# Netris
# Frequently asked questions
#
-# $Id: FAQ,v 1.1 1995/07/11 07:50:43 mhw Exp $
-#
-Contents
-========
+Questions
+=========
[1] Where can I find the latest version?
[2] The pieces look bizarre in my xterm window, and don't erase
properly. What's up?
-c player?
[6] I'm using a slow terminal, and the game response is sluggish.
What can I do?
+[7] Why can't my terminal hide the cursor?
+[8] Occasionally when clearing a line, the display jerks, scrolling
+ very awkwardly. How can I fix it?
Answers
=======
[1] Where can I find the latest version?
- My machine doesn't currently have a constant hostname, but you can
- usually find the hostname from `finger mhw@cs.brown.edu`, at least
- until the Fall of 1995.
-
- If you find my machine, you can get the latest version via
- anonymous ftp from the /pub directory. If anonymous ftp isn't
- working, it's probably not my machine, so please don't badger it
- with lots of retry attempts.
+ ftp://ftp.netris.org/pub/netris/
- Unfortunately that is not a permanent site. If that machine
- doesn't exist, try mailing me.
+ The latest version is available via anonymous ftp from
+ ftp.netris.org in /pub/netris.
+
+ Unfortunately this machine is currently on the far end of a
+ 14.4kbps modem connection, and may go away at any time without
+ notice, but I'll do my best to keep it up. If you have trouble
+ contacting the ftp server, try mailing me at <mhw@netris.org>.
[2] The pieces look bizarre in my xterm window, and don't erase
properly. What's up?
example, I use 6x10 font for xterms, and here are the relevant lines
from my xterm.
- txterm*font: 6x10
- txterm*boldFont: 6x10
+ txterm*font: 6x10
+ txterm*boldFont: 6x10
Make sure you capitalize the F in "boldFont"
[3] If I drop a piece and then slide it off a cliff, shouldn't
it automatically drop again?
- Try the -D option.
+ Try the -d option.
[4] When I try to play a networked game, it just hangs.
Try the -S option. This disables use of standout mode (bold/inverse),
which require control sequences to be sent twice (or more) per line.
- This looks nice, but can make the game unplayable on a slow terminal.
+ Standout mode makes the pieces look much more like blocks, but can
+ make the game unplayable on a slow terminal.
Also, you can type 's' to toggle spying (updating your view of the
opponent's board).
+
+[7] Why can't my terminal hide the cursor?
+
+ Netris uses the termcap library to look up the "vi" and "ve"
+ capabilities, which make the cursor invisible/visible
+ respectively. These capabilities aren't very consistently
+ reported among un*xes, so I use compiled-in vt220 codes for
+ several vt100-like terminals. Most emulators probably won't
+ support the codes, but they'll probably ignore them quietly.
+
+ Try setting the TERM environment variable to "vt100" or "vt220"
+ before running Netris. If that doesn't work, your terminal
+ probably doesn't support cursor invisibility.
+
+[8] Occasionally when clearing a line, the display jerks, scrolling
+ very awkwardly. How can I fix it?
+
+ You can try running ./configure with the "--curses-hack" option
+ and recompile. This utilizes a non-portable hack which will only
+ work with certain curses libraries, so it's disabled by default.
+
+ All screen updating is done by your curses library, which means
+ it's not something that Netris can control. Netris never tells
+ curses to scroll, but curses does so automatically in order to
+ optimize screen updates. This hack modifies curses's internal
+ variables, making it think that your terminal doesn't know how to
+ region-scroll.
+
+
+# vi: tw=70
git.shiar.nl / netris.git / blobdiff