December 4, 1998

I just finished my last class for the semester! I have a few more programs to write for a class, but I don't have much to do school-wise until my final at the end of next week. So I am going to start working on what will be Epoch 0.2.0. Here's a list of what is probably going to make it in to that release:

• Player Stats - I have decided to use MySQL to keep stats etc. on a database. I have to learn that first, which I will start doing shortly. Hopefully this will lead to really cool things.
• Revised protocol - I am going to change things around a bit, after doing some thinking. Unfortunately, version 0.1.x will not be compatible, not even the version command will work. This is ok though, really.
• API clean up/finalization/documentation - This needs to be done, badly.
• More games - this needs to happen too.
• Native win32 client - Anyone want to write one?
• A GNOME client - might get started, not a high priority.
• ? - If you have any ideas, I'd like to hear them. Email me.

This will be a lot of work, but I it is where I want Epoch to be going. Don't expect much for a while, though. It will be worked on over winter break.

December 6, 1998

I think the networking overhaul is about done. The protocol changes are (finally) working after having worked on it pretty much all day today and a bit last night. I think I will release the new network stuff as 0.2.0, since it is not at all compatible with previous versions, and bump the rest of the stuff slated for 0.2.0 to 0.3.0. I am going to do a little testing/checking of the new stuff before 0.2.0 is actually released. Then, real work on 0.3.0 will start.

December 6, 1998

Epoch 0.2.0 has been released!

Go to the source page to download or browse the source, or visit the applet page for information on playing Epoch.

The only new stuff in this is the new networking code, but since it isn't backwards compatible with the 0.1.x series, I decided to make it 0.2.0. I don't know how many releases will be coming out, there is a lot of work to be done before 0.3.0 comes out. That should have the stats/ranking/tournament stuff in there.

December 12, 1998

School's done for this semester. I'm going home tomorrow (today?). I am leaving the Epoch server up (which is why you can read this) but I won't be able to check it all of the time, so if goes down or there is a problem please email me.

I haven't done much yet with the stats stuff; I am still learning MySQL. When I get some stuff up I'll post an update.

December 29, 1998

A very mysterious and serious bug (the server crashing after someone makes a move in a game) has disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. I think all I did was reboot.

Anyway, this means that Epoch 0.2.1 might get released before the year is out. Almost all of the work was done on the server, removing the STL code and inserting glib code in instead. The binary is smaller and it might be faster. But it puts me in a good position to get a windows port started.

The other major thing in 0.2.1 will be CX4 (Connect 4). I have to make another look at the code but it is about done. Gaze at what it looks like here.