===========================================
README-TuxMathScrabble-0.5.7
===========================================

Greetings! Thanks for your interest in 
TuxMathScrabble. Here are a few notes
to help you get started.

Installation: Please see the INSTALL file.
The Windows .exe contains everything in a
local distribution with a gui installer.
The Linux/Mac version you will need to 
install PyGame and wxPython first.

Changes and new additions for this version:
Please see the CHANGES file.

Computer Player solver speed: Recently variables
were added to the global_config (thus they
appear in the admin control panel) which offer
the ability to toggle-off some (or all) of the
various sets of combinations that get considered
when the computer player takes a turn.  This was
implemented after the painful delays experienced
while playing Level=4 on a 500 MHz windows machine.  
Ouch!

Animation Speed: If the animations are
running too slowly then enter the admin
control panel and reduce the parameter
TSLEEP_ANIMATION.  

Exiting: The escape key is used to exit 
the application.  If you are in screen-
saver mode (Mode=0) then the escape key 
will completely exit the application.  
If you are playing (Mode=1), then the 
escape key will take you back to Mode=0.  
On Windows, when the app exits you will 
see an error message; just ignore, it's 
harmless, and is due to a deprecated lib-
rary in the wxPython toolkit.  

Help Menu: The F9 key shows a help menu 
of the handful of keyboard options.

Changing parameters: Use the tooltips (Linux only)
which popup when you hover your mouse over
the standard "default" button associated 
with each parameter visible in the admin 
control panel.

Screenshots: The F11 key puts a time-
stamped screenshot in your HOME directory.

Fullscreen: On Linux the F12 key toggles
the Fullscreen mode.  This is not supported 
in Windows because PyGame does not support 
Fullscreen on Windows. You can configure 
the overall window size via the Admin control 
panel (WIN_W,WIN_H).

Interpreting character actions: When a 
computer player is taking a turn, they
first construct various sets of possibil-
ities, the fanciest sets (ie quadruple 
replacement) being considered first. Between
consideration of successive sets, the computer 
player performs a little "thinking maneuver", 
such as a scratch, look at the tiles, or nod.  
On the 1.7 GHz machine used for development 
the time intervals between sets are tolerable.  
On a 500 MHz machine the delay will seem too 
long.  The point is that the user can guage 
progress through the (sometimes long) list 
of options by noting the number of 
"thinking maneuvers" which have occured.

TuxMathScrabble is under continuous develop-
ment. Improvements are made as time permits, 
and there is no schedule.  Please check the 
main website for new updates and more soft-
ware.

If you have questions, suggestions, feature
requests, etc, please feel free to contact
the author at: ccosse@gmail.com.

Enjoy the software,

Charles Cosse (Author)


The following page might help with XUbuntu installation:
http://wiki.wxpython.org/InstallingOnUbuntuOrDebian
