Re: Scramble boards

["David J Bush" <twixt@cstone.net>]

Hello Lars, everyone,
| 
| It'd be relatively simple to make a backend that creates a GIF/PNG
| image and transmits this to the users in the emails...

Uh... "relatively simple" ?? Compared to what? Where would all these
images come from? Shogi, for example, traditionally uses Japanese
ideograms for pieces. Some shogi players would prefer this, while
others would probably want some sort of international set of images,
and there would probably be much discussion about what that should be.

Maybe the generic backend would be relatively simple to program, but
implementing it on the server could lead to all sorts of problems.
The image would have to have layers, at least one for the board and
one for the pieces. There would need to be room for additional info
besides what's on the board; shogi for example lists the captured pieces
belonging to each player. There are probably all sorts of exceptions and
special cases that would need to be considered. Mancala can have lots
of stones in one bowl; transferring that game to graphics might be
LESS easy to read than with the text representation, which lists the
numbers of stones in each bowl.

The official Y board is not a pure hexagonal grid; three of the interior
cells have five neighbors. The grid looks like a flattened-out section
of a geodesic dome. Try implementing that! MonsterQubic is a three-
dimensional grid, 6x6x6. Are you going to show a perspective image of
that? Terrace is another board with a 3-d aspect to it.

I mention these examples just to show the magnitude of the task ahead
of anyone who would contemplate doing this. Possibly even worse than
the initial programming, is satisfying all the humans who use the
server, afterward. You know how people are- the more you give them,
the more they want. There would be an endless series of requests:
"I want to change my colors!" "I want a smaller/larger image!" "I want
a drink of water!" :-)

David