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List:       macports-users
Subject:    Jigsaw puzzles
From:       Ian Wadham <iandw.au () gmail ! com>
Date:       2020-03-30 0:03:49
Message-ID: F87C3AA5-F2CC-46F4-8CE2-2D44292C970F () gmail ! com
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If you like jigsaw puzzles and are isolated or stuck at home due to \
coronavirus and looking for things to do, try the Palapeli port, which is \
part of KDE Games 4.

Advantages are:

- You can cut your own puzzles from your own photos, etc.
- You can choose the number of pieces and the general shape, using any of \
                several "slicer" modules.
- When playing, the game saves its state to disk every two seconds.
- It can handle puzzles up to 10,000 pieces in size, providing "holder" \
                windows for subsets of pieces, such as Sky, Edges, etc.
- The manual is comprehensive and is online at \
https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/kdegames/palapeli/index.html or google kde \
                docs palapeli.
- An optional Preview window lets you see all or part of the completed \
                puzzle.
- The game is in good working order, except for occasional crashes with \
                minor impact (see below).
- You get a starter library of five easy puzzles and can add your own \
puzzles to it.

Disadvantages are:

- Palapeli takes a while to install under MacPorts, because it has a huge \
chain of dependencies via qt4-mac and kdelibs4, but you can break up the \
                load by installing those two ports first from the binaries.
- Pieces are not rotated when the puzzle is shuffled.
- The functionality of the game has not changed for a few years: I was the \
                last maintainer, but am retired from FOSS development now.
- Crashes can occur when you move and join pieces rapidly: I was never able \
to find why, but the autosave feature (see above) ensures that you do not \
                lose hours of work.
- If you have a Linux system, Palapeli is available in a maintained KF5 \
version, but I don't think there are many bug fixes or new features.

"Palapeli" is a German word with a meaning something like "pell-mell" in \
English.

Enjoy,
Ian Wadham.=


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