QUICK GUIDE
This is BridgeSkalis DDE, an online Double Dummy Editor/Solver for bridge deals.
EDIT DEAL
When you first launch DDE, you will find four empty hands, NESW, and a canvas in the middle where all the cards are at the moment. In the bottom left corner you have an option to choose full deal or partial deal with 2-12 cards/hand, and a "New deal" button to start fresh again. The cards are moved to the first hand with spots available, starting with North, as you click on them, and if you click again they are returned to the canvas. Once you have placed 13x3 cards the remaining cards will automatically form Wests hand.
You can also drag and drop cards back and forth between hands or between a hand and the canvas. With this method, a hand can temporarily contain more than 13 cards, but next step (choosing contract/declarer) will not be available until all hands contain the appropriate amount of cards.
Once the hands are filled up, the card canvas is closed and you are opted to choose contract and declarer in case of full deal was formed, or strain, amount of tricks, declarer and player on lead in case of a partial deal was formed. Click "Done!" when ready.
IMPORT DEAL
There are several ways to import a deal into DDE. You can write or copy/paste a deal into the input box furthest below and click "Import string". Valid formats are currently LIN or PBN (see below on how to format those). Click "Clear" to reset the input box.
You can also open a local file on your computer by clicking "Open PBN or LIN file". It does in fact accept any file types as long as the content is either LIN or PBN. If not, an error message is given. The local file can contain more than one deal, in which case multiple deals will be imported. See section Manage Multiple Deals for more info.
Lastly, you can import a deal immediately upon launch of DDE by using URL search parameters in the address field. Required parameter is: PBN. Optional parameters are as follows: N, E, S, W, Contract, Declarer.
If your imported deal(s) contains information about contract and declarer, it is automatically chosen and triggers playing mode - unless the deal was passed out, in which case you choose contract yourself. In addition, if your imported file is of type LIN and contains player data, the player names replaces North, East, South and West respectively. Player names in PBN files are not supported.
Example of address field with URL parameters can be seen below:
https://bridgeskalis.se/DDE/index.html?PBN=AKQJT98765432...%20.AKQJT98765432..%20..AKQJT98765432.%20...AKQJT98765432&Contract=4S&Declarer=N
SAVE DEAL
By clicking "Save deal", a snapshot of the current deal is automatically downloaded and stored on your computer, in the default download folder. You don't even need to finish the construction of the deal as long as all hands contain the same number of cards at the time. Saving a deal in the middle of the play session, saves the full deal when no cards have been played.
THE PBN FORMAT
PBN strings are in format "X:hand1 hand2 hand3 hand4" where X is either one of N, E, S or W and marks which hand is written first, and the rest written clockwise. Hand1-4 are formatted AKQJ.T98.765.432 where AKQJ are Spades, T98 are Hearts and so on. If the hand contains a void, två dots will be after eachother. The hands are separated by a space. If the initial direction with colon is omitted, it is assumed to be N:.
PBN strings are not necessarily formed with 13 cards each, partial deals are accepted as long as all four hands contain the same number of cards.
THE LIN FORMAT
LIN strings are formatted "Xhand1,hand2,hand3," where X is a digit 1/2/3/4 and represents the dealer (irrelevant for DDE) followed by hands1-3 with an accompaning comma to denote the end of the hand. The fourth and last hand belongs to East, as hand1-3 represents South/West/North in that order, and East's hand is formed by exclusion logic from the other three hands. Hands are formatted SAKQJHT98D765C432 where SHDC tells us about the suits.
The initial dealer indicator (1-4) and the trailing comma may be omitted.
PLAY THE DEAL
Once the deal has been constructed, the canvas with cards are closed and play can begin. In top left corner the contract (or required tricks in case of partial deal) is shown together with the contract or strain. The number of already taken tricks for NS and EW respectively are also shown.
The player in turn is highlighted in gold color and the resulting tricks is shown for each playable card. To play a card, simply click it - no drag'n drop is available during play. The card played is positioned in the center for each hand, for each trick. If you want to change the play order, click the card in the center and the card with all concurrent cards in the current trick are returned to their hands.
Once the play has been started, you also get two new buttons: "Edit deal" to abort the play and return to edit mode, and "Reset play" to fully reset the plays and start all over with the initial lead.
MANAGE MULTIPLE DEALS
DDE can import deals from LIN or PBN files containing multiple deals. In the bottom right corner you will have buttons to control which deal of the imported ones to work with. As soon as you change deal, the play is reset.
Imported deals can be edited as if it was a single deal, but changes will not be saved to the import - any changes made will be lost if you change deal.
THE POSSIBLE TRICKS TABLE
As soon as the deal is imported, a table showing possible tricks to be taken is shown in the top right corner. As the deal is edited and all cards have been distributed, it is recalculated. Be aware that this is mathematically intense and may cause a bit of lag from hand creation until the table is recalculated and presented.
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IMPORT STRING
Enter your import string in a valid LIN or PBN format. Consult the Quick Guide for information how to enter the string properly.
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