggestions but they'd mostly be summarized by saying
eye-candy and try looking at the features various popular commericial
offerings provide.)

> like to find someone who is willing to help, either with the code,
> with suggestions on how to handle the FICS protocol or with theme
> design.

One of the screenshots (QuickConnect) has a label "ICS" which I assume is
short for Internet Chess Server.  Try to avoid acronyms and abbreviations.
Also please do not use concatenated words like "QuickConnect", it is
common habit of developers and you probably didn't even notice.
How come you used the mnemonic G_ame instead of _Game, and V_iew instead
of _View?

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/