Install homeworlds with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• homeworlds-cli
• homeworlds-wx

Project history

Arthur O'Dwyer's repository presents the project as a C++14 codebase for studying and playing Binary Homeworlds, including a text interface to a simple AI. The README explains the internal model in terms of `SingleAction`, `WholeMove`, `PieceCollection`, `StarSystem`, and `GameState`, then layers command-line, GUI, and Python-extension interfaces on top of that core.

The repository also includes a SuperDuperGames.org archive import path: a partial mirror of more than 700 game transcripts and scripts to translate those transcripts into formats consumed by `homeworlds-cli` and `libhomeworlds`. That gives the package a historical-data angle uncommon for small board-game CLI packages.

Adoption history

The project entered package-manager culture through Homebrew as a niche game/programming formula rather than as a broad end-user application. Its audience is mostly Binary Homeworlds players, combinatorial-game experimenters, and C++ users interested in AI search over an unusually high-branching abstract game.

How it is used

The `homeworlds-cli` executable can be used to play or analyze a game by entering moves and asking the built-in AI for a move. The library side is useful for generating legal moves, applying moves to a state, and experimenting with alternative evaluation or pruning strategies.

The package also ships `homeworlds-wx`, but the README frames it as an experiment with a graphical interface. For package users, the CLI and C++/Python library surfaces are the more reproducible pieces.

Why package nerds care

Homeworlds is a good example of the long tail that keeps Homebrew interesting: a formula can package a specialized research/play tool, not only mainstream developer utilities. It also demonstrates the packaging friction around C++ GUI dependencies and small AI/game analyzers that are useful to a narrow but technically engaged community.

Timeline

• 2011: GitHub repository lineage is visible through repository metadata embedded in GitHub pages.
• 2015: Tagged releases `v1.0.0` and `v1.1.0` appear in the Git repository.
• 2015: `libhomeworlds` package metadata identifies version 1.1.0 and describes the Python extension as AI for Binary Homeworlds written in C++.

Related projects

• Binary Homeworlds and Icehouse/Pyramid games provide the game rules and physical-piece context.
• SuperDuperGames.org is related because the repository includes a partial archive and conversion scripts for historical game transcripts.
• wxWidgets and Python extension tooling are related implementation surfaces around the C++14 core.

Sources

• Git tags and setup.py: tagged 1.x releases and libhomeworlds metadata.
• GitHub README: project description, components, CLI, GUI, Python extension, and SuperDuperGames archive.
• Homebrew formula metadata from input: package-manager presence and executables.