BBO Discussion Forums: Example Lin File for Upload to Tourney - BBO Discussion Forums

Here is an example of what you need to include in a lin file to upload hands to a tourney.

qx||md|3CDKJ432H942S98762,C74D9765HK653SQT5,CAKQ982DT8HAQT7SK,CJT653DAQHJ8SAJ43|
sv|-|pg||
qx||md|4CAK5DQT8532H3SAK4,CQ876D9HAKT954SJ5,CT42DK7HQJ82SQ962,CJ93DAJ64H76ST873|
sv|n|pg||
qx||md|1C7432DJ2HAJ75ST83,CA9DQ9654H32SAQ72,CQT5DT87HKT64S654,CKJ86DAK3HQ98SKJ9|
sv|e|pg||
qx||md|2C8DKJT9632H6SQ875,CAQ7D874HT532SK93,CKT952DHAJ74SAJ42,CJ643DAQ5HKQ98ST6|
sv|b|pg||
qx||md|3CADA9HAJ943SAQJ75,CK75DKJ7653HT85S6,C9863D42HK72S9832,CQJT42DQT8HQ6SKT4|
sv|n|pg||
qx||md|4CQJDAJ8543HK753S8,CK7DKQ72HA984SKQ7,CAT865432DT6HSAT4,C9D9HQJT62SJ96532|
sv|e|pg||
qx||md|1C832DQ2HK52SAQJT5,C976DA753HAJ743S2,CKQJT5DKT984HQ9S9,CA4DJ6HT86SK87643|
sv|b|pg||
qx||md|2CAQJ843D7HQT43SJ7,CT2DAK42HAKJ852S5,C6DQ965H9SAKQT932,CK975DJT83H76S864|
sv|-|pg||
qx||md|3CT64DAJ2HAJT3ST64,CKQJDQ9654H8SAQ97,CA3DKT83HQ7652SK8,C98752D7HK94SJ532|
sv|e|pg||
qx||md|4C432DAJT954HJ2S43,CQ876D873HQT753S2,CAJ5DK2HK986SQ987,CKT9DQ6HA4SAKJT65|
sv|b|pg||
qx||md|1CDAJ752HJ8652ST92,CQJTDK643HAQT9SQ4,CA96543DTH73SAJ75,CK872DQ98HK4SK863|
sv|-|pg||
qx||md|2CK972D652HKST7652,CAQJ63DKQTHA84SQ4,C854DAJ7HQT652S98,CTD9843HJ973SAKJ3|
sv|n|pg||
qx||md|3CJ754DKQJ54H7SKQ3,C8D63HAKJ985SAJ52,CKT9DA82H643ST764,CAQ632DT97HQT2S98|
sv|b|pg||
qx||md|4CT5DK43HAKTSKT875,CAK843DAQJH43SAJ6,CQJ762DT85H652S94,C9D9762HQJ987SQ32|
sv|-|pg||
qx||md|1CQDK95HA9874SKQJ5,C7532D86HJ52S9832,CK864DAJT73H63SA6,CAJT9DQ42HKQTST74|
sv|n|pg||
qx||md|2C98DK743HAJT43SA7,CAT52D5HQ7SQT9642,C4DT862H98652SKJ3,CKQJ763DAQJ9HKS85|
sv|e|pg||
qx||md|3CQ94D63HJT6SQT753,CA86DAK52HQ932S42,C52DT87HK875SAJ86,CKJT73DQJ94HA4SK9|
sv|-|pg||
qx||md|4CJT82D975HJT43ST8,CAQ965DT64HA9SAK9,CK43DKQJ8HQ872S75,C7DA32HK65SQJ6432|
sv|n|pg||
qx||md|1CA43D86HAQT63SA85,CJT7DK72HKJ98SKJ2,CKQ6DAQ953H52S964,C9852DJT4H74SQT73|
sv|e|pg||
qx||md|2CJ75DQJ873HJ94ST9,CATDKH83SAKJ87652,C86D96542HKT2SQ43,CKQ9432DATHAQ765S|
sv|b|pg||
qx||md|3CQ6DK743HQ8SAKQ93,CKT42DAJHKT32SJ82,C875DT962H97654ST,CAJ93DQ85HAJS7654|
sv|n|pg||
qx||md|4CT86DQ98H64SKJT76,CK94DK63HKQT83S93,CQ752DJ75H97SAQ84,CAJ3DAT42HAJ52S52|
sv|e|pg||
qx||md|1CJ5DKQT62HJ73SA72,C82DJ4HK62SKJ9853,CKT97DA75HT985ST4,CAQ643D983HAQ4SQ6|
sv|b|pg||
qx||md|2CQDT643HKT52SQ862,CKT8D85HAQ9843SAK,CA9753DAQJ9H7SJT3,CJ642DK72HJ6S9754|
sv|-|pg||


Wayne

A little bit of testing has uncovered the following:

--the sv|-|pg|| area down a line has been broken up, by the forum software I assume, from the rest above it. It all needs to be on the same line.

--the character | divides the various fields. On my keyboard this is just above the enter key.

--the four hands are given in the order: South, West, North, East

--the hands are shown with 17 characters: AKQJT98765432 (not 10) for cards, and CDHS for suits. Commas announce the start of a new hand. If there is a void you type nothing and continue to the next suit. (Question: do the suits need to be in ascending order?)

--the number before the first suit letter indicates the dealer: 1=South, 2=West, 3=North, 4=East

--the letter in the field sandwiched between "sv" and "pg" indicates the vulnerability: b=both, -=none, n=North-South, e=East-West

This should be enough for anyone to create a set of hands in a text editor and upload them for their tourneys. However, I don't know whether the software checks to see that you have thirteen cards in each hand, or that you have no missing or duplicated cards. You should check this manually before uploading your deals, using the movie viewer. My method for checking this in the bridge publication I edit is as follows:

1) Make sure this is the correct hand record according to some external record you have. (Nothing like printing a partscore hand record and writing in the accompanying text that the dealer should open 2♣ and the cold grand slam should be easily reached...)
2) Check each of the four hands to see if they have 13 cards.
3) Check for the presence somewhere of the ace of spades.
4) Check for the presence somewhere of the king of spades.
5) Check for the presence somewhere of the queen of spades.
6) Check for the presence somewhere of the jack of spades.
...
54) Check for the presence somewhere of the two of clubs.

It takes about a minute and a half per board. But any shortcut will lead to portential disaster.

Perhaps Fred can enlighten us on what the qx, md, sv, pg, and the blank fields are for.

qx allows the program to create a multiple deal .lin file
sv|x| sets vulnerability - means neither, b means both, n means NS only, e EW only
md|xyzetc.| stand for "make deal"
pg|| is a page break when viewing the .lin file

IIRC, the only thing I care about when uploading a LIN file is
that every deal contains a QX| and a md|blah-blah| portion.

I dpnt actually use teh QX, so now i wondedr why i dont simply use the md| tag alone.

The MOVIE window lets you create/save deals..

uday, on Feb 17 2004, 02:21 AM, said:

Yes, but this does not solve the problem to play my own boards. I tried it with BridgeBaseVu. It was many deals in .PBN file, but only the last one was seen and converted to .LIN. When I wish to play 16 boards I have to create 16 PBN files, convert and join 16 LIN files ? Did I something wrong?

I am a programmer. If you send to me parts of your programme which read PBN and write LIN I could write a converter for everybody's use. Probably.

Dusan

I am not sure that you need to do the coversion from PBN to LIN file. The software can handle this for you. I ran a little partial test which seemed to work fine. I went the the PBN homepage and downloaded a hand with 16 PBN hands in one file. I then did the following. I opened the file with the bridgeview software and then pressed the thing that looked like a save button. The result of this maniuplation was that a file was saved on my computer with a different file extension (lin instead of pbn). To be honest, when I opened this with notepad, the file format was not converted to lin, but this artificially labelled lin file could,

1) be loaded into the movie viewer while on line, and all the hands and bidding was visible,
2) when I created a mock tournment, and told the software to read the mock pbn file in for the event, it read the file and at least I got the file uploaded sucessfully.

I did not actually try to run the tournment to be sure the hands were indeed uploaded. If someone was energetic enough to create a small 2 or 3 table tournment with some friends and a pbn file loaded this way to see if it works, that would be great.

Ben

If you open a pbn file with bridgevu.exe it automatically creates a lin file with all of the hands.

Put a pbn file in a separate directory and run bridgevu.exe and you will find afterwards there are two files in the directory. A pbn file and a lin file.

The lin file i think needs some massaging to be used as uploaded hands in a tourney.

Wayne

Cascade, on Feb 20 2004, 05:23 AM, said:

Thanks Ben and Wayne. It works as you say if you have a PBN file with complete play, like e.g. USAFRANCE.PBN in BBO Hands directory. I want to use a file from card generator (BIGDEAL 1.1) only with cards ([Board], [Dealer], [Vulnerable], and [Deal] sections present). The behaviour is as I wrote - only last hand is converted.

Dusan

Posleda, on Feb 20 2004, 07:47 AM, said:

Your pbn file being so simple, you can write a pbn2lin converter very easily.

What can't you guess about the lin format in order to be able to write your own converter ?

Erskon

Posleda, on Feb 20 2004, 04:47 AM, said:

BridgeVu.exe can read .DUP files.

Use the .DUP output option of BigDeal.

That will generate a vugraph.lin file in your BBO directory suitable for vugraph (hands duplicated in open and closed rooms). Then open that file in the lobby, and save it, to get rid of the 2nd set.

Upload the resulting .LIN file to tourney

Posleda, on Feb 20 2004, 04:47 AM, said:

I am away today I will investigate what happens for me.

I use pbn hands that I generate from my own dealing program. I am pretty sure that I do not include complete play - as I would have to make it up.

Can you email a sample file and I will compare it to what I use - I imagine it is only a minor massage.

Wayne

Cascade, on Feb 21 2004, 08:41 AM, said:

Yes, small part:

% PBN 1.0
[Generator "Big Deal version 1.1"]
[Board "1"]
[Dealer "N"]
[Vulnerable "None"]
[Deal "N:K76.QJ9863.AJT.A A9853.K2.95.Q643 42.4.K864.KT9752 QJT.AT75.Q732.J8"]

[Board "2"]
[Dealer "E"]
[Vulnerable "NS"]
[Deal "N:9743.3.QT94.AJ65 KJT5.K872.A86.T4 .AQJT964.K7532.K AQ862.5.J.Q98732"]

[Board "3"]
[Dealer "S"]
[Vulnerable "EW"]
[Deal "N:8.KT652.QT865.K3 974.A874.A3.AQT8 T65.QJ.J42.J6542 AKQJ32.93.K97.97"]

Dusan

Posleda, on Feb 23 2004, 06:02 AM, said:

Adding an [Event ""] tag before each Board tag made this work for me.

% PBN 1.0
[Generator "Big Deal version 1.1"]
[Event ""]
[Board "1"]
[Dealer "N"]
[Vulnerable "None"]
[Deal "N:K76.QJ9863.AJT.A A9853.K2.95.Q643 42.4.K864.KT9752 QJT.AT75.Q732.J8"]

[Event ""]
[Board "2"]
[Dealer "E"]
[Vulnerable "NS"]
[Deal "N:9743.3.QT94.AJ65 KJT5.K872.A86.T4 .AQJT964.K7532.K AQ862.5.J.Q98732"]

[Event ""]
[Board "3"]
[Dealer "S"]
[Vulnerable "EW"]
[Deal "N:8.KT652.QT865.K3 974.A874.A3.AQT8 T65.QJ.J42.J6542 AKQJ32.93.K97.97"]


Wayne

Posleda, on Feb 23 2004, 09:02 AM, said:

So, look at the differences between your file and another .pbn file which works OK (for instance usafrance.pbn) !

You will see that the .pbn file requires the [Event] tag so that all boards of it are converted to a complete .lin file.

% PBN 1.0
[Event ""]
[Generator "Big Deal version 1.1"]
[Board "1"]
[Dealer "N"]
[Vulnerable "None"]
[Deal "N:K76.QJ9863.AJT.A A9853.K2.95.Q643 42.4.K864.KT9752 QJT.AT75.Q732.J8"]

[Event ""]
[Board "2"]
[Dealer "E"]
[Vulnerable "NS"]
[Deal "N:9743.3.QT94.AJ65 KJT5.K872.A86.T4 .AQJT964.K7532.K AQ862.5.J.Q98732"]


[Event ""]
[Board "3"]
[Dealer "S"]
[Vulnerable "EW"]
[Deal "N:8.KT652.QT865.K3 974.A874.A3.AQT8 T65.QJ.J42.J6542 AKQJ32.93.K97.97"]

Erkson

This is the same problem that kingthief posted about in september, where he had trouble with pbn files from the GIB website and the bridgevu software...some files showed all the hands, and ohters only showed one despite many hands in the file. The solution I found for the king (wonder if he read it casue he has never posted since) then is the same one as now...

http://bridgebase.lunarpages.com/~bridge2/...st=0&#entry6467

Maybe Uday or fred can make an improvement to PBN file reading to ignore the lack of the event title in the future...but that should be very low priority I would thing.

Ben

Erkson, on Feb 23 2004, 06:45 PM, said:

There are many differences between these files. Adding [EVENT], [SITE] or/and [DATE] tag doesn't change anything.

Posleda, on Feb 23 2004, 01:49 PM, said:

??????????

I added the [Event ""] tag to your file, saved it, double-clicked on it. That launched NetBridgeVu.exe which automatically deposited in the directory a .lin file with your three boards !

Try it again !

Here is your (corrected) file again :

% PBN 1.0
[Event ""]
[Generator "Big Deal version 1.1"]
[Board "1"]
[Dealer "N"]
[Vulnerable "None"]
[Deal "N:K76.QJ9863.AJT.A A9853.K2.95.Q643 42.4.K864.KT9752 QJT.AT75.Q732.J8"]

[Event ""]
[Board "2"]
[Dealer "E"]
[Vulnerable "NS"]
[Deal "N:9743.3.QT94.AJ65 KJT5.K872.A86.T4 .AQJT964.K7532.K AQ862.5.J.Q98732"]


[Event ""]
[Board "3"]
[Dealer "S"]
[Vulnerable "EW"]
[Deal "N:8.KT652.QT865.K3 974.A874.A3.AQT8 T65.QJ.J42.J6542 AKQJ32.93.K97.97"]
--------------------------------------

And the .lin file result :

vg|,,P,1,3,Team 1,0,Team 2,0|
rs|,,,,,|
pw|,,,,,,,,,,,|
mp|,,,,,|
bn|1,2,3|
pg||
mn||pn|South,West,North,East|qx|o1,BOARD 1|rh||ah|Board 1|md|3S42H4DK864CKT9752,SQJTHAT75DQ732CJ8,SK76HQJ9863DAJTCA|sv|0|
sa|0|pg||
pn|South,West,North,East|qx|o2,BOARD 2|rh||ah|Board 2|md|4SHAQJT964DK7532CK,SAQ862H5DJCQ98732,S9743H3DQT94CAJ65|sv|n|
sa|0|pg||
pn|South,West,North,East|qx|o3,BOARD 3|rh||ah|Board 3|md|1ST65HQJDJ42CJ6542,SAKQJ32H93DK97C97,S8HKT652DQT865CK3|sv|e|
sa|0|pg||


Erkson

Posleda, on Feb 23 2004, 08:49 AM, said:

The tag is [Event "Erikson and Wayne helped me"] not [EVENT]

Now, you can put anything you want between the quotes, even nothing, such that:

[Event] is wrong, but
[Event ""] is right....

the site and date tags are not necessary.

ben

inquiry, on Feb 23 2004, 02:44 PM, said:

You are 100% right, Ben.

The tag is [Event "Wayne and Ben and Erkson tried to help me, but Posleda still gets a single board .lin file"]

Erkson

Erkson, on Feb 23 2004, 11:59 PM, said:

Problem is solved. Mea culpa. I have omitted the word "each" and have inserted the tag only before the 1st board. So Posleda gets multiboards LIN file now too. THANKS Wayne, Ben and Erkson!

[Gerardo wrote:

Use the .DUP output option of BigDeal.

That will generate a vugraph.lin file in your BBO directory suitable for vugraph (hands duplicated in open and closed rooms). Then open that file in the lobby, and save it, to get rid of the 2nd set.]

Hard work, I have tried in 2 today's tournaments and is OK. Thanks Gerardo!

I had no method how to play own cards, now I have two.

Dusan