The beta board code is complete!

Originally posted by blindcheesecake
Russ, when do you expect to get the new board on the live version.

Sorry about the delay, and the general lack of updates over the last week. I was aiming for RHP's 5th birthday on the 21st of Feb, but I just can't see how I can make it now. It was an artificial deadline anyway, so I won't beat myself up about it. I am desperate to get it released though. I have found myself maintaining two versions of the code recently, which is driving me a little crazy.

The main reason for this late delay is because early last week I started doing some final tasks such as compacting the JavaScript to make the files smaller, and then realised that the tool I intended to use broke my code. This irritated me no end - I was not particularly fond of it in the first place. So I decided to go a little crazy and write my own, with the intention of only stopping if I hit problem I could not solve. And to be honest, I wasn't sure I would succeed when I started.

Anyway, that was last week, and as of tonight, I have completed the work and have tested the compacted code briefly. It is half the size of the existing file. This compacted file will need a few days testing on the beta server before I can consider releasing to the live server with any confidence. I will upload to the beta tomorrow AM with any luck, but there should be nothing noticeably different to the prior version. (apart from quicker loading, of course)

The other task I must complete before go live is an alternative board interface, which is as basic as possible, with no animation and a text entry interface option. This is to support anyone who does have problems with the new code, and those on mobile devices. This is not a massive job, so I should get it done fairly promptly, and very little testing will be required.

A little footnote to this post : if my project for compacting and obfuscating JavaScript proves to work well, then anything that is useful to me will probably be useful to others, so I will probably re-engineer my prototype into a shareware program and distribute it.
-Russ

Originally posted by mrmist
A sort-of bug that would probably never occur in live because live is so much faster, but...

If you go to a game, and before the pieces are rendered on the board click, for example, message my opponent, it will not render the remaining pieces.

Interesting IE only issue. I doubt I will fix it before this first release, though.

-Russ

Thanks for the update!

Originally posted by Russ
if my project for compacting and obfuscating JavaScript proves to work well, then anything that is useful to me will probably be useful to others, so I will probably re-engineer my prototype into a shareware program and distribute it.
-Russ

Actually, I already have such a 'compiler' written for myself. Perhaps yours is more sophisticated? Here's what mine does:

1) Looks for all identifiers (variables, functionnames and so on) in the source files and renames them using this scheme (a, b, c, ..., a1, b1, c1 ...).
2) Removes all excessive whitespace characters (newlines, tabs and unnecessary space characters).
3) Iterates through all the xhtml templates to locate which javascript files are included and updates any internal references to match the new identifier names.
4) Puts all the included javascript files into one new file that is included in all the xhtml templates that requires it (making the entire javascript library used by the application cachable by the browsers).
5) And, finally, of course, it removes any javascript code from the new library file that aren't used by the currently 'compiled' application.

It effectively allows me to build my javascript libraries into separate files and keep things organized and structured. While developing I just include the files into my xhtml templates. When it's all ready for publishing I 'compile' the entire xhtml frontend and all the code from the javascript library files are extracted and put in one tiny javascript library.

My 'compiler' also scrambles xhtml and css sources (id and classnames), so it makes for really tiny pageloads.

Just a heads up, there doesn't seem to be any problem for RHP to operate on IE7, but when I installed the IE7 beta 2 version, it literally crashed my computer, I can't continue the IE7 testing at this time as I had to revert back to firefox and IE6

Originally posted by KJCavalier
Just a heads up, there doesn't seem to be any problem for RHP to operate on IE7, but when I installed the IE7 beta 2 version, it literally crashed my computer, I can't continue the IE7 testing at this time as I had to revert back to firefox and IE6

I will do some quick tests on my IE7 installation again - I am a little concerned about this, even if it is an early beta of IE.

-Russ

Originally posted by stocken
Actually, I already have such a 'compiler' written for myself. Perhaps yours is more sophisticated? Here's what mine does:

1) Looks for all identifiers (variables, functionnames and so on) in the source files and renames them using this scheme (a, b, c, ..., a1, b1, c1 ...).
2) Removes all excessive whitespace characters (newlines, tabs and unnecessary s les xhtml and css sources (id and classnames), so it makes for really tiny pageloads.

Actually, yours sounds WAY more complex than mine. I am just interested in compacting single files only, and leaving interface methods (and the odd global 😳) exposed in that file.

-Russ

Changes to new (final before release?) upload today :

First off, the javascript driving the new board code has been compacted (so it should loads quickly). Secondly, and way more significantly, a legacy board interfaces has been provided.

This is yet more new board code, but it works in a similar way to the existing non-beta version. It also has support for small boards. This has 2 advantages,

a) It should work for all existing users of this site.
b) It should work on PDAs. (I can't test this though!) Anyone who can't use the current non-beta boards because of their large size can now select this legacy board and the micro board size.

-Russ

I would like to throw open the doors of the beta version now to anyone who cares to take a look. A final test before live release.

So, I'll check for any feedback over the next few hours, and if nothing pops up, this will happen this afternoon. (GMT)

-Russ

Originally posted by Russ
So, I'll check for any feedback over the next few hours, and if nothing pops up, this will happen this afternoon. (GMT)

Looks good thus far. I just made 6-7 moves in various games, did some analyzing, switched board types. I have nothing to report. Looks like a lean and mean machine. 🙂

I had no problem with the Game History feature in Analyse Board this morning. I've been using the beta with foxfire almost exclusively now and like it. When I use the original with IE, I miss the in-game features.

Everything working fine here, too. I just saw that there's now an example board when choosing the board style, very nice!

Originally posted by Nordlys
Everything working fine here, too. I just saw that there's now an example board when choosing the board style, very nice!

Closing this thread.

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

I know there are still a few things in need of some work, but I think we have a release candidate now anyway. 😀

-Russ