Every control in the settings sheet calls resetClocks(), so opening it mid-match could throw away two live clocks. The gear now only appears on an untouched match: before the first tap, or after a two-tap reset. "Untouched" is derived rather than tracked — phase, turn, moves, score and both reserves matching matchTime() — so it cannot fall out of sync the way a stored flag could. The phase alone would be wrong: a score change runs newGame(), which returns to IDLE waiting for the next game's first tap while the match is still very much on. The reserve check also catches a clock corrected through the score sheet. The button uses visibility rather than [hidden], so its slot stays put and the rest of the bar doesn't jump the instant the clock starts; verified pixel-for-pixel that reset, play/pause, score and sound do not move. visibility:hidden also drops it from the tab order and the accessibility tree. The rule is enforced in the click handler as well, because a programmatic click still reaches a visibility:hidden button — CSS is the affordance, the guard is the rule. The trade, deliberately: a mistake in the time or delay now costs a reset and a restarted match. Correcting a clock mid-match is the score sheet's job. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
156 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
156 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
# Backgammon Clock
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A two-player match clock with **simple delay you can actually see**. Reserve time
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plus a fixed number of free seconds each turn that never carry over — the
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Backgammon Galaxy control. Defaults to 3:00 + 15s.
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Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. No frameworks, no fonts, no images, no network.
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## Getting it onto your phone
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Chrome will only offer a real install over HTTPS, so the file needs a host.
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GitHub Pages is free and takes about two minutes:
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1. Create a new public repository, e.g. `bgclock`.
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2. Upload all six files to the root: `index.html`, `manifest.webmanifest`,
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`sw.js`, `icon-192.png`, `icon-512.png`, `icon-maskable-512.png`.
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3. **Settings → Pages → Source: Deploy from a branch → `main` / `(root)` → Save.**
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4. Wait a minute, then open `https://<you>.github.io/bgclock/` on your phone.
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5. **Android, Chrome:** menu (⋮) → **Add to Home screen** → **Install**.
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**iOS, Safari:** Share (□↑) → **Add to Home Screen** → **Add**. It has to be
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Safari — Chrome and Firefox on iOS can't install a web app.
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Open it from the home-screen icon and it runs fullscreen with no browser
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chrome, offline, with the screen kept awake while a game is on.
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On iOS a few things behave differently, none of them fatal:
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- **Install from Safari, and play from the home-screen icon.** In a Safari tab
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you lose a strip of the screen to the toolbar, and iOS clears the saved
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settings of a site you haven't visited for a week. The installed app keeps
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its own storage and doesn't get pruned that way.
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- **There's no vibration** — iOS gives web pages no haptics at all, so the
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turn-change buzz is silent there. The sounds still play.
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- **The ringer switch doesn't mute the clock.** The page claims a playback
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audio session so you can hear the delay tick with the phone silenced, which
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in exchange pauses any music you had going. If you'd rather keep the music,
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delete the `navigator.audioSession` line in `index.html`.
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- **Screen wake needs iOS 16.4 or newer.** Below that the screen dims on its
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usual schedule mid-game.
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If you're using a different path than `/bgclock/`, edit the `"id"` field in
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`manifest.webmanifest` to match, or just delete that line.
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To try it before hosting, open `index.html` in any browser — everything works
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except installation and the service worker.
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## Using it
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- **Tap your own half** to end your turn and start your opponent's clock.
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At the start, whoever taps first sets the *other* player going.
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- The waiting player's taps are ignored, so a stray hand won't stop the clock.
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- The bar under the big time is the delay draining. When it empties you get a
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soft tick and your reserve starts moving. That's the moment worth hearing.
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- **Reset** starts a whole new match: clocks back to full *and* the score back to
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0–0. It takes two taps: the first arms the button — it lights up and a ring
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unwinds around it — and a second tap within those two seconds does it. One
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stray thumb can't wipe a live match.
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- **Pause** freezes mid-turn and resumes exactly where it stopped, delay
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included. Opening either sheet pauses automatically. The settings sheet leaves
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it paused — everything in there resets the clocks anyway — while the score
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sheet picks the turn back up when you close it, so glancing at the score
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doesn't cost you a tap on play.
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- **Settings are only reachable before a match starts.** Every control in that
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sheet resets both clocks, so the gear disappears the moment the first tap
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starts the clock and comes back after a reset. Its space in the bar is kept
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empty, so nothing else shifts. That means a mistake in the time or delay can
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only be fixed by resetting and starting the match again — deliberately, since
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the alternative is wiping two live clocks by accident. Correcting a clock
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mid-match is what the score sheet is for.
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Backgammon clocks pause between games, and after a cocked die the delay is
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normally restarted — use pause and reset for those.
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## Matches
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Set **Match** in the settings to the number of points you're playing to — 1, 3,
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5 and up to 29. The time you set is *per point*, so a 5-point match at 2:00 a
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point puts 10:00 on each clock, and the settings sheet shows you that sum.
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Each half reads the state from that player's own side of the board:
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```
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You: 1 out of 5
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Them: 3
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Moves: 7
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```
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So "You" always means whoever is sitting at that end — both players read their
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own score on the top line, and the two halves show mirrored numbers.
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At **1 point** there's no match to keep score of, so the score lines and the
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score-sheet icon all disappear and you get the plain single-game clock with just
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its move count. Set the match to 3 or more and they come back.
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The score sheet is the middle icon in the bar. It's filled in from the phone
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holder's side: **You** is the bottom half, **Them** the far end.
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Nothing in that sheet takes effect until you press **Done**:
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- **Done with nothing changed** leaves everything exactly as it was — same turn,
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same delay part-spent, same move counts — and the clock picks up where it left
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off. Tapping outside the sheet is the same as changing nothing, so a stray tap
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can't restart a game. A pause you set yourself before opening the sheet
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survives; only the sheet's own pause is undone.
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- **Change a score** and the game restarts when you press Done: move counters
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back to zero and the turn back to the first tap, waiting on whoever rolls the
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lower die. The clocks keep whatever they were showing.
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- **Change only a clock** — the sheet also lets you correct either player's time
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to the second — and the game carries on undisturbed and running: same turn,
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same delay position, same moves.
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Shortening the match to fewer points than someone has already won pulls their
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score down to fit.
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## Settings
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At the top of the sheet are three presets — **2m / 12s**, **3m / 12s** and
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**3m / 15s**. Tapping one jumps both timers there and lights it up. Change the
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time or delay by hand and the highlight goes out; land back on a preset's
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numbers and it comes back on.
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| Setting | Range | Default |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Match | 1 – 29 points, odd | 1 |
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| Time | 0:15 – 99:00 per point | 3:00 |
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| Delay | 0 – 60 s | 15 s |
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| Colour | Sage, Brass, Slate, Teal, Plum | Sage |
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| Sound | on / off | on |
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Brass is the colour in the chess.com app, if you want the exact original look.
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Changing match, time or delay resets the clocks — the score is left alone, so you
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can fix the delay mid-match without losing where you are.
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Settings **and the match in progress** are kept in `localStorage`, so they
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survive closing the tab, force-quitting the installed app and rebooting the
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phone — the app also asks for persistent storage so they aren't evicted when the
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device runs low on space (Chrome honours that request; Safari ignores it).
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Reopening restores the score, both clocks, the move counts, whose turn it is and
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how much delay was left. The one thing it can't restore is time passing while
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the app was closed, so it comes back paused rather than charging anyone for the
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gap: a crash shouldn't decide a game.
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## Sounds
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All three are generated with the Web Audio API, so there are no audio files to
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download and nothing to attribute.
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- **Turn change** — a soft rising fifth with an octave partial, marimba-like.
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- **Delay expiry** — a single quiet 300 Hz tick, deliberately easy to miss unless
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you're listening for it.
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- **Time out** — a falling triad, loud and unambiguous.
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## Licence
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Do whatever you like with it.
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