This information applies to both robots-0.76 and robots-0.77

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RELEASE NOTES:

To build GNU Robots, you first need to have already compiled/installed
the GNU Guile libraries.  GNU Robots 0.76 and 0.77 were built using
GNU Guile 1.2.

Then, just make sure the root Makefile is okay for your system (check
that CC is correct for your system, and that the Makefile matches
where you have installed the Guile libraries), and type:

	make

In future, I will use GNU Autoconf, so your Makefile(s) will be
created for you, just like other GNU programs.

This will create two programs in the src/ directory:

	run_robot
	curs_robot

The "run_robot" program is a text-only version of the game, suitable
for sending to a log file.  I use "run_robot" for testing, when I want
to track every move of the robot.  This is probably not the program
you want to use when testing GNU Robots.  Instead, you'll want to use
"curs_robot".

The "curs_robot" program is a curses-based version of the game, using
an ASCII approximation of the game elements.  Your robot will appear
as a "v" when it points South, "^" when it points North, and "<" and
">" for West and East.  Empty spaces are shown as ".", walls
(obstructions) as "#", baddies as "@", and food and prizes as "+" and
"$".

The sample map that is provided as "mapfile.map" is just a single
room, with prizes all along the four walls.  The sample robot program
"test.scm" knows how to pick up all these prizes and then quit.  Other
map files can be found in the src/maps/ directory, and other robot
programs will be distributed in the scheme/ directory.

Currently, GNU Robots does not let you specify a different map file or
robot program, so if you want to experiment with a different map or
program, you will need to rename your map as "mapfile.map" and your
robot as "test.scm" in teh src/ directory.  Later releases of GNU
Robots will allow you to specify a different map file and robot
program.

I hope this helps people in testing GNU Robots.  Thanks for the help
so far.

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Why didn't I include an X Windows interface?

I did not include an X Windows interface to the GNU Robots game
because I do not know how to write code for X Windows.  However, if
you're interested in looking in the code you'll see I've left "hooks"
that allow me to plug in any display system that I want.  I would very
much like to have an X Windows version of GNU Robots, but I need
someone to write the hooks for me.

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What's new in 0.77?

This is just an incremental update to 0.76, where the Scheme
primitives for "exit" and "quit" are redefined so the GNU Robots game
exits gracefully.  Also, I provide a hack for the Scheme primitives
"random" and "randomize" which seem to be missing in Guile 1.2.

After I get some more feedback on this beta release, I'll incorporate
any suggestions into a 0.8 release.

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What has been planned for future versions?

Future releases of GNU Robots will include:

* Support for GNU Autoconf, so the game will build on different
  platforms.

* Allow the user to specify his own map file or robot program.

* Will include any maps or robot programs that are submitted to me.
  These will be used as examples for others to learn from.

* Add error checking when reading map file

* Check that the Scheme file exists before passing to Guile

* Add some way for the user to check on the shields level and energy
  level, so the robot can somehow respond to these conditions.
