another Apple idiocy

[JoshPettus]

I see, a good policy, but, yes for now, they would be.
For the record, haven't had any problems with them which is why I sent it to them. But it's true, you never know. We all thought we could trust sourceforge not too long ago.

[bob]

If you move it off of the dmg (which is a compressed disk image and not a zip archive) and on to your system hard drive, it would only do it once. Apps aren't meant to be run off of the dmg. (which is partially the reason apple like to bother you about unknown programs) You would loose the program if you deleted the dmg, which happens to a lot to people.

The reason I use dmg files is:
1) Everyone does it. Sure I can use a zip archive, maybe tarball it first to ensure permissions. But that's not how OSX distributions are done.
2) Its a great way to let the user downloading that this is indeed a mac download and not a windows one.
3) It ensures correct permissions for me on install.

I could probably do a package installer like I did a while ago with xboard 4.6, but truth be told, I hate those. The user has no idea what is being installed on the system and where it is. (at least with windows installers you can set an actual directory) There is no unified method for uninstall and the user can't be sure that when you uninstall just the app, that that is it. (Minus the config files hidden in ~/Library which everyone seems ok to just leave behind...)

OK. 99% of the things I have installed move themselves somewhere. For example, the "knight" icon under launchpad is what exactly? I ran xboard off the dmg mount and that icon appeared.

[bob]

Oh NOTE: Dragging the icon from the dmg and on to your dock doesn't actually copy it to your hard drive.

That part I understood. But I have a "knight" on the launchpad and I have not dragged anything anywhere.

[bob]

Is there a way to either (a) start xboard from command line or (b) set options like number of match games, position file and position index, to play games from specific starting positions and such???

[hgm]

If I understood Joshua correctly OS X Apps can only be started from the command line with the aid of the "open" command. They are not in any path.

For setting number of match games, position or game file and index I always use the Tournament Options dialog. If you don't specify any participants there this sets XBoard to play an 'old-style match' between the currently loaded engines, after you hit the Mode -> Machine Match menu item.

[JoshPettus]

OK. 99% of the things I have installed move themselves somewhere. For example, the "knight" icon under launchpad is what exactly? I ran xboard off the dmg mount and that icon appeared.

Sorry, I misread/understood, The Launchpad detects apps that are on the harddrive, It must detect the app on the open dmg which is also on the hardrive, which beats me as too why... Seems like bad design.. I never touch launchpad. I hit cmd-shift-a which opens my app folder and click on the app directly.

Is there a way to either (a) start xboard from command line or (b) set options like number of match games, position file and position index, to play games from specific starting positions and such???

Yes, as Harm said no app is in PATH so you can't just call it from the command-line directly. Instead each app is in the registry and OSX can open them with the open command by name

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open -a xboard.app --args whatever

Or you can also open it by bundle identifier (which is in the plist file of each app). But that's hard to remember.

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open -b org.fsf.xboard.www --args whatever

[JoshPettus]

Dang edit timer went up.

I meant to add, you still need to physically copy the app off the dmg and onto your harddrive. Regardless of what lauchpad does.

I don't know what you mean by installs themselves. Do you mean like a package installer? Those are rather uncommon and I only see them if there is some sort of kernal or system element to the program that requires complicated scripting. Otherwise Drag and drop of apps and folders is how it's been done since the days of OS Classic and CDs.

[EDIT] You must be thinking of the app store which downloads the app directly onto the hardrive. I'm not the app store

[bob]

If I understood Joshua correctly OS X Apps can only be started from the command line with the aid of the "open" command. They are not in any path.

For setting number of match games, position or game file and index I always use the Tournament Options dialog. If you don't specify any participants there this sets XBoard to play an 'old-style match' between the currently loaded engines, after you hit the Mode -> Machine Match menu item.

Ok. Thanks. Since I wasn't playing a "tournament" I never thought to look there...

Seems to be working just fine.

Any way to turn off the sound for moves? Can't find a way to get rid of the "thunk"... No option for "none" or "no sound" I can see. Mute button works just fine, but it mutes everything.

[mvk]

For dummies:

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Select menu item: "Options > Sounds"
Locate the field that says "Move : Wood Thunk"
Change it to "No Sound" (first item in the list)
Select "OK"

You might have to move the window down a little bit, because the dropdown menu goes up and can then hide partly behind the menu bar. There are a couple of such quirks in this xboard version.

For intelligent people:

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sudo chmod 0 /usr/bin/afplay

PS:

[bob]

For dummies:

Code: Select all

Select menu item: "Options > Sounds"
Locate the field that says "Move : Wood Thunk"
Change it to "No Sound" (first item in the list)
Select "OK"

You might have to move the window down a little bit, because the dropdown menu goes up and can then hide partly behind the menu bar. There are a couple of such quirks in this xboard version.

For intelligent people:

Code: Select all

sudo chmod 0 /usr/bin/afplay

PS:

NOT on el capitan.