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Hand Record to Deep Finesse Converter
This program writes the hands from your HRwin handrecord printout
to a Deep Finesse archive file. Its purpose is merely
to eliminate the necessity of entering several hands card-by-card for
analysis from the same handrecord, should that be your desire. Placing the
entire set of boards into the archive enables you to recall them individually
simply by selecting the game file and entering the appropriate board number on
the Deep Finesse menu.
ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD
HR2DF.EXE
Loads an existing set of hands into the
Deep Finesse archive.
This file is created as needed at runtime:
HANDS2DF.INI
A program initialization stores the location of your
Deep Finesse program.
PROGRAM SETUP
USING THE INTERFACE
Hr2DF 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 first time Hr2DF is run, a Setup module will establish links to your Deep Finesse software. If more than one copy is installed, you will be prompted for a choice. A big hard disk will require additional time to search. Be patient; the process doesn't take long, and it needs to be done only once.
There is a control number at the bottom of one page of your handrecord
printout, on the same line as the shameless plugs for
DeepFinesse and Yours Truly. The number looks something like:
#04097 02285. The last character might be an 'x';
it must be entered as such.
Enter the ten digits with or without the cosmetic space. Do not
enter the '#' symbol. A hand representing Board #1 on your
printout will appear on the screen. This serves to further validate the
control-number, and to determine that Hr2DF is compatible with
your computer (although there never should be a problem).
If the displayed deal is a match, press 'Y'; or
<Enter> to accept the entry. A file containing all
24 or 36 hands will be placed in the Deep Finesse
archive. The filename will reflect the date and session time of your
game — something such as: Sep-30-M.txt.
The 'M' is for (M)orning. Other possible designations are:
(A)fternoon (E)vening (L)ate.
(Deep Finesse requires the .txt filename extension,
which is not displayed on the menus.)
Any existing archive file with the same name will be overwritten without prompting. The only way that that should occur is if the existing file is a year old (or more). Surely you would be finished with it by then!
After the archive file is created, you will be invited process another handrecord. If your answer is no, then Hr2DF will offer to launch Deep Finesse immediately. Once that program is running, the archived hands are accessed via the DF File Menu in the normal manner.
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.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
Hr2DF employs the same shuffling and initialization routines as HRwin, which previously generated the actual hands.
In order to save the user some typing, the proprietary Serial Date system is
limited to 10,000 days. Game dates beyond April, 2027 are invalid,
because the existing algorithm would replicate hands from prior dates. If I am
still alive and capable of typing at that time, I will adjust my routines to a new
time-window.
In case you were wondering, the final character of the handrecord
control-number is a check-digit, which validates the accuracy of your
typing; a possible 'x' represents a checksum value of 10. The
same validation technique is used for book ISBN numbers; that is why they often
contain an 'x' as well. ACBL player-numbers are similarly
controlled by this "Modulus-11" checksum method; in these cases,
however, any player number that would require a check-digit of 'x'
simply is not used.
Thanks for your interest in Hands to Deep Finesse. Email feedback is appreciated.
