TclRobots

                              Version 2.0
                   Copyright 1994,1996 Tom Poindexter
                            tpoindex@nyx.net


WHAT IS TCLROBOTS?
       TclRobots  is  a  programming game, similar to 'Core War'.
       To play TclRobots, you must write a Tcl program that  con-
       trols a robot.  The robot's mission is to survive a battle
       with other robots.  Two, three,  or  four  robots  compete
       during  a battle, each running different programs (or pos-
       sibly the same program in different robots.)   Each  robot
       is  equipped  with  a scanner, cannon, drive mechanism.  A
       single match continues until one robot  is  left  running.
       Robots may compete individually, or combine in a team ori-
       ented battle.  A tournament can be run with any number  of
       robot programs, each robot playing every other in a round-
       robin fashion, one-on-one.  A battle simulator  is  avail-
       able to help debug robot programs.

       The  TclRobots  program  provides  a physical environment,
       imposing certain game parameters to which all robots  must
       adhere.  TclRobots also provides a view on a battle, and a
       controlling user interface.

       TclRobots is strongly influenced by my 1985 game, CROBOTS.
       CROBOTS  is  based on writing robot control programs in C,
       and the entire environment is tightly coupled into a  sin-
       gle  program  that  contains  a  small C compiler, virtual
       stack-based CPU, multi-tasking  scheduler,  and  execution
       environment.   TclRobots  instead is loosely coupled, uti-
       lizing separate Tcl  wish  interpreters  for  each  robot.
       Communication between a robot and the TclRobots program is
       accomplished with Tk's send command.


       TclRobots requirements:  a wish interpreter built from Tcl
       7.4 and Tk 4.0.

       TclRobots uses the Tk "send" command - if your X server is
       insecure (xhost access list not empty), you  will  need  a
       wish  compiled  with  the "-DNO_TK_SECURITY" flag.  Better
       yet, use "xauth" instead of "xhost."

       Availability:
       TclRobots (and Tcl/Tk, if you don't already have  it)  are
       available at the following locations:

       ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code/tclrobots-2.0.tar.gz
       ftp://ftp.smli.com/pub/tcl/tcl7.4.tar.Z
       ftp://ftp.smli.com/pub/tcl/tk4.0.tar.Z


INSTALLATION AND DEMO
       -      Edit  the Makefile.  All that is needed it the path
              of your wish executable, and  the  directory  where
              you  would  like  TclRobots installed. See the com-
              ments at  the  top  of  the  Makefile.   `make'  to
              install.

       -      run   `tclrobots'  from  the  directory  where  you
              unpacked the distribution.

       -      In the Files listbox, Double-Click on the `samples'
              directory  for  sample individual robot programs or
              the `teams' directory for 2-on-2  team  robot  pro-
              grams.

       -      Click on `Select All'

       -      Click on `Run Battle'