[croatin]

Hi everyone.

I was playing with a partner about a month ago who just purchased an iPhone. She mentioned that the first thing she went looking for is bridge software. There wasn't any at the time*.

I was wondering what kinds of programs bridge users (you, dear reader) would be interested in (other than the obvious BBO on a mobile device, which I'll leave to Fred and his gang to think about)? I'm a computer programmer and am experimenting with some things. One idea was a database of conventions or perhaps some tutorials for beginning bridge players. Another was a hand analysis engine, which would be really handy for tournaments (can you make it? How? Oh, that's how... Instant visual feedback/analysis on hands).

One thing that I would have to balance is that I would guess a significant number of iPhone users with bridge interest are rubber/social bridge players.

I'd love to start some discussion on this. What would you like to see? If there is enough interest I'd like to try and make it happen.

Thanks.


*The only thing available currently is "Omar Sharif Bridge," where it's you against the computer.

[AlexOgan]

I would like a private scoresheet app. A lot of features are pretty obvious -- quick entry of contract/result, automatic scoring based on vulnerability from the board number etc, ability to enter estimated matchpoint/imp score and track sum over the session, ability to enter hand / opening lead, storing/tracking results over time and providing stats about them.

I'd pay for such an app done well.

[kfay]

I already have the complete laws of contract bridge on my ipod, albiet the old version. I thought that was pretty nifty. I could probably put this on my phone somehow...

As far as programs go, deep finesse would be totally awesome. I doubt my phone would have enough power to run it, though, when my computer even takes a while.

Maybe some program just to record deals? You could fill in 3 hands you played live at the club, it would fill in the 4th hand. Then when you plugged into your computer it could export it as a lin?

[croatin]

The scoresheet tracker idea came up in an early discussion, however there was some controversy as to whether the ACBL or other organizations would allow the use of such an application at the table. I guess you could always enter it later or prove you have an iPod Touch.

I mean, I think it's an obvious fit, but we're back to the electronic devices issue. I would want to talk to the ACBL or bridge directors or others and get some feedback, and I'd also want to know there is a good enough market out there that people can shout down their director when they see the phone pop out on the table.

[barmar]

I just googled and found http://web.telia.com/~u07502278/, where he says he has a Double Dummy solver licensed under the GPL. It's been ported to Mac OS X, which should make it easy to port to the iPhone as well (but the page with the ported code uses Python, I don't know if that's available on the iPhone).

[hrothgar]

A few years back, a couple friends and I gave some serious consideration to this problem: At the time, my conclusion was that the best option was to port Bridge Master over to mobile phones.

Mobile phone gaming is dominated by users with short attention spans. They will happily spend 2-3 minutes playing around with their phone waiting for the bus to arrive, the dryer to finish its cycle, the movie to start.

Bridge Master deals seemed like the most logical fit.

At the time (five or so years ago) the state of the displays was such that we didn't think we could deliver a quality product. This may have changed.

I also thought that there might be some market for a card counting trainer.

The most obvious application is Blackjack...

Start the application.
Cards whiz by on the screen.
Periodically, you get asked to provide the count using Wong Halves, or whatever...

It should be possible to modify the same basic concept to bridge

This game also fits in with the "Kill five minutes waiting for my date to finish up in the loo" category

[hrothgar]

kfay, on Mar 26 2009, 07:45 PM, said:

I already have the complete laws of contract bridge on my ipod, albiet the old version. I thought that was pretty nifty. I could probably put this on my phone somehow...

As far as programs go, deep finesse would be totally awesome. I doubt my phone would have enough power to run it, though, when my computer even takes a while.

Maybe some program just to record deals? You could fill in 3 hands you played live at the club, it would fill in the 4th hand. Then when you plugged into your computer it could export it as a lin?

Why force people to fill in hands.

A picture is worth a thousand keystrokes (especially coupled with some decent offline image recognition software)

[JanM]

hrothgar, on Mar 26 2009, 12:01 PM, said:

A few years back, a couple friends and I gave some serious consideration to this problem:  At the time, my conclusion was that the best option was to port Bridge Master over to mobile phones.

I agree about Bridge Master, and with Fred's new "hand viewer" it ought to be doable on the iPhone (says the completely non-technical person ).
I think that we'll soon be able to watch Vugraph on our phones and that will be a great addition also.

[croatin]

barmar, on Mar 26 2009, 11:49 AM, said:

I just googled and found http://web.telia.com/~u07502278/, where he says he has a Double Dummy solver licensed under the GPL.  It's been ported to Mac OS X, which should make it easy to port to the iPhone as well (but the page with the ported code uses Python, I don't know if that's available on the iPhone).

There are several Double Dummy solvers under GPL, which is most handy. I have this stored on my computer somewhere for when I get around to it (and who knows when that will be....stupid day job...).

[kfay]

hrothgar, on Mar 26 2009, 12:03 PM, said:

kfay, on Mar 26 2009, 07:45 PM, said:

I already have the complete laws of contract bridge on my ipod, albiet the old version.  I thought that was pretty nifty.  I could probably put this on my phone somehow...

As far as programs go, deep finesse would be totally awesome.  I doubt my phone would have enough power to run it, though, when my computer even takes a while.

Maybe some program just to record deals?  You could fill in 3 hands you played live at the club, it would fill in the 4th hand.  Then when you plugged into your computer it could export it as a lin?

Why force people to fill in hands.

A picture is worth a thousand keystrokes (especially coupled with some decent offline image recognition software)

Somehow this seems several years further away to me than the original idea.

[croatin]

A "Bridge Scoring Reference" is now available on the iPhone app store. It's free. It displays IMP tables, scoring for any contract, and also who dealt and who was vulnerable on any given hand.

Hopefully more to come...

[fred]

The latest version of Handviewer (which runs on the iPhone) contains a double dummy solver. Details here:

Click for details

This is not an "iPhone app" - it works on any mobile device that can run a web browser.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[helene_t]

A simple and useful app would be one that could post "Agree with JLOL" on some random BBF thread

[orlam]

helene_t, on Apr 8 2009, 07:47 PM, said:

A simple and useful app would be one that could post "Agree with JLOL" on some random BBF thread

LOL

Auto-Posted with lol.iphoneapps.com

[xcurt]

fred, on Apr 8 2009, 07:18 PM, said:

The latest version of Handviewer (which runs on the iPhone) contains a double dummy solver. Details here:

Click for details

This is not an "iPhone app" - it works on any mobile device that can run a web browser.

The handviewer is pretty cool, especially the GIB feature. It's nice that it's js and not flash. The iPhone doesn't do flash. Can the handviewer be made to work as a real-time Vugraph viewer?

Also, considering that the iPhone is an ARM cpu underclocked to 400 MHz, it's going to do double-dummy simulations at a pretty glacial pace. So anyone looking to create a bridge app for iPhone should be thinking "client-server." At which point, you're really just talking about a front end to one of the four or five decent bridge programs. You also need to worry about screen real estate. For example, the old OKBridge unix text client (I miss that program ) fit in 80x24, which is bigger than most iPhone ssh applications can reasonably display. On the other hand, It should be easy to send everything about one round of bidding or play in one packet, so if the latency is under 1-2 sec it should be OK.

[fred]

xcurt, on Apr 10 2009, 05:01 AM, said:

The handviewer is pretty cool, especially the GIB feature.  It's nice that it's js and not flash. The iPhone doesn't do flash.  Can the handviewer be made to work as a real-time Vugraph viewer?

Thanks. I am glad you like it

Regarding vugraph, we think the answer is yes. We plan to find out for sure, hopefully within the next few months.

Quote

Also, considering that the iPhone is an ARM cpu underclocked to 400 MHz, it's going to do double-dummy simulations at a pretty glacial pace.  So anyone looking to create a bridge app for iPhone should be thinking "client-server."

The current implementation of the Handviewer double dummy solver does not run on the iPhone (or whatever the host machine is) itself. It runs one of our servers.

You make a good point regarding clock speed of the iPhone, but it turns out that this was not the reason we made the Handviewer double dummy solver a client-server application.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[bob100147]

An app for scoring team events would be helpful. It's a pain to use an IMP table and then add up the scores for a match. There are often mistakes.

[y66]

orlam, on Apr 8 2009, 08:50 PM, said:

helene_t, on Apr 8 2009, 07:47 PM, said:

A simple and useful app would be one that could post "Agree with JLOL" on some random BBF thread

LOL

Auto-Posted with lol.iphoneapps.com

LOL

Auto-Posted with lol.iphoneapps.com