naz@hslrswi.UUCP (Norman H. Azadian) (12/06/90)
This is a new version of the solitaire card game that I posted some
months ago. This one improved ICONisms, an improved user interface,
and a much better chance of actually running on any ANSI terminal.
There is even a man page, klondike.man, included in this message.
The source is now split into three files:
klondike.icn main program, top-level user-interface routines
kloncon.icn console I/O subroutines
klonsub.icn assorted other subroutines
To execute from scratch, I believe the following suffices:
icont -c kloncon klonsub
icont klondike
iconx klondike <<any options here>>
Should you wish to peruse the source, use a tab interval of 4, not 8.
NHA
---
PAPER: Norman Azadian; Ascom AG; Belpstrasse 23; 3000 Berne 14; Switzerland
X.400: naz@hslrswi.hasler
UUCP: ...{uunet,ukc,mcvax,...}!cernvax!hslrswi!naz
VOICE: +41 31 63 2178 BITNET: naz%hslrswi.UUCP@cernvax.BITNET
--------------- cut here -------------------- cut here ---------------------
NAME
klondike -- one of the many versions of solitaire
SYNOPSIS
klondike -[ACD] [-B gameCount] [-R randomSeed]
DESCRIPTION
This is actually a popular variation on the Klondike version of
Solitaire (or Patience) as described on page 181 of my 1963
version of "Hoyle's Rules of Games". The difference is that
here we go through the deck (stock) 3 cards at a time instead
of one-by-one, and we allow it any number of times.
It should run on any ANSI-compatible terminal, but it looks
best on a PC, preferably color.
OPTIONS
Options may be either upper or lower case. They may be given
in any order. Parameters follow their options with whitespace
inbetween. Each option must be given as a separate argument.
-A disables automatically putting uncovered Ace cards
on the appropriate pile. Note that, in any case, it is
not allowed to put an Ace onto a stack, as this could lead
to building stacks which are too big to display with 25 lines.
-B count
Batch mode. The requested number of games is played and
the average number of cards promoted to the ace piles is
written to the standard output. No other I/O is performed.
-C disable the "click" for silent games
-D enable special debugging commands which, among other things,
allow one to cheat
-R seed
set the random seed to the designated value
COMMANDS
H or ? display a Help screen
^L (control-L) redraws the screen
A Automatic mode. Plays the game until nothing useful
remains to be done, or until any key is struck.
B Boss key. The screen is blanked and the current position
is saved. When the game is started again in the usual
way, this saved game will be automatically restored and
the save file deleted.
C Continuous mode. The computer plays games automatically
until a key is struck. Two statistics are displayed:
the number of games already played, and the total number
of aces which have been promoted to the ace piles.
M Move a card from the deck or a stack to a stack or an
ace pile.
Q Quit this game, with the opportunity to play another.
S Suggest a possible move. Hitting this key multiple times
results in multiple suggestions being displayed. When
there is nothing interesting left to do, it will suggest
"Thumb".
T Thumb. Remove the top 3 cards from the face-down deck
and lay them face-up on the face-up deck.
U Undo. This can be used all the way back to the start
of the current game.
Z Debug. This is only enabled when the -D option has
been given on the command line. There is a sub-menu
of commands available, including a (very brief) Help
summary.
The Move command takes two parameters: source and destination.
Possible sources are: D for the Deck of face-up cards; and a
number from 1 to 7 inclusive, meaning the corresponding stack.
Possible destinations are the stacks (1-7) and A for the
appropriate ace pile. For instance, to move the visible card
from the face-up deck to stack 4, one types the three characters:
"MD4". Actually, the "M" character itself is optional, which
explains why the "debug" command isn't invoked with a "D".
BUGS
Slow.
Doesn't use termcap for maximum portability.
The program's play is simplistic, with no concept of strategy.
FILES
klondike.sav Position is checkpointed here when the Boss key is used.
klondike.sv? Position checkpointed here with the "S" debug command.
"?" can be any (upper-case) character legal in your
filesystem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The inspiration, name, and user interface were lifted
wholesale from a game copyrighted in 1985 by Allyn Wade.
VERSION
1.41 -- 26 November, 1990
AUTHOR
Norman H. Azadian
naz@hslrswi
--
PAPER: Norman Azadian; Ascom AG; Belpstrasse 23; 3000 Berne 14; Switzerland
X.400: naz@hslrswi.hasler
UUCP: ...{uunet,ukc,mcvax,...}!cernvax!hslrswi!naz
VOICE: +41 31 63 2178 BITNET: naz%hslrswi.UUCP@cernvax.BITNET