[Apollo81]

GIB's play speed is poorly correlated with the speed bar settings. I find that if I do not set it to "fastest possible" then it takes a long time to make its plays. This can be annoying when trying to teach, as it is either extremely bad or slow to the point that the student gets annoyed.

I don't expect that there's much to be done about this....maybe instead of a slider put a maximum allowed thinking time textbox?

[barmar]

If you gave it a maximum thinking time, it would end up using that much time EVERY time it needs to make a decision, which is for every card it plays. GIB can't tell the difference between easy and hard situations, it makes most of its decisions by dealing out a bunch of hands that fit the bidding and play so far, performing a double-dummy analysis of each of them, and choosing the play that's best for most of them.

The speed selection controls how many hands it analyzes. The reason the speed is so variable is that double dummy analysis can vary quite a bit depending on the type of hand.

Perhaps there could be two controls: the existing speed slider, plus a limit on thinking time (a "thinking cap"!). But this could mean that in the complex cases that need lots of analysis it will examine fewer hands, and tend to make worse decisions.