Movement QM0404-S, a Square Mitchell with an arrow switch on the last round, has been added. The instructions for QM0404 and QM0404B+ have been updated. The new .MOV, .PDF and .PS files have been placed only on the Wide Letter page. The .sw file has been updated on the BridgeMats home page. The program (.pl) has not been changed. No zip files have been changed: these changes will be rolled up with the next program update.
Standard movement table mats, for Mitchell movements and Team games, are now available with section letters. Sections A through F are ready to print, for tables 1 through 26, and the recommended (standard) colors for the paper are listed.
Producing mats for a different section, or changing MIT/DL Bridge Club
to the name of your club merely requires changing a couple of lines
near the top of any of the Mitchell-x.PS files.
However, you will need the Ghost software to print or produce a PDF.
Obtain these new mats and the new scorer from the Wide mats page itself; they are not in the zips for version B309.
Version B309 added Wide Letter format, which will be the primary format from now on. The old, narrow format has these issues:
US Letter stock is readily available in any color or thickness you desire. It won't require cutting, in Wide Letter format. Poly sheet protectors do not lift laser print.
Standard poly sheet protectors may be used with the new Wide Letter format. The heaviest you are likely to find in stationery stores are 3.3 mil thick, such as the best house brand at Staples. Avery does not print the thickness on their package, but you can discover this on their web site. I picked up 2x25 "heavy duty" (3.3 mil) Averys at costco.com. I just filled up a set of 12 with 24 lb paper for a spare set of boards. They will clearly be fine for that, and might be (with occasional replacements) for general use.
For my planned new main sets, I acquired 25 Premier polypropylene photo pages
from Century Photo, with whom I dealt when they were 20th Century Plastics.
They are sold as holding two 8.5x11 pages (back to back), but hold more.
These are 8 mil thick, 2.5 times as thick as standard heavy duty.
(Their 5 mil EZ2C pages do not seem to come in 8.5x11.)
The required product is buried deep in the site, so here is the link
(Item#: PP260519PK):
http://www.centuryphoto.com/century-premier-poly-photo-pages-holds-2-8-1-2quot-x-11quot-25-pk/century-premier-photo-slide-pages/
You could also try other photo supply sites or stores.
Mitchell mats are now provided, only in the Wide Letter format. The file contains mats for 26 tables: just print as many pages as you need. There are no section letters yet, but you can print on multiple page colors. I edited a PostScript file to produce these. You could do the same, but you'll probably need the Ghost software to print.
The Wide Letter Scorer was not updated for version B309, but has now been updated on the Wide Letter page:
A copy of the Scorer, printed on a distinctive color, faces the back of each of my sleeves.
Several people have asked me about movement files and personal guide cards. ACBLscore has both external movements, stored in files, and a number of movements built in. It lets you edit a movement and save it as a file, as well.
A movement file must be placed into a folder where it will be seen, to be used by BridgeMats or ACBLscore. For Bridgemats to read a file, it should be in the folder containing BridgeMats.pl (you should work with a copy of the original file). For ACBLscore, it's more complicated, with each type of movement having its own file type and folder:
| Movement | Filename | Folder |
| Pairs | name.MOV | C:\ACBLSCOR\MOV |
| Individual | name.IND | C:\ACBLSCOR\IND |
| Board-a-Match | name.BAM | C:\ACBLSCOR\BAM |
To use a movement that requires personal guide cards, choose Movements (instead of Game) from the main menu of ACBLscore (or EDMOV from within an already-set-up game). Select the appropriate External movement. Select Display/print guide cards, Printer; cut them up, and distribute them.
Since I don't have a printer at the game, I print the summary sheet (Display/print this movement) for each such movement, and use it as a wrapper for the personal guide cards. I tack the four guide cards for each table together with one leg of a staple, all ready to hand out.
The rover and double rover individual movements are the same as the corresponding non-rover movement, with the rovers spliced in. To save on preparation, you should be able to get away with using double rover table mats when you have only one rover, or no rover at all. Since the first bumped player will be at the same table for the next board, the chart on the table mat can be used to figure out who to expect at the table when the rover is not there.
Similarly, for movements with personal guide cards, you should be able to use those for the RR movement. When told to sit out, the player should check the table for the next board.
Calculating the next table for players can be tricky. BridgeMats fails to do this correctly for some rover and double-rover Individual movements, leaving the space blank. We can fix the printed mat by pencilling in what appears for the corresponding non-rover movement.
The single-winner, rotation movements (beginning S) are much better for rovers, because each rover bumps a player for only one board, rather than two or three. If you need to use the non-rotation movements (beginning R), some of which need major attention, I'll leave the fix to you. Let me know if you do use one of these, because I'm inclined to remove them from the next release.
Here are the fixes for the broken single-winner, rotation movements. Any positions not listed are already correct.
| Movement: | S0721RR | S0924R, S0924RR | S1133RR |
| Current Position | Go next to Table ... |
||
| 1, West | 6, West | 10, West | |
| 2, West | 7, West | 11, West | |
| 3, West | 1, West | ||
| 4, West | 2, West | 2, West | 2, West |
| 5, West | 3, West | 6, West | 3, West |
| 6, West | 4, West | 1, West | 4, West |
| 8, West | 6, West | ||
| 9, West | 7, West | ||
| 11, West | 9, West | ||
| Movement: | S0721RR | S0924R, S0924RR | S1133RR |
Today I started a computer calculating a single-rover movement for S1224.IND. I don't know how many days or weeks these brute force calculations will take. If I can get a solution, I'll publish it in the next release.
Calculating a double-rover movement requires a single-rover movement file as input. If I get the first solution, I'll give the second a shot.
Failure is a significant possibility. The next thing to try would be to truncate the movement to eleven rounds (22 boards), less than ideal with rovers added on.
Another approach would be to create a 36-board 12-table movement with rotation. This would be a feat of meticulosity, constructing a new ACBLscore movement file for 36 one-board rounds, and then putting the rotation into it. (Existing files contain the required information, but not in a form usable as a basis for the required file.) Truncating the new movement to nine rounds should permit calculating a rover movement, perhaps in less than an hour. Adding 50% more boards is undesirable, but this would beat sending somebody home.
I have Ian McKinnon's new book, Duplicate Bridge Schedules, which may offer some hope, as would his companion product, Jeanie. Again, if I cannot get the movement into ACBLscore, it is of no value to me.
The ACBL has embarked upon a total replacement for ACBLscore, a fearful prospect. Software developers have long been aware of the second system effect, a tendency to build so many capabilities into the second system that it suffers greatly in performance, reliability, usability, etc. Let's hope they keep it lean!
The new program will use new, incompatible movement files. They have succumbed to the modern craze for XML. However, they say there are excellent XML tools available for Perl, the language in which BridgeMats was written, so converting to the new format should not be difficult. They also say they will provide a tool that will convert an old-format movement file to the new format. BridgeMats was one of my early Perl efforts and not up to my current coding standards, so significant surgery may be difficult.
Last updated: December 7, 2013
Contact Pete Matthews: pmatthews@alum.bucknell.edu