
 The GGZ Meta Server IO Slave
 ============================

 This io slave does not only support GGZ meta servers, but also others; it is
 therefore a generic layer between any game-related application and meta
 servers of any kind.

 0) Invokation
 Just call ggzmeta:/ to get a list of currently supported meta servers and
 other instructions.
 KDE developers: Please try to find a subsitute for the QApplication hack.

 1) GGZ Meta Servers
 Although sending an XML query, the format resembles the GGZ Meta Server URI
 format: ggzmeta://ggz/connection/0.0.5pre
 Please note that especially GGZ Core Clients should support --host, --port and
 --username arguments. I don't know about --password, as this is insecure.

 2) Registered Delegates
 Every meta server who has his own protocol must be a) coded into this io slave
 and b) registered as delegate in order to force the ggzmeta:// protocol to not
 use the GGZ Meta Server.
 The list of delegates does currently only consist of 'freeciv' and 'atlantik'
 (non-GGZ version), and the 'crossfire', 'dopewars' and 'netrek' games.

 3) FreeCiv
 Just issue something like ggzmeta://freeciv/ to get a list of current
 connections.
 This delegate simply reads http://meta.freeciv.org/metaserver/ and parses it
 efficiently using Qt classes.
 If you click on such a file, it runs:
 civclient --server=$host --port=$port --autoconnect

 4) Atlantik
 In a similar fashion, ggzmeta://atlantik/ retrieves all Atlantik games, using
 the well-known XML format.
 (The URL is: http://gator.monopd.net)
 IMO Atlantik doesn't support a host and port argument yet, so this should be
 fixed.

 5) Crossfire
 See http://cross-fire.realtime.com/metaserver/ for a list of current servers.
 The data does however come from port 13326, single fields separated by a bar.
 Example:
 131.246.89.16|38|bratwurst.unix-ag.uni-kl.de|0|1.0.0-07-30|Running CVS of
 2001-09-06|151725|3503971|51698
 It can be launched based on this data:
 cfclient -server $host

 6) Netrek
 The meta server is located at metaserver.netrek.org, port 3521.
 Example:
 -h hp06.ee.ualberta.ca                  -p 2592   12  * No connection    D P

 7) Dopewars
 This is another game which fetches the available servers over the HTTP
 protocol.
 http://dopewars.sourceforge.net/metaserver.php?getlist=2

 Josef

