NEWS.md

ppgames 0.8.2

ppgames is superseded in favor of the newer ppcli, ppdf, ppgamer, ppn, and pprules spinoff packages:

• These can all be installed with piecepackr::install_ppverse()
• See <https://piecepackr.r-universe.dev/builds> for more info on the various "ppverse" packages
• Use ppcli::cat_piece() for cat_piece()
• Use similar functions from ppdf for the various df_*() game setup functions
• Use ppgamer::solve_fujisan() for solve_fujisan()
• Use ppn for various *_game(), *_ppn(), and *_move() PPN parsing and game visualization functions
• Use pprules for various save_*() piecepack ruleset generators

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• read_ppn() now uses affiner::as_coord2d() instead of piecepackr:::Point2D()$new() which was an internal function that was removed in the most recent version of {piecepackr}.

ppgames 0.8.1

New features

• New function save_pocketmod() which is an alternative to save_ruleset() that saves the ruleset as a "pocketmod" booklet (#110).

• New function names_rulesets() lists the games we can generate rulesets for (#144).

• save_ruleset() / save_rulebook() can now export to non-pdf formats using pandoc (#76). We can customize pandoc output using the new cmd_options argument, by default we try to pick reasonable defaults based on the file extension and whether its a book or ruleset. Quality varies for the various output formats but html, epub, and docx export looked "okay".

• save_ruleset() / save_pamphlet() / save_pocketmod() support new arguments game_info, game_files, and save_promo_fn (#115). This allows users to generate rulesets using files not located within the {ppgames} package.

• save_ruleset() / save_pamphlet() / save_pocketmod() can now embed XMP metadata including Creative Commons license info into pdf output (#71). Requires suggested package {xmpdf} and the command-line tool exiftool.

• We now export normalize_name() which normalizes game names into a standard format for use in R/LaTeX variable names and for use in filenames.

• We now export save_promo_image() which saves promo images for games. Default argument for the save_promo_fn argument in save_pamphlet() / save_pocketmod().

• New starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_black_pawn_trucking()
  • df_brain_burn()
  • df_burbuja()
  • df_cardinals_guards()
  • df_change_change()
  • df_chariots()
  • df_climbing_man()
  • df_cribbage() is a new alias for df_cribbage_board()
  • df_crocodile_hop()
  • df_galaxy_express()
  • df_lab_rats()
  • df_ludo() (#119)
  • df_minishogi()
  • df_one_man_thrag()
  • df_piecepack_halma() is a new alias for df_chinese_checkers()
  • df_sarcophagus()
  • df_shopping_mall()
  • df_speedy_towers() (currently supports two players only)
  • df_steppin_stones()
  • df_the_penguin_game()
  • df_tracers()
  • df_tula() now supports argument variant and Tim Schutz's variants 1-4

• save_ruleset() / save_pamphlet() / save_pocketmod() now supports ruleset generation for:

  • "ludo" (#119)
  • "speedy towers"

• Improved rulesets for:

  • "chaturaji" (#128)
  • "cribbage" (#146)
  • "international chess" (#126)
  • "shogi"

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• cat_piece() now has very basic support for fudge/fate dice (#139)

• game_kit() now defaults to using the "piecepack" configuration from piecepackr::game_systems() instead of using pp_cfg().

• Fixes bug when launching command-line version of view_game().

• save_promo_image() now has an ... argument that lets you pass arguments to piecepackr::render_piece().

• Fixes bugs in the following game starting functions:

  • Hole in df_easy_slider() is now in bottom right instead of center

ppgames 0.7.0

New features

• There is now a Shiny PPN viewer which can be launched via view_game(game, shiny=TRUE) or shiny::runApp(system.file("shiny/ppn_viewer", package = "ppgames")) (#27)

• cat_piece()'s color argument now supports the value "html" which will colorize the output for HTML using fansi::sgr_to_html().

• cat_piece(), plot_move(), and animate_game() now support the new argument annotation_scale which stretches (or contracts) the placement of the annotated coordinates. By default it uses the scale_factor attribute of the df argument if present else 1 (#105).

• cat_piece() supports new "style" argument which alters which Unicode characters are used in the diagram.

• New starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_brandubh()

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• The "white" background color produced by cat_piece() if color != FALSE is now less grey.

• cat_piece() will no longer override an explicitly set color=TRUE to FALSE when writing to files.

• cat_piece() now returns an invisible "" instead of NULL when passed zero-row input.

• The (invisible) character vector returned by cat_piece() is now length one.

• cat_move() no longer throws an error for moves that result with zero pieces on the board (#96)

• The annotate argument in cat_piece(), plot_move(), animate_game() now supports using "none" as an alias to FALSE and "algebraic" as an alias to TRUE (#97)

• plot_move() now invisibly returns a list with the dimensions of the resulting image.

• In game starting functions with argument seed we now use withr::local_seed() instead of set.seed() and if seed = NULL we don't try to set any seed at all (#112).

• There are now more informative error messages being raised by rlang::abort() (#109, #111).

• Set/tweaked suits/ranks in following board generators to guarantee each piecepack piece is completely unique:

  • df_international_chess() aka df_chess()
  • df_the_in_crowd()
  • df_xiangqi()

• Spread out tile groups further in:

  • df_backgammon()

• Fixes a bug in setting coin ranks in df_triactor().

ppgames 0.6.1

New features

• Portable Piecepack Notation enhancements:

  • There is now support for "relative" locations (#56):

    • <x,y> means x units to the right and y units up from the pieces' current location(s)

    • <x,y>|Location means x units to the right and y units up from Location

    • <x,y>$PieceId is a shortcut for <x,y>|&PieceId

    • nDirection means moving n units in the Direction direction

    • from the pieces's current location(s)

    • nDirection|Location means moving n units in the Direction direction from Location

    • nDirection$PieceId is a shortcut for nDirection|&PieceId

    • These are the supported direction (where "North" is considered "Up"):

      • N, E, S, W, U, R, D, L are orthogonal moves for a rectangular board or a hexagonal board
      • NE, SE, SW, NW, UR, DR, DL, UL are diagonal moves for a rectangular board
      • NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW, WNW, NNW, UUR, RUR, RDR, DDR, DDL, LDL, LUL, UUL are diagonal moves for a hexagonal board

  • N?PieceSpec is now a shortcut for N&?PieceSpec

  • !PieceId is now a shortcut for PieceId-<0,0>

  • An empty PieceId now refers to the "last active" piece(s)

  • An empty Location now refers to the location of the "last active" piece(s) (#90)

  • Brace expansions are now expanded before semi-colons are

  • There is now support for rotating pieces around a reference location/pieces (#86):

    • PieceId@>Angle|Location means rotating PieceId pieces Angle angle around Location location
    • PieceId1@>Angle$PieceId2 is a shortcut for PieceId1@>Angle|&PieceId2
    • PieceId$>Angle is a shortcut for PieceId@>Angle$PieceId

  • The + move token "flips" pieces (#87)

    • If "pyramid_top" flips to "pyramid_face"
    • Other pyramid sides flip to "pyramid_top"
    • "die_face" flips to "die_face" but with a new rank plus three mod 6
    • Other pieces flip back and forth from "back" <-> "face", "top" <-> "base", "left" <-> "right"

• New function view_game() provides a simple command-line PPN viewer/editor.

• New function cat_game() renders a plaintext animation of a game within the terminal.

• New function write_ppn() takes a list of parsed PPN files and writes it to a file.

• New starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_chinese_checkers() with df_mini_halma() as an alias
  • df_coin_collectors()
  • df_easy_slider()
  • df_evade()
  • df_iceberg()
  • df_grasshopper()
  • df_jul_gono()
  • df_landlocked()
  • df_mathrix()
  • df_quatri()
  • df_pass_the_food()
  • df_piece_gaps()
  • df_piece_packing_pirates()
  • df_piecepack_klondike()
  • df_skyscrapers()
  • df_slides_of_action()
  • df_the_magic_bag()
  • df_tower_of_babel()

• save_ruleset() / save_pamphlet() now supports ruleset generation for:

  • "pass the food"

• save_pamphlet() now supports the argument duplex_edge (desired two-sided printing edge) that controls how the second page is oriented.
  If "short" it is flipped up (the new default, easier to preview on computer) and if "long" it is flipped down (common two-sided printer setting) (#74).

• cat_piece() now supports the argument reorient which allows it to first reorient all pieces or just the rank/suit symbols:

  • The default "none" (or FALSE) means don't reorient any pieces/symbols.
  • "all" (or TRUE) means setting the angle to zero for all pieces.
  • "symbols" means just re-orient suit/rank symbols but not the orientation of the piece itself. In particular, in contrast with "all" this preserves the location of the upper-left "corner" of piecepack tile faces.

• cat_piece() now supports the argument annotate which allows one to add coordinate information to plaintext diagrams. It is a bit more limited than the support in plot_move() / animate_game().

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• animate_game() transitions have been improved:

  • Situations where the board is completely empty of pieces should now be handled correctly
  • "Deleted" pieces now should no longer (automatically) be "on top" (#92)

• cat_piece() now returns the text diagram as a character vector invisibly.

• Now if cat_piece()'s argument file is NULL we don't call cat() (and return the text diagram as a character vector).

• cat_piece() now has very basic support for non-icehouse pyramids (#81)

• The tiles in df_ice_floe() have been shifted slightly.

• Checkers set-up is now "mirrored" (pieces on bottom-left instead of bottom-right) to match traditional checkers set-up.

Breaking Changes

• The following rectangular board utility functions have been removed and marked Defunct:

  1. grid.board_rect_cells(), use the "board" pieces from piecepackr::game_systems()$checkers1 with piecepackr::grid.piece()instead
  2. grid.board_rect_points(), use the "board" picees from piecepackr::game_systems()$go with piecepackr::grid.piece() instead
  3. grid.board_rect_tiles(), use piecepackr::pmap_piece(df_rect_board_tiles()) instead

• Interpretation of the game / book argument in save_ruleset, save_pamphlet, save_rulebook now follows similar rules as the GameType argument in PPN, in particular now use arguments like "American Checkers" instead of "american-checkers".

• By default save_pamphlet() now orients the second page up instead of down. To restore prior behaviour (second page flipped down) manually set the argument duplex_edge to "long".

• The id column in the data frames returned by read_ppn() is now different (#94):

  • It is now a character vector instead of integer vector
  • New pieces are a single number (like before) which they keep during simple moves (i.e. no 3D rotations or replacements)
  • When pieces are 3D rotated we increment a number after a single . (introducing it if not there)
  • When pieces are "replaced" with different pieces we increment a number after a double .. (introducing it if not there)

  These changes allow for more fine-tuned animation possibilities.

ppgames 0.5.1

New features

• New starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_alquerque()
  • df_awithlaknannai_mosona()
  • df_japan()
  • df_tula()

• Portable Piecepack Notation enhancements:

  • Can now identify pieces within a stack of pieces with square brackets e.g. *b4[2:3] (#18)

  • Can now "drop" pieces beneath other pieces with backslash e.g. S\b2 (#53)

  • Can now "move" pieces beneath other pieces with underscore or combining double breve below e.g. b2_b4 (#53)

  • Can now restrict where in the piece order a piece will be after a drop/move with percent sign to indicate the piece it should go before (or after) in the internal piece ordering e.g. b2@b3%e4[2] (#53)

  • There are also new shortcut tokens @%, \%, -%, _% for the common case where you want to move/drop above/beneath a specific piece e.g. b4@%b5[2] is equivalent to S@&b5[2]%b5[2] which is equivalent to S@b5%b5[2] (#53)

  • Can now identify pieces with a "non-greedy" search ? (#55) or a "greedy" search /.

  • Can now partially update specification of a piece with ~ (#57)

  • ; can now be used to indicate the insertion of the minimal move number . which has been interpreted to mean the previous move number with an extra . tacked to the end.

  • Can now have identical MoveNumbers but will emit a warning if identical MoveNumbers are found.

  • Can now directly set piece attributes for suit, rank, angle, and configuration (#35)

  • Can now specify the following additional game systems (#59):

    • standard six-sided dice (in six colors)
    • (French) Tarot playing cards (plus 3 types of Jokers), this is a superset of the standard deck of playing cards
    • (double-6) dominoes ('standard' set plus sets in six colors)
    • checkers (for 1" and 2" cell sizes, in six colors)
    • chess (for 1" and 2" cell sizes, in six colors)
    • go (with stones in six colors)
    • meeples (in six colors)
    • piecepack dice cards

  • Can now define and use macros (#60)

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• plot_move() and animate_game() improvements:

  • The annotate option can now also be set to "cartesian".
  • Both plot_move() and animate_game() will now automatically adjust dimensions and coordinates if (parts of) pieces would otherwise be drawn too close (or past) zero on either the x or y axes.
  • If file == NULL then animate_game() will set devAskNewPage(TRUE) and then will plot each move of the game in a new graphics device (if new_device=TRUE) or the current graphics device asking user to press enter before drawing the next move (#41).
  • If file ends in .html then animate_game() will use animation::saveHTML().
  • If file ends in an file format that isn't .gif or .html (such as .mp4) then animate_game() will use animation::saveMovie().
  • Pixel dimensions of animate_game() are now always adjusted to be an even number (a requirement of .mp4 animations).
  • Can now manually set width, height, and ppi arguments.
  • New argument .f that allows different graphic functions to be used (in particular piecepackr::piece3d() and piecepackr::piece() (#54).

• Tiles are now spread out more in df_desfases() and its "scale factor" attribute has been set to 3.

• save_ruleset() / save_pamphlet() can now set PDF metadata (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator) (#69)

• save_ruleset supports ruleset generation for:

  • alquerque

Breaking Changes

• res argument in plot_move() renamed to ppi (to avoid possible clash with res argument in piece3d or piece).
• △ (U+25b3) no longer part of PPN.
  Instead use ▲ (U+25b2) or /\ plus a color "suit" (RKGBYW) to indicate Icehouse pyramids.

ppgames 0.4.1

• animate_game now has n_transitions argument that uses tweenr to try to interpolate transition frames (#32).

• New starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_breakthrough()
  • df_crossings()
  • df_froggy_bottom()
  • df_ley_lines()
  • df_lines_of_action()
  • df_piecepackman()
  • df_turkish_draughts()

• Portable Piecepack Notation enhancements:

  • Can now (re)move a stack of pieces e.g. 2b2-d4, *3d5, b4:2d5.
  • Default parser now uses both GameType and SetUp to create starting setup (#49).
  • Can now specify alternate movetext parsers with MovetextParser (#50).
  • Can now specify game System in GameType/SetUp fields.
  • Can now specify SetUp: None (or GameType: None).
  • Can now specify ScalingFactor in the default movetext parser or as an attribute of the starting data frame (#52).
  • PieceId can now refer to piece at beginning of the move with ^.
  • Location can now be &PieceId.
  • Can now rotate pieces with @> move token.
  • Can now "swap" pieces with # move token.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• cat_piece() now has basic support for the following game_systems:

  • bit and board components from checkers1 and checkers2
  • tile component from dominoes, dominoes_black, dominoes_blue dominoes_green, dominoes_red, dominoes_white, dominoes_yellow. Only supports double-6 domino ranks (and not the remaining double-12 domino ranks).
  • die component from dice
  • pyramid component from icehouse_pieces
  • tile component from subpack

• cat_piece() now also has basic support for (piecepack) matchsticks.

Breaking changes

• In PPN simplified piece notation 1, 2, 3 corresponds to icehouse pieces rank 1, 2, 3 in contrast to piecepack rank 2, 3, and 4 i.e. zero-pip icehouse pyramids have been removed.

ppgames 0.3.1

New features

• df_alice_chess(), df_chaturaji(), df_international_chess(), df_four_seasons_chess(), df_shogi(), df_ultima(), df_xiangqi() now have a new argument has_subpack which if TRUE will provide alternative piecepack "stackpack" diagrams.

• New starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_alien_city() (#8)
  • df_desfases()
  • df_ice_floe()
  • df_plans_of_action()
  • df_relativity()
  • df_san_andreas()
  • df_salta()
  • df_the_in_crowd()
  • df_triactor() (#36)
  • df_wormholes()

• Aliases added for some existing starting board generators:

  • df_checkers() and df_english_draughts() for df_american_checkers()
  • df_chess() for df_international_chess()

• Portable Piecepack Notation enhancements:

  • Simplified piece notation now supports playing cards expansion (#30), icehouse pieces (#34), (stackpack) subpack, dual piecepacks expansion, and hexpack.

• New function save_pamphlet() which is an alternative to save_ruleset() that saves the ruleset as a trifold pamphlet.

Breaking changes

• Arguments for starting board generators have been changed.
  In particular functions no longer takes piecepackr configuration list objects as arguments but instead uses arguments like has_matchsticks to determine how to customize output.
• Instead of an output_dir argument both save_ruleset and save_rulebook now use an output file argument.
• df_fide_chess() renamed df_international_chess(), corresponding ruleset was renamed international-chess.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Fixes bug in starting Ultima diagram generated by df_ultima().
• Fixes bug in color of coin faces in Unicode plaintext diagrams if placed above previously colored piece.
• cat_piece() and cat_move() now has limited support for a "cfg" column "playing_cards_expansion" and "dual_piecepacks_expansion".
• Minor improvements to save_ruleset()/save_rulebook() output.
  In particular in addition to the default "letter" paper size can now specify "A4" output.
• Improved rulesets for "american checkers".

ppgames 0.2.1

New features

• Added Unicode plaintext piecepack diagram generating function cat_piece(). Thanks James Vipond for some Unicode character suggestions.

• Added prototype "Portable Piecepack Notation utilities" read_ppn(), animate_game(), plot_move(), and cat_move() (#11).

• Starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_cell_management()
  • df_everest()
  • df_fujisan() (#24)
  • df_twelve_mens_morris()

• Fuji-san solver solve_fujisan() (#22).

Breaking changes

• df_ultima_chess() renamed df_ultima(), df_baroque_chess() added as an alias. Corresponding ruleset was renamed "ultima".

ppgames 0.1.0

• Initial release of R package version.

• Flexible rectangular starting board generators:

  • df_rect_board_tiles() and grid.board_rect_tiles()
  • grid.board_rect_cells()and grid.board_rect_points()

• Starting board generators for specific games:

  • df_alice_chess()
  • df_american_checkers()
  • df_backgammon()
  • df_chaturaji()
  • df_cribbage_board() and textGrob_cribbage_board() for textual annotation (#7)
  • df_fide_chess()
  • df_four_field_kono()
  • df_four_seasons_chess()
  • df_nine_mens_morris()
  • df_shogi()
  • df_tablut() (#10)
  • df_ultima_chess()
  • df_xiangqi()

• Preliminary work on an GameKit class game_kit

• Prototype ruleset/rulebook generators save_ruleset and save_rulebook

• save_ruleset supports ruleset generation for:

  • alice chess
  • american checkers
  • backgammon
  • cribbage
  • chaturaji
  • fide chess
  • four field kono
  • four seasons chess
  • nine mens morris
  • tablut
  • twelve mens morris
  • ultima chess
  • xiangqi