[Explorer-devel] GE 2.9 is out; XML spec is no longer an RFC

[<su...@fo...>]

Hi everybody,

I've just uploaded the Galaxy Explorer version 2.9 to the Source Forge. All Judges 
considering to start new games are advised to do so using this new version of the 
engine. Old installations may have to be checked for the necessity of bug fixes, 
especially in the case of activated cargo at asteroids extension.

Here's a pertinent excerpt from the change log:

Galaxy Explorer has XML report and forecast output now. The format
is described in the GE XML specs version 1.4. It must be noted that
the amount of information provided by an XML report exactly corresponds
to that provided by the extended textual report.

The textual report format had to be rearranged in the options part to match
the order of the galaxy-game-turn-race specific settings that have
different life spans. The textual report format is described in the format
specs version 1.6.

The following are the changes made to the code:

- Most important of all, this version of the engine uses an incrementally
modified database format version 1.2 described elsewhere.

- All pertinent output methods were extended to handle the XML as well as
textual output generation.

- The EditDB has got an extra control to toggle the state of race's output
formatting (text or XML).

- New commands "O FORMAT TEXT" and "O FORMAT XML" were introduced to allow
players control the format of the reports and forecasts returned to them
by the engine. Note that the effect of these commands is felt immediately.
For example, a forecast of orders that contain one of these commands will
already be returned in the indicated format.

- The N, C, Y, and Z commands have got O equivalents:

        O WORLDNAME oldWorldName newWorldName
        O RACENAME newRaceName
        O PASSWORD newPassword
        O ADDRESS "newAddress"

Apart from this, a couple of nasty bugs of version 2.8.3 was fixed:

- Incorrect partial bombing indication was reversed.

- One syntactically incorrect asteroid inquiry was fixed: note that this
might lead to a compilation or runtime engine fault in version 2.8.3.

- Cargo at asteroids lost its "hypervisibility" - the state of the stockpiles
on a visited asteroid would be updated and remain visible throughout the game
even if no player's ships were present there anymore.

- The Makefile was changed to produce the new style engine configuration
(global mail, partial bombing, and extended report on) by default.

- All main programs were finally declared int to make the ANSI C minded C++
compilers happy.


I've also moved the XML format specification from the RFC into the specifications 
section of the Files area of this list to reflect the recent change in its status.

Best regards.

Alexander