[FrancesHinden]

I wanted to try out Thomas Andrews Deal program.

So I download the Windows Binary Release and unzip into a folder.
When I try to run the deal program from within a Command Prompt I get the error message "The system cannot execute the specified program"

What do I need to do?

[RMB1]

Worked for me.
1. Download Windows Binary Release to my desktop
2. Extract the zip file to the desktop
3. Open Command Prompt
4. C:\Documents and Settings\Robin>cd Desktop
5. C:\Documents and Settings\Robin\Desktop>cd deal311win
6. C:\Documents and Settings\Robin\Desktop\deal311win>cd deal311
7. C:\Documents and Settings\Robin\Desktop\deal311win\deal311>deal
works, as do deal.exe .\deal .\deal.exe

Robin

[hotShot]

First tell us which version of Windows do you use?

You might need the tools "DOSBox"

[FrancesHinden]

Windows XP Home Edition with every update the windows updater has decided to install.

[hotShot]

Using the same setup, the program just work's for me.

[FrancesHinden]

I originally tried it on my laptop.
It still doesn't work there, but does work on the desktop which has the same operating system.

The only difference is that the desktop also has Office installed, though I can't see why that would matter.

Oh well, at least I have one PC to run it on, even if I can't do it in front of the TV!

[blackshoe]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 1 2008, 08:05 AM, said:

I originally tried it on my laptop.
It still doesn't work there, but does work on the desktop which has the same operating system.

The only difference is that the desktop also has Office installed, though I can't see why that would matter.

Oh well, at least I have one PC to run it on, even if I can't do it in front of the TV!

Your TV is in the wrong place - or you need more TVs!

[Hanoi5]

I extracted the folder to C: but whenever I try to run the program I only get a black DOS window which disappears very quickly and doesn't allow me to see anything. What am I missing?

[helene_t]

Hanoi5, on Jun 2 2008, 02:51 PM, said:

I extracted the folder to C: but whenever I try to run the program I only get a black DOS window which disappears very quickly and doesn't allow me to see anything. What am I missing?

In that case you should run the program "cmd" and call the program from the dos box. It will produce the same result but at least you get to see the error message.

Disclaimer: The below may be nonsense, I haven't installed the program under windows myself:

Sounds to me as if you (and Frances) need make sure you are standing in the correct directory and that the path environment variable is set correctly. It is possible that all you need to do is to reboot the computer for changes to the path variable to take effect.

[FrancesHinden]

The fact that it works on one PC and not on the other leads me to believe I am not doing anything (grossly) stupid.

Hanoi - you need to run it from within a cmd window (or write a script to run it). Have a look at the 'introductory windows tutorial' which explains exactly what to do.

To quote his website "If, after unzipping, you double click on the Deal application, it will open a DOS window, deal 10 deals, then close, which is hardly useful"

[hotShot]

This is not a folder problem, if is something very odd.
The error message has something to do with DLL versions. Since this is a DOS program that does not use any DLL's this message should not appear.
My impression from reading internet reports of similar errors (and I could be completely wrong here) is that the command prompt tries to preload DLLs prior to the program start, that are not available in the correct version. This can happen by installing new software, that overwrites DLL's. Visual Basic or Office (it contains Visual Basic as script language) are possible causes for the problem, but there may be a lot more.

[Hanoi5]

I got it working and found it very useful. Creating cnstrains for semi-specific hands (which means writing a file stating the constrains) is not easy though. I was able to create some hands to see if 6NT was better than 6C in the hands I had recently made polls about (KQxx AKJ9 A8xx A against Ax x Jx KQ1098632). I think 1C is better than any barrage and 6C is better than 6NT.

It'd be interesting to check for the number of tricks (double dummy option?) in each case but I'm no sure (and I don't know how) this can be done.

[Trumpace]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 1 2008, 05:21 AM, said:

I wanted to try out Thomas Andrews Deal program.

So I download the Windows Binary Release and unzip into a folder.
When I try to run the deal program from within a Command Prompt I get the error message "The system cannot execute the specified program"

What do I need to do?

You computer might be missing the msvcr80.dll which deal.exe requires.

You can find it here:
http://www.dll-files...s.shtml?msvcr80

Download it to the same folder which has deal.exe and try running deal then.

Hope that helps.

[FrancesHinden]

Hanoi5, on Jun 2 2008, 07:12 PM, said:

I got it working and found it very useful. Creating cnstrains for semi-specific hands (which means writing a file stating the constrains) is not easy though. I was able to create some hands to see if 6NT was better than 6C in the hands I had recently made polls about (KQxx AKJ9 A8xx A against Ax x Jx KQ1098632). I think 1C is better than any barrage and 6C is better than 6NT.

It'd be interesting to check for the number of tricks (double dummy option?) in each case but I'm no sure (and I don't know how) this can be done.

You can get it to do almost anything you want including double dummy analysis, but it needs a fair amount of programming skill, it took me an afternoon of swearing to get the hang of it.

If you are a 'c' programmer (which I'm not) it's probably rather easier.

[Mbodell]

Hanoi5, on Jun 2 2008, 10:12 AM, said:

I got it working and found it very useful. Creating cnstrains for semi-specific hands (which means writing a file stating the constrains) is not easy though. I was able to create some hands to see if 6NT was better than 6C in the hands I had recently made polls about (KQxx AKJ9 A8xx A against Ax x Jx KQ1098632). I think 1C is better than any barrage and 6C is better than 6NT.

It'd be interesting to check for the number of tricks (double dummy option?) in each case but I'm no sure (and I don't know how) this can be done.

Um, did you read the documentation. I know RTFM isn't the most helpful clue, and I know occasionally I've had issues with the odd command or bit of tcl syntax but it is trivially easy to do double dummy solving and somewhat easy to do specific constraints in a number of ways (one way from the documentation I couldn't get to work with hands that had voids was the use of the set command, but the others I could get to work in a variety of ways). Try something like:

South gets AS

alternatively in main:

if {[South has AS] > 0} {accept}
reject

will fix the AS.

alternatively try:

if {[whogets AS] == "South"} { accept }
reject

Trivially you can do that for every hand.

Particularly if you don't care if you are doing it the most efficient way possible it is easy to just brute force the issue.

I usually just add 2 or 3 checks that are around shape, points, specific cards or suit quality for some general questions or have programmed in what opening bid I'd make at any vulnerability (including preempts) and then use that for opponents when I want to simulate P - P - my choice or P - 2S - my choice.

And I usually override the deal printing function to comment out deal printing in my final run and instead track whatever variables I'm counting (but I generally print out the hands and variables I'm tracking while I'm developing a script to make sure I don't have any bugs either in programming, math, or bridge logic). I usually also over have a final processing function that prints out the summary at the end of all the deals (deals_finished).

For double dummy stuff if you have GIB it is as simple as a single function call gib::tricks that will give you an answer. The latest version has a built in DD solver as well but I haven't used that.

Seriously read the documentation at http://bridge.thomasoandrews.com/deal/ and then refer to http://bridge.thomas...al/commtop.html as you go (if you are an experienced tcl programmer that one page of commands might be enough).

I am a C programmer and had never used tcl and found it pretty simple and very, very, very powerful. Many people knock simulation results IMHO because they don't realize how flexible the simulation engine can be.

[mike777]

1)I find all of these computer commands too confusing...in the extreme.
2) This ignores if the commands are best for learning.

Hopefully someone can make money ..lots of money by making an improved version...much improved.

3) plain english....simple ....
4) after 30 years of these programs take in the most common complaints and solve them
5) result= not perfect but huge improvement.

[FrancesHinden]

Mbodell, on Jun 3 2008, 03:18 AM, said:

I am a C programmer and had never used tcl and found it pretty simple

Quick hint for anyone else who is in my position:

Much of my swearing stopped when I worked out that the language is case sensitive.