[pbmserv-dev] comment on undo (and replay and init and swap)

[Scott Huddleston <scotth@ichips.intel.com>]

It would be nice if all pbmserv games were replayable.

I know dots can't undo because it is not replayable, and that's because
the randomly initialized board is not stored in the game record.  If I
still had some spare hacking time and energy I'd modify dots to store the 
board initialization as initial "moves", to make dots replayable and
undoable.  Anyone else feel like doing it? :-)

Another related thought- I put an experimental switch into plotto a few
years ago as a way to work around an easy win for one player.  The
switch was

-init=mov1,move2,...,moveN

which would initialize the board with the moves in the init string.
This might be a nice general feature (rather than just plotto specific),
especially if combined with more general swapping.

While I'm reambling, I also wish game records showed whether swaps
were available and taken or declined.

Best,
- Scott


P.S.- "plotto challenge ... -init=a1,a2,a3,a4" initializes plotto without
the easy early win.

P.P.S.- Another nice replay feature would be to make the general move
parser more robust.  E.g., "Forfeit" in a game record prevents fofeited
games from being viewed in replay.  A more robust parser would accept
Forfeit and treat it as a pass.