README

This is a short introduction to how to use the SIG-Game Chess Framework

== Writing your AI ==
The primary (IE only) file you need to edit is the AI file (AI.cpp).  In here you will find a few functions, 
described in order of importance below.  For full API documentation, you can run "doxygen" in any of the language 
folders to build that language's documentation.  This will create an "html" folder, which contains the index.html file.
Open with your favorite web browser and enjoy.

The "run" function is called whenever it is your turn.  In this function you will need to do things like:
1) Feed the state information into your move generator
2) Decide what move to make
3) Make that move
We provide some example code in this function you can feel free to remove which accesses the game objects.  We provide
all state information as collections of each type, and those collections are inherited from the BaseAI class.  
These collections include:
* The Piece class - a game object for each living piece, which stores its location and provides a move function.
* The Move class - the list of all moves that have been made, in order of most recent first (IE last turns move is at index 0).
* The Player class - information about the players in the game, such as their time remaining, their names, etc.
When you decide what move to make, you call the move function of the Piece object you want to move, and pass it the rank 
and file to move to.  The type argument is only used when promoting to control what type to promote to.

The "init" function is called just before your first turn.  This is a great place to seed RNGs.

The "end" function is the opposite of "init", and is only called after the end of your last turn.  A good place to clean
up any remaining dynamic memory you have allocated.

The "username" and "password" functions allow you to name your client so people know who is playing.  The username and 
password here should match your team name and team password on the server.  DO NOT PUT AN IMPORTANT PASSWORD HERE.  
Its plain text and very unsecured.

== Building a client ==
We provide a makefile for all of the languages that have been tested on the rc##xcs213.managed.mst.edu machines, as well 
as a few other Linux distributions.

If you use our build system, all languages (even python), need to run "make" to compile.  This sets up some shared 
objects from C++ that all languages need, as well as doing any language specific compilation.  Once make is successful, 
you can move on to starting a game.

If you plan to use an alternative build system, you'll need to incorporate the construction of the shared object library, 
who's source files exist in the c/ folder.

<<<C#>>> Since C# is a Microsoft based language, we do provide Visual Studio 2008 and 2010 project files.  To use,
copy the contents of the CS/CSMagic/VS20## CSMagic/ folder up to the CS/ folder.

== Starting a game ==
First you need a chess server running. 

Theoretically you got an email that told you where a server is running.

Once your server is started, you will need to connect clients to the game.  If you are using Linux, the following command 
will connect the "White" player
./run <hostname>

where hostname is the location of the server.  IE: ./run rc02xcs213.managed.mst.edu or ./run localhost
If you are not using Linux, you need to pass your client the command line argument for the host. 
This command will give you a "Game Number" for the game you just created.

To connect the "Black" player, do the following:
./run <hostname> <gameNumber>

where hostname is the location of the server and gameNumber is the game you want to join.  
IE: ./run rc02xcs213.managed.mst.edu 3
At this point, the game should start.  If you get any bonkers exceptions and you didn't start the server, you may have 
connected to something that isn't a chess server.

For those not using Linux to handle their clients, pass the executable you built the same arguments as "run", and 
everything should work similarly.

== The Visualizer ==

Getting the latest visualizer.

http://megaminerai.com/visualizers/