Hello Chess module maintainers,

I have created a version of chess for Drupal 7 based on the VChess module, but the owner of that module has not responded to my request to take over that module. I prefer not to start yet another chess module; It seems to me senseless to have different chess modules, since the functionality of chess is always the same, and we all want great interfaces to play it. So what I would like to do is make this the new basis of the Chess module.

In the worst case, if you decide you'd like to take the D6 code base of the current Chess module and migrate that to D7, then I could always take the VChess-based version to a new project at that stage.

At the moment the code is just on my local PC, but I am already a module contributor for the much less ambitious User Role Summary module, so I guess I can get it into Git. I would of course like to be made a module maintainer if I'm going to be taking the code forward.

regards,

drupalshrek

Comments

eric_a’s picture

eric_a commented

@drupalshrek: Nice to see some more chess blood in the Drupal Community!
EoinBailey and Tim_O aren't active in there issue queue every day, but unlike VChess their project is currently not seeking maintainers nor is it obsolete. On 10/06/2011 the maintenance status of Vchess has been set to "Seeking new maintainer". The maintainer also changed the development status to "Obsolete", but apart from that the Vchess project looks ideal if you quickly want to make your Vchess code available.
If you have patches for the Chess project I will help out by reviewing these. ( Seeing you in the Chessboard Renderer issue queue would be nice too! ;-) )
Let me know if you need some help somewhere!

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

Hi Eric_A

Thanks for your response. I have tried to contact Vchess owner asking if I can take over the project, but I had no reply. Is there a way I can be assigned access to the module by the community, particularly since the status is "Seeking new maintainer" and I am seeking to maintain it?

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

As well as sending a message to the vchess module owner weeks ago, I have now posted a request in the vchess issues queue http://drupal.org/node/1431122

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

Hi,

I know there are some people interested in this D7 version; that's very encouraging, so I thought I'd give an update here.

I am working hard on the module, and I hope to make a version available in Drupal during March (that's this year, 2012!). I have been working hard in my spare hours on this, and have so far made masses of changes including:

  • changed database to storing only 1 view of the board (previously both a black and the white view of the board was stored!)
  • changed to storing the board position as FEN. Previously it was stored as something like "wR wN wB etc." for white Rook, white Knight etc. This change to FEN should mean a more generalised ability to exchange games with other chess programs
  • added storing game moves in the database. No moves were previously stored, only the current position. Previous owner knew of course that this was something to be added.
  • hugely rewritten the module internals, in particular, a change to a much more Object-Oriented internal structure using objects of type Game, Board, Piece. For example, now you pass a square coordinate such as "b2" to a get_piece() function on a board object, and it gives you back an object of type Piece, which you then inquire of the piece color which get_color(). Trust me, it's structurally better!

Anyway, it's all not surprisingly very full of bugs at the moment, so I need to make it a lot cleaner before releasing. Nonetheless, I'm working hard on it whenever I can.

I also need to figure out how to deploy on Git.

Anyway, rest assured I'm on the case....

drupalshrek

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

I have now upload a first development version of this code to the sandbox (so I have at least figured out now the basics of Git):
http://drupalcode.org/sandbox/drupalshrek/1478960.git/commit/84a4c4f

I would not recommend it for anything other than curiosity as it is, since it still has too much unfinished code (including, for example, the "vchess_is_checkmate()" function just returning FALSE, so checkmate will never currently be detected!).

It is principally uploaded as I am required to do so in order to apply to get vchess access.

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

Hi,

I now have full access to the Vchess module, so you are able to take a look at the Vchess code; for the latest version, I would go here.

However , following the Joining forces with others and co-maintaining projects principle, I would still like to just have a single version of a chess module on Drupal.

How about a merge of these 2 chess modules (Vchess and Chess) for Drupal 7 onwards?

That would ensure that no work is duplicated.

What do you think?

regards,

drupalshrek

eric_a’s picture

eric_a commented

There's a handful of different Chess projects without activity at this moment. It makes sense to coordinate and focus efforts, so I've created an open working group, which will hopefully be published soon by the moderators. The current mission of http://groups.drupal.org/chess is:

Developing and sharing chess programming knowledge.
Coordinating between chess projects.

Leeteq’s picture

Leeteq commented

IMHO, it would be good for the "chess community" here if these modules could be merged.
Dont give up your persuasion efforts, @drupalshrek :-)

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

In the end there was a bloodless coup: I took over the VChess module http://drupal.org/node/1431122 and the code which is there is based on the original authors code but with my many changes.

Tim_O’s picture

Tim_O commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Glad you "found a home" :)