Implement -showMoveTime option A persistent option -showMoveTime can cause the time thought so far on the current move to be displayed in the clock field, behind the time left on the clock, in parentheses.
Add option -pgnTimeLeft to print clocks in extended PGN info When set a persistent option -pgnTimeLeft makes XBoard save the time left after the move in the score/depth comments, rather than the time thought about the move. A leading sign will allow the reader to distinguish the two. The time is always printed in integer seconds.
Add option -jewelled to decide which King is a Zebra XB A new volatile option -jewelled is added, with default value -1. When it is set to 0 the King image will be replaced by the Zebra image, when it is 1 the same thing will happen to the black King. This color testing will be done before the swapping of colors ordered by -flipBlack, so that the color rather than the side of the (possibly flipped) board decides which King is displayed as Zebra. (While the board side determines whether a white or black Zebra will then be used in -flibBlack mode). Shogi themes can use this by providing a Jewelled General as Zebra (a piece that was not used in any Shogi variant).
Add -analysisBell option to use move sound in analysis mode The persistent integer option -analysisBell can be used to let the move sound play in analysis mode for every PV that arrives after the dely (in seconds) it specifies has elapsed since the current analysis search started.
Add -men option for changing piece moves A volatile string option -men allows the user to change the moves of the pieces from the command line similar to what the VariantMen tag does from a PGN file. Using the New Variant dialog resets the option.
Add -fen option A volatile string option -fen can now be used to set the initial position of the initial variant through the command line, removing the need to prepare a position file for this. Otherwise the effect should be the same as when using -lpf: New games will be started from the specifoed positon until the New Variant dialog is used. The position is 'auto-sizing', i.e. the FEN is used to set the board geometry as well.
Make startup announcement self-disappearing The startup message is now configurable through an option -startupMessage, and the master config file sets this to announce the help clicks. The message can contain multiple lines. The display of lines that are a sub-string of the option -messageSuppress is suppressed, however. Using a help-click sets this latter option to the help-click announcement, so that people who have used help clicks won't see this message anymoe. Displaying the startup message is now only considered on board draws that ordered a full repaint.
Merge branch 'v4.8.x'
updated copyright for 2016
Change the piece order again The internal piece encoding is now altered such that the uninteresting ones (promoted Shogi pieces and symmetry partners) are all at the end, just before King. These now start with the PromoBishop. A slash in the pieceToChar string skips to this new 'promoted series', so that strings can be made 'future proof' (for when new pieces are added before it). The promoted Chu pieces all get new book keys by this, but as it is unlikely that they occurin opening lines, this was considered acceptable. The +L, +T in Chu are now represented by Pegasus and Gnu rather than Knight and Chancellor, but the latter two are defined as fall-backs to remain compatible with old Chu themes. The +N, +L, +S replacements in Shogi are now also taken from amongst the regular pieces, rather than extra images stored beyond King.
Expand numer of new piece types to 2 x 11 The number of pieces added between basic and promoted series, and between the latter and King is increased to 11, and they are ordered differently. The image used for the Chu-Shogi White-Horse piece,which was a duplicat of the Knight, is now replaced by a winged Knight.
Use flexible promotion assignment The promoted partner now comes from an array, rather than by adding a constant (11, or 27 in chu) to the base type. The array is initialized so the first 11 pieces (the old 'base pieces') point to the second 11 (the old 'promoted series'), and the latter point back (so the array also contains the demotions!). The pieces above 21 (= Lion) point to themselves. Parsing of the pieceToChar string now considers ^, - and * prefixes rather than independent IDs. Nevertheless it is the - and ^ that get stored in the pieceToCharTable (the latter as '+') for the corresponding piece. But the ID that follows them specifies what other piece they are the demoted or promoted partner of, rather than their own ID, and is thus used to update the promoPartner array for both of them. A * prefix does mean the following ID is the ID assigned to the piece, but that the piece promotes to Tokin (if the latter is assigned a '+'). The default pieceToChar string for varaint chu is adapted to use this new assignment mechanism of promotion partner. (Chu is so far the only variant that needed other pairing than the default.)
Add duplicat of Lion (and Flying Dragon) Two more piece types are added: a duplicat of the Lion in the unpromoted series, and a Flying Dragon as its promoted counterpart. This Lion does not suffer from the Lion-trading restriction of Chu Shogi, and can be used as a general piece. Its pictogram is somewhat smaller than that of the Chu Shogi Lion.
Replace Flying Dragon piece image by Gnu How could we not think of this before!
Assign new images to the new pieces The 5 new pieces behind Lion, and their chu-promoted versions, are assigned the 9 new images. The 10th piece gets the Lance image, to povide a duplicate for this that will not be considered a Pawn in any variant (so it can be used for Amazon).
Print mate scores as #N in message field
Start implementing EPD test suites An option -epd is added that can be used in combination with matchMode to let XBoard do a test suite on a file of EPDs with a "bm" qualifier. It would record the time to solution. Reporting still has to be implemented; as yet unsolved problem is that currently black-to-move EPDs would be presented to the second engine.
Slip in 10 more piece types Five new piece type without a defined image are added to increase the length to the unpromoted series from 11 to 16. They all map behind the Lion, which remains the 11th piece. Five promoted types are added as well, just before King. No images are defined for these pieces (yet), not even image-file names, so they can only be used with the 'Tile' fallback and a user-defined inscription.
Updated copyright notice to 2015
Make Claws glyph available in non-Chu variants The variant-dependent replacement glyphs for promotable pieces in Chu are now assigned to pieces that reuse the replaced glyphs to represent promoted pieces, rather than to unused promoted pieces. This means that in Chu they now must be replaced by swapping, which avoids occurrence of duplicats both in Chu and other variants. And thus frees piece types that now can be used for new glyphs. As a result the Nightrider remains available in Chu, and the Claw glyph in other variants. Other freed pieces are for now used for the promotion Golds of variant shogi.