FAQ

#
# Netris
# Frequently asked questions
#
# $Id: FAQ,v 1.4 1999/05/16 06:56:21 mhw Exp $
#

Questions
=========
[1] Where can I find the latest version?
[2] The pieces look bizarre in my xterm window, and don't erase
    properly.  What's up?
[3] If I drop a piece and then slide it off a cliff, shouldn't
    it automatically drop again?
[4] When I try to play a networked game, it just hangs.
[5] Is the game fair?  Is there an advantage to being the -w or the
    -c player?
[6] I'm using a slow terminal, and the game response is sluggish.
    What can I do?
[7] Why can't my terminal hide the cursor?
[8] Occasionally when clearing a line, the display jerks, scrolling
    very awkwardly.  How can I fix it?

Answers
=======
[1] Where can I find the latest version?

    ftp://ftp.netris.org/pub/netris/

    The latest version is available via anonymous ftp from
    ftp.netris.org in /pub/netris.
    
    Unfortunately this machine is currently on the far end of a
    14.4kbps modem connection, and may go away at any time without
    notice, but I'll do my best to keep it up.  If you have trouble
    contacting the ftp server, try mailing me at <mhw@netris.org>.

[2] The pieces look bizarre in my xterm window, and don't erase
    properly.  What's up?

    Try disabling standout mode with the -S option.  If this fixes it,
    it's probably because the bold font on your xterm is set wrong.
    It's a good idea to fix it, since the blocks look much nicer when
    they're inverse.

    If the blocks don't erase correctly and are drawn larger than normal
    characters, check your .Xdefaults file.  If you set the "font", make
    sure you also set the "boldFont" to something of the same size.  For
    example, I use 6x10 font for xterms, and here are the relevant lines
    from my xterm.

    txterm*font:	6x10
    txterm*boldFont:	6x10

    Make sure you capitalize the F in "boldFont"

[3] If I drop a piece and then slide it off a cliff, shouldn't
    it automatically drop again?

    Try the -D option.

[4] When I try to play a networked game, it just hangs.

    There are two possibilities.  First, versions 0.1d? are incompatible
    with current versions.  This is unfortunate, but remember, those were
    very developmental versions.  I needed to fix up the protocol, and
    I didn't want a whole bunch of messy compatibility code (at least
    not yet :-)  Ask your opponent to get the latest version.

    The other possibility is that you've typed in the wrong hostname, or
    there's a port number mismatch, if either of you used the -p option.

[5] Is the game fair?  Is there an advantage to being the -w or the
    -c player?

    The game is fair.  The game is completely symmetric once the
    connection is established.  Furthermore, a random number seed is
    exchanged at the start of the game, so both players will get the
    same pieces.

    There is a built-in random number generator, so even if the C
    library on your system has a non-standard generator, both
    players will still get the same sequence.

    There is no attempt to synchronize the start of the game
    accurately for networks with high latency.  This should be fixed
    at some point, but I doubt such a small head start makes much
    difference for a game lasting several minutes.

[6] I'm using a slow terminal, and the game response is sluggish.
    What can I do?

    Try the -S option.  This disables use of standout mode (bold/inverse),
    which require control sequences to be sent twice (or more) per line.
    Standout mode makes the pieces look much more like blocks, but can
    make the game unplayable on a slow terminal.

    Also, you can type 's' to toggle spying (updating your view of the
    opponent's board).

[7] Why can't my terminal hide the cursor?

    Netris uses the termcap library to look up the "vi" and "ve"
    capabilities, which make the cursor invisible/visible
    respectively.  These capabilities aren't very consistently
    reported among un*xes, so I use compiled-in vt220 codes for
    several vt100-like terminals.  Most emulators probably won't
    support the codes, but they'll probably ignore them quietly.

    Try setting the TERM environment variable to "vt100" or "vt220"
    before running Netris.  If that doesn't work, your terminal
    probably doesn't support cursor invisibility.

[8] Occasionally when clearing a line, the display jerks, scrolling
    very awkwardly.  How can I fix it?

    You can try running ./Configure with the "--curses-hack" option
    and recompile.  This utilizes a non-portable hack which will only
    work with certain curses libraries, so it's disabled by default.

    All screen updating is done by your curses library, which means
    it's not something that Netris can control.  Netris never tells
    curses to scroll, but curses does so automatically in order to
    optimize screen updates.  This hack modifies curses's internal
    variables, making it think that your terminal doesn't know how to
    region-scroll.


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