Copyright © 1996-1998 William B. Ackerman
The missing CWSDPMI memory manager has been restored to the
Windows 3.1/DOS version of the program. It is not needed for
Windows 95, 98, or NT.
Sdtty now handles control-C correctly on Windows 95, 98, or NT.
You can safely bind control-C to ‘interlocked phantom columns’,
or whatever else you want. Typing control-C will not automatically stop
the program. If you need to stop the program, type <break> or
control-<break>, or use the task manager to perform an
“end task” operation.
New concept: <anyone> in your Z.
It is now possible to enter fairly complex variations of ‘plenty’, with
modifications to the star turns and similar things. For example, you can
directly type ‘[jay walk] and plenty, turn the star 3/4, interrupt before
the star turns with [trade circulate]’. For more complex variations, such as
turning the star 3 but interrupting after the first 2, you still must use the
“allow modifications” mechanism.
The program recognizes a few more resolves.
The program can now handle fractional stable and fractional twosome
concepts on matrix calls. For example, from a completed DPT setup,
you can call ‘tandem 1/4 twosome belles shove off’.
The call ‘fold’ has been made legal for the ends, if they
are as if leads in lines, from generalized diamonds or a “dog-bone”
setup.
An embarrassing bug with the ‘diamond’ concept was fixed.
We apologize for any bogus cards that were created.
The interpretation of things like ‘initially twice’ or ‘random twice’
has been changed, in accordance with what appears to be the emerging consensus
on this. The subject call is “flattened”. That is, ‘initially twice mix’
has three parts—‘centers cross run’, ‘centers cross run’, and
‘centers trade’. ‘Initially as couples initially twice mix’ will do
an as couples centers cross run, a normal centers cross run, and a normal centers trade.
[Note: the above was incorrect, and was removed in version 32.6.]
The usual number of radical changes were made in the internal mechanism of the
program, making it more elegant, general, and powerful. The usual number of
ad-hoc kludges were replaced with more powerful and general mechanisms. The
particular areas revamped in this release were the “qualifiers” and “restrictions”
in the database. The fractionalization mechanism was not changed this time.
It is once again possible to exit from a multiple-screen listing from “?” or “!” by pressing the “delete” key on a PC. You can also press “backspace” or the letter “q”. Digits on the numeric keypad are treated the same as ordinary digits. Control, alt, and control-alt numeric keypad presses can be programmed as accelerator keys by using designators such as “cn3”, “an4”, or “can5”. See the manual for details. A few bugs were fixed in the handling of heavily stacked concepts and meta-concepts. Linear cycle from inverted lines is now done by the official Callerlab definition. The pass is right shoulders, but the final peel is in the direction of the original minwave. There is a call ‘easy does it (matrix)’ which allows ‘3x3’ usage while compromising other aspects of the call. There is a call ‘recoil (matrix)’, permitted only from facing couples, which allows ‘3x3’ usage while compromising other aspects of the call. The usual number of radical changes were made in the internal mechanism of the program, making it more elegant, general, and powerful. The usual number of ad-hoc kludges were replaced with more powerful and general mechanisms. The particular areas revamped in this release were the inheritance mechanism (particularly relating to NxN modifiers and revert/reflect), the qualifiers to test general 1/4 tags, and, of course, the fractionalization mechanism.
An improper handling of screen erasure, scrolling, and cursor motion in the new Windows interface was fixed. A possible error involving typing in comments under certain circumstances under Windows 95 may have been fixed. The call ‘mini busy’ now uses the really correct definition. For example, try ‘split phantom waves explode and [mini busy]’ from 16-matrix offset columns. The call ‘mini busy (matrix)’ was added, to allow the old non-canonical usage with concepts like ‘single’ and ‘3x3’. A bug in the interaction of the ‘echo’ concept and certain meta-concepts was fixed. A bug causing occasional spurious “setups did not interact” warnings was fixed. The bug allowing ‘stretch finally twice scoot and weave (parts)’ was fixed.
Sdtty's interface with the Windows operating system has been rewritten. The program should be much more “system friendly” (and, we hope, “user-friendly”) than before. It no longer sets itself up in “full screen” mode. It operates in an ordinary window, that can be maximized, minimized, moved, and resized in the usual way. It also has scroll bars. It can also sense special key presses in a more flexible way. Sdtty can respond to many more special key presses than before. In addition to the function keys, it can respond to letters and digits with the control and/or alt keys held down. It can also respond to “enhanced” keys such as the cursor arrow keys, “insert”, “delete” etc. Sdtty now permits you to customize your special key presses in your initialization file. The file sample3.ini in the distribution has an example of this. It has an “[accelerators]” section followed by lines of the form
key-specification action
For example:
al split phantom lines
cl interlocked phantom lines
cal phantom lines
These three entries mean that alt-l will be a short cut for
split phantom lines, control-l will be a short cut for
interlocked phantom lines, and control-alt-l will be a short cut for
phantom lines. A plus sign in front of a key specification means that
it is to be used when starting, as in “+f1 heads start”, and an asterisk
means that it is to be used when resolving, as in “*f12 find another”.
If you do not have an sd.ini file (for example, you have not copied
sample3.ini to sd.ini), or if the file does not have an
“[accelerators]” section, all of the standard key bindings will be used.
If there is an “[accelerators]” section, whatever follows will replace
all key bindings.
Refer to the manual for more details.
The following new options were added, to disable the various new features of the
Sdtty user interface. You can place these in the “[options]” section of
the initialization file.
no_intensify
no_sound
no_color
no_console
Refer to the manual for more details. Sd has limited support for the ‘fractal’ concept. Sd can handle supercalls, as in ‘finally clover and [right and left thru]’ or ‘initially busy [finish turn the key]’. There is a call ‘<anyone> tie (parts)’ that can be used when the parts are required (for fractionalization, ‘piecewise’, ‘initially’, and so on.) It is like ‘recycle (parts)’ or ‘scoot and weave (parts)’ in that it doesn't have all that power of the base call, and should only be used when fractionalization is required.
There is a major new feature. It is now possible to “edit” sequences at any point.
The way this is accomplished is through a “clipboard”. If you want to change your
sequence at a point 5 calls back from the current point, you can move the last 5 calls
to the clipboard. Then you can insert or delete calls in the usual way (by calling, or
by using the undo last call command), and then move the clipboard back to the
main sequence. See the “editing” section (section 7, page 34) of the manual.
You can use modifiers like ‘1x3’ in front of the ‘as couples’
or ‘tandem’ concepts, or their twosome or fractional twosome veriants.
In practice, a common way of expressing this to the dancers is with something
like “one by tandems of three” or “threesome by one”.
New concepts: ‘triple twin C/L/W of 3’. These are done in a 3x6 formation,
and form three virtual 2x3's. You can of course use ‘mystic’ and
‘invert mystic’ with them.
New concepts: ‘center/outside triple twin C/L/W’. These are done in a 4x6 formation,
and form three virtual 2x4's. The center formation, or the two end formations,
do the call.
New concepts: ‘center/outside triple twin C/L/W of 3’. These are done in a 3x6 formation,
and form three virtual 2x3's. The center formation, or the two end formations,
do the call.
New concept: ‘center Z’.
New concepts: ‘twice removed’, ‘thrice removed’.
New selectors: ‘end boys’, ‘end girls’, ‘center boys’, and
‘center girls’. These are intended for use with calls like ‘ripple’.
If one of these selectors can identify the desired two people uniquely, it is
probably preferable to use it instead of something like side girls or
lead ends.
The ‘[beau hop] an anchor but [[reflected flip your neighbor] and spread]’
bug was fixed.
The program has a vastly improved ability to handle differently oriented triple
and quadruple columns, lines, waves, and diamonds.
The program has a vastly improved ability to handle Z's.
Many other minor improvements. We thank the callers at the
2nd USA West Convention for bringing up several interesting issues.
Many minor improvements. We thank the callers in the C2 hall at the 47th National Square Dance Convention for calling 3 things that can't be done by the program that they used, and for bringing up a number of interesting issues. The ‘triple Z's’ concept was added. The calls ‘rims/hubs trade back’ and ‘rims/hubs trade <anything>’ now follow the definition really correctly. The original rims or hubs do the circulate or the other call. This now works correctly in columns, and things like ‘yoyo rims trade [single shakedown]’ will work correctly in a tidal inverted line. More generally, the mechanism for dealing with calls that involve the determination of the original centers, ends, or whatever (e.g. ‘patch the <anyone>’ or ‘rims trade back’) is much more carefully worked out. For example, from columns, you can do a ‘random tandem patch the centers’. The original centers, before the ‘tandem hinge’ and before the dancers were combined into tandems, will do the ‘U-turn back’ at the end of the call. A bug was fixed involving certain disconnected shape-changers in diamonds. For example, from a tidal wave, if the center 2 hinge, the program can now have various disconnected diamonds do things like ‘flip the diamond’.
Many minor improvements. We thank the usual anonymous sources for their many suggestions. The space-invading version of ‘<anyone> run the wheel’ has been renamed to ‘<anyone> run the wheel (matrix)’. The call ‘<anyone> run the wheel’ is a non-space-invading version that does not allow the various bizarre effects, but may be used with concepts like ‘parallelogram’ The designators ‘very centers’, ‘very ends’ and ‘all’ have been added. They are completely equivalent to ‘center 2’, ‘outer 2’, and ‘everyone’, respectively. Note that you very rarely need to say ‘all’ or ‘everyone’. If you want everyone to press ahead, just say ‘press ahead’. The handling of the ‘disconnected’ concept has been expanded to handle the formulation in the Choreo Corner article in the June, 1998 issue of Zip Coder.
The program can now do shape-changers in triple formations that go to different orientations. From triple boxes with the center box oriented differently from the outer boxes, one can do things like ‘triple boxes reach out’ or ‘triple boxes follow to a diamond’. The program can recognize ‘<anyone> lead for a <anycall>’ from a larger number of positions. Specifically, it recognizes “C1 phantom” setups and suitably populated 4x4 matrices that are in a promenade-like arrangement. You will be presumed to have told the dancers to promenade from that setup before the ‘<anyone> lead’. New designator: ‘outer 1x3s’. This may be used to designate the outer lines or columns of 3 in such setups as an `H' or a diamond between two couples (‘heads circle the tag to a diamond’.) You will often need to use the ‘disconnected’ concept with this. New call: ‘plus <N>’. Like ‘with the flow’, ‘sweep 1/4’, and similar calls, this uses rolling direction from the preceding call to tell it what to do. It might not be correct in all cases. The ‘triple columns’ concept was moved to C2 in accordance with a recent decision of the Callerlab challenge committee.
The program can handle mixed-orientation triple formations. For example, from a tidal wave, you can have the centers ‘lockit’, and then call ‘triple waves switch to a diamond’. New concept: ‘snag the <anyone>’. The code for ‘snag’ and ‘<anyone> work <concept>’ was overhauled. It should be much better at doing really obscure cases now. The special call ‘snag circulate’ was removed. The ‘snag’ concept simply does the right thing.
Many of the usual sorts of improvements were put in, in
response to user requests. It is not possible to list
all the ramifications of them, except to say that the program
is less likely to refuse to do obscure things. It has a
better understanding of call fractionalization and of where
people are and how to put them back together.
The ‘initially invert counteract’ bug was fixed.
The ‘stretch twist the line’ bug was fixed.
The ‘stretch dixie diamond’ bug was fixed.
The ‘own the boys (reach out ; concentric lockit) by touch and go 1/4 by [ah so]’ bug was fixed.
A rather obscure person-disappearance bug was fixed. An incredibly
obscure (it required ‘sextuple columns working right’ to provoke
it) memory corruption bug was fixed.
The definition of ‘regroup’ was changed in accordance with the
recent Callerlab definition change. The ends are now permitted to be
looking in.
New call: ‘change the apex <M/4> x <N/4>’. New concept: ‘echo’.
When one does ‘split phantom columns zip code 1-1/2’ from
facing lines, so that the ‘nothing’ in the center is done
by phantoms, they sort of stay in a 2x2 box. A warning is printed,
and the final setup is a 2x6.
New calls: 6 or 8 person ‘here comes the judge’ or
‘sock it to me’. You may specify these with with 12 matrix/16 matrix,
or with an explicit matrix size designator (e.g. 2x6 matrix), or
with a concept that explicitly designates long lines (e.g. twin
phantom lines of 6.)
New selector: those facing. Also, the funny concept, for
certain calls such as ‘slide thru’, simply means those facing.
So you can do ‘funny slide thru’ large numbers of times. You must
enter this as, for example, ‘9 times funny slide thru’.
The parser is about 15 times faster on very difficult phrases, such as
[[right and left thru] and roll] coordinate.
Because of an ambiguity, it was necessary to remove the “space invader”
versions of right anchor <N/4> and left anchor <N/4>, when
no person designator is given. If you want the “space invader” versions
of these calls, you must use a person designator, even if that is everyone.
Without a person designator, these are “breathing” calls that are suitable
for use in distorted setups, as in trapezoid left anchor 3/4.
The unpleasantness of the parser in 31.91 has been fixed—you can type
things like ping pong circulate directly.
Apostrophe and comma are optional.
You can get a u-turn back by typing u <space> <enter>.
The resolver is much more thorough in searching for single call
resolves that give RLG, LA, or promenade endings.
The mechanism by which the resolver avoids presenting the same resolve
twice sometimes mistakenly thought that it had already presented a
resolve that it hadn't. As a consequence, the program occasionally
missed a perfectly good resolve. This has been fixed.
You can type the call eight by as either eight by or 8 by.
You can now type in star modifications directly, as in
chain reaction, turn the star 1/2
or
chain reaction, don't turn the star
(You may also use the simple modifications or allow modifications
stuff, but you should hardly ever need to use those any more.)
For the call tag the star, you *must* type it directly. Do not type
allow modifications and then tag the star the yellow brick road,
expecting to be queried for modified star turns.
In text that Sd displays or writes out to the transcript file,
the concepts twice, N times, and 1-M/N will
be placed after the call. You still enter concepts, as before,
in front of the call.
The spelling of wheel fan & cross thru has been changed to wheel fan and cross thru.
We apologize for jerking people around, but this makes it consistent with all other
“and” calls. There are now no calls with an ampersand in their names.
This is an interim release, fixing a few embarrassing bugs. Major
functionality improvements that are being worked on are not yet in place.
They will be coming out soon.
The function key control-F6 really, really, really gives the ‘centers’
concept.
The definitions of ‘scoot and weave’ and ‘turn and weave’ were
fixed to handle the turning motions correctly. We thank Kerry Hodnett
for pointing out this problem.
The problem with ‘outer 6 invert the column 1/3’ was fixed.
For most calls with star turns, you can type a modification to the star turn amount
directly. Say ‘motivate, don't turn the star’ or ‘motivate, turn the star 3/4’.
This doesn't yet work with ‘tag the star’.
Also, if you want more esoteric things, like ‘turn the star 3 but interrupt
after 2 with a bias motivate’, you still need to use the allow modifications
mechanism.
There is a new section of the manual, “Interruptions and Interlace”,
describing some esoteric aspects of calls like ‘exchange the diamonds’.
It is legal to omit the typing of apostrophe or comma. This means that
you can type chain reaction turn the star 1/2 or ends go as you
are turntable or lockers choice or "tag the star ers delight".
It is also legal to type a space where a hyphen would normally be
required. This means that you can type "swing o late" or "tandem based
triangles". Use this cautiously!! Because of word completion, Sd may
complete more of the call than you were expecting when you type a space.
[The above problem was fixed in version 31.92.]
The calls ‘triple scoot’, ‘partner tag’, and ‘remake the thar’
were moved from the Plus to the A1 lists, in accordance with the recent
Callerlab resolution.
An enormous number of improvements were made, far too many to list here. Many are minor, many are significant. Most of these were made possible by analysis of C4 material generously provided by Lynette Bellini. New call:
cast a shadow, very centers cast 3/4
New concepts:
REPLACE THE LAST PART
INTERRUPT BEFORE THE LAST PART
Y'S ARE SOLID
Y-SOME
Y's ARE SOLID N/4 Y-SOME
Y-SOME N/4 SOLID
In the concepts BOXES/DIAMONDS/TRIANGLES WORK solid / N-some /
fractional solid / fractional N-some, the word WORK has been
changed to ARE. We realize that callers often use the word
"work" in things like "triangles work solid 1/4 threesome",
but this change makes the program's naming more consistent,
and avoids any possibility of ambiguity. There is a meta-concept
<ANYONE> WORK <concept>, that is essentially equivalent to
"OWN the <ANYONE> for <concept> <call> BY <call>. We want to give
the user complete and unambiguous control over which concept
is used.
The calls that used the phrase "(by parts)" in their name have had
that phrase changed to just "(parts)". Those calls are: recycle,
cross cycle, scoot and weave, and couple up.
The program's interpretation of the splitting of a 2x4 for the concepts
CENTRAL or CRAZY has been made more regular. The rule is that, if
it is at all possible to divide the 2x4 into 2x2's, the program, and
presumably the dancers, do so, even if such a division does not lead to
the most common application of the call. The 2x4 is split into 1x4's
only if the call is impossible in 2x2's. So, for example, ‘1/2 crazy
switch to a diamond’ from parallel waves initially splits the setup into
waves, as it has always done. The difference is in calls like ‘tickle’
and the centers part of ‘counter’. On a ‘1/2 crazy tickle’
from parallel waves, the first action is done in each box, resulting in
a tidal wave. then the centers do it again. On a ‘central counter’
from parallel waves, each box does a ‘cast off 3/4’ followed by
a ‘lockit’. On ‘central interlocked counter’ or ‘central
cross counter’, the initial division is into each wave, since the call
is impossible otherwise.
The definition of crossfire has been changed so that the original ends
can roll. The definition of this call does not involve an extend.
It involves the original centers walking straight ahead to meet the
original ends. Since the latter did not move forward, they do not lose
their roll status from the cross fold.
The program can directly parse calls that take two subcalls in brackets,
as in ‘slant [swing thru] and [turn and deal]’ or ‘[slip] the
windmill, outsides [ramble]’.
‘Dixie grand’ is now a call, as well as being a recognized getout.
After doing this call, the dancers will be in an alamo ring. You may
need to give the pseudo-call ‘adjust alamo to other pairing’ before
doing the next call.
In Sdtty for PC's, function key control-F6 is a shortcut for
the ‘centers’ concept.
The call ‘<anything> and the <anyone> roll’ re-evaluates people's
positions before deciding who should roll. So, for example, if you say
‘[swing thru] and the centers roll’, it will be the new centers
that will roll. You may need to make that clear to the dancers by
saying something like ‘the new centers roll’
The program now understands the number zero. It can do things like
‘take 0’, ‘loop and tag 0/4’, ‘0 steps at a time’,
and ‘track 0’.
The word order ‘reverse N/4 crazy’ is no longer accepted. It appears
that some people believe that this word order is just a short notation
for “reverse order N/4 crazy.” If you want ‘reverse order N/4 crazy’,
say so. If you want ‘N/4 reverse crazy’, say so.
The program can do singing call progressions. There are two new commands, available only at the start of a sequence (that is, when you could say ‘heads start’):
toggle singing call
toggle reverse singing call
The "reverse" singing call option chooses a reverse ("right hand lady") progression. It has a much more sophisticated way of checking for getouts, and can see many more of them than previously. It has an improved understanding of how 12 matrix, 16 matrix, 3x3, and 4x4 interact. Plus several dozen minor improvements in the database, the program's awareness of where people are, and so on.
The changes described below (for version 31.87) for ‘percolate (centers and ends)’ and ‘cover up (centers and ends)’ were added for ‘perk up (centers and ends)’ as well. An error in ‘sidetrack’ from a 1x8 column was fixed.
When the ‘<anyone> work’ concept is used, as in ‘boys work tandem swing thru’, the program will put in the word ‘all’, along with a comma. It will come out like ‘boys work tandem, all swing thru’. You do not type in the comma or the word ‘all’. Some of the obscure nuances of ‘countershake’, like ‘3x3 countershake’ from a 2x6 matrix, have been dealt with by creating a call ‘countershake (matrix)’. The default call (without the word ‘matrix’) is completely fractionalizable. See the manual for details. ‘Cover up’ and ‘percolate’ can be used with the ‘central’ concept from some formations. The calls ‘cover up (centers and ends)’ and ‘percolate (centers and ends)’ have been created for this purpose. See the manual for details. The call "scoot and counter", if done from a left-handed 1/4 tag, will have the outsides use a right hand at the end. This appears to be somewhat more in keeping with common usage than using a left hand, though the situation is not really clear. The Callerlab definition still prohibits this, and Sd did prior to this release. You were always permitted to say "left scoot and counter", and this is still permitted. The "anchor the <anyone>" concept has been improved to handle 2-person calls in a more general way. It should now handle all 2 and 4 person calls.
There is a rudimentary understanding of the "anchor the <anyone>" concept. The handling of fractional, interruptible, crazy, random, initially, and finally has been completely revamped. The program has a much simpler and more logical internal structure now. It should do a much better job of handling things like "random finish 2/3 reverse order hot foot spin". The program has a much better understanding of the individual "O" circulates that the outsides do on a "hocus pocus". However, you must use the special call "hocus pocus (fractions)" to get this. See the discussion in the manual. The definition of "crossfire" has been changed to bring it up to date with the nuances of this call. It was discovered that the program had been cheating on "change the web", turning the star only one position instead of the five positions that the definition mandates. This shocking and scandalous situation has been rectified.
The mechanism for deciding when to step to a wave or rear back from one has been improved, hopefully making it better able to reflect the way real dancers think about this issue. The level "c4x" has been added, and the interpretation of level "c3x" has been changed. These levels are for calls that might not be considered really legitimate, but that are nevertheless used. In the case of c3x, these calls are not on the official list. In the case of c4x, these calls don't appear to be commonly used, according to informal lists. It is generally NOT NECESSARY to run the program at either of these levels. When you run at c3, c3x calls may be used. When you run at c4, c4x calls may be used. Whenever such a call is used, a warning is printed. (If you explicitly run the program at c3x or c4x, you may use the calls without getting a warning.) Examples of c3x calls are:
<ATC> nuclear reaction
change lanes
<anyone> run the wheel
snake
trixie
settle back
hang loose
Examples of c4x calls are:
disperse
mayday
loop the loop
trap it
The above lists are intended to be illustrative, not exhaustive.
A number of questionable or controversial calls now print warnings when they are used. For example, ‘explode the line’ from a 2-faced line is marked as a violation of the definition of the call. New concepts:
as couples in a 1/4 tag
as couples in a 3/4 tag
as couples in a 1/4 line
as couples in a 3/4 line
A number of minor bugs and inconveniences were fixed.
There is added detail in the manual describing subtleties of ‘<anyone> start’ and ‘initially <anyone>’. Please see the section “Anyone Start”, at approximately page 90. A number of minor improvements were made in various calls, such as:
Load the Boat (can be done from inverted lines)
Rip the Line (allow T-boned centers)
[Cross] Pair the Line (allow T-boned centers)
Explode and Reverse Explode (follow Callerlab definitions better)
The behavior of the "cross concentric" concept has been modified slightly to bring it into conformance with modern usage. When a cross concentric call takes a 1x4 to a 2x2 (e.g. recycle), the original center 1x4 will elongate their final 2x2 on the outside perpendicular to *THEIR OWN* original 1x4 axis, not the elongation of the entire setup. The difference arises when the setup is a wave between two miniwaves (e.g. centers lockit from a tidal wave). A cross concentric recycle will have the original centers elongate perpendicular to their original center wave. The resulting setup will be a "split square thru" type of setup. See the excellent article on this topic in the April 1996 issue of the Zip Coder magazine. Some people do not agree with this. In fact, it is contrary to an example diagram in the Callerlab C2 definitions, though the text of those definitions is not clear as to whether elongation is being measured relative to the whole setup or just the centers or ends. When this different behavior occurs, the program will print a warning:
"New ends should opt for setup perpendicular to their original (center)
line. Beware: This may be controversial."
Proceed with caution in this area. If you do not agree with this, do not use it. If you require the old behavior, enter a "stable concentric quarter right" after the cross concentric call to move the outsides to the other position.
IMPORTANT NOTICE IMPORTANT NOTICE IMPORTANT NOTICE The word "<concept>" has been removed from the names of the two concepts:
do the <Nth> part and
<anyone> work
You just type them that way, as in:
centers work tandem acey deucey or
do the 2nd part tandem remake
They will be printed in the transcript the same as before:
centers work tandem, acey deucey or
do the 2nd part tandem, remake
The difference is that you NEVER type the word "<concept>". New designators:
lead ends
lead centers
trailing ends
trailing centers
These can be used, for example, to designate people for calls like "ripple". The program is much better at handling various types of perpendicular 1x2 setups of the sort that arise in fractional exchange the diamonds or fractional ripples. For example, it can do "<so-and-so> ripple 2-1/2" from a parallelogram.
The handling of Quarter the Deucey, Spin Chain the Star, and variants thereof has been changed. After the first part, the end looking out has only one remaining part, which is a circulate to the other end of the wave. This person formerly did two parts – a half circulate as if in a Relay the Top, and then the other half of the circulate. This makes a difference if "Finally Stable" is used. The correct ending position for "Finally Stable Quarter the Deucey" has both ends facing out, as if in lines. We thank Dave Hodson and Leon Eskenazi for pointing out this problem.
Various problems in the parser changes of version 31.77 were fixed. The bug arising from the line "sequence <filename>" in the "options" section of the initialization file was fixed. A number of improvements have been made in "ladies chain" types of calls. All 4 ladies chain N/4 (from a squared set) has been added, along with head/side ladies chain to the right and head/side ladies chain 3/4. See the section “Up to the Middle” in the manual. The call "<ANYONE> cloverleaf while the others <ANYTHING>" has been added, and is at Mainstream. It attempts to capture some of the common uses of this figure. It is in many cases identical to the A1 call "clover and <ANYTHING>". The calls "and 1/4 more" and "and 1/2 more" were moved to Mainstream to capture such things as the "courtesy turn full around" usage.
There is a *MAJOR* improvement in the parser. (That's the part of the program that analyzes the line that you type and figures out the logical structure of what you are trying to say.) All the calls that have "<ANYTHING>" in them, like "clover and <ANYTHING>", the ones that print out with brackets around the "<ANYTHING>" calls, can now be typed in directly. You just type ‘clover and [swap around]’ or ‘[follow your neighbor] and spread’ or ‘catch [2/3 recycle] 3’ or ‘[shakedown] and roll’ or ‘clover and [3/4 stable left catch [[reflected flip your neighbor] and spread] 3]’ or whatever you have in mind. (Good luck calling that last one!) THE BRACKETS ARE NECESSARY!!! Without them, it would be impossible to distinguish between
clover and [[swap around] and roll]
and
[clover and [swap around]] and roll
The calls like "trade motivate" (a modified version of the circulate for calls that start with a circulate) have had their name changed in the menus. They are now "<ANYCIRC> motivate". There are also calls "<ANYTHING> motivate" (along with their more mundane friends like "clover and <ANYTHING>" and "<ANYTHING> and spread". The former calls are entered, as before, without brackets: Just type ‘in roll perk up’ or whatever. The latter are entered with brackets. Type ‘[2/3 recycle] motivate’ or ‘clover and [swap around]’ or whatever. Because both types of calls can be typed directly, there is hardly ever any need to type words like "<ANYTHING>" or "<ANYCIRC>". However, we thought you'd like to know that we have changed the names to avoid any ambiguity.
The "straight" and "twisted" concepts are implemented. Of course, "straight" things have existed on a case-by-case basis for some time, but now you can say, for example, "straight yoyo crossfire" instead of "yoyo straight fire" if you wish.
The program has a significantly improved notion of how to do the call ‘squeeze’.
The program's ability to handle calls in alamo rings is somewhat
improved. See the discussion of the call adjust alamo to other pairing
under “Call Notes” in the manual.
The concept formerly called ‘diagonal’ has been changed
to ‘diagonal box’ in accordance with current usage.
The call ‘... and spread’ is obsolete. Just use ‘spread’,
for both the follow your neighbor type and the heads star thru
type. There are also calls ‘<anything> and spread’ and
‘<anything> and the <anyone> spread’. Use the latter to have specified
adjacent people spread, after, for example, a motivate.
*********************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTICE IMPORTANT NOTICE IMPORTANT NOTICE
Version 31.72 behaves differently from previous versions. If an error
occurs on a call/concept combination (for example, you type triple boxes
switch the wave), the concept and call will both be discarded. Previously,
the concept (triple boxes) remained in place. You would have had to type
undo if you wanted to get rid of the concept.
The old behavior was misguided and horrible. If you are accustomed to
typing undo after an error involving a concept, you may find the
change disconcerting, since undo will now delete the entire previous
line. You should either get accustomed to the new behavior as soon as
possible, or follow the directions below for making the program use
the old behavior. This involves either typing the command
toggle retain after error when the program starts, or putting
the line retain_after_error in the [Options]
section of your sd.ini file.
*********************************************************
The operation of ignoring blanks (previously set with the
ignoreblanks line in the sd.ini file or in the command line)
is now controlled with a toggle command. The command is
toggle ignoreblanks
It is normally off. It can still be turned on automatically
at program startup, as before, through the sd.ini file or the
command line. See the reference manual for further details.
The operation of discarding or retaining entered concepts after
an error occurs (previously set with the discard_after_error
line in the sd.ini file or in the command line) is now
controlled with a toggle command. The command is
toggle retain after error
The name of this has been changed from discard to retain.
It is still normally off, but that means that the program normally
discards, rather than retaining. Hence, the default behavior has
changed. In the absence of any special action, the program will
DISCARD entered concepts. Previously, it retained them. To get the
old behavior, that is, to retain entered concepts, you must use the
toggle retain after error command. It can also be turned on
automatically at program startup, through the sd.ini file or the
command line. The line in the [options] section of
sd.ini file to do this is
retain_after_error. The command line switch is -retain_after_error.
The old command discard_after_error are maintained for compatibility,
but they have no effect. See the reference manual for further details.