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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 June 2025
This article is an overview of Xdom, a mouse-oriented program for playing Domineering. Xdom allows a user to input an initial position, then play against the computer or another user. Optionally, it can determine the value and predicted winner of any position, show the available moves of either or both players, and give hints.
Xdom is an X-based program for the player of Domineering, running under UNIX and written in Tcl/Tk. It uses David Wolfe's Gamesman's Toolkit [Wolfe 1996], a powerful text-based game-analysis program that allows users to explore combinatorial games, and in particular determine game values, but is not designed to play out games interactively. The basic functionality of the Gamesman's Toolkit consists of computing the value of a position specified by the user:
Xdom builds on top of this functionality, providing a nice interface for the game of Domineering. Using Xdom, the user can play Domineering games against the computer or another user, create new positions, read positions from and save positions into files, undo moves, etc. If the user wishes, Xdom will show the value and predicted winner of any position, show the available moves of either or both players, and propose good moves. It also documents the rules of Domineering and its own functions.
Xdom is called from a Unix shell, with two optional arguments: the name of a file containing a starting Domineering position, and the size, in pixels, that the slots on the board should have. For example, typing the the command
Xdom bigsnake.dorn 30
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