From: Matthias Mutz <mutz <at> KIRK <dot> FMI <dot> UNI-PASSAU <dot> DE>
Date: 27 jan 1993
Subject: new shogi program

Hello fans of computer shogi,
 
since today, there is another computer shogi program....
 
I am happy to announce:
 
         G N U    S h o g i   1.0     and     X S H O G I   1.0
 
I have modified GNU Chess 4.0 in order to play Shogi.
Many modifications where needed in order to obtain a first
version that plays well (somtimes :-). There is a VT100 version
and a version for terminals with no cursor position facilities.
Furthermore, I have modified XBoard 2.0 in order to provide
a XWindows based user interface. The piece icons of CRANES Shogi
have been used.
 
Because GNU Chess and Xboard are freely distributed by the Free
Software Foundation, GNU Shogi and XShogi are also free.
If you would like to obtain a copy in order to try it out, you can
contact me. If you will try it out, please, help to fill the
opening book file.
 
GNU Shogi has been testet on a Sparc Workstation and on an HP/Apollo
Workstation in a UNIX environment. It has been compiled using the
GNU C compiler gcc version 2.1.
Xshogi uses Release 4 of the Xwindow system. It has been compiled
using the HP/apollo workstations C compiler.
 
Maybe, you can use the programs in different environments. If you have
modifications in order to build up GNU Shogi in a different environment,
please send me the changes.
 
This is the very first version of GNU shogi. Therefore, only a few
modifications of the evaluation procedures have been made in order to
play shogi well. I plan to develop evaluations based on shogi strategies,
that can be defined by the user. But currently, I lack of time.
Therefore, if you have remarks about possible extensions of
the programs, pleas contact me, in order to keep the current version
of the program as good as possible. It would be nice, if we could start a
computer shogi project. If there are other computer shogi projects, it would
be nice to let the programs play against each other. Maybe, we can find
a common interface. As I think, the best way would be to extend the XShogi
interface (it's very nice...).
 
I hope, you enjoy the new programs,
 
     Matthias Mutz
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthias Mutz
Universitaet Passau
Fachbereich fuer Mathematik und Informatik
Innstrasse 33
W-8390 Passau, Germany
 
email: mutz <at> kirk <dot> fmi <dot> uni-passau <dot> de
phone: (+49 851 / 0851) 509 393
fax:   (+49 851 / 0851) 509 376
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------