[fred]

I will be in Portugal between October 17 and November 8. Most likely I will not be able to do any work, respond to e-mail, or read/post to Forums during this time.

If you want to send me to see your questions or comments concerning FD (or another else for that matter), the only method you can use that rates to work is to send me e-mail (fred@bridgebase.com) AFTER Nov 8.

I have prepared a new release of BBO (4.5.0) and FD (1.1.6) that, in combination with the server changes Uday has made, seems to do just about everything I was hoping we would get done before I left. By that I mean that FD is, in theory, fully functional on BBO. Of course it still needs a lot of testing and no doubt some bugs will be found, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now (and it looks good!).

Uday still has to either make sure version 4.5.0 won't crash the BBO server or set up a test environment where FD-enthusiasts can experiment, but that may take another day or 2.

When Uday is ready he will make an announcement in Forums (that will include links and instructions for downloading).

If you have been using FD already, here are some things you should know when the new version becomes available:

1) You should either rename both of the following subfolders of BBO or delete all of your files in these folders:

conventions
convcards\default convcards

The files in these folders will be maintained by BBO itself. If you edit or create files in these folders, you will not be able to use those files with BBO.

2) If you currently use the + symbol in your main FD files and you want to use those files on BBO, you should use the Merge command to incorporate your + files into your main FD file.

If your FD file contains +s that refer to files other than those that BBO creates for you in your conventions folder, you will not be able to use that file with BBO.

Sorry about this inconvenience. I will eventually define a variation of + for private include files and a "save with merge" command that does what you will now have to do manually.

3) While I am gone you can send Uday copies of your FD files if you want him to upload them to the server.

Eventually we will care a lot about quality control of public FD files, but for now we just want some files that people can experiment with. Don't worry if your files are incomplete or inaccurate.

Sorry that it took longer than expected to reach this point and that I won't be around to respond to FD-feedback during the next couple of weeks.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[uday]

Beta 450 of BBO is now available at either of the following two links


Couple of things, before I present the download links

- Please read the previous post, in which Fred talks about some upgrade strategies

. This is beta software. We think it is clean. If it will bother you that the client program might crash or interrupt your bridge play, please wait for the full release

. If you find any bugs, please email me - uday@ and let me know. I can't fix them, but I can save them for Fred's return

. There are presently no conventions or convention cards in our database. If you email uday@ your conventions I'll add them to our database.

- This beta fixes the bug that prevents auto-reconnect from working after you happen to suffer a disconnection (the err=3001 message)


Click below to update an existing installation of BBO to version 450 (about 2.3 Meg)

http://www.bridgebas...o450_update.exe


and click below for a full installation of version 450 of BBO (about 3.2 Meg)
http://www.bridgebas...bo450_setup.exe



I know of the following issues in the client; no need to report them
. FDO explanation sometimes flashes
. Mousing over partners bids in the bid history does not produce an explanation
. A non-trivial auction will overlap part of RHO's name in hand-diagram+wide mode if you are dummy

[uday]

Does anyone have any FD conventions or convention cards that I can stash and make available as "stock" conventions or convention cards (available to all who login)?

I was not really following the early FD discussions well enough to know if there are any FD files out there; if there are, please drop them to me via email if you want me to put them up. eventually we'll come up with SAYC, etc and a host of basic conventions..

[uday]

I temporarily blocked FD functionality -- i need to determine whether FD is involved in the service interruption we noticed on Sat early afternoon (est).