BBO Discussion Forums: Is there a good way to organize system notes? - BBO Discussion Forums

 Antrax, on 2011-November-03, 00:21, said:

If you have room for this then you are correct, we need less.

I have an Excel file I use to build my BBO full CC. If you think that is adequate for your needs you're welcome to a copy.

I have a primitive way, yet effective for me at least.

I use the "Drafts" section of my Microsoft Outlook Express e-mail to save bridge "topics" .

The topics are automatically sorted alphabetically ( when you click on the "Subject" heading ).
I add to a given topic -- say: "Splinters" or "Jac2NT" -- when something new or interesting is posted here on the forums....or something I found elsewhere on a blog, etc ).
I just copy-and-paste portions I want to save... including the thread name, URL, date, and poster's name ( and/or replier's name ).

You can also sort by "Date" with a click.

You can also make "Sub-headings" under the "To" category ( eg an Author of the post )... and sort with a click.

Mbodell:
Interesting. I thought about saving "hands that went wrong" so we can go back to them and see if our improved methods help on them. Just saving run-of-the-mill hands is an interesting idea.
Oh, and click below if your job in Microsoft is not on Sharepoint development.


han, again I'll bite: is the idea that you never need to ask for aces when the strain is NT? Or do you have more elaborate sequences so there's never an ambiguity on when a NT raise is quant? Something else? I know Gerber is considered terrible, but I never understood why.

[edit]
Thanks pooltuna, but right now I'm looking for something human readable. I can't offhand think of a way for arranging a lot of data in a spreadsheet so it stays human readable, beyond the "choose your own adventure" style

My partner is the one who writes down the notes and "officially" makes changes, He later hands me a word document with internal links that is is very easy to surf through to find whatever I want. The index at the start with all the links points to the thing you wanna read and you are there in one click.

I like the structure Giorgio Belladonna & Walter Avarelli used in The Roman Club System of Distributional Bidding the English translation of Sistema Fiori Romano, their late fifties description of the Roman Club bidding system. Essentially, they organized the book by opener’s distribution. Within those sections, further subdivision was by responder’s hand distribution and rebidder’s hand distribution. The Roman Club is simple enough so that the structure works pretty well. I’ve applied the same structure to an embarrassingly more complex system that I meant to be quite simple—conceptually, it is simple, but the devil is in the details. The structure works OK there, to. It’s just that I spend more space on notrump bidding than Belladonna & Avarell spent on the whole Roman Club bidding system!

This means that a system with artificial, forcing opening bids might have those openings appear in the balanced hands section, the one-suited hands section, the two-suited hands section, and the three-suited hands section. That might make the index entries for “1♣ Opening” or “2♣ Opening” a bit lengthy, but it seems worth it to carry common themes through hands of similar shape but different strength.

Ugh, Google docs help is terrible and it seems there's no ability to create a link from one document to an anchor in another document. I think I'll just create it in HTML myself and use dropbox-like synchronization method. Also solves the suit symbol color issue, on the way.

 Antrax, on 2011-November-07, 04:37, said:

Couldn't anyone have told me I'm an idiot?
A couple of weeks later, I think this thread was a success. We have a collection of documents, a couple large ("we open, they compete") and some smaller ("Jacoby transfers over NT openings"). Sections are generally a heading (a textual description and the auctions pertaining to it -- something like "1NT opening (15-17)" and below four auctions, just varying number of passes before the NT opening) and a table with either 2 or three columns. The column on the right is always "description", and the columns on the left are the bids (the three-column format has bids by both players, and the two-column has bids by only one. So after NT opening we have 2 columns, but after NMF we have opener's rebids and continuations).
Also, you can link from a conventional bid to a section in another document that explains it (just create a bookmark, click on it, choose "link" and copy-paste what appears in the browser's URL box), so if you want to see continuations to jacoby 2NT, you just click the bid.
All in all, I'm quite happy with the current format. So, thanks everyone for all the great examples and suggestions.

Are you going to put them up somewhere on the web public viewable (useful if you ever want to refer to them in an appeal or director ruling). If so, can you drop a link in this thread?

I don't mind sharing them, if you're curious about the format. Our system is not something to be overly proud of, most likely. I'll ask partner and when he doesn't mind I'll make it publicly viewable.

My partner and I used google docs to create a spread sheet. Here it is:

https://docs.google....X3c&output=html

 Antrax, on 2011-November-07, 04:37, said:

Open your doc, and then go to the file tab, then to publish to the web. It will generate a URL.

Oh, some other reasons why I stopped with Google Docs: the layout did some strange things, copy paste didn't work properly all the time, and when the file got big (with lots of suit symbols) it just became too slow. I hate it when I have to wait after I scroll or press <Page Down>.

 dustinst22, on 2011-November-22, 09:50, said:

This is the easy bit. The part I couldn't figure out is how to link to the middle of a page. This you do by creating a bookmark and then taking its link.
Free, which browser are you using?

Our system notes are quite well-organized. They consist of notes in the margins, cross-outs, and attachment references for all revisions in the past 30 years to the source text used as a base.

Would love to see the faces of the T.D. or an appeals committee when we present our case. The good news is that we don't have convention disruptions which impact the opponents negatively (or fess up when we do) , and don't have the need to "share".

 Antrax, on 2011-November-22, 10:00, said:

Better question would be: which browser am I not using...

For my google doc I tried IE, Firefox and Chrome. For some reason the layout changed dramatically between those browsers. Since my partner prefers IE, we agreed to only edit the file with IE.

I use a mind-map, created with Freeplane - a software product which is free from

http://freeplane.sou...x.php/Main_Page

The hierarchical structure lends itself quite well to this problem; you can import text from other apps like Word by cutting/pasting; embed links to other documents including web pages; and best of all, navigate the map by clicking nodes open or closed as you need them.

As a crude example I have posted an old (unfinished) map here

http://paladin-syste...ntions-old.html

- you can browse the map by clicking the nodes. This one was created with an older product (Freemind). Freeplane has an additional and very handy feature which allows you to add notes to a node, which then pop-up (like a bubble help or tool tip) when you hover the mouse over a node - so my current map has bid sequences as sequences of nodes, and the note for each node gives the meaning/requirements for the bid etc.

Freeplane is easy to use and takes about 10-30 minutes to learn.

I am in process of converting our system notes from a Word Doc format to a website using google sites.

It is a bloody lot of work, but hopefully it will pay off.

I am experimenting with using BBO's hand editor to create hands that test partner's ability to effectively use conventions come come up very rarely. In the process of creating quiz hands for her, I am forced to review those bidding sequences, so we both benefit. I am not sure how long the tinyURL links are active. Anyone know?

https://sites.google...bboprofile/home

Check it out for what it is worth, all feedback appreciated

Wayne

 Wayne_LV, on 2011-November-30, 15:06, said:

I find the suit symbols aren't working. Not sure if that is on my end (wrong fonts installed) or on your (google docs) end.

The suit symbols work for me. How'd you get color?