This is the README file for the Unix mah-jong programs by J. C. Bradfield.
Please see the file LICENCE for terms and conditions of these programs.
The code in the tiles-v1/ directory was not written by me; see tiles-v1/README for information and licensing. The file MANIFEST contains a description of all the files you should find in this distribution.
In the distribution directory, you will find the following files: mj-server the controller program. ( mj-server.exe in Windows ) mj-player a computer player. ( mj-player.exe in Windows ) xmj a graphical client. ( xmj.exe in Windows ) README this file LICENCE the licence rules.txt the rules as implemented by the programs use.txt documentation on how to use the programs CHANGES summary of changes between releases xmj.1 man page (not in Windows) mj-player.1 man page (not in Windows) mj-server.1 man page (not in Windows) tiles-numbered an alternative tileset with some arabic numbers tiles-small a set of smaller (3/4 size) tiles gtkrc-minimal sample gtkrc files gtkrc-plain gtkrc-clearlooks
These programs allow the user of a Unix (or Windows) computer to play Mah-Jong, in the Chinese Classical style, against other users (locally or over the Internet), against programmed players, or both.
Latest releases should be available from: http://mahjong.julianbradfield.org/MahJong/
If you need to contact me about these programs, please mail me at mahjong@stevens-bradfield.com .
These programs should, in theory, compile on any reasonably modern 32-bit Unix with an ANSI C compiler and the X Window System. They have been known to compile (and run) under GNU/Linux, recent Solaris (on Sparc), and recent Irix (on Silicon Graphics workstations). They also compile and run on MacOS 10 with X Windows. If you try to compile on any "reasonably modern" system, and have a problem, do please tell me. In addition, they should compile and run under Win32 systems with GNU compilers and utilities; they are known to work under NT 4.0 with the mingw compiler (you must use the version with the MSVCRT dll). Adam Kao mahjong@ideogram.com got a pre-release version to compile with Microsoft Visual C and nmake, but as I don't have these I don't support them. If you wish to try to do this, the file makefile.msvc.old is the makefile Adam used; however, it has not been updated to match the current release, and is now extremely old.
On Unix, as of version 1.10 of xmj, you need GTK+ 2.0 or later, preferably with the Clearlooks theme installed. If you are running on a very old system indeed, or you dislike GTK+2, you can also compile against GTK+ 1.2 by making the appropriate change in the Makefile. GTK+ 1.2 specific bugs are unlikely to be fixed in future.
If you do not have GTK+, obtain it from www.gtk.org or mirrors.
On Windows, you need the GTK+ 2 development bundle (note that GTK+ 2 relies on a lot of other stuff. A bundle is available from www.gtk.org.) To compile against GTK+1, you need a 2004 or later version 1.3 of the gtk+ Windows port.
To compile the program, you need Perl, version 5 (version 4 is almost certainly OK, but I haven't checked). Perl should be installed on any decent system. (It is, of course not installed by default on Windows, but if you do any development, you've probably already installed it.) You do not need any Perl modules.
You need the GNU make utility. If you do not have this, you will need to remove the GNU-specific features from the Makefile, as directed therein. (This may be hard. There is no good reason not to use GNU make, as far as I know.) (Windows: see also note above about makefile.msvc.old)
Unpack the distribution, and cd into the distribution directory.
Edit the Makefile, and change as directed by the comments.
Then make
You should not see any warnings or errors. If you do get any warning or error, please complain to me (unless you've switched on lots of superfluous message via the C debug flags, in which case you know what you're doing, so don't complain to me!).
Then (Unix only) su to an appropriate user if you need this for installation, and make install will install the binaries in the place you chose. Alternatively, just copy the three binaries mj-server mj-player xmj into your chosen directory.
make install.man (Unix only) will install the man pages into the appropriate directory.
You may also wish to put the pre-formatted text files use.txt and rules.txt (which are basically the two halves of the man page) somewhere.
Unpack the distribution, and cd into the distribution directory.
Just copy the three binaries mj-server mj-player xmj into your chosen directory. If you don't have GTK+, then see above.
The user documentation is use.txt and rules.txt ; put these in an appropriate place.
Alternatively, or as well, copy the man pages xmj.1, mj-server.1, mj-player.1 to the appropriate man directory (e.g. /usr/local/man/man1).
Make sure that the binary directory is in your PATH; in particular, if you run from the source directory, you need to have it in your PATH either explicitly or as . .
Unpack the distribution. Put the three *.exe files into an appropriate directory. Creating menu items and shortcuts is up to you...
You must have the DLLs for the GTK+ libraries, as specified above. For your convenience, these can be found in the file gtk2dlls.zip in the xmj download directory. Put the DLLs in the same directory as the xmj binaries. If you are using the GTK+ 1 version, you need instead the file gtkdlls1.zip .
Put the documentation use.txt and rules.txt somewhere sensible.
Please see the file use.txt in the distribution for usage information. The file rules.txt describes the rules applied by the programs. (Or see the man page.)
What payment? What registration? These programs are free. However, if you would like to encourage me to continue development, or thank me for what I have already done, you can (a) make a donation to your local branch of Amnesty International (please send me a note if you do); or, (b) send me a donation, either via PayPal, or by credit card by the link on the xmj home page. If you want to be informed when new versions are released, etc., please sign up via the web site.
The Windows port exists thanks to the efforts of Adam Kao mahjong@ideogram.com, who ported the pre-release version, and thus showed me what to do. Only Win32 is catered for. I do not have a proper development environment for Windows, so Windows-specific bugs will not have a high priority.
xmj is no longer under development. You're welcome to send me suggestions for improvements, but I'm unlikely to act on them. If I do do any further work, it will be to develop a new version, with much more flexibility.
Please report any bugs, or anything that might be a bug. Any known bugs that cannot be fixed are documented in the user manual.