Hi!
Sorry, it took me so long to answer.
On Friday 09 September 2005 18:19, Gary Campbell wrote:
> >> When I run FCELL * and enter 1941, it takes a fraction
> >> of a second to display a 46-step solution. BTW - when you solve a game
> >> and see dots printing out, that means it is in the process of finding
> >> shorter solutions. That can take a while on some games (not very many).
> >> After the first dot, you can press any key to see the best solution so
> >> far. You should not have to press a key to make it display the final
> >> solution, but, again, I don't know about dosbox.
> >
> > I see. Well, the general convention for UNIX command line programs is
> > that once they accept arguments on the command line and read everything
> > they need from standard input, then they run and then display the output
> > immediately. They don't wait for user interaction. This is how FCS works
> > too.
>
> When FCELL * is used to start FCELL, it means that STDIN (or standard
> input) is used to get input while the program runs. This can be redirected
> from a file, or typed in at the keyboard (FCELL can tell what you are
> doing, and it uses verbose mode if input is coming from the keyboard a line
> at a time, or terse mode if it is coming from a file with more than one
> line per system call).
I see. So I can do something like:
<<<
echo "24" | FCELL *
>>>
to start the program in dos mode?
>
> I agree with Danny Jones, if you want to run FCELL try to find a real DOS
> box. FCELL has been written and only tested on the DOS window of Windows
> 2000, and Windows XP. It will probably run just fine on any older version
> of Windows that has a CPU capable of 32-bit instructions.
>
Hmmm... does this mean I need at least a 386 or upper CPU? (32-bit
instructions, etc.) Does it put the processor in 386-mode ("protected mode",
IIRC) or does it simply uses these extraneous instructions while in 8086 or
80286 mode.
BTW dosbox and dosemu are supposed to be "real DOS boxen". In fact, I was told
than Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 completely breaks a lot of DOS compatiblity,
while dosemu still runs these applications fine. I've been using dosbox to
run some very nice old DOS games. I don't know what happened, but who knows.
> >>> BTW, have you given any consideration in regards to the license of the
> >>> solver?
> >
> > You mean:
> >
> > <<<<
> > Although protected by Copyright, I grant permission to copy my articles
> > and software, but only if not-for-profit, and only if they include my
> > Title and Copyright, and a reference to this website. Notification to me
> > and courtesy copies of the publication would be appreciated. For other
> > publication, please contact me directly.
>
> Yes, this text is from my website.
OK. Have you verified this text with a lawyer? Such legal texts must be
verified for legal integrity or else they can allow non-intended use (or
disallow intended use).
>
> > By license I meant something along the lines of The GNU General Public
> > License (or GPL), the BSD license, the MIT X11 license, LGPL, MPL, CPL,
> > Sleepy Cat, etc. etc. These are legal documents that govern what can be
> > done with the program and what is forbidden. Your informal licensing
> > terms would be considered quite problematic in the UNIX/Free and Open
> > Source Software world.
>
> I make no claims as to what can be done with the program, nor do I want to
> forbid anything.. I really want no agreement except for the underlying
> copyright.
OK. The license off your web-site when applied to your program is completely
unclear on the following situations:
1. Would it be OK to _call_ fcell.com from a program, analyse its results and
use them as a solution?
2. Would it be OK to convert the code of fcell.com to a library, link against
it and utilise it that way?
3. Would it be OK to sell copies of fcell.com as is?
4. Would it be OK to sell copies of fcell.com as part of larger software
distributions?
5. Would it be OK to sell copies of fcell.com as part of a Freecell
application that embeds it?
6. Would it be acceptable to modify fcell.com in any way?
7. Would it be acceptable to o any of 1-5 with a modified copy?
Etc. etc.
All of these things need to be clarified and are not.
>
> > A final note is that I linked to your solver as well as to this
> > discussion from the Freecell Solver homepage:
> >
> > http://vipe.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/freecell-solver/links.html#other_solv
> >ers
> >
> > It's near the bottom of the section. Please read it and let me know if
> > it represents your solver well.
>
> This will take a few weeks (I'm in the desert of Utah, barely able to send
> and receive email).
OK.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish shlomif_at_iglu.org.il
Homepage:
http://www.shlomifish.org/
95% of the programmers consider 95% of the code they did not write, in the
bottom 5%.
Received on Sat Nov 26 2005 - 05:48:26 IST