I agree, but would prefer names like -userConfigDir and -userConfigFile
Well, these would be good names too. But somehow I have the feeling
that we would be setting up something quite complicated to acheive
something rather ordinary. Can't we really think of something simpler?
If we want to solve this by new XBoard options, there could be easier
and more versatile ways to do it. For instance:
Currently we only have -ncp, -ics and engine (-fcp) mode, all having
a very specific fuction. How about adding a somewhat less specified
mode -pgn (or -viewer), which either defaults to -ncp or engine mode,
depending on the persistent setting of another option. Users do already
maintain a list of engines in -firstChessProgramNames, in a format
that allows them to accompany each engine by a set of XBoard options
to be used with that engine. We could add an option -analysisEngine,
which stores a sigle 'engine line' in the same format. Or better yet,
stores the (nick)name of the engine in the -firstChessProgramNames
to be used for this purpose, so that people would not have to do double
installs.
When started up in -pgn mode (which the desktop file associated with
PGN files would then always do), XBoard could then scan through the
-firstChessProgramNames string to find a match with -analysisEngine.
If there was none, (or -analysisEngine was empty), it would start in -ncp
mode, while in case of a match it would process the corresponding
engine line in -firstChessProgramNames (as WinBoard does for the
engine selected by the startup-dialog combobox, or would happen when
you select an engine through the Load Engine dialog) as if it were
appended to the command line.
The user could then include the options needed for tailoring the window
conformation he wants with the engine, as options in the engine line
overrule those on the command line. So the pgn-viewer.desktop file would
use a command tailored to the assumption that -pgn would default to -ncp,
e.g. xboard -pgn -engineOutputUp false -evalGraphUp false. The user
could then install an engine as
-firstChessProgramNames {....
...
"Stockfish-ana" -fcp "stockfish" -engineOutputUp true -evalGraphUp true
-initialMode AnalyzeMode
...
}
and run XBoard once as
xboard -analysisEngine "Stockfish-ana"
to persistently configure stockfish with this windows conformation as
PGN viewer.