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        Arimaa >> Site Discussion >> 2 suggestions for the interface to help newbies.
        
(Message started by: RedGuff on Feb 25^th, 2015, 6:03pm)

Title: 2 suggestions for the interface to help newbies.
Post by RedGuff on Feb 25^th, 2015, 6:03pm

Hello.

When I started Chess, I was disappointed, because the tower (value of 5) was smaller than the bishop (value of 3).
I suggest that, in the interface (and real games), the animals follow the rule :
"the bigger in life, the bigger on screen".

If the animal is frozen, add a small image of a locked padlock on it, in a corner.

Thanks.

Title: Re: 2 suggestions for the interface to help newbie
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 26^th, 2015, 9:16am

These are both excellent suggestions. I hope it will not discourage you too much to learn that arimaa.com is essentially maintained only by Omar Syed, and that he is too busy with family and work these days to implement good ideas for improvements, or even to fix nagging bugs. There has been some movement towards the collective development of a new place to play Arimaa, so any thoughts on an improved interface may find life there.

Title: Re: 2 suggestions for the interface to help newbie
Post by harvestsnow on Feb 27^th, 2015, 8:04am

Hello and welcome.

Changing parts of the client can be done with a local web proxy and a cache. Any static file present in the cache will be returned instead of the distant one, including modified images, sounds, scripts etc. Would you like more details about this?

I think these modifications would only help you in the very beginning though. Soon you will get used to the design of the pieces, and won't waste a split second wondering where the camel is or if the d3 rabbit is frozen.

Title: Re: 2 suggestions for the interface to help newbie
Post by RedGuff on Feb 27^th, 2015, 8:50am

Thanks a lot for your help.
I'd like to change the images and the sounds.
How to do it, please?

PS : Is there an "adjustable" local application to play Arimaa?

Title: Re: 2 suggestions for the interface to help newbie
Post by harvestsnow on Feb 28^th, 2015, 4:51am

Ok, here is my (possibly overkill) solution.

1.
Install a web server supporting php. If you're using Linux, you probably already have Apache. On windows, WAMP or EasyPHP will do.
1.5
Make sure RewriteRules are activated in the apache configuration file (first question in this FAQ (http://www.easyphp.org/faq.php)).

2. Get this archive (http://harvey.alwaysdata.net/arimaa_proxy.zip)
It contains:
-the sources of the arimaa client (available here (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/jsClient/dev.tgz))
-a modified version of this php script (https://code.google.com/p/php-proxy/).

3.
Unzip the archive in the root web directory (usually called 'www'). Change the directory permissions if necessary.

You may need to change the cookie file location defined in index.php.
Replace this line

Code:

$ckfile = '/tmp/simpleproxy-cookie-'.session_id();

with something like

Code:

$ckfile = '/my/temp/directory/'.session_id();

I don't know your directory structure, so I won't define it for you. Make sure it's not under the www directory, and that the script is able to write there.

4.
Navigate to http://localhost/arimaa. Rejoice!

Everytime you request something under the arimaa/ directory that is not present locally, the script will forward it to arimaa.com and give you the result, after replacing the original host with your local host in every page (so the links will look like 'http://localhost/arimaa/...').
If the requested file is already there, Apache will just serve it to you (as instructed by the .htaccess file).

Now, you can change anything under the arimaa directory. The client piece icons are the gif files in jsClient/pro/images/.
Some alternative icon sets are presented there (http://thenoviceoof.com/blog/projects/arimaa-icon-set/).
Be creative and share!

I'd love to hear of a simpler or more secure solution. This one at least works for me.
The one thing that bothers me about it is that arimaa.com and your localhost will be treated as the same host by your browser when you use the proxy. So the arimaa site will be able to access files an make requests on the local server. Hopefully you don't have anything sensitive there.
I'll keep seaching for something better, that's what I can come up with now.

Quote:

PS : Is there an "adjustable" local application to play Arimaa?

The closest thing we have is rabbits' client (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/forum/cgi/YaBB.cgi?board=devTalk;action=display;num=1266712867), but it is meant for testing bots. The gameroom interface is different for bots and humans, and I don't think it will allow humans to play gameroom games without substantial changes. You can still play a bot with it if you have the binary.

Title: Re: 2 suggestions for the interface to help newbie
Post by RedGuff on Mar 4^th, 2015, 6:07pm

Thanks.
I'll try it and I'll give my modifications.
:)