Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh?
Note: I am not a Mac user and have not tried this myself, so I cannot answer questions about it. Because MacOS X has a Unix base, XBoard will compile and run on it. You do need an X11 (X Window System) server and client libraries. I’m told that these come standard with MacOS X 10.3 and later. Once you install the X11 package, XBoard is reported to compile and run without changes. You can avoid having to compile XBoard (and GNU Chess) yourself by using the Fink sofware packaging system. See http://fink.sourceforge.net/ and http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/ for more info on Fink. There is no version of XBoard or WinBoard that runs with the native (non-X11) Mac graphical interface, and none that runs on MacOS 9 or earlier.
Because MacOS X has a Unix base, XBoard will compile and run on it. You do need an X11 (X Window System) server and client libraries. These do not come with Mac OS, but both free and commercial versions are available. Once you install the X11 package, XBoard is reported to compile and run without changes. I am not a Mac user and have not tried this myself, so I cannot answer questions about it. Version 4.2.6 and earlier of XBoard come with an old copy of the config.sub utility that does not recognize Mac OS X, so to build XBoard, you’ll have to tell the configure program what OS you are running. Follow the instructions in topic [B.7] of this FAQ, but add the argument –host=powerpc-apple-bsd to the end of the “configure” command line. There is no version of XBoard or WinBoard that runs with the native (non-X11) Mac graphical interface, and none that runs on MacOS 9 or earlier.
No. But porting XBoard to the Mac should not be much harder than porting it to Win32 or the Amiga was. I can’t do it because I don’t have a Mac, I don’t know how to program Macs, and I don’t have time. If you do, feel free to give it a try! Send mail to me, mann@pa.dec.com (Tim Mann), if you’re working on this.
Because MacOS X has a Unix base, XBoard will compile and run on it. You do need an X11 (X Window System) server and client libraries. These do not come with Mac OS, but both free and commercial versions are available. Once you install the X11 package, XBoard is reported to compile and run without changes. There is no version of XBoard or WinBoard that runs with the native (non-X11) Mac graphical interface, and none that runs on MacOS 9 or earlier.
