samuel 0.1.9

A Draughts Program

Samuel - John Cheetham - http://www.johncheetham.com/projects/samuel

Description

Samuel is a Draughts program written in python3/GTK3/C++. It is licensed under the GPL (see the file named LICENSE).

It is aimed mainly at Linux users but should work on other systems too.

It is derived from guicheckers version 1.05. guicheckers is a draughts program for windows which comes with source code. The C++ engine code, board images and opening book/endgame databases all come from guicheckers. So credit and thanks to the guicheckers people (programming by Jon Kreuzer graphics by Josh Hess) for making their code available. You can find the guicheckers website at http://www.3dkingdoms.com/checkers.htm.

Samuel is named after Arthur Samuel, a pioneer of Computer Draughts, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Samuel.

Linux Installation

Prerequisites

You need to install these prerequisites first:

• python3

• python3-cairo

• python3-gobject

• python3-devel

• g++

You need the python3 versions. These will have different names depending on your distro.

On Debian/Mint/Ubuntu

• python3-gi-cairo

• python3-dev

• build-essential

On Fedora

• python3-cairo

• python3-gobject

• python3-devel

• gcc-c++

• redhat-rpm-config

Installation

Running from the Source Directory

You can run samuel from the source directory without doing the full install (recommended).

To do this:

‘python3 setup.py build’ to build it.

‘python3 run.py’ to run it from within the source folder.

Installing on the system

‘python3 setup.py build’ to build it (as normal user).

‘python3 setup.py install’ to install it (as root user).

Note:

Samuel should now be installed on your system. You can launch it from the gnome menu (under games) or type ‘samuel’ in any terminal window.

There is no uninstall (distutils doesn’t have one). If you need to uninstall you have to make a note of the file names and then delete them manually.

If running the build/install multiple times it’s best to delete the build folder each time.

You can also install from the python package index using ‘pip3 install samuel’.

Usage

By default the computer plays white, you play red. In English Draughts Red moves first. Click on a red piece and then click on a destination square to move it. The computer will then automatically move a white piece.

If you want to play as white instead of red then select ‘options’ then ‘computer plays red’ from the menu bar. You will then need to click ‘Go’ or press ‘g’ to start the game and make the computer make the first move for red.

If you play as white you can also enable the ‘Flip the Board’ feature so that the white pieces are at the bottom of the board.

If the computer plays both white and red you need to click the Go button each time to make the computer move. If you are playing Human vs Computer then the computer will make its move automatically after the Human move.

Use the menu bar to set the level of difficulty or save the game etc. Use the buttons at the bottom to rewind the game.

If you want to set the lowest level then select user-defined level and set the search depth to zero.

User settings are stored in the file ~/.samuel/settings You can delete this file to go back to the default settings. You may also want to delete this file if you get problems when switching from one version of samuel to another since the format can change between versions.

See also the online help file at http://www.johncheetham.com/projects/samuel/help/help.html This can be viewed in samuel from the help menu.

Summary of keyboard commands

Keys	Function
CTRL+N	New Game
CTRL+O	Load Game
CTRL+S	Save Game
CTRL+Q	Quit Game
m	Move Now - press this to make the computer move immediately when it’s taking a long time thinking
CTRL+C	Copy game to clipboard (in PDN format)
CTRL+V	Paste game from clipbaord (in PDN format)
CTRL+0	Reset board size to default size
g	Same as the ‘Go’ button. Its main use is to make the computer make its move when the game is stopped.
delete	Clear the board when in position edit mode
r	Retract last move
[	rewind 1 move
]	forward 1 move
{	rewind to start of game
}	forward to end of game
‘3’	Used for opening book. See below.
‘2’	Used for opening book. See below.
‘4’	Used for opening book. See below.
‘6’	Used for opening book. See below.
‘K’	Used for opening book. See below.
‘S’	Used for opening book. See below.

Opening Book

The file opening.gbk contains moves for the opening book. It comes from guicheckers pre-seeded with opening moves.

You can modify it with these commands:

Key	Function
‘3’	Add Current Board position / adjust towards ‘0’
‘2’	Add/Adjust to being good for red
‘4’	Add/Adjust to being good for white
‘6’	Remove Position
‘K’	Clear Opening Book in memory
‘S’	Save Opening Book

When saving the opening book is saved to ~/.samuel/opening.gbk. When loading at startup it’s loaded first from ~/.samuel/opening.gbk. If not found there it will be loaded from the same directory as the program. After a standard install the program directory will be read only which is why ‘save’ always saves to ~/.samuel/opening.gbk.

Most people will not want to modify the opening book.

Troubleshooting

If it won’t start after upgrading from an older version then try deleting the file ~/.samuel/settings.

If you click on the buttons or press the keys repeatedly and very rapidly it can break the engine. For this reason it’s best to leave at least 1 second between clicks.

If you see a white background around the piece when dragging then you may need to install a compositor such as compton.

End Game Database

The files 2pc.cdb, 3pc.cdb and 4pc.cdb contain moves for the end game. These files can be built using the genalldatabases program.

Acknowledgements

Samuel uses C++ engine code, board graphics, opening book and endgame database from guicheckers. guicheckers web page: http://www.3dkingdoms.com/checkers.htm

CHANGELOG

Changes for 0.1.9

2019-02-08 John Cheetham [e-mail]

• port to python3/GTK3

• allow drag and drop of pieces

• Make main window resizable

• bugfixes

Changes for 0.1.8

2009-10-27 John Cheetham [e-mail]

• Add ‘Flip the Board’ feature

• Allow player to choose colour to play (white or red). Also allow player vs computer, player vs player, computer vs computer

• Add a status bar

• Enforce time limit on user defined levels but not on pre-set levels. This will improve the play on the pre-set levels.

• In position edit mode

  • Allow use of the Delete key to clear the board.

  • Ignore other key presses except for resize board

• Add online help file

Changes for 0.1.7

2009-10-02 John Cheetham [e-mail]

• make board resizeable

• remember users settings between program invocations

• simplify level settings

• fix bugs in gameover, movenow and time limit processing

• add keyboard commands for retract move etc

• clean up code

Changes for 0.1.6

2009-09-05 John Cheetham [e-mail]

• nice display of multi jumps by the computer

• edit board feature

• suppress compiler warnings (though there are some on centos5 - must be an older compiler)

• allow user-defined levels

Changes for 0.1.5

2009-08-29 John Cheetham [e-mail]

• Display gameover at end of game

• Fix keyboard shortcuts in menu

• Fix fault after loading game from file/PDN/FEN when it’s white to play Added a Go button to make white move

• Don’t hilight squares clicked on if end of game or white to move

• Add explanatory messages to panel when using rewind keys.