[Kungsgeten]

Hi!

I recently discovered the Full disclosure system on BBO. I tried using bidedit for a while, but found it pretty slow to work with. I've created a markup language which I call Bridge Bidding Markup Language (BML for short).

BML is intended to be easy to write and easy to read. Right now I also have a program written in Python which can convert BML files to BSS (the format used by BBO), and these files can be used while playing online.

All features of the Full Disclosure system isn't implemented yet, but the most useful ones (according to me) are. I would be happy if you tried it out and gave me some thoughts. You can download the manual and the converting program from here

Just to give you an example, here's what a BML file can look like (including a basic description of a No Trump structure):

SAYC
A natural system with 5 card majors and best minor

1C; 3+!c, 11+ hcp
1D; 3+!d, 11+ hcp
1H; 5+!h, 11+ hcp
1S; 5+!s, 11+ hcp
1N; 15-17 bal
2C; ARTIFICIAL. Game-forcing or 22-24 bal
2D; Weak
2H; Weak
2S; Weak
2N; 20-21 bal

1N;
2C ARTIFICIAL. Stayman
   2D ARTIFICIAL. No 4 card major
   2H NON-FORCING. 4+!h
   2S NON-FORCING. 4+!s
2D TRANSFER. 5+!h
   2H NON-FORCING.
   3H NON-FORCING. Super accept
2H TRANSFER. 5+!s
   2S NON-FORCING.
   3S NON-FORCING. Super accept
2S ARTIFICIAL. Minor suit Stayman
2N INVITATIONAL.

Edit 2012-07-20:
BML has been updated to version 0.3. Changes include variables and support for BSS suit lengths and outcomes. The manual has also been updated and now has information on bids depending on seat and/or vulnerability.

Edit 2013-04-01:
BML has been completly rewritten and can now be found at GitHub.

[Cthulhu D]

That's really good actually. I will give it a throw.

[Kungsgeten]

Please do! I'll be happy to hear about your comments.

[mycroft]

One comment (about comments): your manual shows that you can use C++ -style comments (//comment).
Your continuation example uses Perl-style comments (#comment).

Are both of them legal? Can I also use C-style block comments or Python docstring-style block comments?

[Kungsgeten]

Ah, I'm sorry. The documentation is wrong (I just kind of wanted to "get it out there" and hopefully recieve some feedback). It uses C-style // comments. At first I used # as comments, but I figured that you may want to use # in your description of bids for some reason (like #5!s or something similar).

So currently only // as comments, and no block comments (though I guess they could be implemented).

[Cthulhu D]

I've got this going. Some thoughts

A) It's really good, I like it

B) Nothing you can do, but the BBO interface for uploading FD cards is 100% made of pure ass.

C) Make the headers preceeded by a tag or something - it took me awhile to work out why the 1C bidding description was becoming the system name.

D) Number 1 feature request PLEASE OH PLEASE let tabs work for indenting bidding trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or make the converter replace a tab with 8 spaces. I care not.

Otherwise it's pretty good, working a system up into it now.


Edit: Also, can you validate if the output is a legit BSS file? I guess this is partly FD's fault - it never says 'OH NOES your file is buggered right up' it just fails silently. Which is awesome when you're trying to debug stuff. Not.

Edit2: Also, what is the 'symbol' for Pass? Passes have meanings in my system, so I need to be able to define a meaning for that bid.

Feature Requests:

Allow me to define PASS or if you have tell me how

Let it read tabs as white space

Can it accept and expand the short hand

4m
4M
4x

to 4C and 4D, 4H/S and 4C/D/H/S respectively?

This is partly personal interest. If it can do that, I can paste my system notes directly from excel into the program. However, just the shorthand and pass is a massive leap forward, replacing tabs with whitespace can be done with find/replace.

[Kungsgeten]

I'm glad you're using and liking it!

C) One of the purposes of BML was to make the "code" readable and easy to write. That's the reason why there's no tags. But ofcourse it could be implemented.
D) Okay, I'll look into this. Should be easy to implement.

[Cthulhu D]

Got practically an entire system in and working - it's pretty good and quite fast if you doco your system in excel. I am going to change my documenting style to meet your parser haha.

Spoiler

2/1 Game forcing with a short club
WBF Red, 5 card majors, 14-16 N and 1C = clubs or balanced

1C; 2+!c, 11-20 HCP - !cs or bal.
1D; 4+!d, 11-20 HCP - unbal. may have longer !cs
1H; 5+!h, 11-20 HCP
1S; 5+!s, 11-20 HCP
1N; 14-16, may include a 5 card major or 6 card minor
2C; Weak 5+!d, 22+ Bal, 21+ Unbal or 9+ Playing tricks
2D; Weak 5+!h or Weak 5+!s 
2H; Weak 4+!s and 4+!h
2S; Weak 4+!s and 5+!c or 5+!d


1N;     14-16 Balanced
 2C    Stayman(extended)....used even wo 4M
  2D   Stayman answer, No 4cM
   2H  weak scramble for either major (4+ in both majors, 4-4-1-4)
   2S  NF 5S 4H invitational
   2N  game invitation may or may not contain 4 card major
   3C  natural GF, generally slamish
   3H  Smolen, showing 5 of unbid major and 4 of the bid major, GF
   3N  to play
   4C  RKC Gerber 1430 2B 2G  (2 bad 2 good)
   4D  5-5+ majors GF and non-slamish 
  2H   
   2S  4 card suit invitational values
   2N  invitational no 4 card major
   3C  natural GF, generally slamish
   3H  invite
   3S  splinter for S or balanced slam try
    3N Asks
    4H Spade splinter
   3N  to play
   4C  splinters
   4H  to play
   4S  exclusion blackwood  (see SLAM)
   4N  quantitative balanced with 4S
   5C  exclusion blackwood  (see SLAM)
   5H  call 6 with 2 of top 4
  2S   Stayman answer, 4+!s. denies 4 hearts
   2N  invitational may have 4H, may not
   3C  natural GF, generally slamish
   3H  balanced slam try with 4S
   3S  invite
   3N  to play
   4C  splinters
   4S  to play
   4N  quantitative balanced with 4H
   5C  exclusion blackwood  (see SLAM)
   5S  call 6 with 2 of top 4
 2D    Transfer to Hearts (5+)
  2H   Transfer to Hearts (5+)
   2S  5-5 majors, slamish
   2N  Invitational with 5 H
   3C  Second Suit, GF
   3H  Invitational with 6+ H
   3S  Splinter (6+!h, slam interest)
   3N  Pick a game
   4C  Splinter (6+ H, slam interest)
   4S  exclusion blackwood  (see SLAM)
   4N  Quantitative
   5C  exclusion blackwood  (see SLAM)
  3H   Super accept: 4H and a minimum
  3C   Super accept: 4H, a maximum, and 2 cards in the bid suit
  2N   A maximum with: Hxx hearts or 3-4-3-3 exactly and stoppers in every other suit
  4H   5 Hearts
 2H    Transfer to Spades (5+)
  2S   Acceptance
   2N  Invitational with 5 S
   3C  Second Suit, GF
   3H  Balanced slamish (with 5 S)
   3S  Invitational with 6+!s
   3N  Pick a game
   4C  Splinter (6+ S, slam interest)
   4N  Quantitative
   5C  exclusion blackwood  (see SLAM)
  3S   Super accept: 4S and a minimum
  3C   Super accept: 4S, a maximum, and 2 cards in the bid suit
  2N   A maximum with: Hxx spades, or 4-3-3-3 and stoppers in every other suit
  4S   5 Spades
 2S    Transfer to Clubs (6+)
  2N   Super Accept of Transfer  (max clubs Hxx  or 4+)
  3C   Normal Acceptance 
   4D  RKC
   4N  Quantitative 
 2N    Transfer to Diamonds (6+)
  3C   Super Accept of Transfer  (max with honor 3rd  or 4+)
  3D   Normal Acceptance 
   4C  RKC
   4N  Quantitative 
 3C    Muppet Stayman
  3D   4-card major/s
   3H  Responder holds 4 of other M
   3N  No 4cM
  3H   No 5 or 4 card major
   3S  5 Spades
  3S   5 Spades
  3N   5 Hearts - Choice of games
 3D    5-5 minors GF
 3H    Exactly 31(54/45)  GF
 3S    Exactly 13(54/45)  GF
 3N    To Play
 4C    Gerber, asking for Aces
 4D    Texas Transfers to H (6+)
  4H   Acceptance
 4H    Texas Transfers to S (6+)
  4S   Acceptance
 4S    Exactly 4-4 minors, slam force - (Possible Change) maybe can be weak quantitative slam invite
 4N    Balanced Quantitative (no 4cM) 17ish pts
 5C    To play (preemptive type)
 5N    Pick a slam (20-21 pts)




1C;     
 1D    4+ Hearts
  1H   11-13 bal with 2-3 card support or a hand with no sensible bid (typically 5-4-3-1 with 3 card support and a minimum
   1S  Weak or invitational
    1N 2-4 clubs or exactly 3235
    2C 5+ clubs exactly 3 hearts
   1N  4+ Spades NF
    2C To Play
    2D Undefined (good hand with spade fit?
    2H Undefined?
    2S To Play
   2C  To Play
   2D  Artifical Game force
    2H Balanced 3 hearts without 4 spades
    2S 4=3=1=5 or 4=3=0=6
    2N Balanced with 2 hearts and without 4S
    3C 3 Hearts and 6+ clubs
    3D 1=3=4=5 or 0=3=4=6
   2H  Preemptive to play
   2S  Nat. Game Forcing
   2N  Game forcing with 6+ Hearts
   3C  Nat. Game Forcing
   3D  Nat. Game Forcing
  1S   4+,  12-17 points - opener must have 5+ clubs!
  1N   17-19 HCP Bal
  2C   6+, 12-15 HCP no 4cM
  2D   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2H   11-15 4+
  2S   Jump Shift 4+ with 18+ HCP (denies H support)
  2N   6+!c and 3!h w/15+ points OR 4+!h any 16+ signoffs in 3!c ir 3!h clubs or 3H.
  3C   Strong rebid 6+ with 16+ HCP
  3D   "No Use"
  3H   Good Raise 16-17 HCP
  3S   Splinter 17+ HCP
  3N   "No Use "
 1H    4+ Spades 
  1S   11-13 bal with 2-3 card support or a hand with no sensible bid (typically 5-4-3-1 with 3 card support and a minimum
  1N   17-19 HCP Bal
  2C   6+, 12-15 HCP no 4cM
  2D   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2H   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2S   11-15 4+
  2N   6+ clubs and 3 Hearts w/15+ points OR 4+ H any 16+ Signoffs in 3 clubs or 3H. Opener pulling (except 3C->3H) is a strong game try, (probably 17+)
  3C   Strong rebid 6+ with 16+ HCP
  3D   "No Use  - Splinter?
  3H   Jump Shift 4+ with 18+ HCP (denies S support)
  3S   Good Raise 16-18 HCP
  3N   20-21 HCP that couldn’t open 2N ...
  4C   2-suited hand (5+!c and 4+ H)
  4D   Splinter 17+ HCP with 4+!s support
  4H   Splinter 17+ HCP with 4+!s support
  4S   18+ points with 4+!s support
 1S    5+ Diamonds (denies a 4CM, unsuitable for 1N or 2N)
  1N   17-19 HCP balanced
  2C   6+, 11-15 HCP no 4cM
  2D   11-13 bal with 2-3 card support or a hand with no sensible bid (typically 5-4-3-1 with 3 card support and a minimum
  2H   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2S   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2N   6+ clubs, 3 Spades, 15+ points, good hand. Signoffs in 3 clubs or 3H. Anything else is game forcing
  3C   Strong rebid 6+ with 16+ HCP
  3D   Good Raise 16-17 HCP
  3H   ".   Jump Reverse No Use 
  3S   ".   Jump Reverse No Use 
  3N   20-21 HCP that couldn’t open 2N ...
  4C   2-suited hand (5+!c and 4+!s)
  4D   Splinter 17+ HCP
  4H   Splinter 17+ HCP
  4S   Splinter 17+ HCP
 1N    Balanced, no intrest in game opposite a 11-13 weak N, no 4cM
  2C   6+, 12-15 HCP unbalanced
  2D   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2H   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2S   Reverse 16+ HCP
  2N   15-16 HCP balanced invite
  3C   6+, 16-17 HCP unbalanced
  3D   -
  3N   to play
 2C    5+!c Limit Raise (Good 10+), no 4cM
  2D   Values for 3N: 
  2H   Values for 3N:
  2S   Values for 3N: 
  2N   Weak N
  3C   unbalanced club hand, NF
  3C   Splinter
  3H   Splinter
  3N   To Play
  4C   Minorwood (see SLAM for continuations)
 2D    Soloway Jump Shift - See Tab
 2H    Soloway Jump Shift - See Tab
 2S    Soloway Jump Shift - See Tab
 2N    "12-14 or 18-19 HCP 4333/4432 can have 4cM 
 3C    5+!c Preemptive
  3D   I want to bid 3N, do you think I can make it?
   3H  You play it
   3N  I will play it
   4C  Hell no
 3D    Splinter 11-14 HCP
 3H    Splinter 11-14 HCP
 3N    15-17 HCP no 4cM
 4C    Minorwood (see SLAM for continuations)
 4D    Exclusion?
 4H    Exclusion?
 4N    -
 5C    Probably to play, but when is it not worth a slam try for 6?

1D;    
 1H   4+ Hearts
  1S  4+,  12-17 points
  1N  12-13 HCP balanced
  2C  4+, natural
  2D  6+, 12-15 HCP no 4cM
  2H  12-15 4+ (sometimes 3 with unbalanced hand) 
  2S  Jump Shift 4+ with 18+ HCP (denies H support)
  2N  18-19 HCP Balanced (can have 4 S)
  3C  "No Use 
  3D  Strong rebid 6+ with 16+ HCP
  3H  Good Raise 16-17 HCP
  3S  Splinter 17+ HCP
  3N  20-21 HCP that couldn’t open 2N ...
  4C  Splinter 17+ HCP
  4D  2-suited hand (5+!d and 4+ H)
  4H  18+ points with 4+!h support
 1S   4+
  1N  12-13 HCP balanced
  2D  6+, 12-15 HCP no 4cM
  2H  Reverse 16+ HCP
  2S  12-15 4+ (sometimes 3 with unbalanced hand) 
  2N         
  3C  ".   Jump Reverse No Use 
  3D  Strong rebid 6+ with 16+ HCP
  3H  ".   Jump Reverse No Use 
  3S  Good Raise 16-17 HCP
  3N  20-21 HCP that couldn’t open 2N ...
  4C  Splinter 17+ HCP
  4D  2-suited hand (5+!d and 4+!s)
  4H  Splinter 17+ HCP
  4S  18+ points with 4+!s support
 1N   6-10 HCP no 4cM
  2C  4+, natural
  2D  6+, 12-15 HCP unbalanced
  2H  Reverse 16+ HCP
  2S  Reverse 16+ HCP
  2N  15-16 HCP balanced invite
  3C  -
  3D  6+, 16-17 HCP unbalanced
  3N  to play
 2C   5+!c GF, or artificial w/ bal 16+.  Can have 4cM
  2D  6+!d 
  2H  4+!h ?
  2S  Good club raise
  2N  11-13 balanced trash
  3D  6+, 16-17 HCP unbalanced
  3H  Splinter
  3N  17-19 bal
 2D   5+!d Limit Raise (Good 9, bad 10-11), no 4cM
 2H   Soloway Jump Shift - See Tab
 2S   Soloway Jump Shift - See Tab
 2N   "12-14 or 18-19 HCP 4333/4432 can have 4cM, GF
 3C   6+!c LR (good 9-11 HCP), no 4cM, no 4 diamonds
 3D   5+!d Preemptive
  3H  I want to bid 3N, do you think I can make it?
   3S You play it
   3N I will play it
   4D Hell no
 3H   Splinter 11-14 HCP
 3N   15-17 HCP no 4cM
 4C   Splinter 11-14 HCP
 4D   Minorwood (see SLAM for continuations)
 4H   Exclusion?
 4N   Exclusion for C?
 5C   Maybe bid grand with 2 of top 3, otherwise 6?


1H;       
 1S     F1: Either 0-4 Spades any strength or 5+ spades, Game forcing (reverse into spades again later) 
  1N    Either Balanced 11-13 or Transfer to clubs 16 HCP max (with 14-15 balance OPEN 1N so you don't have this problem) 
   2C   Accepting the transfer - implies desire to play in clubs and an unwillingness to play 1N 
   2D   Good diamonds? 
   2H   To play 
   2S   Game forcing reverse, 13+ HCP 5+ Spades 
   2N   Invitational opposite 11-13 (so a good 12 count?) 
   3C   TBD 
   3D   TBD 
   3H   Invitational with 3 cards? 
   3S   TBD 
   3N   To play 
  2C    Xfer to Diamonds, Max of 16 points, can pass with long clubs and a garbage hand 
  2D    6+ Hearts, 11-15 
  2H    5 hearts 4 spades exactly 11-15 
  2S    Reverse 16+ HCP 
  2N    17-18 HCP Balanced - does not deny 4S 
  3C    Jump Shift 4+ with 18+ HCP, game forcing 
  3H    6+, 16-17 HCP 
  3S    Not Used 
  3N    Not Used 
  4C    Splinter 17+ HCP 
 1N     5+ Spades, Weak <-> invitational, NF 
  2C    "4+ Natural non-forcing, 17 HCP max
  2D    "4+ Always, Natural non-forcing, 17 HCP max, 
  2H    6+, 12-15 
  2S    12-15 3+ spades  
  2N    17-18 HCP balanced, can have 4cOM 
  3C    4+ Jump Shift 18+ HCP 
  3H    6+, 16-18 HCP 
  3S    Invitational 16-17 
  3N    Balanced or semi-balanced 18+ HCP 
 2C     5+ GF or 16+ bal (*comment). Can have 4S or 3H... 
  2D    Natural 4+, doesn't promise extras 
  2H    "Catch-up bid. Either unbalanced or 6+ and Min 
  2S    Natural 4+ 
  2N    Minimum 12-13 balanced 5-3-3-2 shape 
  3C    3+ good support and extras, not a bare min  
  3D    Splinter 
  3H    Solid Suit 6+ sets trump 
  3S    Splinter, slammish 
 2D     5+ GF. Can have 4S or 3H.  
 2H     Constructive 3-card support 7-9 total points 
 2S     Soloway Jump Shifts - see tab 
 2N     Limit Raise+ 
  3C    Up to 15 points including distribution. Extras start at 16 (inc distribution). Use judgement here 
   3D   Forcing Relay 
    3H  Any shortness 
     3S Shortness Ask (bid suit with shortness) 
    3S  5-4-2-2 shape 
     3N Whats your 4 card suit? (bid it, be careful, can get too high here) 
    3N  11-14 bal 
    4C  5H-5x, no particular controls but not a terrible suit 
    4H  6+ H, no shortness, bad hand for slam 
   3H   Limit Raise 
    4H  Will play 4H opposite a limit raise 
  3D    Extras, Side suit shortness 
   3H   Shortness Ask (bid suit with shortness) 
  3H    5-4-2-2 shape, extras 
   3S   Whats your 4 card suit? (bid it, be careful, can get too high here) 
  3S    6+ Hearts, Extras 
  3N    Big balanced hand (17-19) 
  4C    5H-5x, no particular controls but not a terrible suit 
  4H    6+ Hearts, Minimum hand, nice for slam 
 3C     Invitational in clubs (10-11, 6+ good clubs) 
 3D     Invitational in diamonds (10-11, 6+ good diamonds) 
 3H     Mixed raise 7-10 Raise Points?, 4 card support 
 3S     Splinter 11-14 HCP 
 3N     15-17 HCP Balanced (3Hearts) 
 4C     Splinter 11-14 HCP 
 4H     Two-way raise, 5+ card support, no slam intrest 


1S;      
 1N     Bad 12 HCP or less, any shape semi-forcing. 
  2C    "Natural non-forcing, 17 HCP max 2+!c
   2D   Implies 5 hearts, 2 spades and 6-9, relays partner to 2H
    2H  Accepting Relay (Implies 3 small hearts or Hx and a minimum)
     2S 2S 9-10 points
     2N 4C Bal 11-12 points
     3C 5C 10-11
     3D Long diamonds, not much outside
     3H 6 clubs, no heart stopper
     3S Good limit raise
     3N 6C, heart stopper
    3D  Super accept of hearts, responder will pass with a bust in diamonds
   2H   To play (6+ hearts, weak hand)
   2S   <9 points
   2N   10-12 points not 4C
   3C   8-9 5C
   3D   To play (6+ diamonds, weak hand)
   3H   6H 10-12 
   3S   bad limit raise
   3N   (4-3-3-3 with 3 spades, 12-15 HCP and notrump interest)
  2D    "Natural non-forcing, 17 HCP max
  2H    "Natural non-forcing, 17 HCP max
  2S    6+, 12-15
  2N    18-19 HCP balanced, can have 4cOM
  3C    Jump Shift 18+ HCP
  3H    Jump Shift 18+ HCP
  3S    6+, 16-18 HCP
  3N    Balanced or semi-balanced 18+ HCP
 2C     5+ GF (*comment) or 16+ bal. Can have 4S or 3H...
  2D    Natural 4+, doesn't promise extras
  2H    Natural 4+
  2S    "Catch-up bid. Either unbalanced or 6+ and Min 
  2N    Minimum 12-13 balanced 5-3-3-2 shape
  3C    3+ good support and extras, not a bare min 
  3D    Splinter
  3H    Splinter, slammish
  3S    Solid Suit 6+ sets trump
 2D 5+ GF
 2H 5+ GF
 2S 3+!s 6-9 Total Points
 2N Limit raise or better
  3C    Up to 15 points including distribution
   3D   Forcing Relay
    3H  Any shortness
     3S Shortness Ask (bid suit with shortness)
    3S  5-4-2-2 shape
     3N Whats your 4 card suit? (bid it, be careful, can get too high here)
    3N  11-13 (14) bal
    4C  5S-5C, no particular controls but not a terrible suit
    4H  6+ S, no shortness, bad hand for slam
   3S   Limit Raise
    4S  Will play 4S opposite a limit raise
  3D    Extras, Side suit shortness
   3H   Shortness Ask (bid suit with shortness)
  3H    5-4-2-2 shape, extras
   3S   Whats your 4 card suit? (bid it, be careful, can get too high here)
  3S    6+ Spades, Extras
  3N    Big balanced hand (17-19)
  4C    5!s-5!c, no particular controls but not a terrible suit
  4S    6+ Spades, Minimum hand, nice for slam
 3C     Invitational in clubs (10-11, 6+ good clubs)
 3D     Invitational in diamonds (10-11, 6+ good diamonds)
 3H     Invitational in diamonds (10-11, 6+ good Hearts)
 3S     Mixed raise 7-10 Raise Points?, 4 card support
 3N     15-17 HCP Balanced (3 spades)
 4C     Splinter 11-14 HCP
 4S     Two-way raise, 5+ card support, no slam intrest

2D;    
 2H    To play opposite a weak 2H
 2S    To play opposite weak 2S, invitational opposite weak 2H
 2N    Asks how many losers you have
  3C   8- losers, good hand w/Hearts
   3D  Asking relay
    3H 8 Losers exactly
    3S 7 or less
  3D   8- losers, good hand w/Spades
   3H  Asking asking relay
    3S 8 Losers exactly
    3N 7 or less
  3H   9+ Losers w/Hearts
  3S   9+ Losers w/Spades
 3H    Pass or correct
 3S    Pass or correct
 3N    To play
 4C    Transfer to 1 under actual suit
 4D    No Agreement
 4H    Pass or Correct
 4S    To play


2H;     2H: 4/4 - 5/5 in the majors 3-10
 2S    Simple Preference
 2N    Suit Quality, distribution & values Inquiry
  3C   Any Minimum
   3D  Second Relay
    3H 5 hearts
    3S 5 spades
    3N 4/4 in the majors
   3H  To Play
   3S  To Play
   3N  To Play
  3D   5/5 in the majors, max, GF
   3H  Slam Suggestion - 3N should be good hand for slam, cues should be bad hand
   3S  Slam Suggestion - 3N should be good hand for slam, cues should be bad hand
   4H  To Play
   4S  To Play
  3H   4 spades, 5 hearts, max, GF
  3S   5 spades, 4 hearts, max, GF
  3N   4/4 in the majors, max, GF
 3C    Natural
 3D    Invitational with 3/3 in the majors
 3H    Pre-emptive
 3S    Pre-emptive
 3N    To Play
 4C    Cue-bid
 4D    Cue-bid
 4H    Two-way raise, may be blocking or making
 4S    Two-way raise, may be blocking or making
 4N    6-keycard blackwood


2S;     4-5 Spades, a longer minor (5+)
 2N    Asks how many losers you have
  3C   Bad hand with clubs
   3D  Trump quality asking relay
    3H Bad Trumps
    3S Good Trumps
  3D   Bad hand with diamonds
  3H   Good with clubs
  3S   Good with diamonds
  3N   7- losers, good hand
 3C    Pass or Correct for minor
 3D    Pass or Correct (ParadoX response)
 3S    Pre-emptive
 3N    To Play
 4C    GF
 4D    GF
 4H    To play (Some sort of self sufficent suit)
 4S     two way raise (Might make, or blocking)
 5C    To play (Some sort of self sufficent suit)
 5D    To play (Some sort of self sufficent suit)


2C; 
 2D    Pass or Correct
  2H   Kokish Relay to 2S
   2S  Forced Relay
    2N 23-24
    3H Natural Hearts + a side 4 card side suit
    3N 27-28 (Systems on?)
  2S   Natural 5c suit
  2N   21-22, systems on
  3C   Natural
  3D   Natural
  3H   7+ card suit, sets trumps.
  3S   7+ card suit, sets trumps.
  3N   25-26
  4C   7+ card suit, sets trumps.
  4D   7+ card suit, sets trumps.
 2H    Total Bust (less than a A or K)
  2S   To Play
  3C   To Play
  3D   To Play
  2N   To Play
  3N   To Play
  3H   Natural, good suit, forcing
  3S   Natural, good suit, forcing
  4C   Natural, good suit, forcing
  4D   Natural, good suit, forcing
 2N   Invite  
  3C   8 losers, good hand
  3D   9+ Losers
  3H   7 or less losers, good hand

[mycroft]

Heh, I understand Herr Kungsgeten, re: spaces only; all his editing software (and mine) has an option to do this automatically (and it does auto-indent, which means I don't have to make tabs "8 spaces", tab means "go to the next indent point", just like Remington designed it). It's SOP for Python editors, for whom tab is anathema.

Not that I don't agree with you Cthulhu; but it's a "fault of the environment" - given that for us the tools are automatic. However, don't get me started on Editor Wars...I do Have A Preference.

[Kungsgeten]

I've updated the bml.zip and now a tab character is interpreted as 8 spaces.

Wow! Great work Cthulhu Have you tested it on BBO or similar? You use some notation which I myself haven't tried (mostly related to spaces). Documenting in Excel, seems pretty cool (I use LaTeX myself). I'm thinking of writing a program which turns BML into HTML, but we'll see about that. I would also like to add some kind of feature to BML which makes it easier to document relay sequences.

Yeah mycroft, you're correct. My editor doesn't work with tabs (unless I really want them, which I do not) so I didn't think about implementing support for tab characters. As far as editor wars go; BML is written in Emacs

[Cthulhu D]

mycroft, on 2012-April-24, 10:33, said:

Heh, I understand Herr Kungsgeten, re: spaces only; all his editing software (and mine) has an option to do this automatically (and it does auto-indent, which means I don't have to make tabs "8 spaces", tab means "go to the next indent point", just like Remington designed it). It's SOP for Python editors, for whom tab is anathema.

Not that I don't agree with you Cthulhu; but it's a "fault of the environment" - given that for us the tools are automatic. However, don't get me started on Editor Wars...I do Have A Preference.

I'm working with wordpad here, I probably need to use a more sophisticated editor. I haven't used emacs since I quit programming and I haven't used VI since university.

Quote

Wow! Great work Cthulhu Have you tested it on BBO or similar? You use some notation which I myself haven't tried (mostly related to spaces). Documenting in Excel, seems pretty cool (I use LaTeX myself). I'm thinking of writing a program which turns BML into HTML, but we'll see about that. I would also like to add some kind of feature to BML which makes it easier to document relay sequences.

Just tested it then, works fine.

Excel is very good at this because - well, check out my notes.

https://docs.google....&hl=en_US&gid=9

Turns out if you just select the entire system description for each opening, then paste it into wordpad and do a find replace for tabs and replace them with a single space, the entire system comes across. The only problem is bids where I have used shorthand like

4m
4M
4x

Those obviously don't work. It would be great if the parser did understand them or something similar. I also hate that the parser doesn't understand that 1NT = 1N, but that's easy to find replace again as well.

So I'm going to redevelop my notes to expand out the shorthand, but it works very nicely.

Edit: Is P the bid for pass?

[Kungsgeten]

Looks like a good way to document stuff! Instead of 4m you could write 4CD (and 4HS instead of 4M), but the continuations may become weird (see manual).

P is the notation for pass, that is correct. However, BSS do not accept pass as an opening bid, so if you want to make a bid mean something in third hand (or have a forcing pass system or similar) you have to define the position in which the bids work. By default the bids are applied to all positions, but you can for instance write pos=34 to apply the meaning of the bid when opener (other bid than pass) has opened in third or fourth position.

In short: P is for pass, D is for double and R is for redouble.

[Cthulhu D]

Kungsgeten, on 2012-April-25, 08:13, said:

Looks like a good way to document stuff! Instead of 4m you could write 4CD (and 4HS instead of 4M), but the continuations may become weird (see manual).

That's beautiful - I'd read the manual but hadn't put 2 and 2 together. All my 4x etc are at the tail end of sequences so I can definitely do this.

Quote

P is the notation for pass, that is correct. However, BSS do not accept pass as an opening bid, so if you want to make a bid mean something in third hand (or have a forcing pass system or similar) you have to define the position in which the bids work. By default the bids are applied to all positions, but you can for instance write pos=34 to apply the meaning of the bid when opener (other bid than pass) has opened in third or fourth position.

In short: P is for pass, D is for double and R is for redouble.

Oh it's mostly to handle stuff like garbage stayman sequences so 1NT-2C-2H pass tells you stuff about responders hand. But sweet that works.

Fantastic, will produce a new iteration this weekend.

[jkljkl]

My first 30 min

Kungsgeten, on 2012-April-18, 06:03, said:

I'll be happy to hear about your comments.

Cannot comment yet, I just can say that this python thing is not so simple to master for a non-programmer. Maybe my stumbling can be of help for future user with my knowledge level.

OS Win7 64Bit Home Premium

Tried to start bml2bss.exe
Result: A Pop-Up window flashed up an disappeared within ms, no idea of what was written in it.

Ok, so maybe that is that dll thing. So I went to the MS Homepage and installed Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2010 Express

Tried to start bml2bss.exe
Result: As before, no improvement

Well, the Pop-Up window has a black background as the DOS-Prompt, so lets try to start it there manually to see if I can discover something else.

Started the DOS-prompt, cd till I was in the right folder, started the bml2bss.exe an got:

What's the name of the file you want to convert?
Traceback <most recent call last>:
 File "bmlsbss.py", line 293, in <module>
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'test.txt'

c:\Users\stefan\Desktop\bml\bml2bss_exe>

Then I created an empty dummy file test.txt. Now I do not longer get the error, just the question

What's the name of the file you want to convert?

c:\Users\stefan\Desktop\bml\bml2bss_exe>

If now I point for instance to sayc.bml I get a message that windows does not know which program should handle a *.bml file.

Linking the bml-file-format to the bml2bss.exe didn't help. Again a Pop-Up window coming and disappearing within ms.

ciao
stefan

[jkljkl]

Sorry for continuing OT about python:

After the above mentioned failure, I started plan B.

Went to python.org, and installed python on my machine (will maybe post later the process).

Now I want to start with python the bml2bss.py But this file seems not to be included in the zipfile that I downloaded.

Where can I find the bml2bss.py?

ciao
stefan

[Cthulhu D]

Yeah you need to run everything from the dos prompt (not really the dos prompt any more, but you know, close enough). There is no GUI on the thing.

Also the files need to be called test.bml (or randomname.bml etc) otherwise it doesn't work.

Not sure if that will fix all your problems though.

[jkljkl]

Cthulhu D, on 2012-May-06, 17:41, said:

Yeah you need to run everything from the dos prompt (not really the dos prompt any more, but you know, close enough). There is no GUI on the thing.

Also the files need to be called test.bml (or randomname.bml etc) otherwise it doesn't work.

Not sure if that will fix all your problems though.

Well it didn't fix all my problems, but at least it solved my problems with this program.

Thank you
stefan

[antonylee]

Hi, any chance you could provide a .pyc version? Not everybody runs on windows :-) Of course I would be very excited it it was open-sourced but I perfectly understand if you don't want to.

[Kungsgeten]

Hi! I'm sorry that I haven't replied earlier. I'm even more sorry that I managed to upload a version which was wrong. The problems should be fixed now if you download the .zip-file again.

antonylee: I forgot to include the .py-file in the last version of the zip-file. It is there now.

Download bml2bss from here

[nige1]

Kungsgeten, on 2012-April-15, 15:02, said:

I recently discovered the Full disclosure system on BBO. I tried using bidedit for a while, but found it pretty slow to work with. I've created a markup language which I call Bridge Bidding Markup Language (BML for short). BML is intended to be easy to write and easy to read. Right now I also have a program written in Python which can convert BML files to BSS (the format used by BBO), and these files can be used while playing online. All features of the Full Disclosure system isn't implemented yet, but the most useful ones (according to me) are. I would be happy if you tried it out and gave me some thoughts. You can download the manual and the converting program from www.snortingmaradonas.se/erik/bml.zip
Just to give you an example, here's what a BML file can look like (including a basic description of a No Trump structure):

SAYC
A natural system with 5 card majors and best minor
1C; 3+!c, 11+ hcp
1D; 3+!d, 11+ hcp
1H; 5+!h, 11+ hcp
1S; 5+!s, 11+ hcp
1N; 15-17 bal
2C; ARTIFICIAL. Game-forcing or 22-24 bal
2D; Weak
2H; Weak
2S; Weak
2N; 20-21 bal
1N;
2C ARTIFICIAL. Stayman
   2D ARTIFICIAL. No 4 card major
   2H NON-FORCING. 4+!h
   2S NON-FORCING. 4+!s
2D TRANSFER. 5+!h
   2H NON-FORCING.
   3H NON-FORCING. Super accept
2H TRANSFER. 5+!s
   2S NON-FORCING.
   3S NON-FORCING. Super accept
2S ARTIFICIAL. Minor suit Stayman
2N INVITATIONAL.

Kungsgeten, your BML seems great. Suggestions

• As well as a BML->BSS it would be useful to have a BSS -> BML program
• Then you could offer BML to BBO as an alternative to BSS. With automatic interconversion, BBO could allow members to use either format
• Later you could write conversion programs to HTML and WBF system-card format
• Allow WBF abbreviations (e.g. ART for Artificial, INV for invitational) with automatic expansion on display.
• Allow generic descriptions (e.g. for raises, splinters) so a program could use BML to automatically bid hands (c.f. COBRA).
• OK OK yes I know: If you put a broom up your arse, you could also sweep the floor