races, was Re: [Freeciv-Dev] gender selection

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Massimo Campostrini wrote:
> 
> David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> 
> > Massimo sort of did this in his pre-1.7.2 races patch,

> When the developers are ready to extend the communication
> protocol (and break old servers or clients) I'll try to merge my
> changes (new races, customizable gender & solid color, etc.) with the
> new branch.

Well, I think the plan is to stick to the roadmap, which
includes rulesets in the next release.  Rulesets break backward
compatibility (signalled with a "+rulesets" tag in the capability 
string), so I think it should be fine right now to put in 
other things which break backward compatibility in a similar way.
Particularly since "extra races" are also included in the 
roadmap as being in the next release.

(But don't other people take that as a licence to go and
write huge non-backward compatible patches right now!  :-)
Large changes which are not in the roadmap will probably 
have to wait until after we integrate Vasco's GTK+ client, 
since that is next in the roadmap after the next release.)

Ideally I'd like to see my proposal for "extensible races"
implemented, but I don't see myself having time to do that 
in the near future.  So I'd settle for an update of Massimo's
patch, with the Finns added, and maybe some minor adjustments 
towards my proposal (eg, keep MAX_PLAYERS at 14 even as the 
number of races increases (helps scenarios for one)).

Regards,
-- David