About blubber-server
=================
This is the server component of the blubber game. The client source code
is available at: <https://github.com/plaimi/blubber-client>.

blubber is a simple arcade game in which you control a blub, that needs
to blubber all the smaller blubs, in other to grow big enough to blubber
the rest of the blubs.

The server is a dedicated server. It sets up a game at a specified port,
along with a Web server that serves an info page, and the source code of
the server. Edit 'web/index.markdown' to customise the info page.

The server is designed to be modular, so that non-standard clients may
connect to and talk to your server -- or, so that you may serve a
non-standard blubber server e.g. with its own rules. Your info site
should document what your server does differently.

When building the server, the source code is set up and served. If you
add or remove files from the source code, you need to edit 'Setup.hs'
accordingly.


Dependencies
============
base               >=4.7   && <4.8
Cabal              >=1.18  && <1.23
cereal             >=0.4   && <0.5
containers         >=0.5   && <0.6
data-default-class >=0.0.1 && <0.1
network            >=2.6   && <2.7
pandoc             >=1.14  && <1.15
process            >=1.2   && <1.3
random             >=1.1   && <1.2
scotty             >=0.7   && <0.10
text               >=1.2   && <1.3
transformers       >=0.4   && <0.5
unix               >=2.7   && <2.8


The server is built using GHC.

Cabal is optional, but it makes building and installing a lot easier.


Installing/setting up
=====================

NOTE: This repository is for developers. If you are a regular user, you
should refer to <https://secure.plaimi.net/games/blubber.html>.

Users should look for the server in their system's package manager. The
server may be installed with cabal though.

$ cabal install blubber-server

Build instructions for developers
---------------------------------
# Optionally set up a sandboxed environment (recommended):
$ cabal sandbox init

# Install the dependencies:
$ cabal install --only-dependencies

# Build the server (puts a binary in ./dist/build/blubber-server/):
$ cabal build

# Make the documentation (puts html in ./dist/doc/htm/):
$ cabal haddock --executables --hyperlink-source

# Run the server:
$ cabal run

To install the server (not necessary usually) use:
$ cabal install

This will add the binary "blubber-server" to your cabal binaries (or to
the sandbox).


Running
=======
To run the server, use the executable (assumed to be in $PATH).
$ blubber-server [PORT1] [PORT2]

Where PORT1 is the port you want the game to use, and PORT2 the port you
want the Web server to use.


Low hanging fruit
=================

List of easy-to-fix things (easiest/quickest first):
  -Rearrange TLDs to make things more readable and nice.
  -Improve TDL documentation.
  -Remove unnecessary Show instances that were put in for debugging.
  -Reduce code duplication due to Map/Set.
  -Add a way to properly exit the server.
  -Add a verbose build flag for logging things to STDOUT.
  -Set up optparse-applicative, and do argument parsing properly.
  -Set up one input IORef per client.
  -Let the clients navigate the ViewPort when only spectating.
  -Use some vector library instead of reinventing everything.
  -Optimise the serialisation, in order to improve network performance.
  -Optimise collision detection to not check entities that are obviously
  no where near each other.


Licensing and Legalese
=======================
blubber-server is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.

blubber-server is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with blubber-server.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.



Contributing To the Project
===========================

There is a mailing list: <https://secure.plaimi.net/mailing.php>. On
there you can discuss the game, suggest features, report bugs, get help
(both as a user and as a developer), and so on.

If you want to contribute code, send a patch to the mailing list.