README
1HISTORY OF KsirK
2http://games.kde.org/games/ksirk
3
4I started this game during 1995 (?) in order to learn C++ and Windows 95 programming.
5It was initialy named "Risk". I used a book about WinG, one of the first Microsoft
6attempts to give gaming abilities to Windows. But a lot of the examples of this book
7were in assembler, that I never learned :-( I used these routines but whithout being
8able to fully understand them. This first version never got an acceptable status.
9
10Some time later I heard from Java and decided to learn it. So, I decided to convert
11Risk to JRisk. I obtained, if I remember well, a version that was running not so bad,
12but really slowly.That was due to the use of an early version of Java but also to
13a really uggly programming.
14
15In the meantime, for my work, I learned Smalltalk (VisualWorks), THE OO language (try
16it, you really cannot experience higher OO programming pleasure ; I was an addict)and so
17discovered all the power of good OOP. I started also to use Linux and KDE. I wanted
18to learn KDE programming and so decided to convert back my lovely project to C++ !
19KRisk was born ! But with my experience of Smalltalk and the APIs of Qt and KDE, my
20work has been, I think, quite better.
21
22At the time of 04/24/2002, some architectural problems due to this complex history
23remained, but it worked good and I think I could release a public version. I choosed to
24rename it in order to avoid copyright problems : welcome to KsirK !
25
26In early 2003, the evolution continued with a minimal AI (for Artificial Idiot as its
27decisions were chosen completly at random) and the themability of the world.
28This last point is a direct consequence of the improvements of the overall
29architecture of the game.
30
31In parallel, the online tools linked to the game continued to improve: with this
32version appeared a mailing list and a CVS repository!
33
34INSTALLATION
35Please read INSTALL
36
37USING KsirK
38Please read tooltips on buttons, the statusbars and the KsirK HTML manual.
39- map scrolling : place your mouse near a window border or use your mouse wheel
40 (with the Alt modifier for horizontal scrolling)
41- armies distribution : Left-click to put an army, Right-click to remove one
42- to setup a move or an attack, click and drag from the source country to the
43 target one
44
45CONTACT
46mailto:kleag@free.fr
47