info/Clients: Outdated and misleading, delete

The .NA header promises information on "Clients which communicate well
with the Empire4 Server".  The page doesn't really deliver.  It talks
about client support for asynchronous notifications.  It stopped
listing separate client projects in 4.0.7 (1997).  Not mentioning such
clients isn't just outdated, it's actively misleading.

Perhaps an up-to-date info page on clients would be useful, but I
can't write one right now.  Delete.

Loses a bit of information for client developers that was tacked on in
4.0.7: pointers to dump commands, and an explanation of timestamps.  I
trust client writers can find "info xdump" without this.

Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@pond.sub.org>
This commit is contained in:
Markus Armbruster 2017-08-11 20:09:51 +02:00
parent 952fb252a3
commit ae8a3582a2
9 changed files with 8 additions and 61 deletions

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@ -1,52 +0,0 @@
.TH Introduction "Empire4 Compatible Clients"
.NA Clients "Clients which communicate well with the Empire4 Server"
.LV Basic
.NF
What follows is a list of clients which support the new Empire4
protocol. All of these clients may be found on the Wolfpack Empire
Archives located at:
http://www.wolfpackempire.com
empclient-2.8 and later - full support
If you are using one of these clients, then you should type
"toggle inform" once you have broken sanctuary. These clients
are fully asynchronous, which means that they are able to respond
immediately when an unexpected message arrives from the server. So,
for example, if someone sends you a "flash" message, then the message
will be printed on your screen immediately. Similarly, with "inform"
toggled on, you will be informed the moment a telegram arrives. Note,
the server remembers your toggle flags when you log out, so you do not
have to type "toggle inform" again the next time you connect.
Most other clients should work fine with the Empire4 server, however
they may get confused if a flash message comes in. Users of other
clients should keep the "inform" flag toggled off, and ask a friend to
send them a "flash" message to see how the client handles it (note,
you must declare friendly relations towards them in order to receive
the flash message). If the flash message confuses your client, then I
recommend you type "toggle flash" to turn flash mode off.
.FI
.s1
In addition, there are a list of commands which have been added to the
server to help the development of clients. They are:
.NF
xdump - Dump everything, designed to replace the following
dump - Dump sector information
ldump - Dump land unit information
sdump - Dump ship information
pdump - Dump plane information
ndump - Dump nuclear stockpile information
lost - Report lost items
.FI
.s1
See the various info pages on these for complete documentation on how they
work and how you can use them to help improve your clients.
.s1
In addition, there is a "timestamp" field on each object (sectors, ships,
land units, planes, nuclear stockpiles, lost items) that you can use to
compare against to keep data between clients and the database in sync with
each other. These timestamps are kept in systems seconds, so they should
be accurate down to 1 second. Every time an object is changed, it's
timestamp is updated.
.SA "toggle, xdump, dump, ldump, sdump, pdump, ndump, lost, Empire4, Communication, Introduction"

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@ -454,8 +454,7 @@ wall" for more details.
.L -
The new command "toggle" can be used to instantly inform you when
you receive a new telegram. You can also use "toggle" to temporarily
block flash messages. To find out which clients support this, type
"info Clients".
block flash messages.
.L -
The server will now correctly report how many telegrams you have
waiting.

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@ -121,4 +121,4 @@ A dump lists each of your sectors in the specified area.
The header line is a list of fields that correspond
to the order that dump prints the sector info.
.s1
.SA "census, commodity, cutoff, level, xdump, Clients, Sectors"
.SA "census, commodity, cutoff, level, xdump, Sectors"

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@ -82,4 +82,4 @@ A ldump lists each of your land units in the specified area.
The header line is a list of fields that correspond
to the order that ldump prints the land unit info.
.s1
.SA "land, lcargo, lstat, xdump, Clients, LandUnits"
.SA "land, lcargo, lstat, xdump, LandUnits"

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@ -57,4 +57,4 @@ The y coordinate of the lost item when it was lost.
The timestamp of when the item was lost.
.in
.s1
.SA "xdump, dump, ldump, sdump, ndump, pdump, Ships, Planes, Nukes, LandUnits, Sectors, Clients"
.SA "xdump, dump, ldump, sdump, ndump, pdump, Ships, Planes, Nukes, LandUnits, Sectors"

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@ -37,4 +37,4 @@ A ndump lists each of your nukes in the specified area.
The header line is a list of fields that correspond
to the order that ndump prints the nuke info.
.s1
.SA "nuke, xdump, Clients, Planes, Nukes"
.SA "nuke, xdump, Planes, Nukes"

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@ -64,4 +64,4 @@ A pdump lists each of your planes in the specified area.
The header line is a list of fields that correspond
to the order that pdump prints the plane info.
.s1
.SA "plane, pstat, Clients, Planes"
.SA "plane, pstat, Planes"

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@ -77,4 +77,4 @@ A sdump lists each of your ships in the specified area.
The header line is a list of fields that correspond
to the order that sdump prints the ship info.
.s1
.SA "ship, cargo, sstat, xdump, Clients, Ships"
.SA "ship, cargo, sstat, xdump, Ships"

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@ -100,4 +100,4 @@ utility.
xdump is still fairly new, and experience with it may lead to changes.
Client writers should be prepared for that.
.s1
.SA "dump, ldump, ndump, pdump, sdump, lost, show, version, Clients, Communication, LandUnits, Planes, Sectors, Ships"
.SA "dump, ldump, ndump, pdump, sdump, lost, show, version, Communication, LandUnits, Planes, Sectors, Ships"