I was finally able to make my Freeciv 2.0.2 package for Mac OS X. Both the package itself and the release notes can be downloaded at the Freeciv site.

Several changes of note were made to this package:

• This release works under Tiger and Panther. Some sort of scripting bug prevented the GTK 2.x client from launching under Tiger if the $HOME/Library/Application Support/Freeciv directory doesn't exist. But it doesn't matter now, because...
• The game client launcher applications have been rewritten from scratch (and renamed) as Cocoa applications (they were hacked up AppleScript applications before). This should address some issues:
  • Fixed a problem on a shared machine, where if you weren't the first one to start the X11 application, then neither Freeciv client would launch.
  • Fixed problem where if your home directory was not /Users/yourlogin on the same partition as Mac OS X itself, then the GTK 2.x client wouldn't launch.
  • Before, when you launch either client, an extra icon for the launcher application stuck around until after the client exited. Now, as soon as the game client has been started, the launcher application exits.
• The Freeciv Server application has been updated to reflect the new launcher applications as well as fix some bugs and an issue it had w/ the civserver binary.

One challenge to this release is that Freeciv refuses to compile properly under Tiger. I first thought it has to do w/ GCC 4, but the same errors occurs when I switched to GCC 3.x via the gcc_select utility. So I ended up booting into my backup Panther partition and did all my work there.

Please let me know if you find anything amiss w/ this release. Enjoy!

I finally upgraded my main system to Tiger. It took me so long because it is a shared machine. As such, I needed to minimize the down time, which meant careful planning.

Overall, the upgrade went very smoothly. Perhaps I am just paranoid, but I went with the clean install approach, where I backed up my Panther installation via Carbon Copy Cloner, reformatted my main partition, and then proceeded w/ a clean install of Tiger plus all the updates that came afterwards. As for settings, files, applications, I am moving them over piecemeal, manually. However, I was able to use Safari 2.0's Import Bookmarks… feature, which worked beautifully. Mail 2.0's equivalent Import Mailboxes… feature, however, didn't seem to work for me. Oh well.

Thus far, I am pleased with Tiger. Everything feels snappier, which is always welcome. Safari 2.0 seems to load pages much faster, which is very cool.

All in all, I am satisfied with the upgrade.

I have done some preliminary testing of Freeciv 2.0.1 on Tiger. The good news is that no recompilation seems necessary. That is, the currently available package works just fine in 10.4, provided you have performed the optional X11 installation (see Optional Installs on the Tiger DVD).

The only quirk I've found in my limited testing is that X11 needs to be launched manually first in order for either game client to run successfully. Otherwise, running either client will start X11, but the game client will not come up, and eventually the launcher application will fail with an

AppleEvent timed out.

error message. I've been meaning to re-work the way game clients are launched. I guess the time is now. :-)

In other news, I have patched the Freeciv Server application so that it now behaves correctly when you start a new game.

The Freeciv developers are really cookin'. They've released 2.0.1, and 2.0.2 is under development already. You can find my 2.0.1 package here.

My package contains the following changes:

• Compiled from 2.0.1 source code.
• Changed the way /Users/[account]/Library/Application Support/Freeciv files are written to try and resolve issue where some users cannot launch the GTK+2 game client from the Finder.

I've also discovered at least one issue with the Freeciv Server wrapper application. When you start a new game, after the game console window appears, you need to press the Execute button three times before any command you enter in will take effect. Loading a saved game seems unaffected. I'll try and work on this one for the 2.0.2 release.

By the way, has anyone tried to run any of my packages on Tiger? I'd love to hear from anyone who can tell me whether it works on the new OS at all. Thanks!

After 8 betas and 2 release candidates, Freeciv 2.0.0 has been released! The developers were nice enough to have given me a heads-up so that I can have my Mac OS X package available for the announcement. You can grab it directly here.

Enjoy!