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HRWIN – A Handrecord Generator for Windows
Welcome to Bridge for Diehards software at Ted's World! This program enables the user to produce a series of 24 or 36 random deals and print them. Program printouts include double-dummy analyses of every possible contract, by Deep Finesse. Included is a facility for printing hand-records for at-the-table duplication.
ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD
HRWIN.EXE
The executable file — the brains of the outfit.
BRIDGE.TTF
A proprietary TrueType font generates card symbols and
other custom characters.
DFMAIN.DLL
The Deep Finesse engine provides double-dummy analysis.
(MAKEHANDS.EXE)
This companion program produces or replicates hands.
These files are created as needed at runtime:
HANDREC.INI
A program initialization file handles user preferences.
CLUBNAME.HR
Stores the last-used club name to save the user some
future typing.
\GAMEFILE.HR
A sub-folder stores game setup data.
INITIAL SETUP
USING THE INTERFACE
HRwin's menus should be self-explanatory. This file is the only documentation.
Entries for Club Name and Event Name are limited to 40 characters each.
The Escape key is your friend. Should you find yourself in an undesired place, pressing <Esc> will return you to the last-accessed or other appropriate menu.
During the Deep Finesse analysis, the "CT" indicator on the screen is a measure of program flow. As this counter is updated not less than once per second, it lets you know that the program is alive in absence of other screen activity.
HRwin runs in a window as a text-based console. If you are using Windows 98/2000/XP, you may toggle Full-Screen mode by pressing <Alt-Enter> after launching the program.
THE PRINTOUTS
All printing is sent to the currently selected Default Printer. If for some reason you wish to use a different unit with this program, you must temporarily install it as the Windows Default, via Start/Settings/Printers and Faxes/<right-click an icon>/Set as Default Printer.
DIRECTOR'S DUPING SHEET
The time required to duplicate a set of boards can be significantly reduced. Instead of allocating cards by locating them on a picture of a hand, they are dealt according to a series of numbers on the sheet; no time-consuming "hunting" is necessary. Try it; you should like it. Instructions are on the sheet.
POST-GAME HANDOUTS
The analysis box shows the maximum contract that can be made
in every denomination by every player, assuming best possible play by both
sides. Unlike certain other programs, no makable contracts are suppressed
by HRwin. If, for example, a player can
make 4 Spades on a
Also featured is 'Absolute Par' on the
Example: On Board #2, North-South can make
Note: The various printer types have differing built-in margin settings, but those I have tested leave nearly 10½ inches for printed output. HRwin's printouts are designed to use not more than 10¼ vertical inches, so there should be no problem in accommodating full pages.
HANDRECORDS FOR DUPLICATION
Since the handrecords are printed 2-up, the pages will need to be cut if playing other than two boards to a round. Two hash-marks on the page provide a cutting guide. The marks may or may not be exactly at the vertical center of the page, depending upon the printer's default top margin.
RECALLING A GAME
GAME CONTROL: #12345 67890
A 10-digit control number is printed at the bottom of each Post-game Handout, as well as on the director's Dupe Sheet. It contains all the information necessary to reproduce a specific set of hands, and using it is the only way to recall or restore a game.
This feature can be helpful in several ways:
Example: A paper jam causes the program to crash in the middle of a print job. You fix the hardware problem, recall the game, and continue printing.
Example: You create a game at home, print a dupe-sheet or a single handrecord, and duplicate the boards. Then you go to the bridge club, restore the game, and print the handouts on company paper.
Example: An unexpectedly large crowd shows up for your game, and there are not enough handrecords for all. After recalling the game, additional sheets are printed during the session.
To utilize this facility, select
Note: The last character of the control number might be an 'x'; it must be entered as such.
Note: The control string stores the critical numbers that it needs, but no other data. If a game is transferred to a new site, no game file would be present; in this case, the user is prompted to re-enter the club and event names. Hand analysis is redone in real time regardless.
HANDLING A MULTI-SITE EVENT
GAME CONTROL: #13579 2468X
Your organization might like to conduct some sort of multi-site event, such as a Unit Game played concurrently at several local clubs. HRwin enables the duplication of hands across the field without any physical transfer of materials. This is how it works:
One of the non-playing directors creates a set of hands for the appropriate
date and time, to use at his own game. Then he conveys the
To utilize this facility, select
You also will input a choice of Club and Event Names.
USER OPTIONS
It is not necessary to become involved with font changes, because the hand-record sheets look just fine without adjustment. If, however, you would like to experiment with a different look to your printout, then certain changes can be effected on the Setup Menu. This is HRwin's default font configuration:
| Typeface for the Club Name: | Times New Roman |
| Typeface for the Event Name: | Courier New |
| Option to print Card Symbols in color: | No |
Those header fonts have been selected only because they are known to be included with every Windows operating system. Feel free to choose other typefaces; in fact, I recommend it.
When entering a font name in Program Setup, letter case is immaterial, but the spelling
must be
Start/Control Panel/Settings/Fonts
Exception: you may omit the designation, "Regular," which is redundantly appended to the display name of certain fonts.
Example: you might change the
Comic Sans MS or comic sans ms
Entering 'comic sans' or 'comicsansms' will not work
For Algerian Regular:
algerian
Some other fonts to try:
Souvenir Lt BT, Cooper Md BT,
By default, the most recently used club name is presented automatically in order to save a frequent user some redundant typing. In a multi-user setting, it might be preferable to disable that feature via this setting:
Club Name Prompt: No
For the player handouts only, the card symbols optionally can be printed in two colors: crimson for hearts and diamonds, and midnight blue for spades and clubs. Although not recommended, it is okay to use a black-only printer with color enabled; in that case, the card symbols will print as shades of gray. The default is for no color in the printing. If you do wish to print colored card symbols, then enable that option thusly:
Color Printing: Yes
Note: font adjustments are applicable only to the post-game sheets; all other printing is handled by the proprietary Bridge Font.
HANDLING SYSTEM FILES
Should certain system modules "accidentally" disappear, HRwin might not object; for example, it would simply re-create CLUBNAME.HR or the \GAMEFILE subdirectory as needed. If the initialization file Handrec.ini is missing or corrupted, it would be re-created with the default specifications. Should something bad happen to HRWIN.EXE itself, however, the file could be restored from your carefully archived copy or another download.
DATA RECORDS
081209.HRA
For each game, a pair of files stores the club and event names, session date and time, and the number of boards. This feature merely saves the user the necessity of re-entering that information. For security purposes, double-dummy output is not retained. When a game is recalled, analyses are recalculated at that time.
As the game files are tiny, disk space usage is insignificant; however, feel free to remove old files from the \GAMEFILE folder at any time. No files ever are deleted by HRwin.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
A primary goal is to produce the best-looking printouts available anywhere. Every effort has been made to render the printed pages as readable and elegant as possible. To that end, minute adjustments are made to suit placement, character spacing, and font choices.
To ensure the integrity and randomness of the deals, and to assuage certain players' concerns, there is no provision for editing hands in any manner.
The HRwin Trial Version enables you to try the program for 30 days. That is more than enough time to determine that your players definitely wish to continue receiving their beautiful and informative printouts. The Full version of HRwin will run on any Windows computer without restriction. It is available at Ted's Bridge World for a mere twenty dollars, which is small compensation for fifteen years of program development.
AN UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL
Programmer William Bailey first published his marvelous utility in 1999. As I had offered him a number of constructive suggestions early on, William considered me his unofficial "beta tester." Subsequently he authorized me to utilize his analytical engine in my own programs.
Deep Finesse also is used by the ACBL, the BridgeBase website, and others. Interestingly, analysts on a BridgeBase viewgraph presentation typically can be observed making comments such as, "Well, DF says the contract makes without a spade lead, so it must be true." And it is.
Of course, the double-dummy analyses on the post-game printouts show only what
could be
FOR DEEP FINESSE USERS ONLY
The 10-digit control number on the credits line of a post-game printout enables
a user of the Deep Finesse program to load the entire set of hands
into a DF archive file for immediate access, by utilizing my
Thanks for your interest in HRwin. Feedback is appreciated.
