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MAKEHANDS – A Bridge Deal Designer & Replicator
Welcome to Bridge For Diehards software at
Ted's World! This program enables
the user to create a series of
After shuffling and playing boards on the first round, someone at the table records each deal on a sheet provided. The director then enters the hands into MakeHands during the game and does the necessary printing. At the conclusion of play, hand-records with analyses are available to the contestants.
This facility could serve as an alternative to the time-consuming tedium of pre-duplicating an entire set of boards. It also would effectively assuage the commonplace (albeit ludicrous) distrust of "computer hands."
Alternatively, the director could merely snatch boards from the tables as they become available, and enter data by looking at the hands themselves.
ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD
MAKEHANDS.EXE
The executable file — the brains of the outfit.
BRIDGE.TTF
A proprietary TrueType font produces card symbols and other
custom characters.
DFMAIN.DLL
The Deep Finesse engine provides double-dummy analysis.
(HRWIN.EXE)
This companion program generates random deals only.
These files are created as needed at runtime:
HANDREC.INI
A program initialization file handle user preferences.
CLUBNAME.MH
Stores the last-used club name to save the user some future
typing.
\GAMEFILE.MH
A sub-folder stores data for recovering an interrupted session.
INITIAL SETUP
DATA FILES
MMDDYYS
Three data files are created for each session; their sole function is to enable restoration of an interrupted job without the necessity of re-entering hands or waiting for another hand-analysis. The filenames are based upon Month, Day, Year, and Session Time.
This information is merely an explanation, however, because you need not concern yourself with these matters. As each archive file is tiny (936 bytes at most), the disk space consumed is insignificant; however, feel free to remove old files from the \GAMEFILE.MH folder at any time. No such files ever are deleted by MakeHands.
USING MAKEHANDS
INTERFACE SPECIFICS
MakeHands menus should be self-explanatory. This file is the only documentation.
Entries for Club Name and Event Name are limited to forty 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.
MakeHands runs in a window as a text-based
console. Unless your system has been crippled by installation of Windows
Vista, you may toggle full-screen mode with
MAIN MENU
A club name and event name are used in the header for the post-game printouts. Date and Session Time are utilized both in the page header and as the basis for file names.
A session date and time are entered. Any prior work done for that session is restored. You may then continue normal entering of boards, printing, etc.
Accesses the Session Options Menu for entering boards or changing program specifications. This option is available after a game is activated.
Player handouts can be printed only after all boards have been entered and double-dummy analysis is performed. Unless it has been done previously, analysis by Deep Finesse runs automatically at this time, just prior to printing. The "CT" indicator on the screen is a measure of program flow. As this counter is updated every second, it lets you know that the program is alive when there is no other current screen activity.
This utility produces numbered templates, two per page, for use by players for recording hands at the table. You merely specify the number of boards in play.
Exit the program.
SESSION OPTIONS
Boards may be entered in any order. After finishing a deal, a prompt displays the next higher number that is not already defined. <Enter> accepts that board, or you may type in another number.
Only the North, East, and South hands are entered. Cards for a suit may be typed in any sequence; for example, "K3J4A" is the same as "AKJ43." <Enter> accepts the suit. Use "T" or "0" for a ten-spot. For a void suit, type "V", or <Enter> alone.
As each hand is defined, its cards are counted; if the total is not thirteen, all four suits will be deleted and must be re-entered straightaway.
In this initial entry mode, there is no editing function. If you enter a suit incorrectly, there are options: finish out the hand with bogus void suits, then re-enter it; or complete the entire deal, then type "N" when asked whether the hand is okay.
After all three hands have been entered, a check is made for a possible duplication of cards. If a match is found, the cursor is placed at the "dupe-suit" nearest the top of the screen. Use the <Up/Down Arrow> keys to scroll to a suit of your choice. You may simply start typing new characters; the former suit will be erased as you begin. Cards cannot be changed individually; an entire suit always must be entered.
More than one correction may be made at this time by utilizing the Arrow keys. Pressing <Enter> accepts the current configuration. MakeHands will not permit you to create an invalid deal (nor will Deep Finesse). Once a proper pattern is obtained, all four hands are posted for inspection. If there is an error, you may do more editing.
After setting up a game, adjustments may be made to the Club Name, Event Name, or Total Boards in play. Due to their usage as filename parameters, the Date and Session Time cannot be changed.
All printing functions are accessed from the Main Menu.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Hand entry can be made easier by substituting otherwise unused keys for face-card designations. Instead of hunting incessantly for "A", "K", "Q", or "J", even non-expert typists should be able to enter hands without having to look at the keyboard, by utilizing one of the "alternate" keyboard facilities that are available in hand-entry mode:
KEYPAD: The unused keys on the numeric keypad represent honor-cards:
| / | Ace |
| * | King |
| - | Queen |
| + | Jack |
| 1 or 0 | Ten |
ASDF: The keys "A", "S", "D" and "F" also have been remapped to produce "A", "K", "Q", "J", with the "T" nearby. Anyone reasonably proficient with the numeric keypad might find this the fastest setup. The left hand remains in a stationary position, ready to enter face-card designations, while the right hand types the spot-cards on the numeric keypad.
Bear in mind that, although these typing aids can be quite useful, they are entirely optional.
PRINTOUTS
All printing is sent to the currently installed 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.
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 commercially available programs, no makable
contracts are suppressed. If, for example, north-south can make four
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. MakeHands output is designed to use not more than 10¼ vertical inches, so there should be no problem in accommodating an entire page.
BOARD-DUPLICATING SHEETS
Convenient numbered templates can be printed, two per page, to be used at the table for recording their hands after being played on the first round.
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 the 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. At a multi-club facility, 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, MakeHands might not object; for example, it would simply re-create CLUBNAME.MH or the \GAMEFILE.MH subdirectory as needed. If the initialization file HANDREC.INI is missing or corrupted, substitutions are made for then ecessary parameters. Should something bad happen to MAKEHANDS.EXE itself, however, the file could be restored from your carefully archived copy of this download.
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.
The aforementioned strategy of entering data directly from boards in play was premiered at the Sacramento Bridge Center on November 27, 2007, with great success. the entire procedure (27 boards) was completed in forty minutes with some typing assistance from a kibbitzer. The players subsequently responded by scooping up every sheet that I had printed.
I am confident that history was made at this session, as I know of no previous occasion on which postgame printouts were provided with no pre-game duplication of boards!
The MakeHands 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 MakeHands 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 has authorized me to utilize his analytical engine in my own programs.
Deep Finesse also is used by the ACBL, the great 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 MakeHands. Email feedback is appreciated.
