Merge Chess and vChess modules? (with maintainership offer)

Hello Eric_A,

Thanks for getting back to me.

My aim is simply to have a single chess module on Drupal. I am not looking to be a maintainer of both the VChess and Chess modules. Since I had no reaction from my other request (http://drupal.org/node/1413252#comment-5751050), I thought I would just try and take over what looked like maybe an abandoned module, and simply do a merge of the two modules myself.

Is this something you are interested in?

At the start of this year, I wanted to have a great Drupal chess module, so had a look at what was available. I compared in reasonable detail VChess and Chess. Both of them do a lot of the basics fine, e.g.:

• display of a chess board
• handling of illegal moves
• castling

The Chess module has some things which VChess did not have which were interesting, e.g. the Outstanding Chess Moves block, the Random Chess game block, and use of a custom-node type for games.

Ultimately though I had to make a choice, and I thought that VChess had a much better user interface: rather than using drop-downs where the user chooses source square first with a-h then 1-8 and then the destination square first with a-h then 1-8, VChess has a mouse-controlled point-and-click interface.

Since then I have done a lot of work on VChess, adding things which were in neither module previously, e.g.:

• support for Drupal 7
• displays game scoresheet in full algebraic notation (e.g. "e4", "Nf3", "Bxh8"), including castling (e.g. "O-O"), move disambiguation (e.g. "N2f3"), pawn promotion (e.g. "h8=Q"), check and checkmate (e.g. "Qxf7+", "Rd8#")
• detects checkmate
• detects stalemate

Are you interested in having a single chess module? If so, I will outline how I would propose to do it (which would include of course shutting down VChess and providing Chess users a clean upgrade path from Chess 6.x-1.0).

Hi Eric_A,

OK, I have begun work on a straight upgrade with the minimum changes possible for a 7.x-1.x version, based solely on the existing chess 6 module, and progress is already not bad: module install now works, help works, blocks work. Nonetheless, I already see that it is going to be quite a lot of work, so it's rather more a dev branch than a patch (though of course a patch can be technically as big as anything), so I would like to check it in to a 7.x-1.x-dev branch as I progress. To be able to do that I would like to be given co-maintainer access.

Hi Eric_A,

Ha, ha, I can see it's going to be fun if we work on the same module together!

Please find attached a ZIP of the partially complete vanilla transition of the current 6.x-1.x-dev code to D7. You will see there are a couple of functions commented out completely because they currently give errors. This code is definitely not D7 ready, but it has some of the transition work done, in particular the following work:

• install and uninstall of the database schema work
• the help page appears in the D7 help, with all of the links working
• the chess content type displays correctly
• the "Chess - Outstanding Moves" and "Chess - Random Chess Game" blocks appear in the blocks admin region (but not yet appearing)

I was most recently stuck on getting the "white_player" and "black_player" names as part of the node type being passed.

I am no longer going to work on this task. I think it would be ideal if you (or someone else) were to complete this 7.x-1.x version. But I don't want to. That's the great thing about open-source, I can pick and choose the things I want to work on! And helping those on 6.x-1.x migrate is not something I care to work on any more, but if you or someone else wants to, great. I hope what I have done already will be of some help.

You said earlier "When that [the creation of a 7.x-1.x branch] is done, a change to 7.x-2.x would become reviewable". I actually think the 7.x-2.x branch can develop in parallel; I would still like to offer therefore to adapt the VChess module to be a 7.x-2.x branch.

My reasoning is as follows. There are 3 types of users which I can think of:

1. those currently using 6.x-1.x who would like to transition
1. smoothly to 7.x-1.x
2. and then smoothly to 7.x-2.x
2. those currently using 6.x-1.x, but who do not have any significant database of games, so would be willing to start with a clean chess database and go straight to 7.x-2.x without any data migration
3. those who are completely new to the chess module, and would want to go straight to 7.x-2.x

For 1.1 the work on the ZIP I have just added needs to be completed. I am not interested in doing that work.

For 1.2 there would need to be additional work to convert the database tables; the 7.x-2.x branch would use a very different structure (more or less the structure currently seen in VChess). I am not interested in doing that work.

For 2 and 3 there would only need to be a conversion of the VChess module to the Chess namespace. I am OK to do that.

It would be a lot easier for me to work without you on the VChess module, but I am trying to avoid the modules with duplicate functionality as in Joining forces with others and co-maintaining projects.

It seems to me that there are various routes you can choose:

1. dreamland (v1): 7.x-1.x is finished and a smooth transition to a 7.x-2.x is made available before a 7.x-2.x based on VChess is created
2. dreamland (v2): 7.x-1.x is finished and massive work is done to add all the great functionality already in VChess (user-friendly mouse-based interface, automatic checkmate detection, algebraic notation, etc.)
3. disjointed mess: the Chess module finishes the 7.x-1.x branch and then maybe improves a few minor things, while VChess in parallel also continues to develop on D7. All users are confused at the differences between the 2 modules and why they should choose one rather than the other; some choose Chess, some choose VChess, everybody loses.
4. pragmatic compromise: start a Chess 7.x-2.x branch straight away but with unfortunately no way for users to smoothly transition between 6.x-1.x and 7.x-2.x

If you don't want me to develop yet a 7.x-2.x branch, then I will just keep developing within the VChess module.

P.S. I notice Eric that you have never apparently committed anything to the Chess module. What's your connection to it?

OK, I get it now: you're not one of maintainers of the Chess project at all! You're the maintainer of the chessboard module and want to try and get the Chess module to use your module.

Gosh, and I thought I was talking to the right person to let me in and maintain this module!

OK, well, I think it's clear now.

And still not the slightest comment from any of the maintainers of the module.

If none of the maintainers respond soon to my request to become maintainer, I will request from d.o. to become maintainer directly.

Hi Eoin,

As I tried to explain to Eric_A, I am not interested in maintaining both VChess and the Chess module: I would like to merge the two modules, and unless you're interested in that, I'll just stick on with improving VChess.

drupalshrek

Hi,

You can now actually try out the VChess module in the working chess website Chesspos.com!

Enjoy!

drupalshrek