iShudan
"One of the metaphorical names for the game of go; literally "hand talk", used in both Chinese and Japanese." --Sensei's list, http://senseis.xmp.net/?Shudan
What we are
Concept project which will create a web interface that makes it possible to play or record a game of Go on the iPhone. Current stable release (based on phpGo) needs to be modified to use the guidelines posted here: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/designingcontent.html
Current stable release is built using PHP, MySQL, Javascript, XHTML, and CSS.
You can think of iShudan as both the server behind the webapp, as well as the webapp itself. The open and downloadable source code is server-side only, since we run the webserver, PHP environment, and MySQL on a remote server somewhere, similar to many other well known applications. We make the wiki and the code available here for anyone to add to, modify, or examine.If you like our project and would like to have a local "dojo" of your own, you can do so provided you have the necessary requirements.
Additions to the original functionality are also overdue as well, such as Pass, Request Take Back, Single player game record mode, etc. Import and export via SGF. chat box and email reminders already implemented by benjam post-phpgo. Atomantic is a seasoned web developer and David Whitlock is a seasoned network/computer geek who is obsessed with the game Go.
iShudan: "hand-talk" for the iPhone
What we are doing
Organizing, documenting, and getting sorted out. We are starting from an existing code base and modifying it to suit a related but different application, thus the project fork and name change. At the moment, we are gathering interested individuals who happen to find themselves free to contribute some time in any capacity to our endeavor, and this can include coders of any kind, testers, documentation assistance, graphics or web design, anything at all. We don't expect this to be a large project, just a helpful microcosm of the Open Source world. We will agree on a roadmap and work towards goals as a group to release a software package that other people may find useful and improve in kind.
A note from David
Please feel free to take a look at my blog http://intellectualpirate.com/blog, where I will track this project and updates to it, and comment or just say hey. There is also a good wiki being developed, so if you want to jump in then just make a comment on one of the pages and let us know.
I'm not a Go professional, just like I'm not a coder, just an interested amateur in all of the above topics. You can even start a game if you like just to take my mind off whatever I'm being paid to do during the day normally.
A note from atomantic
I'm a Go novice but I've wanted to try making a good Go game for a long time. Actually since before David got me into it. At some point, I would like to add an AI feature to iShudan and finally scratch my AI itch. Further reading on the difficulties inherit in this idea here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Go and http://www.aihorizon.com/essays/goai/intro.htm . However, iShudan is at this time not intended to be an AI machine, keep that in mind. I intend to add the Ext Javascript Library (http://www.extjs.com) as a backend to this project so we can rock out some tight object oriented JS code. Digg it. In general we hang on irc.min3.net in #go
How to help
Download the code to inspect it or improve it if you can, or make a comment of support on the wiki. Help us determine what changes make sense for our project and its goal of mobility for Go. iShudan in a nutshell: An internet portal for the game of Go which provides portable access anywhere that the Internet is available; the target application is well suited to demonstrate the utility of a touchscreen/mobile friendly target such as a smartphone or iPhone-like device. If you are a Web Developer and have experience with PHP, MySQL, Javascript, XHTML, and/or CSS we would be happy to add you to our team. If you do not have web developer experience but you love Go and you want to give some user interface, testing, design, feedback, we will also be happy to have you on board. (no pun intended)
If you need some instruction on how to play the game of Go, please visit this very informative site: http://playgo.to/interactive/
