The current version is 0.65. Wei Qi Problem Maker is designed for Go web site authors to produce high-quality Go game images that can be embedded in web pages. The original idea of this program comes from a similar program authored by Yu Jun of flygo.net. Following is an image generated by this software:
In the Chinese version of Go4Go.net, we have a section presenting Go technical articles. All figures in that section are made by this software.
The program in written in Java language. As of version 0.6, a package in 'jar' format is provided for simpler distribution. Please click here to download this program.
After you finish the single-file download, you don't need to decompress it. Just put it at wherever you like. To run the program, open a DOS prompt in Windows (or a terminal window in Linux) and type 'java -jar WQPM.jar'. In Windows, it is also possible to directly double-click the jar file to run. In all cases, you need to have a Java Runtime Environment installed in you system. As of version 0.6, I no longer require a 1.4 version of JRE (see details in Change Log). Now any version of JRE that supports Java Swing should work with my program. I know sometimes it's tricky to configure a working JRE in your system. But if you are smart enough to play Go, you should be able to figure out how to do that :)) Following is a snapshot of the program window:
Using this program is quite simple. As you can see from the above captured screen, there are two groups of buttons on the tool bar. I call the first group as "Action Buttons" and second group "Mode Buttons". Each button has a tool tip to explain its function. They are explained in detail here:
This is to create a new document.
This is to open an existing document.
This is to save the document to disks for later use. Note that a special
file format is defined to store everything on the board to a file.
Later, the file can be reloaded using "Open" function to
restore the board status.
This is to export the Go problem you made to an image file. When this button
is clicked, a file dialog is popuped and a file name can be specified
to save the image. Currently, only GIF format is supported.
There are totally 9 drawing modes that let you have full control of what to draw on the game board. These modes are mutually exclusive and only one mode can be selected at a time.
These modes let you place black and white stones on the board.
When these modes are selected, you can place black or white stones with move
numbers on the board to show move sequences. For you convenience, once you
place a numbered black stone on the board, the program automatically switch
the mode to white mode, so that you can immediately click the board to place a
numbered white stone. However, the program does allow you to manually switch
the mode by clicking the buttons on tool bar, so that you can place more than
one stone of the same color in a row.
Sometime we need to refer to special locations on the board from game commentaries.
These symbols can be used to mark special locations.
To write a letter on the board,
select this mode. Note that only 26 upper-case letters (from A to Z) are
available.
Select this mode to remove stones
and symbols from the board. If you click on a numbered stone or a letter, all
moves or letters after the selected move will be removed. For example, if you have 10 numbered stones and you click 5 at DELETE mode, then stone 1 through 4 will remain on board, while others will be deleted. This is a very useful feature that
allows you to build different 'solution' images based on the same 'question'
image.
In many
situations, we do not want the whole board to be exported as an image. When this mode is selected,
we can drag the mouse to highlight a partial area of the board to be exported.
When you finish the dragging and release your mouse button, the selection area
will automatically 'fit to grid'. This makes it easy to produce several images in the same size.
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in the empty space on the board, which we frequently use to display ko fightings.I wrote this program in just a short time, without extensive debugging and testing. Please let me know what should be further worked on. If you have questions, comments or bug reports, send an email to support@go4go.net. If you want to access the source code of the program for your personal use, let me know. If you are interested in working on Go related projects or web sites, please contact me and maybe we can work together.
Version 0.65: (2002-10-10)
Function improvement. In response to user feedbacks, the DELETE mode is modified. Users now can remove selected move sequence and letters, not just delete them all. This makes it easier to correct typos when making long move sequence. Now some checks are made at file saving time to make sure no file is overwrite accidentally. Also, if users specify an image file name without the suffix, a default .gif suffix will be automatically appended.
Version 0.61:
Minor function improvement. One more toggle button "=" was added on the toolbar. This makes it possible to write an equal sign on the board.
Version 0.6:
As of this version, the way exporting game record images is changed. Java Image IO APIs are no longer used. Instead, a third-party GIF encoder is used. The first advantage is that now the program can run with earlier Java Runtimes (1.3 for sure and 1.2.2 possible, I haven't tested though). The second and more important advantage is that exported file size is reduced to about 15% of the JPG format formerly used. We only need 2 colors (black and white) in the images and GIF is a better choice anyway.
This version also fixed a few bugs, one of which is about the synchronization of "New" button, "Delete" mode and "current move/letter" panel. A jar package is provided for download. A Resource Loader is written to load image files for the application.
Version 0.55:
Added a new navigation bar below the tool bar from which current move and
current letter can be changed. This makes it possible to skip or reuse move
numbers and letters on the board.
Version 0.5:
Initial release.
version 0.65, 10/10/2002