TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 WHAT'S IN THE PACKAGE
The Montreux runtime package currently contains the following files:
readme.html: | This file with succinct information. |
license.html: | Montreux license notes. You must agree to these notes before using Montreux. |
montreux.jar: | Compressed file with the Montreux software. For executing Montreux you should NOT unpack this file. Your browser or Appletviewer will do so automatically. |
pieces.gif: | File with piece-images. |
buttons.gif: | File with button icons. |
montreux.cfg: | File containing the names of the databases that Montreux should be able to display, the run-time options and (if applicable) license information. You need to modify this file in order to show your own game databases. Check this file, montreux.cfg and config.html for details. |
nags.txt: | File with NAG descriptions. Needed if you modify the NagsDisplay option. |
config.html: | File containing all details on configuring Montreux including descriptions of all documented options available for montreux.cfg. |
changes.html: | File describing all configuration changes per version. New, changed and abolished options. Useful for users upgrading from previous versions. |
montreux.html: | Html startupfile to start Montreux as an applet. Java owners please notice that Montreux can also be started as an application. In that case don't use this montreux.html file but start Montreux with this command instead :
jre -cp montreux.jar montreux |
logo.gif: | The Montreux logo. This image is not used by the package. It is included for marketing purposes. |
*.pgn: | testdatabases with games in pgn format. |
*.mdf: | in addition to these pgn files compiled PGN files can also be available. These are in MDF (Montreux Database Format). |
3 MONTREUX REQUIREMENTS
Montreux requires fully JDK1.1 compatible browsers. Montreux works fine with Sun HotJava version 1.1 and later, Netscape communicator version 4.06 and later, or version 4.0-4.05 with installed JDK1.1 patch, Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0, Star Division StarOffice 5.1 and of course Sun's appletviewer version 1.1 and later. Maybe Montreux works nicely with other browsers as well, but we didn't test that.
4 MONTREUX AT YOUR WEBPAGE
In order to include Montreux at your webpage you should include the html code from the file montreux.html. At the moment this code looks like:
<applet code=montreux.class archive=montreux.jar width=565 height=488> <param name="cfgfile" value="montreux.cfg"> </applet>You should not change most of this code. Montreux will probably not work properly if you do. If desired you can change the numbers of the width and height parameters, in order to change the size of the Montreux window. The parameter cfgfile states which configuration file is used. You might like to change this value if you want you use different configuration files, or use multiple instances of Montreux. When the cfgfile parameter is omitted Montreux expects montreux.cfg as the default configuration file.
Locate the files montreux.jar, nags.txt, buttons.gif and pieces.gif and the PGN and MDF databases you want to view in the same directory as the file with the html code presented earlier. If you don't some browsers may not be able to locate the Montreux files.
Also locate the file montreux.cfg in that directory. You will probably have to edit this file in order to customize Montreux the way you want to. Replace with a plain text editor (like notepad or vi - don't try Word or WP!) the filenames in the DATABASES section with the filenames you want to view. Check that you always use the extension pgn for PGN files as well as the extension mdf for MDF files. If you don't Montreux will not be able to read your databases correctly.
5 MONTREUX CONFIGURATION
Montreux can be configured by specifying a different configurationfile in the html code shown above and/or by changing the contents of the configurationfile. By using different configuration files with different contents different html pages can show different databases and even use different chess pieces, but still using the same Montreux software.
The Montreux runtime package by JBF Software only supplies one set of chesspieces in pieces.gif.
A user who wants to use different piece images should create his own imagefile (.gif or .jpeg). The layout of this imagefile should be similar to the layout in pieces.gif (unless the ImgBoardLayout or ImgLineLayout options are used). He should then alter the name of the piecesfile in montreux.cfg to the name of his own imagefile and of course include his new imagefile on his home page.
Details on Montreux configuration can be found in config.html.
6 PGN
PGN is Portable game notation. A world wide used data format for chess games that is fully supported by Montreux, including FEN, comments and variations. Most modern chess software support export of PGN games; for older software many PGN conversion tools are available on the internet. Because of the complexity of game parsing Montreux is less fast reading PGN files.
7 MDF
MDF files are Montreux own database format. This format can be processed much faster than PGN. Applications and applets using the MDF format operate faster and smoother.
To create an MDF file you must compile a PGN file. The MDF compiler MDCP can be used to achieve this. MDCP is included in the Montreux runtime package.
However, MDCP is not available as an applet. MDCP creates new files and applets are not allowed to do so. So it can only be run as an application and you should use a (JDK1.1) virtual machine.
In a properly configured Java environment with java binary directory included in the PATH environment variable you should use:
jre -cp montreux.jar mdcp <source> <target> [<cfgfile>]example:
This command is issued from a text window (msdos window for MS Windows; xterm and bash, sh, ksh or so for Linux/Unix) in the directory where montreux.jar and the pgn source are located. The mdf output is generated in this directory as well, unless full pathnames are used.
The cfgfile argument is optional and defaults to montreux.cfg. It can be used to set a few options for MDCP which are discussed in config.html. By the way MDCP can be used for different kinds of compiling. If the source is an MDF source and the target specified has a PGN extension the MCDP compiler will decompile the source to PGN output. You can compile MDF to MDF; however don't ask me what's the use of that. You might like PGN to PGN parsing to generate PGN output with all errors and garbage from the source excluded.
The JDK (also known as JSDK) can be downloaded for free at www.javasoft.com. You can download the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) instead, that is available at javosoft.com too. For proper configuration of the Java environment please read the Sun documentation.
If you don't want to install a JDK (which I can hardly understand) you can try Microsoft Jview on Win32 systems. Montreux works fine with versions that fully support JDK1.1. A compatible Jview comes standard with Windows 98 and is probably available for free at the MS website.
In this case use:
jview /cp:p montreux.jar mdcp <source> <target> [<cfgfile>]example: jview /cp:p montreux.jar mdcp fontys.pgn fontys.mdf
8 WEBSITE
JBF Software website: http://www.jphendriks.myweb.nl
Alternative URL is http://come.to/jphendriks
Montreux email: montreux@jphendriks.myweb.nl