For context: this all refers to running WER on Linux/Mac using the commercial Crossover software, which is a commercialized version of Wine. Crossover is not free, but it is not expensive. I would not have been able to figure out the following merely using Wine, and I have found Crossover to be well worth it.
tl;dr: visit
https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/wizards-event-reporter in a couple of days. I've submitted the auto-installer (CrossTie) for approval, but it is not approved as of this writing.
Thanks for the ping. It prodded me into figuring out that last problem that was causing the automated install to fail. I've just submitted the final CrossTie to the Codeweavers folk, and hopefully it will be approved soon.
If you want install it yourself using the unapproved CrossTie, you can download it from
http://Knizia.BoardGameBarrister.com/images/WER.tie.
You can install this downloaded Tie from the command line on Crossover Linux like this:
http://knizia.boardgamebarrister.com/images/WER.tieYou can install the CrossTie on Mac simply by double-clickin the file, or right-click + open.
WER might give an error (“Cannot write to C:\…\Reporter”) after running the updater. This doesn't appear to actually be a real error, as the update applies correctly in my tests. I just quit that instance of WER and start a new one.
The key steps are that you first create a Windows XP bottle and load these components:
Lucida Console (do this first)
Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5sp1 (it appears that you A: need precisely this version, B: it must be installed first, C: you must install only this version)
Platform SDK Redistributable GDI+
Microsoft Jet 4.0 SP8
MDAC 2.8sp1
These are all Windows-licensed files, so you should have a valid copy of Windows (unsure if version matters, but I have a licensed copy of XP for each Linux machine that I'm running this on).
The real tricky part is getting a copy of the Lucida Console font. WER hard-encodes (using spaces) the formatting of their printed templates for pairings, result slips, and the like. The only print properly using Lucida Console (trust me, I did a lot of searching for alternate fonts before I saw what was happening with the formatting). Finding a freely-licensed version of this font was surprisingly difficult, but there is a serviceable one from
FFonts.net. You *must* have a Lucida Console (preferably as lucon.ttf) in whatever font path WER will see when it is run for the very first time. If it doesn't find Lucida Console, it will make a font substitution - and it will hard-code that substitution such that you cannot change it again without reinstalling WER entirely. Just amazing. So, you need to get a legit copy of Ludica Console and put it in place before running WER at all.
This is really fairly straightforward once you get the steps down. Figuring out those steps… was tedious.
I think these instructions should be easy enough for a reasonably-technical person to follow to install by hand. For a non-technical person - or if you merely want to have an easy install - just use the CrossTie.
If you use this and find it useful, give it a review on the Codeweavers site and drop me a line here. If you have trouble, I'll do my best to assist.
The big fear: Wizards pushes out an update that breaks this badly, perhaps in some unfixable way. I've been able to fix any update that broke something fairly quickly thus far (it's happened twice in the almost-3-years I've been running this, and not recently), but someday… boom. I just know it.
Thanks!
-G