Introduction

JDuplicate Console Client (JDCC) is a client to the JDuplicate server. Unlike the JDuplicate Swing client developed by Jeremy Grumbach, JDCCs main goal was to be command line oriented, thus allowing gameplay through simple text based SSH or telnet sessions. JDCC currently supports version 0.2 of the JDuplicate protocol and was initially developed to develop/debug the JDuplicate server while Jeremy was developing the reference, completely Swing based, GUI client.
A graphical, more intuitive, Swing based interface to JDCC is also available by default for those willing to benefit from both the intuitive of a graphical interface, and the power of command line based input: it features colored texts, command history recalls, macros as well as a basic point & click GUI interface. The choice of using JDCC rather than the reference JDuplicate Swing client is available is a matter of personal taste.

JDuplicate is written by Luc Vo Van, based on the Java API developed by the JDuplicate team.
Board and tile art by Tobias Sargeant
French localization by Ahmed Ait Mouss
Russian localization by Akkerman 'Volt' Sergey

Playing, for the impatient

Connecting to a server and joining a game has been made significantly simpler as of version 0.5.7 of JDCC.

• Install the Java Runtime Environment(JRE) by downloading it from http://www.java.com
• Make sure you download a binary package of JDuplicate
• Extract the package
• Double click on the JDCC.jar file (Windows or Mac), or launch it by typing "java -jar JDCC.jar" from the command line
• Fill in your nickname, change the server address if necessary, and hit the connect button
• You should then be connected, and taken to the hall where you will be able to chat with other players, and see which games are currently running.
• To join a game, just double click on it. To create a game, fill in the fields at the bottom left of the right panel and hit the Create button.
• To quit a game without disconnecting from the server, type /PART. To disconnect type /DISCONNECT, or just close the JDCC window.
• Even though you are impatient, take some time to read over the moves input section, as moves input can be a non-trivial, yet easy, process.

Connecting, Disconnecting and Quitting

You can connect to a JDuplicate server by issuing a /C command, short for /CONNECT, optionally followed by the servers IP and port. Omitting those parameters will make JDCC connect to the default server and port, eventually specified by the environment variables SERVERIP and SERVERPORT.
Disconnecting from a server at any time is possible by issuing the /DISCONNECT command. It is ethically recommended to part from any game you are currently in before disconnecting from the server.
Quitting JDCC is done with the /QUIT command when not connected, and with the /QUIT! command when connected. The use of the /QUIT! command is not recommended.

Playing a game

Upon connection, you will be greeted into what is commonly called "The Hall", where people not currently participating in a game are able to chat. You can list the games currently available on the server with the "/LIST GAMES" command, and join a game with the "/JOIN" command, followed by a space and the game name.

After joining a game, you will be able to chat with the other players in the same game. Chatting is simple: Just type in your message. All text not starting with a slash '/' is considered chat text. You can also whisper to another player with the /W command, followed by the nick of that player, and the message (ie: "/W joe what's up joe?"). Whispers can cross games: you can whisper to a player not currently in your game.

Another fun thing you can do is performing action chats, with the /me command. It is similar to the IRC command, and if you don't know what it does, just try it out it can be quite fun.

The game will start when the creator issues the /START command, and all players in the game will be given the first hand of the game. See the moves input section to learn how to input a move.

A player can leave a game at anytime by using the /PART command, this command can be followed by a reason which the other players will be able to read (i.e.: "/PART Mom is calling for diner sorry folks!")

A game ending does not mean players being thrown out of it. The game will stay alive until all players have parted from it.

/? will give you a reminder of what commands are available; a section of it describes the commands which are available when in-game. Useful ones are:

• /P to play a move
• /H to print out the current hand
• /D to display the board
• SCORES to display the current scores and scores for the last turn
  Beware that the scores displayed can be intentionally desynched from the server's real scoreboard in order to prevent players from being hinted by other participants' scores.

Inputting moves

Prompt-based input can seem a bit tricky at first, but is in fact quite easy to get used to. You can input a move by issuing a /P command, followed by three parameters: two coordinates and a word. The orientation of the word is dependant on the order in which you provide the coordinates:

• Issuing an alphabetic coordinate first will register the word horizontally.
• Issuing a numeric coordinate first will register the word vertically

Interfacing JDCC with a moves server

JDCC can be configured to use a moves server. A moves server is, basically, a program that plays like a player does. Interfacing JDCC with such a server means that instead of letting the player play moves entirely on his own, he can query a moves server for a suggestion. JDCC can also be configured to play the suggested move automatically.

When connected to a moves server, board updates are handled automatically in order to always keep the moves server informed. If you're interested in developping your own moves server, you can get the specifications from the JDuplicate Server documentation package (xmlrpc_format.txt), and can use JDCC as debug tool.

/SET, environment variables and the configuration file

JDCC makes use of environment variables (local to JDCC, and completely unrelated to your operating system's environment variables) to allow easy customization. You can set a variable to any alphanumeric value by using the /SET command. Some variables are protected and cannot be modified (like GAMENAME or SERVERNAME, which are set by the server). You can display a list of currently set variables by issuing the /VARS command.

A simple example would be modifying the USERNAME environment variable to modify the current nickname.

Instead of having to change manually the values of your environment variables everytime you launch JDCC, you might want to make use of a configuration file, named jdcc.cfg, which you can create at the base of your binaries directory. The file format is simple and to be repeated every line as needed:

[variable name]=[value]

An example jdcc.cfg file that sets the default server and nickname would be:
USERNAME=Luc
SERVERIP=jduplicate.my.default.server

JDCC pre-defined environment variable

Commands listing

JDCC has many commands, each with its own purpose and parameters.

Macros

You can setup your own macros in JDCC by assigning single commands and parameters to the function keys (F1 to F16) on your keyboard. Pressing the corresponding function key will fill the prompt with the content of the macro, which you can then validate by pressing the ENTER key. You can also set the AUTOVALIDATEMACRO environment variable to TRUE if you want your macros to be validated without having to press ENTER everytime.

Setting up your macros is easy: each function key Fn is bound to an environment variable MACROn. For example, setting the environment variable MACRO3 to /NICK IloveF3 will input/execute the command /NICK JohnDoe. Of course, macros are most useful when defined in your jdcc.cfg file.

Another jdcc.cfg example with macros, recursive use of environement variables

      MACRO1=/C
      MACRO2=/CREATE $DEFAULTCREATE
      MACRO3=/START
      MACRO5=/SET DEFAULTCREATE $FRGAME
      MACRO6=/SET DEFAULTCREATE $ENGAME
      USERNAME=johndoe
      SERVERIP=jdupserver.thelemmings.net
      AUTOVALIDATEMACRO=TRUE
      LOCALE=fr
      FRGAME=myfrenchgame 90 fr 5 Partie en francais 90s par tour
      ENGAME=myenglishgame 90 en 10 English game with 90s per turn
      DEFAULTCREATE=$FRGAME