ANYONE Promenade
ANYONE Cloverleaf
ANYONE Start
Sd is a square dance caller's helper. The program assists you in writing sequences for Western square dancing by doing the checker pushing. You tell the program what call you want to call next, and it computes the resulting setup and shows it to you. Sd is intended to be used to write challenge-level dances where the sequences are often complex and the checker pushing tedious and error-prone. Most challenge callers write out the sequences they will call before they get to the dance, unlike Mainstream callers, who often invent the sequences on the fly from the stage.
Sd knows nothing about timing, body flow, or esthetics.
This program is not appropriate for Traditional square dancing. A good
Traditional square dance sequence requires, among other things, extremely
accurate control of timing and phrasing. The program is not capable of
this.
Since the emphasis here is on checker pushing, you will find various
Mainstream staples missing, such as Circle Left, Grand Square, and
Do-Si-Do. Since these calls are zeros, there is no
reason to have them in a checker-pushing program. However, if you
wish to write sequences containing calls such as these, you can use the
insert a comment command to write them into the sequence.
In short, if you are writing a Traditional or Mainstream dance,
you may find that this program is not for you.
It is most emphatically not the goal of Sd to present a polished
graphical display of the dancers, or to show animation. The goal
is to write sequences so that you can create pleasing animation among
live people. If you want to enjoy the esthetic visual patterns
created by square dance choreography, we recommend that you turn
off your computer and go to a dance.
The use of this program is not a good way to learn to call or to improve
your calling or dancing skills. In fact, reliance on a computer program
to write material could easily make you a worse caller, or interfere
with your attempts to improve your calling skills.
The knowledge of calls and concepts that this program can provide is
only a tiny part what you need to learn in order to be a good caller
or dancer. To call successfully, you need to master many skills,
such as timing, flow, judging difficulty, floor interaction, and choosing
precisely the right words to say. This last skill is as important at high
levels as at low levels. Subtle differences in the words you choose,
and their timing and inflection, can have a tremendous influence on the
success of the dancers. Sd attempts to print the correct words in all
cases, but you will only succeed if you have a deep understanding of
what the words mean and how they should be delivered. That understanding
can only be obtained through a great deal of experience calling at that level.
If you do not have a good understanding of a call or concept, such that
you could explain it to a dancer after the tip is over, you should not use it.
Do not rely on Sd to provide the necessary insight into challenge dancing.
For beginning callers in particular, the best thing to do
is to receive instruction from a qualified teacher or coach, and to practice.
We recognize that people sometimes have to learn a level in a tape group without
benefit of any human expertise at that level, and that such people may have
no choice but to rely on a computer program as one of their sources of
information. This is an undesirable situation, and we believe that computer
programs should not be used as references except in emergencies. There is an
enormous body of knowledge about the accepted usage of various calls and concepts.
That body of knowledge is generally possessed by all competent dancers and callers
at a given level. No computer program can possibly possess that knowledge.
In particular, computer programs should not be used for resolving controversial
issues.
This is not to say that computers have no place in the education and training
of callers. A number of caller training programs have been written that
may help you develop such skills as formation management and sight resolving.
Sd is not suitable for this.
Quality, correctness, and reliability are fundamental and extremely important design objectives of Sd. Before any version is released, it passes very rigorous diagnostic tests. These tests include verification of large amounts of C4 material from recent National Advanced and Challenge Conventions, and other C4 weekends. The elusive but ever-sought-after goal is to make a program that
We have endeavored to use the current Callerlab lists and definitions as the source for call and concept names and definitions wherever possible. Where this is not possible, either because Callerlab does not publish lists or definitions at all levels, or because a definition is unclear in some area, we have used other well-respected encyclopedias, along with our best attempts to make things clear and sensible. Particularly at extremely high challenge levels, where there are no standardization bodies to rein in callers' tendencies to change the definitions or usage of calls, concepts, and fundamental assumptions, it is not always possible to do this to everyone's satisfaction. Spelling variations that would be insignificant in normal calling become a serious problem for computer programs. We have attempted to use the spelling in official lists where possible, but sometimes even these lists are careless. In such cases, we have attempted to correct the errors where possible, using a variety of sources. Priority is given to those sources that have shown the greatest care in their editing.
It is a known fact that challenge callers routinely call various “popular”
calls that are not on the official or semi-official lists. In an attempt to
allow this, while maintaining the appearance of strict compliance with
the lists, Sd has two special levels c3x and c4x. These contain
the calls that are currently believed to be called at C3 and C4 but are
not yet on the semi-official C3 list or the various informal C4 compilations
of “commonly used” calls.
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.)
The phenomenon of “clueless clicking”, that is, using a computer to generate challenge choreography that one doesn't really understand, is by now well-known. There are very few more effective ways to exhibit your ignorance and incompetence as a caller. High level challenge dancers are extremely sophisticated in their ability to detect this. If dancers didn't understand what you meant by something that you called, they may ask you about it after the tip is over. The answer “I meant whatever the computer did” is never an acceptable answer to such a question. If you can't give an answer in terms of your understanding of how the calls and concepts really work, or if you don't agree with the program's interpretation, you shouldn't be calling that material.
Not all callers exercise good judgement in their calling, and occasionally
some controversial, or even illegal, things are called. It is not possible
for a computer program to enforce good judgement or good taste. Sd
nevertheless sometimes prints warning messages of various types to alert
less-experienced callers that something might be unusually difficult or
controversial, or might violate some definition or some commonly accepted notion.
These warning messages are intended for callers less competent than you.
Ignore them.
You can prevent the program from displaying or printing these warning messages
by giving the toggle nowarn mode command. This turns on (or turns
off if it was already on) the “no warnings” mode. See Changing Modes.
You can also place a line “no_warnings” in the
“options” section of the sd.ini initialization file
(see Option Control) or start the program with a command-line option
“-no_warnings” (note the leading hyphen). See Command-Line Options.
Several user interfaces are available. They come in two general types,
and the program name is different for these types.
Sdtty is the name of the program that uses a character-oriented keyboard
interface. Calls are selected by typing their names.
Sdtty runs on Unix-like systems and under
DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows XP, and Windows 7 on PC's.
Sd is the name of the program that uses menus and a graphical user
interface. Calls may be selected by clicking with the mouse on the chosen
menu item. You may also type calls in from the keyboard. In fact, Sd
is keyboard-compatible with Sdtty—you can use it almost exactly the
same way. Sd runs on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows XP, and Windows 7 on PC's.
A somewhat different version ran on Unix systems running the raw X Window System interface, though
this has not been maintained in recent years.
The most straightforward way to obtain Sd or Sdtty is to
download the program from
http://www.lynette.org/sd/
on the World Wide Web. The reference manual and other documentation may be
browsed there or downloaded for your local use as well.
You can obtain Sdtty for PC-compatible computers,
on a 3.5-inch HD diskette, with printed documentation.
The price is $4 (price valid for 2000).
See Author Contact.
If you are on the Internet, you can browse or download Sd/Sdtty
documentation from
http://www.lynette.org/sd/readings.html
on the World Wide Web. The documentation is the same for the two programs.
Documentation
files are provided in several formats. There is html format for browsing,
Postscript format for downloading and printing, PDF (Acrobat) format for browsing or
printing, and plain text format for downloading. You can also download
“gzipped” Unix archives of the various files in Unix format.
The file sd_doc is this manual.
See the file relnotes for information about what is new in
the most recent release.
There are also some documents describing a few special features in more detail.
Printed copies of the manual are available from the authors, or may be
printed from the file sd_doc.ps.
The computer on which Sd and Sdtty and their documentation
are developed has no Internet or modem connections at all.
No mail is sent or received, and no web browsing is done, on this computer.
Only software from trustworthy sources is installed. Each version of
the program is digitally signed, using a 512-bit secret PGP/RSA key,
and then transferred to another computer by Zip disk. The files
are then mailed to the web server. Before placing it on the web, the
server authenticates the signature and verifies, with the PGP signature
algorithm, that the files were not tampered with in transit.
Prior to May, 2000, the computer from which the web updates take place had
Microsoft Outlook installed, but not used. (Netscape Communicator is used
as my mailer, because of its technical and ethical superiority.
Outlook had been installed only because of the policy of my employer.)
The "Love Bug" virus of May, 2000 demonstrated that Microsoft
is unable or unwilling to make its email software adhere to the most basic
common-sense principles of safety. Accordingly, Outlook and the Visual Basic
scripting / virus-propagating mechanism (wscript.exe) have been removed
from that computer. No Microsoft email or virus-propagating products
exist anywhere on the Sd development path.
Various terms in the preceding paragraphs are trademarks of various corporations.
Although it is a “Windows application”, Sdtty does not use the
mouse while running. It looks rather like the Command Prompt window.
Sd runs only on Windows 95, Windows 98, and NT 4.0.
Users of DOS, Windows 3.1, or NT 3.51 can only run Sdtty, and need to run a
special version, identified by the installation
file being install3.exe instead of install.exe. (If you use DOS,
Windows 3.1, or NT 3.51, be sure to download the correct version of the program from the
web, or request the correct version when ordering it on diskette.)
Sd and Sdtty are identical in their behavior with respect
to square dance calling.
Sd and Sdtty are believed to be
insensitive to slight inaccuracies in floating-point division.
It should operate correctly with early Pentium chips.
The program is mostly "Year 2000 Compliant", but some care will be
needed. File names created with the special names * and +
contain only the last two digits of the year. We therefore recommend that you
delete old files at least every 75 years or so.
The date printed at the top of each sequence contains the full
4-digit year, so there should be little danger of calling a 100-year-old
card without realizing it. Callers are nevertheless urged to be careful,
since some dancers have extraordinarily long memories.
Sd and Sdtty are two separate programs, that are both installed
simultaneously. Whether you obtain them from the World Wide Web
or by diskette, they are provided in the file install.exe.
The two programs will share the same initialization file, and hence will
use the same sessions, options, and accelerator keys.
(If you are running DOS, Windows 3.1, or NT 3.51, you can only use
Sdtty, and you must obtain the file install3.exe.)
To install the programs, execute (“launch”)
the file install.exe. You can do this
by double-clicking it in the Windows Explorer, by launching it
during a Web download, or by starting the “Run” operation from
the start menu and giving the location of the install.exe
file. For example, you can install from a diskette by selecting
“Run” and typing “A:install.exe”.
If any pre-existing calling program files were in the C:\Sd folder,
they will be saved in a folder with a name like C:\Sd_pre3281
before the new version is
installed. The installation will not damage or delete any sequence
transcript files or initialization files.
If you have downloaded the documentation files in “bulk” form in
self-extracting zipped archives, you can launch them also. The files
are textdoc.exe, psdoc.exe, and pdfdoc.exe.
Launch them in the same way as install.exe.
They will unpack the appropriate text, Postscript, or PDF files into the
directory.
When the installation is complete, the programs will be in the Sd
subfolder of the Programs folder of the Start Menu. The installation
procedure also leaves an Explorer open on the shortcut icons.
There are several icons for starting Sd or Sdtty with various
color schemes, for browsing the manual or release notes,
and for editing the initialization file. You may copy any or all of these
from the open Explorer to the Desktop
and/or the Start Menu. To do this, perform a drag-and-drop operation,
using the right mouse button. If the system asks, select “Copy Here”.
To place icons in on the Desktop, just perform a right-mouse drag-and-drop
to any unused place on the Desktop. To place icons in the Start Menu, just
drop them on the actual “Start” button in the lower left corner. When
finished, close the Explorer by clicking the “X” in the upper-right corner.
(If you are running DOS, Windows 3.1, or NT 3.51, you must place the
install3.exe in the folder in which you want Sdtty to
operate (typically C:\sd), and launch it there. You can create a
shortcut icon by copying the file
SDTTY.PIF to the appropriate place. Use the PIF editor to modify it
if necessary.)
You may delete the
install.exe file at this point, along with
any documentaion archives, perhaps saving copies on diskette.
You do not need to copy the shortcuts again when upgrading to a new version.
Installing a new version requires only obtaining and launching install.exe.
You can, of course, copy the shortcuts anywhere, and edit them with the “Properties”
operation of the Windows Explorer. Among the things you can do is put command-line
arguments into them. For example, you can make another copy of the Sd icon
on the Desktop (under a different name), and arrange for the program, when launched
with that icon, to run in reverse video mode. Run the “Properties” operation
on the copied icon, and change the Target specification on the
Shortcut page from “C:\sd\sd.exe” to
“C:\sd\sd.exe -reverse_video”.
Sd and Sdtty are “free software” programs, licensed
under the GNU General Public License, which is in the file
COPYING.txt in the distribution. You can also get it by
writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.
In short, this means that it is perfectly legal and ethical to copy and
redistribute the program, documentation, and source files. You are, of
course, not required to download the source files when you obtain a copy
of Sd from the web page. If you want to make the program
available to someone else, and you do it by giving them the URL for
downloading, that is OK. However, if you distribute the program by
other means, such as giving someone a copy that you have placed on a CD
or diskette, you must either place the source files on the disk also, or
tell the person the URL (http://www.lynette.org/sd/) from which they can
download them.
Also, if you redistribute Sd on your own web page or similar
mechanism, you must make the source files available there.
If you modify the program, the terms of the license are very strict.
Programs constructed from modified source files may never be duplicated
or redistributed by anyone, even just in executable form, without obeying the
conditions of the license and copyright. Read the license carefully.
Note in particular that any modified program based on Sd or
Sdtty must obey the licensing terms every time it is
redistributed by anyone. This requires redistribution of all of the
source files, or otherwise complying with section 3 of the license.
The Windows installation program install.exe contains licensed
commercial decompression software. The licensing terms prohibit
extracting or reverse-engineering that software.
This document
is distributed in both formatted and plain-text form, in the files
sd_doc.ps and sd_doc.txt, respectively. Some other
documents are also distributed with the program. Permission is given to
distribute verbatim copies of these documents, either by photocopier or
by computer, but modification of them is forbidden by copyright law.
Please send any praise, bug reports, or other comments on Sd to the authors at the addresses given below. Be sure to include the version number.
William Ackerman
wba@alum.mit.edu
Stephen Gildea
gildea@.stop.mail-abuse.org
If you do not have access to electronic mail, write to
Bill Ackerman
100 Parlmont Park
North Billerica MA 01862-2722
Thanks to Kathy Godfrey, Sue Curtis, Chris Stacy, and Lynette Bellini
for their help, encouragement, suggestions, contributions of calls,
feedback, testing, and many other contributions.
The non-windowed interface for Sdtty (see Terminal Interface)
was contributed by Alan Snyder.
The Sd interface for Windows was contributed by Robert Cays.
We received helpful feedback and testing from Robert French, Judy
Anderson, Bill van Melle, Tom Rinker, Lois Lew, Ron Nicholson, Dave Decot,
Kristin Jensen, Larry Dunn, and Nick Martellacci.
Throughout this manual, the name Sd will generally be used to denote
both Sd and Sdtty, except in those areas in which the programs
are different.
If you are using a PC and have installed Sdtty to run under Windows 3.1
or Windows 95, start the program in the usual way by clicking its icon.
Sdtty is actually a DOS program, so, once it is started, it will not
use the mouse.
The first thing it will do (assuming you are not using the session control feature
of the initialization file) is ask you for the level. Type the desired level
and press <ENTER>.
Sd or Sdtty can be run from a shell (on Unix or DOS) by typing its name
and the level you want to write sequences for, e.g.,
sd c2
or
sdtty c2
In addition to calls and concepts, there are program commands for actions
such as automatic resolves, exiting the program, and other miscellaneous
actions. See Resolving and Searching.
In Sd, they are found in the menu in the upper
left corner.
In Sdtty, just type the name of the command.
The following chapters cover the operation of Sd in detail.
This chapter describes how to use the program in its normal mode to generate a sequence of calls of your choosing.
Selections are made in the same way almost everywhere
in the program. In either Sd or Sdtty, you may type in the
selection. The program has a sophisticated completing reader
that lets you abbreviate what you type. It is discussed in detail
in The Completing Reader.
In Sd, you may additionally select an item from the menu in
the usual ways. You may double-click it, or highlight it (by using the
cursor keys, for example) and click the ‘Accept’ button. (You may
activate things with a single mouse click, if you prefer that style of operation,
by issuing the toggle singleclick mode command or by placing the
single_click option in your initialization file.)
You can see the choices that are available by
typing a question mark or exclamation point. This is discussed in detail
in Question Mark.
In normal operation, the menu lists calls first, concepts next, and miscellaneous
commands last. This menu is typically extremely large and needs to be
manipulated with cursor keys or the scroll bar.
A special “startup” menu is displayed when the program starts, and after each
sequence has been completed and written to a file.
It provides a number of miscellaneous commands, including
commands to change various modes such as the active phantoms
mode or the singing call mode. See Miscellaneous Commands, for further
discussion of these. The startup menu also allows you
to exit from the program and return to your computer's operating
system.
The main use of this menu is to select the starting operation.
If you select heads start or sides start, the sequence will begin
with ‘heads’ or ‘sides’ and the first call. Normally this means that the
designated people will move into the center and do the first call while
the others wait. Subsequent calls will be directed to everyone. For
example, one might select heads start, and then star thru, and
then double pass thru, and so on. You can also select heads start
or sides start followed by a call such as split square thru or split
dixie style to a wave.
If you want to have the heads go into the middle and do several calls
before the sides join in, as in head ladies chain and then heads square thru 4,
or heads touch 1/4 and then walk and dodge, you must select centers
before all calls after the initial one. Typically, you won't need to read
the card that way, but can rely on precise phrasing and inflection of your
voice to express what you want.
The heads 1P2P and sides 1P2P starting actions refer to caller jargon
for a common starting maneuver, typified by <ANYONE> lead right and
circle to a line. You can read the card that way, or as wheel thru and
circle to a line, or as step right, or as bring us together, or whatever
improvisation you like. The promenade distance shown at the end of the
sequence will assume that you said step right or lead right (or wheel
thru) and circle to a line.
Whether you consider 1P2P openings to be overused is up to you.
The just as they are selection starts the sequence on squared set spots,
without having the heads or sides begin. This is generally useful only if
the all 4 couples concept is to be used. After using this, you typically
need to have the heads or sides (or headliners or sideliners, in some
cases) press ahead, in order to continue the sequence.
The usual thing you do when writing a sequence is to select calls,
perhaps preceded by one or more concepts. You can select concepts
and calls separately, or, if using the completing reader, type
concepts and calls together. That is, you can type the entire “line”.
You should be aware that a number of modifier words like cross,
left, and grand are treated as concepts by Sd
and Sdtty. While concepts don't officially exist below the
Advanced program, Sd and Sdtty consider words such as these
to be concepts. When typing things in, this generally makes no difference.
Because of the way the program operates, you can just type the call, with
whatever concepts or modifier words it has, in the natural way. For example,
you could type:
grand swing thru <ENTER>
or:
centers cross run <ENTER>
In a few cases, either because a concept has a complex structure
(e.g., checkpoint), or because an utterance is ambiguous
(e.g., doing 1/2 of a stable swing thru vs. doing a 1/2 stable swing thru),
it is necessary to type concepts by themselves, pressing
<ENTER>
after each one. This will be discussed further in Entering Concepts.
When using Sd and selecting things with the mouse,
you will usually not see full combinations listed in the menu.
For example, there is no item grand
swing thru. The menu would be too unwieldy if such
things were listed separately.
Instead, all concepts, modifier words, and calls are listed
separately in the menus. To get
a grand swing thru with mouse clicks, click on grand and
then swing thru.
There are a number of issues that make call entry less than completely
straightforward. These have to do with variations that calls have—directions
(as in quarter left), numbers (as in square thru 3 or three quarter
thru), person designators (as in sides kickoff), subcalls (as in clover
and [quarter thru] or vertical tag your neighbor or shuttle [rally] or
in roll motivate), and modifiers (as in strut left or trans cross
chain reaction).
To list all possible variations in the menu would be unwieldy for a variety
of reasons. Because of this, various methods are used to shorten the menu
and to allow the user to specify the desired variation. These methods will
be discussed in detail presently, but in most cases what happens is the following:
In Sd, the menu lists only the base calls with special keywords
as in face <DIRECTION> or square thru <N>. When you
click on such a menu item, a new menu appears listing the possible choices.
In Sdtty, the “menu” (that is, what you see if you type a question
mark) also has keywords. You can type the item just as shown, e.g.,
quarter <DIRECTION> or square thru <N> (you would actually type the
angle brackets) and then answer the question that Sdtty asks. But there is
an easier way—you can type what you want directly. That is, just type
quarter left or square thru 3. If you want to see the choices,
type quarter <DIRECTION> or whatever, and then type a question mark.
Calls that take a direction have the keyword <DIRECTION> in them in the
menu, like pass <DIRECTION> or spin a windmill, outsides <DIRECTION>.
You can just type the call naturally, for example, pass in or shuttle left.
You can also type such things in a piecemeal fashion, typing the keyword “<DIRECTION>”
literally, and then typing the direction.
When using the mouse with Sd, the second way is the
only way—click on the call, and then select the
direction from the new menu that will appear.
If you decide you don't want that call, click the ‘Cancel’ button.
The menu lists all possible directions, including some that may not be legal
in the given context.
Calls that take a number have the keyword <N>, <N/4>, or <Nth>
in their name. Examples are the calls
eight chain <N>,
invert the column <N/4>,
and
square thru, but on the <Nth> hand <ANYTHING>.
You can just type the call naturally, for example, invert the column 3/4 or
square thru 2 or 1/4 thru or square thru but on the 3rd hand.
You can also type such things in a piecemeal fashion, typing the keyword “<N>”
or “<N/4>” or “<Nth>”
literally, and then typing the number(s).
If the keyword was <N/4>, enter just the value of N.
When using the mouse with Sd, the second way is the
only way—click on the call, and then select the
number from the new menu that will appear.
If you decide you don't want that call, click the ‘Cancel’ button.
Not all values of N will be meaningful for all calls. For example, you
can eight chain 5, but you can't invert the column 5/4.
Some calls have the words quarter, half, or three quarter
in their names. Examples are quarter thru, quarter the deucey,
quarter mix, quarter the alter, and quarter chain and circulate in.
These are listed in the Callerlab lists with the words spelled out, though
individual preferences vary. Some people prefer to write 1/4 thru and
3/4 thru. Sd and Sdtty list the call as <N/4> thru
in the menu. When using mouse input in Sd, you click on that and then
click on a number (only 1 and 3
are legal, of course). You can also type <N/4> thru and then type
1 or 3, or you can type the call directly, either in numbers or in words. That is,
you can type either 1/4 thru or quarter thru. No matter how you
enter one of these calls, it will always be printed out in words, as in
three quarter thru or half chain and circulate in.
These work like the others in a straightforward way. The calls appear in the menu
with the <ANYONE> keyword, as in patch the <ANYONE>.
You can just type the call naturally, for example, patch the sides.
You can also type such things in a piecemeal fashion, typing the keyword “<ANYONE>”
literally, and then typing the designator.
When using the mouse with Sd, the second way is the
only way—click on the call, and then select the
designator from the new menu that will appear.
If you decide you don't want that call, click the ‘Cancel’ button.
The gender designators are boys and girls. This is the way they
appear in the Callerlab Mainstream list. The author does not take a position
on whether the adult terms would be more reasonable words to use in any given context.
You must use your own judgement in deciding what to say.
Not all designators are legal in all cases; for example, you can't call
leads run from a tidal wave.
The program specifically refuses to recognize the meaning of the designators centers
and ends while in a 1x8 setup (e.g., a tidal wave). This is because these terms
can be ambiguous in such a setup. If you want the centers of each 1x4, you must use
the EACH 1X4, EACH LINE, EACH COLUMN, or EACH WAVE concept in order to make the
centers or ends designators work. Of course, in many cases, other designators,
such as boys or girls can identify the same people unambiguously.
If you want to designate the 4 people in the center of the set, use center 4.
Outer pairs specifies the others.
Calls that use tagging calls have the keyword <ATC> (for Any Tagging Call) in
them, as in <ATC> your neighbor or <ATC> chain thru and scatter reaction.
Specify these in the usual way. In Sdtty you can type the <ATC> directly
or you can enter the complete call.
At C3 and above, the tagging calls include the calls revert <ATC> and
reflected <ATC>, which make use of another tagging call.
When using mouse input in Sd, you
will be presented with another menu. In Sdtty, you can type in the
entire call directly, as in revert cross flip chain thru reactivate.
Some calls have an “<ANYTHING>” in them when they appear in the menu,
such as clover and <ANYTHING> or <ANYTHING> and roll.
The “<ANYTHING>” is intended to be replaced by a subcall.
When you type these in, put the subcall in brackets. That is, you literally type
something like:
clover and [tandem shazam]
[flip the diamond] and roll
busy [lockit]
catch [erase] 2
slant [swing thru] and [turn and deal]
fascinating [ah so]
[jay walk] and plenty, turn the star 3/4, interrupt
before the star turns with [trade circulate]
The subcall in brackets may be any combination of concepts and calls, and these may be nested. As an example of this, you can type:
[[vertical tag your neighbor] and spread] er's percolate
clover and [3/4 stable left catch
[[reflected flip your neighbor] and spread] 3]
(Two of the examples above don't fit on one line in this manual, but you would type them on one line.) The brackets are required. Without them, the program couldn't tell the difference between
clover and [[swap around] and roll]
and
[clover and [swap around]] and roll
or between
first 1/2 stable swing thru
and
first [1/2 stable swing thru]
You can also enter such things in a piecemeal fashion, typing the keyword “<ANYTHING>”
literally, and then typing the subcall when the program asks for it. For example, you
could type
clover and <anything> <ENTER>
and then type
square thru 2 <ENTER>.
When using the mouse with Sd, the second way is the
only way—click on the call, and then select the subcall.
Important note: Nesting these subcalls too deeply can make the program
run very slowly. You should not type more than two consecutive left brackets.
If you need to nest things more deeply than that, use the word “<ANYTHING>”,
and enter the subcall when the program asks for it. For example, suppose we wanted
to enter:
[[[trans cross reactivate to a diamond] chain thru] and
anything] percolate, boys to a wave
(Berkshires C4 weekend, May 1996.) (As if that weren't complicated enough,
note that the word “anything” in the above call is the literal “anything” concept,
not the <ANYTHING> mechanism of Sdtty.)
This is too complicated to type directly. We would instead type:
<anything> percolate, boys to a wave
The subcall we want is now [[trans cross reactivate to a diamond] chain thru]
and anything. When asked for the subcall, we type:
<anything> and anything
The subcall we want is now [trans cross reactivate to a diamond] chain thru.
When asked for the subcall, we could type that directly, or we could type:
<anything> chain thru
and then type:
trans cross reactivate to a diamond
These “mandatory” subcalls, with the keyword <ANYTHING> in the menu,
are just one of many types of modifications. See Call Modifications, for
some other types of modifications.
A number of calls, all of whose definitions start with a circulate, are subject
to a special circulate modification mechanism, recognized at C2, and officially
called the “(anything)” concept. The call name (e.g. “motivate”)
is preceded by a word or phrase such as “in roll” telling how the
circulate should be modified. Examples are
in roll motivate
bias trade perk up
split counter coordinate (not actually a type of circulate)
counter cover up (not actually a type of circulate)
These variations are in the menu as “<ANYCIRC> motivate”.
They can be typed in just as shown above.
You can also enter them in a piecemeal fashion, typing the keyword “<ANYCIRC>”
literally, and then typing the circulate replacement as a complete call,
for example, “out roll circulate”.
When using the mouse with Sd, the second way is the
only way—click on the call, and then select the
circulate replacement from the new menu that will appear.
If you decide you don't want that call, click the ‘Cancel’ button.
Only bona-fide circulate-type calls, and other well-recognized similar
things such as split counter percolate can be obtained by this method.
You can get more general substitutions by using the ‘<ANYTHING>’ (as opposed to
‘<ANYCIRC>’) mechanism. The more general substitutions are in brackets.
Such things will print out with the word “er's” to distinguish them.
You can type in the “er's” or not, as you choose. The apostrophe is
optional.
For example, you can type ‘[2/3 recycle] er's percolate’ or
‘[2/3 recycle] percolate’.
Note that
trade motivate (an instance of <ANYCIRC> motivate)
and
[trade] er's motivate (an instance of <ANYTHING> motivate)
are very different. There is a third way to enter such calls. By giving the ‘simple modifications’ or ‘allow modifications’ command and then just entering the call (e.g. ‘motivate’), the program will ask you for replacements. These replacements may be anything and will appear in brackets in the final transcript. This is discussed in Call Modifications.
As discussed above, the program considers these to be actual concepts,
even though they aren't really.
Some calls use these concepts in ways that have a tricky word order.
Whether the word order is tricky or not, you can always enter the concept
followed by the call as separate items.
For example, in Sd, you can click on left followed by
chase right. In Sdtty, you can type in left and then
chase right.
In addition, Sdtty allows more natural text entry. You can type in
grand swing thru or chase left directly.
Other examples of this phenomenon are
switch to an interlocked diamond
unwrap the magic diamonds
hang a left
scoot and cross ramble
trans cross reactivate
revert cross flip chain thru cross nuclear reaction
No matter how you entered it, the calls will be printed out with the words
in the correct place.
The foregoing only applies to calls in which the word is an actual concept
or modifier. Some calls happen to have the word cross as part of
their names. Examples are: cross and wheel, cross and turn,
cross your neighbor, and crossfire. Such calls appear in the
menu just as they are spelled.
The menu in Sd, or the list of available calls in Sdtty, changes
according to the current setup.
For example, if the current setup is right-hand waves, the menu
will contain only those calls that the program believes
might be legal from right-hand waves. This determination is approximate
but conservative—appearance on the menu does not necessarily mean it
is legal, though absence from the menu means that the program is fairly
certain that it can't be legal. There is a universal menu that
appears when the setup is not one of the common ones, or when anything
complex is going on. This contains every call that is in the database
for the chosen level.
The call menu is alphabetized in a way that ignores blanks and hyphens.
Special keywords such as <N>, <ANYONE>, <DIRECTION>,
or <ANYTHING> are listed after letters.
Hence, <ANYONE> run and <ATC> your neighbor
will be found near the end of the menu.
A call may be preceded by concepts, which modify the action of the call. These may be nested (stacked) to any reasonable depth. When using the completing reader, just type the concept you want. The completing reader will operate in the usual way. Nearly all concepts may be entered in a natural way, on the same line as the call that they affect. As discussed previously, this means that you can type things like
grand swing thru <ENTER>
or
boys 1/2 stable split the difference <ENTER>
or
random tandem swing thru <ENTER>
Whether you typed concepts separately or together, the result is the same, and the output file will look the same. For example, the following are all legal and equivalent.
reverse random tandem swing thru <ENTER>
reverse random <ENTER>
tandem swing thru <ENTER>
reverse <ENTER>
random <ENTER>
tandem <ENTER>
swing thru <ENTER>
In the output file, they will all be shown as reverse random tandem swing thru.
Occasionally some ambiguous situations can arise. What if you wanted
the boys to do 1/2 of a stable split the difference? The phrase
boys 1/2 stable split the difference is ambiguous. Whenever Sd
is confronted with an ambiguity, it chooses the option that nests concepts least deeply.
A single application of the 1/2 stable concept is less deep (simpler) than
an application of the 1/2 concept followed by an application of the
stable concept, so it chooses the former. If you really want to tell
the program to do the latter, you must make clear that you mean the 1/2
concept by itself. The way to do this is to enter each concept separately, pressing
<ENTER>
after each one. That is, type
boys <ENTER>
1/2 <ENTER>
stable <ENTER>
split the difference <ENTER>
When using the mouse with Sd, you must click on exactly the
concepts that you want. To get the boys concept, you must click on
<ANYONE> and then make the appropriate selection.
To get the 1/2 concept, you must click on
<N>/<N> and then make the appropriate selections.
If you want the 1/2 stable concept instead, click on <N/4> stable,
and then select 2.
When Sd resolves an ambiguity, it shows how it did so through
the judicious use of commas. For example, the preceding operation will
be printed as
boys, 1/2, stable, split the difference, as opposed to
boys, 1/2 stable, split the difference. Do not type the commas in.
Whenever you run into trouble typing concepts, try typing each one separately,
pressing <ENTER> after each one.
The concepts twice, <N> times, and 1-<N>/<N> will be displayed
and printed after the call rather than before it, unless doing so would be
ambiguous. You still type the concept before the call. For example,
you type 1-1/2 swing thru. The result will appear as swing thru 1-1/2.
The program will sometimes use parentheses to prevent ambiguity.
Some concepts require two calls (e.g., checkpoint and interlace).
You must enter such concepts by themselves. That is, you must press
<ENTER>
after typing any of these concepts. You can't type
checkpoint ah so by recycle <ENTER>
nor
boys trade (while the others) u-turn back <ENTER>
You must type
checkpoint <ENTER>
ah so <ENTER>
recycle <ENTER>
or
boys (while the others) <ENTER>
trade <ENTER>
u-turn back <ENTER>
After choosing such a concept, enter the first call, preceded by
whatever concepts apply to it. The program will then prompt you
for the second call. A complex tree of concepts and calls can
thus be constructed.
Some concepts require a numeric designator (e.g., interrupt after the 3rd
part) or a people designator (e.g., girls are stable). The handling
is the same as for calls that require these.
The program recognizes the level at which concepts are legal, but lets you
override this if you wish. The toggle concept levels command toggles
(turns on or off) the state of off-level concept permission.
See Changing Modes, and Using Off-Level Concepts.
When you select any concept, the universal call menu replaces whatever
special call menu may have been presented, since the set of legal calls
becomes highly unpredictable.
Thinking in mathematical or computer terms, a concept is a “function” that operates on an “argument”. That argument is a call, or perhaps another application of a concept to another argument. For example, in ‘tandem lockit’, the function ‘tandem’ applies to the argument ‘lockit’. Calls of the ‘clover and [anything]’ variety behave the same way. This call takes an “argument” call, and has the centers do that while the outsides cloverleaf. Such a thing is called a “supercall”. It could just as easily have been considered a concept. The significance of this is that some concepts, called “meta-concepts”, operate on concepts rather than on calls or concept-call combinations. Examples of meta-concepts are ‘random’, ‘initially’, ‘finally’, and ‘echo’. Since supercalls are like concepts, meta-concepts can operate on them. What would happen if we applied the ‘finally’ concept to the supercall combination ‘clover and [right and left thru]’? We do the ‘right and left thru’ without the “concept” up until the last part. The “concept” is ‘clover and [anything]’. If we skip the concept, we just do the ‘right and left thru’ up to the last part. That is, we do a right pull by. Then, for the last part, which is a courtesy turn, we apply the supercall. That is, we do a ‘clover and [courtesy turn]’. So ‘finally clover and [right and left thru]’ is danced as:
right pull by
clover and [courtesy turn]
Sd can handle straightforward cases of supercalls with meta-concepts.
You must enter the supercall in the square bracket notation. That is, you
may not use the method of typing <anything> and expecting to type in the
second call later.
Because the search mechanism (pick random call, etc.) does not fill in
subcalls, it will not find applications of meta-concepts and supercalls. Sorry.
Some supercalls take their “argument” call at the beginning of the phrase
rather than the end, as in ‘[anything] and roll’. Such supercalls don't
scan very tastefully. For example, ‘echo [hinge] and roll’ means that
the “and roll” is applied first, even though it is at the end of the phrase.
We do a ‘[hinge] and roll’ first, and then just a ‘hinge’. The word
order doesn't make that clear.
Supercalls in which the ‘[anything]’ call is at the end, like ‘busy
[anything]’, ‘transfer and [anything]’, ‘eight by [anything]’, and
‘dodge [anything]’ are much more likely to be executed successfully.
Some calls can be modified in a natural way, such as ‘catch [fan the top] 3’,
‘busy [1/2 tag]’,
and ‘vertical tag your neighbor’. Some calls can be modified in
unnatural ways, such as ‘trade
the diamond but replace the diamond circulate with explode the diamond’.
The usual way to perform natural modifications is simply to type the call
as decribed in Call Variations.
To form an unnatural type of modified call, you must first enable call modifications
by selecting simple modifications or allow modifications
before choosing the call.
There are two levels of this feature. With simple
modifications, you get the simple version, which only prompts
you for natural modifications. Natural modifications have been somewhat
arbitrarily defined as those for which there is an accepted way of fitting
the words in without using the phrase “but replace the <whatever> with
<whatever>.” With allow modifications, you allow
a potentially large number of modification possibilities, sometimes several
in the same call.
In most cases, simple modifications is probably the right thing.
For all but the most extreme cases of modifications, you don't need to do it this way,
because the “<ANYTHING>” mechanism can be used instead. Just type the
call with the replacement call in brackets, as in
busy [lockit]
fascinating [ah so]
See Call Variations, for more details about this.
When either level of modifications is selected in Sd,
the status line above
the text transcript area indicates this. Also, the universal call menu
is chosen whenever modifications are enabled, since the possibilities are
unpredictable.
When you select a call for which modifications are possible, the program
will ask a question like The box circulate can be
replaced. Do you want to replace it? If you want to replace the
designated call, click in the active area of the popup; otherwise, move
the mouse away. If you indicate that you want to
replace the call, you will then be prompted for the replacement call.
Enter it, along with any concepts. In some cases you may be asked
repeatedly about various modifications. For example, in motivate,
you can replace the initial circulate, and you can turn the star a
different amount. You may select any or all of these modifications.
Note: When complex modifications are involved, the program may ask for them
in an order that seems unnatural. This is because it asks in the order that
it executes the call internally, which may not be the same as the order in which
the words are spoken. Do not be alarmed. Observe the popup titles and
prompts carefully. The final result will come out in the correct order.
For both these optional modifications and the mandatory subcalls discussed
earlier (e.g., clover and <anything>), the program attempts to show
unambiguously how everything is structured, by putting subcalls and their
accompanying concepts in square brackets. It also attempts to put
natural modifications in their natural place in the phrase. In complex
cases, like ‘[CHECKPOINT LEFT catch [SINGLE CONCENTRIC snake] 3 BY
[2/3 recycle] the difference] cover up’ things may be quite difficult.
How (and whether) you choose to read such a card is up to you.
When writing unsymmetrical material, one sometimes moves the entire square
into a position that is not centered on its original location. In such a
situation, it is sometimes useful to tell the dancers to forget that original
location and consider their present location to be the entire setup. Sd
has a pseudo-call ‘recenter’ that can be used for this purpose. It
recenters the setup, that is, throws away unsymmetrical phantoms. Its level
has been set to C1. It is not a real call, of course. There is no standard
convention for what you have to say to the dancers when you want to perform
this operation.
When an error occurs in the execution of a call, Sd has an option
whereby it tries
to leave in place any concepts that were associated with that call.
That is, after displaying the error message, the program will behave
as though you had once again typed those concepts. The assumption here
is that only the call was mistaken, and you really wanted the concepts
and do not wish to have to enter them again. If you don't want those
concepts, you can remove them one by one with the undo command.
Or you can use the command discard entered concepts to get rid of
all of them at once.
The toggle retain after error command toggles
(turns on or off) the state of this option.
See Changing Modes. It can also be turned on when the program begins,
either by giving a command-line option (see Command-Line Options) or
through the use of the initialization file (see Option Control).
The people selector popup contains various asymmetric selectors such as
near line and far box. You can use these selectors with
the <ANYONE> do your part concept to call near column
pass thru, etc. The resultant setup must be reasonable—shape-changers
on one side of the set may lead to problems.
If you have not restored symmetry, resolves may be extraordinarily difficult
to find.
Sd and Sdtty use a completing reader for interpreting the
characters that you type.
In Sdtty, this is the only means of entering calls and commands.
In Sd you can use the mouse and menus, but you can also type.
When you type characters into Sd, it uses the same completing reader
as Sdtty. In fact, the two programs are completely compatible with
each other if only keyboard input is used.
The completing reader requires you to type only as much of the word or command as is
required to be unambiguous. Whenever you type a space, the program completes
the word you just typed, if necessary and possible. Whenever you type
<ENTER> (or <RETURN> on some keyboards),
the program completes the entire line if necessary and possible.
For example, at Mainstream, you can enter a swing thru by typing
‘swing thru <ENTER>’.
When the space after ‘swing’ is typed,
no completion is required. When the
<ENTER>
after ‘thru’ is typed, no completion is required either. If you type
‘sw thru <ENTER>’
instead, Sd completes the word ‘swing’.
It does this by displaying
‘ing’ on the screen as soon as you type the space after
‘sw’. If you type
‘sw th <ENTER>’,
Sd will complete both words. It displays ‘ing’ as soon as you type the
space, and it displays ‘ru’ as soon as you type
<ENTER>.
In fact, you could just type
‘sw <ENTER>’.
Sd completes the entire line, if necessary
and possible, when <ENTER> is pressed.
So it will display ‘ing thru’ after
your ‘sw’. In each case, the full phrase ‘swing thru’ will appear
on the screen, and will be printed in the final sequence.
Because of this completion, you can get into the habit of just typing
‘sw <ENTER>’
at Mainstream. However, it will only work if what you type is unambiguous.
At higher levels, ‘sw’ could also mean ‘swap around’. When there is an
ambiguity, Sd will complete as much as it can and beep at you.
You can
type ‘?’ or ‘!’ (discussed below) to see what the problem is.
With practice, you can get a reasonable feel for how much abbreviation you can
get away with in a given context.
Typing <ESC> will complete the entire line, just like <ENTER>,
but will not actually process the line. If you like what you see, you can
then press <ENTER>
to execute the call. If the line is ambiguous,
the program will display as much of the line as it can.
When used effectively, this can save you a lot of typing.
Sd's completing reader is completely indifferent to the capitalization of
what you type. It capitalizes its output according to its own notions of
aesthetics and ambiguity avoidance.
At any time, you can type a question mark or exclamation point. Either of
these will make Sdtty display all legal completions of the line
that has been typed so far. If what you
have typed is unambiguous, that will consist of just one thing. If you
have typed nothing, it will consist of every legal thing you could type—typically
that is every call, every concept, and every special command.
The difference between question mark and exclamation point is that the
question mark actually attempts to execute every call in the current
call menu (that is, every call whose name matches the text you have
typed so far), and shows only those that can be legally performed.
Exclamation point simply displays every call on the menu that matches
the text that you have typed so far. Remember that the call menus
are only approximate—they often have many calls listed that are
in fact not legal in the present setup. This is particularly true
when concepts are in place. The program simply has no idea what calls
are legal without trying them. Question mark tells it to do so.
The difference between question mark and exclamation point only applies
to calls. All concepts and special commands (resolve, for example)
are always listed whenever either character is typed.
The output from typing a question mark or exclamation point may be quite lengthy.
If it fills more than one screenful, Sdtty will stop and display
‘--More--’ at the
bottom of the screen. Type
<SPACE>
to go on to the next screenful. Type
<ENTER>
to see just one more line. Type a backspace (or
<DEL>)
to stop. When the output ends, either because Sdtty displayed everything or
because you typed a backspace, the partially entered line will be redisplayed, just
as it was before you typed the question mark.
When you are typing calls or concepts and you type
<ENTER>
while the line that you have typed is ambiguous, Sdtty will display something
like ‘(10 matches, type ! or ? for list)’. The number that it displays is the
number of syntactically legal choices among which it can't decide. This is the number
of choices that would have been listed if you had typed ‘!’. It may be more than
the number of things that would be listed if you had typed ‘?’. The reason
is that the ‘?’ operation has to test every call before listing it. It can
easily do this faster than you can read the list of choices. When you type
<ENTER>
while there are multiple syntactic choices available, the computer can't count
them fast enough to respond instantaneously. It therefore displays an approximate
number, computed by looking at its database without testing each call.
The Sdtty completion mechanism, especially the
<ESC>
(or
<ALT MODE>
or
<TAB>)
key, can save you a lot of typing.
For example, typing
heads do your part <ENTER>
is probably more than you want to do. If you type just
heads do
the line will be almost unambiguous—there are only two possible commands
that start this way. By typing a question mark, Sdtty will show them
to you. They are
heads do your part
and
heads do your part (while the others)
What these concepts actually mean will be discussed at length in
Designating Certain People. For now, we are just discussing how to
type them.
These commands don't differ until the ‘t’ in ‘part’. If you type
<ENTER>
after ‘part’, Sdtty will know that you want the
first of these commands. If you type a space and then
<ENTER>,
Sdtty will know that you want the second. Does this mean that you
must type the whole command up to ‘part’, followed by a space or
<ENTER>?
No. Just type ‘heads do’, and then press
<ESC>.
Sdtty will display ‘heads do your part’, since that is the text
that is common to both commands. At that point, you may press
<ENTER>
to get the ‘heads do your part’ concept. Or you could type space
and then
<ENTER>
to get the ‘heads do your part (while the others)’
concept. You could, of course, type the complete phrase ‘(while the others)’
after the space, but there is no need to. Once you type the space, Sdtty
knows exactly which command you want.
What would happen if you tried to shorten the command still further by typing
just ‘heads d’ instead of ‘heads do’? Below C2 this would work
just fine. At C2 and above, an ambiguity would exist because of the
‘heads disconnected’ concept. Typing a question mark after ‘heads d’
will show you the ambiguity. In general, typing a question mark will help guide
you in minimizing the amount of typing you must do. With practice, you will
be able to enter your favorite calls and concepts with minimal typing.
Here is another example. To enter ‘criss cross the shadow’ or
‘criss cross your neighbor’, it is not necessary to type
‘criss cross t’ or ‘criss cross y’. You can just type ‘cri’
followed by
<ESC>.
The program will display everything up to the
point of ambiguity, which, at C2, is ‘criss cross ’. At that point,
you just need to type ‘t’ or ‘y’, followed by
<ENTER>.
Above C2, there are more possible calls, but typing ‘cri’
followed by
<ESC>
is still a good way to start.
You can type a space instead of a hyphen in call and concept names.
For example, you can type ping pong circulate or tandem based triangles
instead of ping-pong circulate or tandem-based triangles.
The calls will always be printed out with the hyphen.
You can omit apostrophes when typing in call and concept names. For example,
you can type lockers choice instead of locker's choice.
The calls will always be printed out with the apostrophe.
The program recognizes four operations which allow use of an abridged list of calls:
Write list (with a filename)Write full list (with a filename)Use abridged list (with a filename)Delete abridgementSd
startup dialog, and filling in the file name if required.
They may also be invoked by starting the program with command-line options:
-write_list filename
-write_full_list filename
-abridge filename
-delete_abridge
The first two operations are used to prepare a call list. The call list
for the indicated level, exactly as the calls appear in the menu, will
be written to the named file. If -write_list is used, only the
calls exactly on that level will be written. If -write_full_list
is used, the lower level calls will be written as well, so the file will
look exactly like the main call menu. After performing either of these
operations, the program exits.
The third special flag is used to read in a list of calls to be avoided.
Any call listed in the file, in precisely the same format as it was written
out, will be removed from the internal database prior to running the program.
Every sequence written under control of such a file will say ‘(abridged)’
on its header line.
To write sequences for a group that is learning C2, for example, start
Sd from the Start Menu and then check the box marked “Write list”,
enter the desired filename, click “accept”, and choose the C2 level.
Or, if you prefer command-line operation, do (with either Sd or Sdtty):
sd -write_list mondayC2.txt c2
In all cases, this will write out its C2 list into the file mondayC2.txt. Then delete from that file those calls that the group has learned, i.e., those calls not to be avoided. Use a plain text editor, such as Emacs, Notepad, or vi, for this. When writing sequences, start Sd from the Start Menu and then check the box marked “Use abridged list”, enter the desired filename, click “accept”, and choose the C2 level. Or you can do:
sd -abridge mondayC2.txt c2
As the group learns new C2 calls, delete the corresponding lines from
the file mondayC2.txt. That file always contains the calls that they don't
yet know. When the file goes to zero, they (presumably) know the whole list.
Be aware that the abridgement mechanism works only for calls, not for concepts.
You must keep track of what concepts not to use.
The lines in the abridgement file must always be in exactly the same format
as the strings that are written out by the list creation operation.
The program has no tolerance for creative capitalization, stray
blanks, or other variations. Any line in the file that does not match a
call in the menu is simply ignored. The order of the lines is not important.
We recommend using the file exactly as it is written out with the
“write list” or “write full list” operation, and using an editor
only for the purpose of deleting lines from it.
The abridgement mechanism, and the session mechanism, work interchangeably
between Sd and Sdtty. You can use one program to create or
manipulate abridgement files or sessions, and then use the other program
to use them.
You can associate abridgement lists with sessions. To create a new session with a given abridgement file, start Sd from the Start Menu and then check the box marked “Use abridged list”, enter the desired filename, select the session labeled “create a new session”, select the desired level, and enter the session number when prompted. Or you can do:
sd -abridge mondayC2.txt c2
and create the session from there. If you want to associate an abridgement file with an already existing session, do the same thing, but select the existing session. Once the association is made, it is permanent–this step will not be required again. Simply selecting the session will get the abridgement list.
You might want to do this after the class has finished learning the list, and you want to continue writing material for that session. Start Sd from the Start Menu and then check the box marked “Delete abridgement”, and select the desired session. Or you can do:
sd -delete_abridge
This chapter describes how to have the program find calls for you to accomplish various goals.
Whenever the setup is in a resolved state, whether intentionally or
accidentally, the program indicates that fact at the bottom of the
transcript area.
The program looks for right and left grand, left allemande,
promenade, single file promenade, and circle left/right
getouts from a variety of setups. If the sequence needs an
extend, slip the clutch, circulate, pass thru, trade by,
cross by, or dixie grand
first, the program reports that too.
Whenever the ‘resolve’ message appears, you can end the sequence and
write it to a file by selecting write this sequence.
In Sd, the button for this is in the group in the upper left
portion of the screen. In Sdtty, simply type the command, with
the usual completion mechanism.
There are
at least three ways to resolve a sequence: you can wander into a resolve
by accident, you can sight resolve the square, entering the calls
that you want, or you can use the resolve command. This command
adds the necessary calls to the sequence, exactly as if you had entered
them.
When you select resolve, the program goes into a special mode in
which it searches for resolutions, saves them, and lets you look through
them and pick one that you like.
A resolution is a sequence of up to three calls
that leads to a resolved state. While the program is in resolve mode,
the call menu is replaced by a special menu of options, along with
information about the current resolution. That information tells how
many resolutions are currently stored and which one is currently shown.
When you select resolve, the program finds the first resolution and
displays it, showing information ‘1 out of 1’, which means that it
has one resolution stored, and resolution number one is currently displayed.
The transcript area shows the effect of that resolution.
You can select find another to search for another resolution and add
it to its stored list. When the list has more than one resolution in it,
selecting previous and next will move around in its
list of previously found resolutions and show whichever one you want.
In this way, you can search
for a better resolution than the one you already have, but go back to
the earlier one if no better one is forthcoming.
Selecting accept current choice will leave resolve mode, causing
the current resolution to be added to the sequence exactly as though
you had entered those calls manually.
Selecting any of abort the search, exit the search, quit the search,
or undo the search
will throw away all of the saved resolutions and leave resolve
mode, but will not destroy the sequence. The sequence will be left just
as it was before resolve was selected.
Selecting anything else, such as write this sequence,
is equivalent to accept followed by whatever that action
is. So, for example, you can select write this sequence as soon as
you see a resolution that you like.
These special commands may be typed into the completing reader
in the usual way. To make it more convenient to enter them, the command names
have been chosen to be unambiguous from just one or two letters. So, for example,
p means previous, n means next, and f
means find another.
If one or more concepts have been entered when you select resolve, the
program will search only for resolutions whose first call starts with those
concepts. So, for example, selecting once removed and then
resolve might get you this resolution:
ONCE REMOVED reverse the pass
linear flow
right and left grand (7/8 promenade)
The program searches for resolutions by using a random number generator to
generate up to 15000 random sequences, occasionally inserting concepts.
It biases the search in favor of short sequences (one call) rather than
long ones (three calls) and against resolutions that require all 8
circulate, pass thru, or trade by at the end.
If, after 15000 attempts, no resolution is found, the find another
operation fails. (This tends to happen if you try to resolve out of an
hourglass at Mainstream.) You can select find another again to make
another 15000 attempts if you wish.
Remember that the resolve operation by itself does not write
the sequence to a file. You will not be able to print a sequence until
it has been written to a file. You must give the write this sequence
command (or press function key <F10>) to write out the sequence.
Some callers like to use the getout of “Right and Left Grand, but promenade
on the third hand”, sometimes known as a “Mini-Grand”. Under normal circumstances,
Sd will not search for such things. If you want them, issue the “toggle
minigrand getouts” command. You may also customize the program by putting
the line “minigrand_getouts” in the initialization file, or “-minigrand_getouts”
in the command line of a shortcut icon. See Option Control.
These commands invoke an operation very similar to the resolver,
except that they search for sequences of up to three calls that
make the setup nicer.
The normalize command reduces
various matrices, such as 4x4, into an 8-person setup. It uses a variety
of phantom-like concepts to do its work.
Be aware that the phantom-like concepts that this command uses are not
the only ways to get out of large matrix setups.
There are a number of calls,
like press,
truck, loop, squeeze, Z axle, and finish a long trip
that are also useful.
The normalize operation does not search for such things. It is only
intended to search for things that might not be obvious.
The standardize command turns the setup into an 8-person setup
in which people are facing in “reasonable” directions. That is, it
gets out of T-bone setups. It uses both plain calls and calls with
concepts.
If you have selected toggle concept levels,
these commands may
make use of concepts that are not legal at the chosen level. This is sometimes
useful in emergencies.
There are five commands in this family: pick random call,
pick simple call, pick concept call, pick level call,
and pick 8 person level call.
They search for any legal single call. While this may sound like
a fairly pointless operation, remember that you can use this while one or
more concepts are already entered, in which case it will search for legal calls
that involve those concepts. Hence, this operation is useful for finding
clever uses of difficult concepts such as checkpoint,
interlace, or on your own.
The command pick random call attempts to pick completely random
calls, sometimes with a concept and sometimes not.
The pick simple call command never uses concepts. The pick concept call
always uses at least one concept with the call that it picks.
Pick level call picks only calls that are at or near the specified
calling level. (By “near” we mean that, if the calling level is C4,
it will pick C4A or C4 calls. If the level is A2, it will pick A1 or A2 calls.)
Pick 8 person level call is similar, but it picks only calls that
involve all 8 people.
These commands pick some call or calls that go into a specified setup. The commands are:
create any lines
create waves
create 2fl
create lines in
create lines out
create inverted lines
create 3x1 lines
create any columns
create columns
create magic columns
create dpt
create cdpt
create trade by
create 8 chain
create any 1/4 tag
create 1/4 tag
create 3/4 tag
create 1/4 line
create 3/4 line
create diamonds
create any tidal setup
create tidal wave
“Any lines” and “any columns” mean any 2x4 setup in which people are all in generalized lines or columns, respectively. “Any tidal setup” means any 1x8, no matter how people are facing. All the commands are independent of handedness—for example, a two-faced line can be of either handedness.
Reconcile operation
Selecting reconcile invokes an operation like resolving, but it
puts the generated calls someplace other than at the end of the
sequence. This is useful if you have a clever getout at the end of the
sequence, and you want it to be the resolve, but people don't have their
partners and corners. This lets you retroactively modify the sequence
so that the clever getout will work.
Note first that this operation may only be invoked when the setup is
left-handed two-faced lines, right-handed waves, or left-handed waves,
in which case it assumes you want a promenade, right and left grand, or
left allemande respectively. The program must know which getout type you
want. If the setup is an 8-chain, it can't tell. In that case, either
do a touch or a left touch, to tell the program that you really
want a right and left grand or allemande left, respectively.
Then, after the reconcile operation is complete, you can erase that extra call.
The reconcile operation is very similar in behavior to resolve, except
that the program needs to know the insertion point. Rather than
searching for the first resolve as soon as you enter the mode, the
reconcile operation lets you set the insertion point before searching.
Select raise reconcile point or lower reconcile point to
set it. A dotted line will be displayed showing where in the sequence
the generated calls will be placed. When this is in the right place,
select find another to find the first reconcile. You can
change the insertion point at any time.
Reconciles are extremely difficult to find—much harder than resolves.
To avoid frustration, make the insertion point be at a place where the
setup is very simple and a large number of calls are legal. We recommend
making the insertion point be at a place where the setup is in waves.
Remember that, if the insertion point is at an hourglass, the program
has to find a random sequence of up to three calls that goes from an hourglass
to another hourglass while miraculously performing the required
permutation.
Avoid using reconcile when a gender-dependent or head/side-dependent
call lies between the insertion point and the end of the sequence. The
program checks every reconcile by re-executing all calls from the
insertion point to the end and verifying that everything is exactly as
it was except for the permutation of the people. For example, if the
call ‘heads kickoff’ occurs after the insertion point, and a
potential reconcile changes heads and sides, it will not be offered.
For gender-dependent calls the situation is a little better: if, at the
end of the sequence, the boys are in the center and the girls on the end
before doing the reconcile, you know that any inserted sequence will
have to be gender-preserving anyway, so calls like ‘star thru’ and
‘boys kickoff’ will be okay.
If you have a nice getout that finishes on squared-set spots (or a 2x4
approximation to same), you can use the reconcile operation to make
it work. First, move the headliners into the middle if necessary
to make a 2x4. Then have the centers face out, and have everyone do a
left touch. Start the reconciler, set the insertion point,
and search. Discard any solution that doesn't say “at home”.
When you find one that you like, accept it, and then delete the
calls that you had to put in at the end.
This section describes the “editor”.
Sd allows you to edit any part of your sequence while you are
writing it. Normally, of course, you are just adding calls to the end,
or perhaps undoing the last call. What happens if you decide you
want to change something farther back? You could undo all the calls
back to that point, while remembering them or writing them down,
make the changes, and then type them in again. Sd can remember
them for you. It does this with a “clipboard”. You move the calls,
one at a time, from the sequence that you have written, onto the clipboard.
Then you can “edit” the sequence at the chosen point, adding calls,
undoing calls, or whatever. When you are done, you can restore the
later calls by moving them from the clipboard back to the sequence.
The Sd/Sdtty clipboard has nothing to do with the Windows
clipboard. The former stores calls, and the latter stores text. You can
cut, copy, and paste text between the Sd text entry window and the
Windows clipboard, using the “Edit text” menu, though there is rarely any
reason to.
The commands to manipulate the clipboard are:
cut to clipboardpaste one callpaste all callsdelete one call from clipboarddelete entire clipboard
Normally the clipboard is empty. To start the editing process, issue the
cut to clipboard command, or press function key shift-<F8>.
This will move the last call onto the clipboard, removing it from the
active sequence. If this is done repeatedly, the calls will all be stacked
on the clipboard. Do this until you reach the point in the sequence that
you want to change.
While there are calls in the clipboard, they will be displayed (well, the first
three will be displayed) between two rows of dotted lines. This way, you can
see what will be pasted back.
After you have finished editing the sequence, you can move the calls back.
The command paste one call, or pressing function key control-<F8>,
will move the nearest call from the clipboard back to the active sequence.
There are a few tricky issues involved with this process. Sd assumes
that you want the indicated call replaced, even if the formation is different.
For example, if the call in the clipboard was ‘swing thru’, and you have
changed the formation to left-handed waves, it will still do a (right) swing thru.
If the formation has changed radically, the interpretation may be very different.
If there are sex-dependent calls and you have rearranged people, things might
turn into something very different from the original sequence.
There is one case in which Sd will alter a call while it is being pasted.
If a call has a designator like ‘boys’ or ‘heads’, and the formation
is geometrically the same as before, Sd will try to change the designator
to get the equivalent geometrical effect. For example, if the pasted call had
been ‘boys run’ from waves in which the boys were looking out, and you
edit the sequence so that the formation is once again waves, but with some
other people looking out, the call will be changed to ‘heads run’ or whatever.
Of course, if you had originally said ‘leads run’ no change would be
required.
Whenever a designator is changed, or whenever the formation in which the pasted
call is performed is different from the original formation, Sd prints a warning.
You may find a change from ‘boys run’ to ‘side corners run’ to be
unwelcome.
It may happen that the pasted call is illegal in the new formation. If that
happens, the call will not be pasted, Sd will print an error message,
and you will have to take further action.
You can paste all the calls back from the clipboard at once by issuing the
paste all calls command. If any formation changes, or any designator is altered,
a warning will be printed. If any call is illegal in its new context, the pasting operation
will be stopped just before the pasting of that call. Earlier legal calls
will have been pasted.
If you are pasting calls back and an illegal one is encountered, you may
decide that the correct action is to change what is on the clipboard. You
can do this by issuing the delete one call from clipboard command.
This throws away the offending call and lets you proceed with further editing.
For example, suppose you were writing a sequence in which the formation was diamonds
at some point, and the next call was ‘flip the diamond’ followed by other
clever stuff. You decide that you want to do something interesting with the
diamonds, followed by the flip the diamond and the other stuff. So you cut
the ‘flip the diamond’ and all later stuff onto the clipboard. Then you
edit from the diamonds. While editing, you get into some wonderful situation
in which you have triple boxes, you want to do a ‘triple box circulate’ to
get to waves, and then you want to proceed with the rest of the sequence, but
without the ‘flip the diamond’. The diamonds are no longer what you
want at that point. So you call the ‘triple box circulate’ and want to
paste the calls back. Unfortunately, the first call on the clipboard is
‘flip the diamond’. Sd refuses to paste it. You can throw it away
with the delete one call from clipboard command. The rest of the clipboard
is still there, starting with the waves that were originally created by flipping
the diamond. You can now paste them.
Sometimes you decide that everything you cut to the clipboard was stupid, and
you just want it to go away. Issue the delete entire clipboard command.
There are a number of ways to have your sequences printed. The simplest is to
let Sd do it directly, at the end of a session. Before Sd exits,
it offers to print the current file.
You can also give the explicit command print current file at any time.
However, we don't recommend doing this except at the very end of a session,
because Sd always prints the entire file. If you issue the print command
twice in one session, the second command will duplicate all the sequences printed
the first time.
You can also leave the sequences on a disk file and print the file later. Click
No when it offers to print the file. You can print it later with Sd.
Just start Sd and give the print any file command. This lets you
browse to the file that you want. (In fact, the print any file command can
print any file at all. This is sometimes useful. Do not use it to print documents
from word processors such as Word 97.)
When Sd prints a file, the default font is 14 point Courier Bold. You can
choose another font or type size by giving the choose font for printing
command. This only affects printing. It has no affect on the screen display.
Only Sd is capable of printing. Sdtty is not. Of course, Sd
can print files prepared by Sdtty.
You can also print sequence files by other means. You can simply copy the file
to the printer, using the Windows Explorer. There are also a large number of
software packages that are capable of printing files. We do not recommend Notepad
or Wordpad for printing sequence files. These formatters do not recognize the page
boundaries in imported files, so the “cards” will not be on separate pages. If you
want to print files with a word processor, we recommend Word 97. It handles page
boundaries correctly, though its line margins may cause unwanted line breaks.
To read a file into Word 97, select File and Open from the menu.
Set the “Files of Type” pulldown to “All Documents”. Navigate to the desired folder
and select the desired file. If you want to print in a different font or type size,
first select Edit and Select All from the menu. (This will put the
entire file into reverse video.) Then select the desired font and/or type size from
the pulldown menus on the Format Bar. Then choose File and Print.
If you made any changes to the file while in Word 97 or another word processor,
including just changing the font for printing, the program may ask whether to save
the changes. It is dangerous to do so unless the file was written with an Sd
session file name of *. See the “sessions” document for details on file
management.
This section describes commands that are not concerned with generating sequences.
At any time when the sequence is resolved (for example, after a successful
use of the resolve operation), you can select write this sequence
or press <F10>.
(This command used to be called end this sequence.)
This will append the current sequence to the current output file, and then
go back to the startup menu. You will be given an opportunity to enter
a line of text to be used as a subtitle, for example “very hard interlace”
or “stupid biggie.” The written sequence will also be annotated with the
level, the session title, the current date and time, and the version numbers
of the program and database.
Until you have done the write this sequence operation or pressed <F10>,
the sequence is not written to disk and you cannot start writing a new sequence.
Just resolving isn't enough.
You can change the name of the transcript file to which the program writes its
output by selecting the change output file command. A popup
will appear, prompting you for a new file name, or Sdtty will
ask you to type in the new name. This action will become
effective the next time a sequence is written out. Sequences previously
written will stay under their old name.
The output transcript file name typically does not have any directory
information, and the output is written to the current directory for
Sd or Sdtty. Sometimes the operating system does not
allow one to control the current directory, but one wishes to write
output files to a different directory. The directory can be changed
with the change output prefix command. The given directory argument will be prepended to the transcript
filename (e.g. 01mar15_c2.txt). The given directory argument should be
a fully qualified pathname, followed by the appropriate separator
character: "/" or "\". So an argument of "/home/wba/sd/"
will cause the transcript file to be "/home/wba/sd/01mar15_c2.txt".
When the initialization file is used (see The Initialization File),
any change in the output file name (but not the prefix) for a session will
be written back to the init file at the end of the session.
You can change the title that will appear at the top of each sequence
by selecting the Change Title command. A popup
will appear, prompting you for a new title, or Sdtty will
ask you to type in the new title. This action will become
effective the next time a sequence is written out. Sequences previously
written will keep their old title. You can remove the title by just
pressing <ENTER> when asked for the new title.
When the program starts, there is no title unless the initialization
file was used. See The Initialization File.
When the initialization file is used, any change in the title will
be written back to the init file at the end of the session.
Prior to version 34.6, when support for DOS and Windows 3.1 were
withdrawn, the program used names for the transcript (output) files in
an “old” style, which looked like “13aug05.c1” or “sequence.c1”.
It now supports a “new” style, which looks like “13aug05_c1.txt” or
“sequence_c1.txt”. (The names with dates in them are what you get if
you use the “+” file name. See Session Control.)
The part after the period is called the "extension". When using
modern operating systems, it is very helpful for files to
have a correct extension, and ".txt" is the right extension for these
files. For example, attaching files in email messages is sometimes
facilitated by having the ".txt" extension.
Whether you use old or new style file names is controlled by your
initialization (session) file, in the options new_style_filename
or old_style_filename. See Option Control.
There is a command to change the style specified in your initialization
file from old to new. The command is “change to new style
filename”. It must be given when the program starts, not when it is in
the middle of a sequence. After giving the command, you must exit the
program and restart it.
When you change to new style file names, no previously written files
will be renamed. Only newly created files will have the new names.
Also, no pre-existing sessions that use explicit old style names (e.g.
“sequence.c1”) will have those names changed. (You may change the
explicit names used by existing sessions with the “change output
file” command.) Pre-existing sessions that use the “+” or “*” file
name will be changed to the new style for all future sequences, based on
the date.
Abort, Exit, and Undo
If you select the exit command, the program will exit. If a
sequence is in progress, the program will ask for confirmation first.
(Remember that a sequence is not finished until the write this
sequence command has been given.)
In Sd with the X Window System, using your window manager
to send a Delete Window message to the
program is equivalent to clicking on the exit button. This is
what normally happens when you double-click the special control button in the
upper left corner of the Sd window.
If you select the abort command, the program will abort the sequence
but not exit. It will go back to the startup menu to allow you to
start another sequence. It will ask for confirmation first.
If you select the undo command, or press function key <F9>,
while no call is partially entered,
that is, while no concepts have been entered, the program will erase
the last complete call, with all of its concepts. If one or more
concepts have been entered, only the last concept will be erased.
You can insert arbitrary text strings into the sequence transcript in the
form of comments. This is useful for things that you may want to say
to help the dancers, such as “side boys be careful—go to your left.”
Also, if you want to call something that the program can't do, so you have
to trick the program into doing it by means of several other calls, it is useful
to enter a comment saying what you originally wanted. This can guide you
when editing the transcript file.
To enter a comment, select insert a comment. In Sd, a popup
will appear into which you may enter the text. In Sdtty, simply type
the comment text on the next line. The comment will be enclosed in curly braces
in the transcript.
A comment may be entered in front of any concept or call and goes into
the transcript exactly where it was entered. Because of the way the program
assembles mouse-clicks into transcript lines, it is not possible to enter
a comment at the end of a line.
The program shows pictures on the screen for the current position
and the position just before the last call. Normally, those pictures
will not appear in the sequence written to a file. If you want the
current position to have its picture written in a file (say, because the
sequence is very difficult and you believe it may be necessary to say
something helpful then like “check a parallelogram with boys in the center
box”) select the command keep picture. You may also cause the
program to keep pictures in the output file for the entire sequence
by issuing the toggle keep all pictures command or by placing the
keep_all_pictures option in your initialization file.
You can write singing call sequences with the usual “progressions” in them. At the start of the sequence (that is, when you could have typed ‘heads start’), issue one of the following commands:
toggle singing call
toggle reverse singing call
The first gives the usual “corner” progression, and the second gives a reverse (“right hand lady”) progression. When in singing call mode, the program looks for resolves that cause people to promenade with the appropriate person who is not their partner. It assumes that you are looking primarily for ‘swing and promenade’ getouts, though it will show other types of getouts when they appear. Note that, for the “usual” type of singing call figure (equivalent to ‘square thru 4, swing corner, and promenade’) the promenade distance will be shown as 1/8. The dancers will of course promenade 1-1/8. You should consider ‘at home’ or ‘1/8 promenade’ to be the “usual” timing for singing call figures.
There are several commands that change some aspect of the way Sd
or Sdtty runs. They are:
toggle singlespace mode
toggle concept levels
toggle active phantoms
toggle retain after error
toggle nowarn mode
toggle keep all pictures
toggle singleclick mode
toggle minigrand getouts
toggle singing call
toggle reverse singing call
Normally, all of these are off.
You may want to turn one or more of them on for your own personal
preference, or for some special reason. These commands toggle their
respective modes. That is, they turn the mode on if it was off, and
off if it was on. The current status of some of these
modes is always displayed
in the input prompt in Sdtty, or the status bar at the bottom
in Sd.
The toggle singlespace mode command changes
the format of the output file between single spacing and double
spacing. The default is double spacing. This command affects
only future sequences. It has no effect on sequences already written.
The toggle concept levels command changes the legality of concepts
that are not on the specified calling level. See Entering Concepts,
and Using Off-Level Concepts.
The toggle active phantoms command changes the persistence of
phantoms during certain calls. See Assume Waves.
We do not recommend using this. It may make the program refuse
to do things that real dancers consider completely legal, due to
phantoms colliding with or otherwise interfering with live dancers.
Instances in which this option is needed are nearly unheard-of.
The toggle retain after error command changes the option whereby
program retains the concepts that you had typed when an error occurs.
See Retaining Concepts After an Error.
The toggle nowarn mode command changes the suppression
of warning messages.
The toggle keep all pictures changes the mode that keeps
all pictures. This mode effectively puts a “keep picture” command
at every point in the sequence.
The toggle singleclick mode changes the acceptance of single
mouse clicks on menu items.
The toggle singing call commands change the singing call mode,
which affects resolves.
See Singing Call Progressions.
The toggle minigrand getouts command changes the search
for “mini-grand” getouts in the resolver. See Mini-Grand Getouts.
Any of these modes, except the singing call modes, can be turned on
automatically when the program begins,
either by giving a command-line option (see Command-Line Options) or
through the use of the initialization file (see Option Control).
When Sd or Sdtty starts, it looks for a file sd.ini
in the working directory.
This file, if present, contains information about dances
you might be working on, and about possible individual preferences
you might have for the way the program runs.
Such a file might look like this:
[Options]
reverse_video
no_warnings
print_length 68
window_size 850x650
singlespace
[Sessions]
sequence.C3 C3 12 NACC, June 1995
sequence.C4 C4 31 NACC, June 1995
workshop C1 75 My Wednesday group
+ A2 9 NESRDC
* A1 2 Lake Shore Farm
There are up to three sections in this file, called the “sessions” section, the “options” section, and the “accelerators” section. Each section starts with a header word in brackets. The sections are separated from each other by blank lines.
Each line after the line [Sessions], up until a blank line
or the end of the file, describes a possible session
of using the program, showing the output filename, level, next sequence
number, and title.
Th example file above shows 5 possible things you could work on. You can select
any one of them during a session. When the program is started, it will
display the 5 lines and ask you which one you want to use, like this:
Do you want to use one of the following sessions?
0 (no session)
1 sequence.C3 C3 12 NACC, June 1995
2 sequence.C4 C4 31 NACC, June 1995
3 workshop C1 75 My Wednesday group
4 + A2 9 NESRDC
5 * A1 2 Lake Shore Farm
6 (create a new session)
Enter the number of the desired session:
In Sdtty, type the number of the selection that you want.
In Sd, either select the desired line with a double mouse click,
or use the cursor keys to highlight the line and then press
<ENTER>.
If you select “0”, or just press <ENTER>, the program will ignore
the sessions and proceed normally. If you enter the
number of one of the lines that are displayed, the program will operate
at that level,
and use the named output file and title. It will also
print a sequence number on each card, starting with the number shown.
For example, if you entered “3” after the file above is displayed,
the program will operate at C1. The output file will be “workshop”
instead of the default “sequence.C1”. Cards will be serialized
starting at 75. Each card will have a title saying
“My Wednesday group”.
If the given file name is “+”, the program will generate a file name
for you, based on today's date. This may be useful for managing files,
so that you know when it is safe to delete a file that you have printed.
The program will of course tell you what the name of that file is.
All runs of the program using that session on the same day will append
their sequences to the same file. The file name will be something like
like9mar96.C3.
If the given file name is “*”, the program will generate a file name
in the same way, except that it will always generate a new file for each
run of the program. If the program is started several times in one day,
the files will be different. The generated file names will be something
like 9mar96a.C3. Note the a after the year.
At the end of the session, the initialization file will be updated with the
next index number. For example, if you wrote 12 sequences, they would
be numbered 75 through 86, and the file would be rewritten as
workshop C1 87 My Wednesday group
so that the next session for that group would start with sequence number 87.
The title bar displays the level, session title, current sequence number,
and starting sequence number.
If, at any time during the session, you change the output file
(with the Change Output File operation) or the
title (with the Change Title operation),
the initialization file will be updated at the end of that session to
show the effect of the change.
When the program starts, you can tell it to create a new entry in
the file by entering the number corresponding to (create a new session).
In the above example, select “6”. The program will ask you for the
level and title, and will set the output file to the standard “sequence.C1”
or whatever. You may
use the Change Output File command and the
Change Title command to change these later if you wish.
At the end of the session, item number 6, containing the appropriate data,
will be written to the updated initialization file.
If you no longer want some entry in the initialization file,
you can delete it. In Sdtty, type the negative of its line number.
In the above example, if you entered “-4”, the line
+ A2 9 NESRDC
would be deleted. In Sdtty, check the box labeled
“Delete this session” and select the line to be deleted.
Either way, the program will terminate
immediately after doing this. Run it again to use the new initialization file.
Whenever the program updates the initialization file sd.ini
at the end of a session, it saves the old contents in sd2.ini.
By copying that back to sd.ini, you can restore it.
You can also edit the file with an editor. Simple editors, such as
‘Emacs’ and ‘Notepad’ are preferable to sophisticated word processors when
editing this file, since word processors often insert specialized control information
into the file. The simplest way to edit the file is to double-click the icon
Edit sd.ini in the C:\sd folder. This is a shortcut to the
‘Notepad’ editor.
Each line after the line [Options], up until a blank line
or the end of the file, contains an option specifier. When the program
is started, it will use those specifiers to determine a number of aspects
of the program's behavior.
This makes it possible to encode your personal
preferences so that the program will always use them. Do not
place a hyphen in front of an option in the initialization file.
A few of these options can also be changed while the program is running,
by giving suitable commands. See Changing Modes.
Here are the available options:
singlespacetoggle singlespace mode
command while the program is starting a sequence.
print_length numberconcept_levelstoggle concept levels
command while the program is running.
active_phantomstoggle active phantoms
command while the program is running.
minigrand_getoutstoggle minigrand getouts
command while the program is running.
no_warningstoggle nowarn mode
command while the program is running.
retain_after_errortoggle retain after error
command while the program is running.
See Retaining Concepts After an Error.
discard_after_errorretain_after_error.
Since this is the usual behavior, you don't need this option.
It is present only for compatibility with older versions.
If it is in your sd.ini file, take it out.
tab_changes_focusSd only. Windows programs normally use the tab
key to move keyboard focus around among the active windows in some fixed
order, and the shift-tab key to move in the opposite order. This change
of focus is nearly useless in Sd for most users, because the
keyboard focus is almost always in the text input region. Therefore,
Sd normally has the tab key do something different—it performs
the same completion function as the escape key, just as Sdtty
does. (The shift-tab key still moves window focus in the backwards
order.) The tab_changes_focus option re-enables the conventional
Windows meaning of the tab key. With this option turned on, if you are
typing in a call, and you type tab, it will not complete the call.
Instead, focus will shift to the call menu. You can use the arrow keys
to move around in the call menu, and then press <ENTER> to select
that call.
keep_all_picturestoggle keep all pictures
command while the program is running.
single_clickSd respond immediately to a single mouse click
in a menu. Normally, a double click, or pressing the ‘Accept’ button,
is required. This option is meaningless in Sdtty.
It is the same as giving the toggle singleclick mode
command while the program is running.
maximizeSd to “maximize” its window, that is, to use the full
screen. It is the same thing that would happen if you clicked the open
box button in the upper right corner. This has no effect on Sdtty.
Sdtty runs as a “command prompt” program, and its
window size is set by, and can be manipulated by, the operating system.
window_size size-designatorSdtty. Sdtty runs as a
“command prompt” program and cannot set its own window size.
However, you can usually control this either by editing the icon that
starts the program (right click the icon, select “properties”, and,
on the “shortcut” tab, select “maximized”) or by changing the general
layout of command prompt programs (start, control panel, console, and
use the “options” and/or “layout” tabs.)
no_checkersSd normally draws the formation on the screen with icons that are
intended to look like callers' “checkers”. This option disables that,
and displays dancers by more normal means. Pictures drawn in the output
file never use these icons. This option is meaningless in Sdtty.
no_graphicsno_checkers.
no_colorSdtty and Sd normally color-code the dancers shown on the
screen, according to various color schemes that are controlled by
options listed below. This option disables the use of color. These
options affect only the display on the screen. Pictures drawn in the
output file will never be in color, and will never use “checkers” or
triangles.
color_by_couplecolor_by_couple_rgybcolor_by_couple_ygrbcolor_by_cornerreverse_videoSdtty)
with a black background and white text. This is the default for Sdtty,
so you only need this option for Sd.
normal_videoSdtty)
with a white background and black text. This is the default for Sd,
so you only need this option for Sdtty.
no_intensifySdtty look like the customary
appearance of a Command Prompt window.
In normal_video mode, text will be black on light gray instead of black on
white.
pastel_colorreverse_video is used. It has no effect when using the
color_by_couple, color_by_couple_rgyb,
color_by_couple_ygrb, or color_by_corner schemes (but see
use_magenta and use_cyan, below.) This is the default for
Sdtty, so you only need this option for Sd.
bold_colorpastel_color—it uses darker shades.
This is the default for Sd,
so you only need this option for Sdtty.
use_magentaPastel_color
does not apply in any of the colr_by_couple schemes.) It substitutes
magenta for red.
use_cyanno_soundnew_style_filenameold_style_filenamedb filenamesequence filenameoutput_prefix filenamesequence_num numberno_cursorSdtty, and is meaningless on Windows 95
or similar systems. See Sdtty.
no_consolelines nlinesSdtty, and is meaningless on Windows 95
or similar systems.
no_line_deleteSdtty, and is meaningless when running Windows.
The text of the sd.ini initialization file, from the line
[Accelerators] up to the next blank line or the end of the
file, consists of key definitions, one per line, or comments.
A comment is any line starting with a “pound sign” (#).
The first item on a non-comment line is a description of the key,
and the remaining items are the meaning, exactly as you would type
it to Sd. The meaning may be any single call, concept,
or special command. (To see what special commands are available,
type a question mark during a resolve, during program startup, or
during normal program operation, or look at the Sd menu.)
Keys may have different definitions during program startup, during
resolves, and during normal operation.
If the first character of
the key description is a plus sign (+), that key definition
line is meaningful during program startup. For example, the standard
definition contains the line
+f1 heads start
to indicate that function key <F1> means heads start
during program startup.
If the first character of
the key description is an asterisk (*), that key definition
line is meaningful during resolve searches. For example, the standard
definition contains the line
*f12 find another
to indicate that function key <F12> means find another
during resolves.
It is perfectly legal to have the same keystroke mean three different
things during startup, during resolves, and during normal operation.
After the optional plus sign or asterisk, there may be an optional
s to mean shift, c to mean control, a (or m)
to mean alt (meta),
or ca to mean control-alt (hold both the control and alt keys
while pressing the indicated key).
What follows must be
c, a, or ca. (Plain and
capital letters always have their normal meaning.)
c, a, or ca. (Plain digits
always have their normal meaning, and shift digits are punctuation.)
c, a, or ca. (Plain numeric
key presses are always equivalent to that digit.)
e1 page up
e2 page down
e3 end
e4 home
e5 left arrow
e6 up arrow
e7 right arrow
e8 down arrow
e13 insert
e14 delete
So, for example, the line:
cae8 u-turn back
would define control-alt-<down-arrow> to do a
‘U-turn back’.
In specifying a key name, you can use either “m” (for meta) or “a”
(for alt) to mean the same thing. (Some people refer to it as the meta
key.) Also, if a
key is both meta/alt and control, you may list them in either order.
Also, you may
put hyphens into the key name, and put it in upper or lower case. The
command value (the rest of the line) must be in lower case.
Hence
c-m-e8 u-turn back
c-a-e8 u-turn back
m-c-e8 u-turn back
a-c-e8 u-turn back
mean the same thing as the above example. If a key is defined to mean a concept, and that concept is not legal at the level at which the program is invoked, the key will still mean that concept. If the key is pressed, the concept will be used, but it will be considered an off-level concept, and a warning will be printed. See Using Off-Level Concepts. If a key is defined to mean a call, and that call is not legal at the level at which the program is invoked, that key definition in the initialization file will simply be ignored, unless the level is C4X. Therefore, whenever you change your initialization file, it is a good idea to test it by starting the program at C4X to find out if any warning messages are printed.
When Sd or Sdtty is first installed, no initialization
file sd.ini exists. When you run the program, it will print
You do not have a session control file. If you want to
create one, give the command "initialize session file".
After doing that, exit from the program and start it again. The file will have been created, with some sample sessions. It will also contain all of the standard accelerator key bindings and abbreviations. You may edit those.
sd level [ Xt options ... ] [ Sd options ... ]
sd level -write_list filename
sd level -write_full_list filename
The program is normally invoked with a single argument—the level.
This is one of the following: m (mainstream), p (plus),
a1, a2, c1, c2, c3a,
c3, c3x, c4a, c4, or c4x.
The level can also be determined by the selection made when using the
“session” feature.
If the level is not given, or the program was started by a mouse
click from Windows, the program will ask you for it.
However it is specified,
the level determines the calls and concepts that will be made
available, according to our best guess of what the levels mean. Various
optional arguments are permitted to control the window system,
customize the list of calls used, and set other options.
These will be described later.
The call definitions will be read in from the encoded database file
sd_calls.dat. The program will then ponder the database for a few
seconds while it determines what calls to put on what menus. Depending
on the speed of your computer and the level you selected, this could take
from a few seconds to over a minute.
Any of the option keywords that can be placed in the “options” section of the initialization file may be given on the command line instead. See Option Control. Each keyword has a hyphen in front of it when used on the command line. Examples:
sd -singlespace -maximize plus
sdtty -no_warnings -active_phantoms
In addition to giving these options if you invoke the program from the
command line, you can place them (and the level also, if you wish)
in a Windows shortcut. For example, you can place an icon on your desktop
that runs Sd at A2, with the color_by_corners scheme.
Make a copy of the standard shortcut (or make a new shortcut with the
“Taskbar” option or the “Settings” operation in the Start Menu),
and then use the “Properties” command to add the desired switches
at the end of the “Target” line.
There are X resources associated with some options:
Sd.sequenceFile is equivalent to the -sequence switch, and
Sd.databaseFile is equivalent to -db.
If you almost always will be passing the the same value for a
command-line switch, you may find it more convenient to set the
corresponding resource.
With the X Window System interface, Sd accepts all Xt command-line
options. The following are some of the more useful options for use with
Sd.
-rv-bg color-fg color-bd color-font font-geometry geom-spec-title string-name string-xrm resource-line
One version of the program, called Sdtty,
uses a character-oriented terminal interface.
The program Sdtty uses the completing reader for call,
concept, and command entry.
When typing, press <Space> to complete the current word.
Type <TAB> or <ESC> to complete as much as possible.
Type C-u (that is, Control U) to clear a partially-typed line.
Type C-v (that is, Control V) to clear just the last word.
Sdtty has a special command refresh display
that has no counterpart in Sd. It causes a complete clean transcript
of the current sequence to be displayed. This can be used if the screen got
messed up due to such things as unreliable terminal or modem behavior.
Sdtty tries to keep the screen up-to-date efficiently,
maintaining a clean transcript of the current sequence on the screen
at all times, by using whatever Operating System facilities it thinks are
appropriate. If, for any reason, this doesn't work properly for you,
you can place the no_cursor option in your initialization file, or the
-no_cursor command-line switch at program startup.
See Option Control, and Command-Line Options.
This will cause Sdtty to treat the computer's display as
if it were a dumb typewriter. When started in this way, the part of
the transcript that has changed with each command is simply redisplayed.
This will inevitably lead to a choppy appearance on the screen or
printing device. The refresh display command cleans that up.
You can totally disable all special input/output processing by placing
the no_console option in your initialization file, or using the
-no_console command-line switch at program startup.
This should even make it possible to use the program from a printing device,
or to redirect input or output to files.
To deal with different types of display hardware with various screen sizes,
the -lines n switch can be given at program startup, as in
sdtty -lines 36 a2. If this is not given, the size is set from
the actual window size if that can be determined (this depends on the
operating system software), or 25 otherwise.
Sd recognizes a number of function keys and other
special keystrokes. They can be programmed to your personal preferences
through the initialization file. If you do not program your personal
preferences, you get the following “standard” definitions:
key normal shift control
F1 heads start sides start just as they are
F2 two calls in succession twice
F3 pick random call pick concept call pick simple call
F4 resolve reconcile normalize
F5 refresh display keep picture insert a comment
F6 simple modifications allow modifications centers
F7 toggle concept levels toggle active phantoms
F8 <anything> cut to clipboard paste one call
F9 undo last call/exit search/exit program
F10 write this sequence change output file
F11 pick level call pick 8 person level call standardize
F12 find another accept current choice previous
Additionally, <alt-F4> exits from the program, <alt-F12> means “next” inside a search, and the following special keys are defined:
<home> resolve
<end> write this sequence (only inside a search)
<insert> insert a comment
shift-<up-arrow> raise reconcile point
shift-<down arrow> lower reconcile point
<left-arrow> previous (only inside a search)
<right-arrow> find another (only inside a search)
All of these except <F8> execute the command directly, that is, pressing the function key is equivalent to typing the indicated text and then pressing <ENTER>. Furthermore, these keys erase any text that you may have typed in on the present line. Therefore, if you define, for example, <alt-S> to mean “swing thru”, do not type
left <alt-S>
It would erase the word left. Instead, type in the
‘left’ concept by itself:
left <ENTER>
<alt-S>
The key <F8> for ‘<anything>’ is simply equivalent to
entering that text without pressing <ENTER>.
This key is present only for compatibility with past usage.
It is almost never necessary
to type “<anything>”. Instead, type the substituted call in
brackets. See Call Variations.
You can program the function keys to your own preference by placing
an [Accelerators] section in your sd.ini initialization
file. If you do not have an initialization file, or you have one
but there is no [Accelerators] section in it, the key bindings
will be set to the default bindings shown above. If you have in
initialization file with an [Accelerators] section, the default
bindings will not be used. The contents of the [Accelerators]
section will be used instead. See Accelerator Key Control, for information
about setting up an [Accelerators] section in your initialization
file.
The Unix version normally uses the curses display access mechanism. It
should make effective use of the screen-editing features of the terminal
(VT-100 or emulation of same, or whatever) to keep the screen updated.
However, this requires that all of the system facilities for dealing with
terminals (TERM environment variable, terminfo database,
stty behavior, etc.) be working properly.
If, for any reason, this doesn't
work for you, you can turn the curses mechanism off completely by placing the
no_cursor option in your initialization file, or using the
-no_cursor command-line switch at program startup.
You can also place the no_console option in your initialization file, or use the
-no_console command-line switch at program startup, to disable all
special input/output processing completely. This should even
make it possible to use the program from a printing device, or to redirect
input or output to files.
When using curses, it normally tries to use the insert/delete line
capabilities of your terminal device to update the screen more efficiently.
For certain terminal or modem configurations, this may be
counterproductive. If so, you can turn this feature off
by giving the command-line switch
-no_line_delete at program startup.
In a number of cases, the program behaves in a way that could be considered
idiosyncratic, peculiar, or simply wrong.
Some of these cases are admittedly bugs
or shortcomings of the program. Others are inevitable consequences of what the
program is trying to do.
The syntax, semantics, and general structure of the square dance calling
language is fairly regular and precise—much more so than, for
example, the English language. That is, the correspondence between dancer
actions and verbal phrases is fairly regular. However, there are exceptions.
A very simple example of this is the fact that callers generally say
‘quarter top’ and ‘half the top’, using the word “the” in
one case but not the other.
The program handles these exceptions by calling in an occasionally stilted but
unambiguous computer-ese dialect. This dialect is intended to be
very close to the words you would use when calling, but it is sometimes
different.
The rationale for this is that it is too hard to make the program always use
the words that a caller would use. When writing sequences, be aware that the
dancers do not necessarily know this computer-ese dialect. Use the words
that you think are correct and natural. Your judgement is much better than any
program's judgement can ever be.
There are some innocent-looking things that the program can generate for which
appropriate words do not exist. You must not write sequences containing such
things, because you won't be able to call them. For example, from
boy-boy-girl-girl
waves, it is perfectly straightforward for a caller to say ‘boys hinge’.
From boy-girl-boy-girl waves, ‘boys hinge’ is meaningless, but the
program accepts
‘boys do your part, hinge’. It doesn't know that this is an unacceptable
thing to call. Don't do it.
In general, if you don't think you can clearly express to the dancers
what you want, don't call it.
A number of concepts are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon.
Examples are precede it by, follow it by, the fractional
concepts like 1/2, 1-1/2, and 3 times, and
the calls that designate certain people. See Designating Certain People.
Callers often use phrases such as ‘finish ...’ or ‘like a ...’
in imprecise ways. Sd uses a very precise definition
for these phrases. See Miscellaneous Concepts.
Because the program is so literal-minded, it sometimes doesn't understand
how to do things that are in fact very easy for callers to express and
for dancers to do. In some cases, the necessary sophistication lies
in some concept that is legal only at high challenge levels.
When such a situation arises, you can tell the program to permit the use
of concepts that would not normally be legal.
The toggle concept levels command toggles
(turns on or off) the state of this option.
See Changing Modes. It can also be turned on when the program begins,
either by giving a command-line option (see Command-Line Options) or
through the use of the initialization file (see Option Control).
If you have a line of 6 (or 8) people, and you want them to do a ‘1/2 tag’,
use the 3x3 (or 4x4) concept. Of course, if you were calling
Mainstream, you wouldn't say ‘3x3 1/2 tag’. You would presumably say
something like ‘line of 6 in the center, 1/2 tag’.
If you want people to do something (e.g., ‘diamond circulate’) around the outside,
you may need to use the disconnected concept. For example, if
you had waves with the boys on the ends, and you had just done a
‘1/2, acey deucey’, the boys have a big diamond around the outside.
You can't just do a BOYS diamond circulate, because the
<ANYONE> concept is extremely fussy.
See Designating Certain People. The way to do this is with
BOYS DISCONNECTED diamond circulate. This concept is only
legitimate at C2, so you will need toggle concept levels below that.
You would presumably say something like ‘boys diamond circulate around
the outside’.
Whenever you use an off-level concept, a warning will be printed in the
transcript. You should read such a card using whatever words are
appropriate to get the dancers through the action that you intend.
Some calls require explanation of how Sd interprets them. This section documents these calls.
‘Sweep 1/4’, ‘with the flow’, and ‘by golly’ are somewhat unsophisticated in the way they calculate the sweeping direction. The program infers the sweeping direction from the roll direction of the preceding call. This is known to work for the common calls such as recycle, but may do something tasteless if used with an unusual call.
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. We believe that this is usually the more natural thing to do, but it is not automatically assumed. Therefore, you may need to make that clear to the dancers by saying something like ‘swing thru and the new centers roll’. Of course, if you have the girls roll there will be no problem.
The program considers ‘roll’ to be of limited use after ‘spin chain and exchange the gears’ if using the true Callerlab definition. This is because that definition appears to be a description of something that gets people to the correct ending point, rather than a description of a course of action that dancers actually follow when they do the call. Instead, the program defines the call in terms of ‘exchange the diamond 3/4’ and ‘flip the interlocked diamond’, which appears to be the definition that is more likely to be used by people who actually care about accurate definitions. Because of this, calling ‘roll’ after this call will result in a 8-chain formation. If the actual Callerlab definition had been used, the result would have been some kind of T-bone formation. Users who call this need to be aware of what they are getting into. Some people might consider this a bug.
‘Single rotate while the others’ is intended to be called to the heads or sides from a squared set. It performs the common C1 usage of this call. It is nonsensical in other contexts.
The term spread can mean different things. It is four calls in this program. Use the call ‘spread’ after calls such as follow your neighbor, or from the starting double pass thru (or similar setup) that is obtained after calls like wheel and deal or a sequence started with heads star thru. There is also a call ‘<anything> and spread’, which simply does the <anything> followed by a spread, to make the printout look nicer by having the calls appear on the same line. It is intended for things like ‘[follow your neighbor] and spread’. You must type the <anything> call in square brackets. Do not use this with something like heads star thru. That is, do not enter:
heads start
[star thru] and spread
That would attempt to have only the heads do both the star thru and the spread. All 8 people must do the spread. You must enter:
heads start
star thru
spread
and get the calls on separate lines There is also a call ‘<ANYONE> spread’. It is typically used from columns, to get the designated people to slide away from their partner into a butterfly, “O”, or whatever. It can also be used to get selected people (who must be adjacent) to do a ‘follow your neighbor’ type of spread. There is also a call ‘<anything> and the <anyone> spread’, which combines the previous two calls. It does the <anything> followed by having the selected people spread. For example, you could enter
[motivate] and the boys spread
(There is also the call ‘wheel and spread’, which is just the special case call on the Plus list.)
This call is intended for use in sequences that begin with heads or sides doing a ‘ladies chain’ or ‘right and left thru’ or something similar. After they do such a call, they will remain in the center. To have the same people do the next call (for example, ‘pass the ocean’ or ‘star thru’), just use the ‘centers’ concept. If you want the inactive dancers to come in and do the next call, use the call ‘centers back away, others come in and <ANYTHING>’. So, for example, you might enter:
heads start
ladies chain
centers back away, others come in and [star thru]
You might read this as “head ladies chain, then the sides move in and star thru.”
ANYONE PromenadeThese calls are intended for use in sequences that begin with heads or sides promenading halfway around the set. The calls are
promenade halfway, come in to the middle and <ANYTHING>
and
promenade halfway, while the others <ANYTHING>
You can substitute 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 for the word
halfway in either call.
In each case, start the sequence with the heads start or sides
start command, and then issue one of the calls listed above. Ignore the
fact that the displayed setup will look strange before the promenade.
In Sdtty, you can type the ‘<ANYTHING>’ call in brackets,
as in promenade halfway, while the others [square thru 4].
The ‘<ANYTHING>’ call will be
done by the appropriate people in the center of the set.
When the program starts a sequence with the heads start or
sides start command, there is an implicit “up to the middle”
in the first action. This only applies to the first call. If a sequence
starts with something else, such as ‘4 ladies chain’, ‘4 ladies chain 3/4’,
‘head/side ladies chain to the right’, or ‘all 4 couples right and left thru’,
the result will be a squared set. To do the next call, one typically needs to have
the heads or sides go up to the middle. Since this is not the first call, the
program won't automatically do it, and you need to do it explicitly.
There is a call ‘<ANYONE> press ahead’ for this purpose. The call
is officially on the C2 list, but Sd and Sdtty allow it at
Mainstream. Have the heads press ahead, or whatever is appropriate.
If the heads and sides are not positioned consistently (as, for example,
after an ‘all 4 ladies chain 3/4’), use the designation headliners
or sideliners. These designations refer to the people currently facing
head or side walls, respectively. Sd and Sdtty recognize them
at Mainstream. When actually calling in such a situation, a common phrase to use
is “at the heads,” as in “all 4 ladies chain 3/4; at the heads,
square thru 2.” The way this would be entered to the program is as follows:
just as they are (instead of heads or sides start) all 4 ladies chain 3/4 headliners press ahead centers square thru 2 (you must identify the centers)
ANYONE CloverleafThe call ‘cloverleaf’ is expected to be done from a completed double pass thru setup, and has everyone doing the call. There are some other uses of this call, some sanctioned by the Callerlab definitions and others simply in common usage. These involve just having four people (who must be looking out, but do not necessarily have to be ends) do the call. The call ‘<ANYONE> cloverleaf’ does this. You must use an appropriate designator, such as ‘ends cloverleaf’. An example of this, in which the designated people are not ends, is:
heads start
pass thru
heads cloverleaf
In this example, the sides would step into the center.
The call <ANYONE> cloverleaf while the others <ANYTHING> is similar,
but has the inactive people, after they step into the center, do the
other call. It is in many cases identical to the A1 call
‘clover and <ANYTHING>’, but the latter call is more restrictive.
The calls ‘and 1/4 more’ and ‘and 1/2 more’ are intended to
be used after a courtesy turn, such as a ‘right and left thru’.
They cause the couples to turn, as a couple, that additional amount.
Callers sometimes use phrases like “courtesy turn full around” to
describe the action known to Sd as ‘and 1/2 more’.
There are also calls ‘<ANYTHING> and 1/4 more’ and ‘<ANYTHING> and 1/2 more’,
which can be typed to Sdtty with the actual ‘<ANYTHING>’ call in brackets,
as in [right and left thru] and 1/2 more.
This is a call that should be used when you want the outsides to move along until they are facing each other. For example, after ‘heads swing thru’, you might say ‘ends divide’, and then have them ‘star thru’. Note that ‘ends divide’ is the name of the call. It is not an application of the ‘ends’ concept. You must type it on one line, and you may not substitute another designator, such as ‘sides’, for the word ‘ends’. There is also a call ‘ends divide and <anything>’. This call can have the “anything” subcall entered in the usual way, by placing it in brackets. So, for example, you might type:
heads start
swing thru
ends divide and [touch 1/4]
6x2 acey deucey
You might read this as “heads swing thru, while the sides divide and touch 1/4.”
These are problematical calls when the outsides are in line-like, rather than column-like, orientation. This situation arises, for example, when the starting setup is twin diamonds. The Callerlab C1 and C2 definitions state that in this case the outsides counter rotate just as they are, without first quartering in some direction. However, many high-level callers have adopted a definition that says that the outsides always quarter right (or take whatever direction is given) before counter rotating. Sd uses this formulation. To handle all the possibilities, there are 3 varieties of the call ‘little’—just ‘little’, ‘little, ends face <DIRECTION>’, and ‘little, ends go as you are’. Use the last one when the dancers are in diamonds and you want the outsides to counter rotate directly. Whether or not you say “ends go as you are” is up to you. The calls ‘little more’ and ‘plenty’ have analogous behavior.
This call is a special case of the ‘<ATC> back to a wave’ class of calls, and is a recognized C1 call. You should use this name rather than the potentially misleading ‘flip back to a wave’.
The call ‘face <DIRECTION>’ does not appear to be a genuine Callerlab-sanctioned call. It is intended to be used, for example, after ‘tag the line’, to give the direction that you wish to have the dancers face. So, for example, you could enter the calls ‘tag the line’ followed by ‘face in’ to get the action that is commonly expressed as “tag the line, in.” Note that the A2 designators ‘zig-zag’, etc., are among the permissible directions.
The program's notion of where people are in an alamo ring is rather imprecise. It has them paired up on “O” spots, with the people in each pair precisely facing head walls or side walls, rather than uniformly spread around the circle. Its notion of how alamo calls work is based on this flawed notion, in that it can only deal with one kind of pairing. Typically, the people must be paired in right-handed miniwaves. (For the call break the alamo, the selected people must be together.) If the pairing is not correct, you can issue the pseudo-call adjust alamo to other pairing. This will make the program move people around one position on the computer screen, so that the pairs will have the other handedness. You of course do not read this line when calling—the dancers will be able to figure out who needs to work with whom on the next call. Typical instances in which this is needed are calling ‘swing the fractions’ when the four miniwaves of the alamo ring do not have the correct handedness, and calling things like ‘all 8 spin the top’ after a ‘dixie grand’.
Under certain circumstances, people who collide in the same spot during
a call will take right hands with each other, according to well-known
rules governing this type of occurrence. Other than that, the program does
not allow “impossible” intermediate situations in which multiple people
occupy the same spot.
In some cases, you may want to call something that sends people through
a momentary impossible situation, for example calling something like
‘everyone do your part, split trade circulate twice’ when people
are in normal waves. The first ‘split trade circulate’ is impossible,
but if you tell the dancers to do their own part and not worry about
the collision after the first one, they can do it.
The program doesn't like to do this. Just calling twice split trade
circulate won't work, because the program will have multiple dancers on
the same spot after the first one. You can trick the program into doing
it anyway, by using the <ANYONE> do your part concept. Enter something
like heads do your part, twice split trade circulate while the
others twice split trade circulate. Exactly who has to be designated
depends on the the setup.
You can also use this method to get everyone to do their part of
calls that are illegal in the existing setup. For example, flip back
is illegal from facing lines. If you really want people to do it anyway,
with everyone doing their part, you can enter beaus do your part,
flip back while the others flip back.
Some calls leave the setup in a “C1 phantom” formation, and some calls leave the setup in a nearly-identical 4x4 matrix formation. Occasionally one wishes that the program had made the other choice. For most applicable calls and concepts it doesn't matter, because the program is generally forgiving about these two formations. (For example, the ‘split phantom waves’ concept will work from a phantom formation.) On those occasions when you need to change from one formation to the other, you can use the ‘phantom’ concept or the ‘4x4 matrix’ concept with the call ‘nothing’.
The program believes that, in 1/4 tags and diamonds, the outsides are not
located in really precise positions. There is a good reason for this—there
are real problems with the positioning in 1/4 tags.
Because of this, matrix (“space invader”) calls, like ‘press’ and ‘truck’,
are not permitted. You can override this prohibition by using the 3x4 matrix
concept. So, for example, after ‘heads pass the ocean’, you could enter
3x4 matrix side girls truck, obtaining Z's. You may or may not need to
say anything to the dancers to persuade them to get the effect you want.
You may also use concepts like ‘triple lines’ when in a 1/4 tag. The
program (and presumably the dancers also) will place the outsides in the center
of the outer triple lines.
For some calls, the ‘12 matrix’ concept will also be helpful.
Most concepts have clear and precise meanings and do not
need any further discussion here. However, for a significant
number of concepts, the distinction between precisely defined,
universally understood terminology, and “common sense”
description of what you want the dancers to do, becomes rather
blurred. When using computers to write choreography, a lot of
questions of the form, “How do I get the program to do this?”
arise. For that reason, a complete list of available concepts
will be given here. For many of them, their meaning is clear, and
nothing further will be said. For the troublesome ones, we
will attempt to describe just what the program understands
them to mean.
For many of the less straightforward cases, the words that the
program uses are not necessarily the words that you would use to get the
dancers to do the equivalent thing. You must always use your
own judgement. No claim is made that the program's notion
of what the words literally mean is the universally accepted
definition of the concept.
Be aware that those concepts that take two calls, such as checkpoint,
<ANYONE> do your part (while the others), or
two calls in succession
must be entered by themselves. That is, you must press
<ENTER>
after typing any of these concepts. You can't type
checkpoint ah so by recycle <ENTER>
nor
boys trade (while the others) u-turn back <ENTER>
You must type
checkpoint <ENTER>
ah so <ENTER>
recycle <ENTER>
or
boys (while the others) <ENTER>
trade <ENTER>
u-turn back <ENTER>
The concepts to watch out for are labeled “[must be entered by itself]”
in the following lists.
Just what constitutes a “concept” and what constitutes a mere
“variation” of a call is not always clearly delineated. We list
below only those things that the program considers to be “concepts.”
There are many other variations of calls, such as square chain thru
to a wave that are not listed here. In general, variations of this sort
can be obtained simply by clicking on them or typing them. They should
be visible on the call menu, and, if you type a question mark
while typing the call name, these variations should be displayed.
In the concept names, “C/L/W” has the usual meaning of “columns,
lines, or waves.” Extending that terminology, “B” means boxes,
and “D” means diamonds.
“1T” means 1/4 tags, “3T” means 3/4 tags,
“1L” means 1/4 lines, and “3L” means 3/4 lines.
A 1/4 line or 3/4 line requires that the centers
form a 2-faced line, and the ends be looking in or out, respectively.
A 1/4 tag or 3/4 tag requires that the centers
form some kind of line (not necessarily a wave), and the ends be looking in or out, respectively.
“GT” means “general 1/4 tags”, in which the ends could individually
be facing either in or out, and the centers form some kind of line.
“DS” means “diamond spots”, that is, diamonds or general 1/4 tags
in which no assumption is made about anyone's facing direction.
In all concepts that can specify either lines or waves,
the “waves” version has an implicit “assume waves” operation
in it. Under normal circumstances, this means that the live people can make use of
the assumption of waves in order to decide how to start the call. For example,
in normal columns, split phantom waves in roll circulate—which
is equivalent to split phantom lines, assume waves, in roll
circulate—is legal, because the phantom in-roller's location can be
deduced from the wave assumption. Whether the dancers will be appreciative
of your calling that is another matter.
The call split phantom lines in roll circulate is illegal from columns
because the facing direction of the phantom in-roller is unknown.
If “active phantoms” are used, either because the with active phantoms
concept is used after the phantom wave concept or because the toggle
active phantoms command was given, the phantoms will work throughout the entire
call, based on the initial facing direction in waves.
The concepts with the word diamonds have an implicit assume
general diamonds operation in them. This means that everyone must think they are individually
in some kind of diamond, with their right or left hand toward the center.
You may give an explicit assume concept to make the setup more specific if
you wish, as in split phantom diamonds followed by assume interlocked
diamonds.
The concepts with the words 1/4 tags or 3/4 tags require some kind
of line in the middle, and the ends as a couple facing in or out, respectively.
Hence, for example, the split phantom 1/4 tags concept includes 1/4 tags,
1/4 lines, or any kind of line in the center, as long as the ends are facing in.
You may give an explicit assume concept to make the setup more specific if
you wish, as in split phantom 1/4 tags followed by assume 1/4 tags
(to require a wave of either handedness in the center)
or assume right 1/4 tags (to require a right-handed wave).
The concepts with the words 1/4 lines or 3/4 lines are similar, but
require that the centers form a 2-faced line. An explicit assume concept,
such as assume left 1/4 lines, may be used.
The concepts with the words general 1/4 tags have an implicit assume
general 1/4 tags operation. This means that the centers must think that they are
in some kind of line, and the ends must be in some kind of couple or miniwave. The
word general means that the in-or-out facing direction of the outsides is
unimportant, but they must be facing in or out, not sideways as in diamonds.
There are no general 3/4 tags concepts, because the general 1/4 tags
setup does not distinguish between ends facing in or out.
The concepts with the words diamond spots make no assumptions at
all about facing direction. The people can be in any kind of general diamond
or general 1/4 tag. Use these when people's facing directions are bizarre.
Precisely what an assumption means is determined by whether the
“active phantoms” mode is turned on, and is discussed in Assume Waves.
These concepts involve picking out virtual setups, which may include phantoms, from a real formation that is larger than eight people. In all cases outboard phantoms are added as required at the start of the call and removed where possible at the conclusion of the call.
split phantom C/L/W/B/D/1T/3T/1L/3L/DS/GTinterlocked phantom C/L/W/B/D/1T/3T/1L/3L/DS/GTphantom C/L/W/B/D/1T/3T/1L/3L/DS/GT12 matrix split phantom C/L12 matrix interlocked phantom C/L12 matrix phantom C/Ltwin phantom tidal C/L/Wtriple tidal C/L/Wgrand.
twin phantom C/L/W of 6triple C/L/W of 6quadruple C/L/W of 3quadruple C/L/W of 6split phantom C/L/W of 6interlocked phantom C/L/W of 6phantom C/L/W of 6triple C/L/W/B/D/1T/3T/1L/3L/DS/GTquadruple C/L/W/B/D/1T/3T/1L/3L/DS/GTquintuple C/L/W/Bsextuple C/L/W/Btriple 1x4striple lines or boxestriple boxes or linestriple lines or diamondstriple diamonds or linesquintuple 1x4ssextuple 1x4scenter triple C/L/W/B/D (singular)outside triple C/L/W/B/Dcenter tidal C/L/W (singular)own operations.
center Z (singular)outside triple Z'scenter phantom C/L/W/B/D/DS/GToutside phantom C/L/W/B/D/DS/GT12 matrix center phantom C/L12 matrix outside phantom C/Lcenter triple twin C/L/Woutside triple twin C/L/Wcenter triple twin C/L/W of 3outside triple twin C/L/W of 3crazy phantom C/L/W/B/D/DS/GTreverse crazy phantom C/L/W/B/D/DS/GT<N/4> crazy phantom C/L/W/B/D/DS/GT<N/4> reverse crazy phantom C/L/W/B/D/DS/GTcrazy offset C/L/Wreverse crazy offset C/L/W<N/4> crazy offset C/L/W<N/4> reverse crazy offset C/L/Wcrazy diagonal boxesreverse crazy diagonal boxes<N/4> crazy diagonal boxes<N/4> reverse crazy diagonal boxescrazy Z'sreverse crazy Z's<N/4> crazy Z's<N/4> reverse crazy Z'striple C/L/W/B/D/1T/1L working togethertriple C/L/W/B working aparttriple L/W/B working forward/backwardtriple C/B/1T/1L working right/lefttriple C/L/W/B working clockwise/counterclockwisetriple tidal L/W working forward/backwardtriple tidal C working right/leftquadruple C/L/W/B/D/1T/1L working togetherquadruple C/L/W/B working apartquadruple L/W/B working forward/backwardquadruple C/B/1T/1L working right/leftquadruple C/L/W/B working clockwise/counterclockwisequadruple C/L/W/B/D/1T/1L working toward the centertriple diagonal C/L/Wtriple diagonal L/W working forward/backwardtriple diagonal columns working right/lefttriple twin C/L/Wtriple twin C/L/W of 3triple staggered boxesconcentric triple boxesconcentric quadruple boxestwin phantom D/1T/3T/1L/3L/DS/GT6x2 acey deucey or
scoot and plenty) that are next to each other along the
opposite orientation to the orientation given by split phantom
diamonds. That is, there is a 2x2 matrix of diamonds or 1/4 tags.
The diamonds in each parallel pair work with each other, but the
pairs work independently.
twin phantom point-to-point D/DStwin phantom I'stwin phantom bonestwin phantom riggerstwin phantom bats
as couples couples twosometandem tandem twosomesiamese siamese twosomemelded as couples melded couples twosomemelded tandem melded tandem twosomemelded siamese melded siamese twosomecouples of 3 couples threesometandems of 3 tandem threesomesiamese of 3 siamese threesomecouples of 4 couples foursometandems of 4 tandem foursomesiamese of 4 siamese foursomeboxes are solid boxsomediamonds are solid diamondsomeY's are solid Y-someZ's are solid Z-someskew skewsome gruesome twosomegruesome as couples gruesome couples twosomegruesome tandem gruesome tandem twosome<ANYONE> are as couples <ANYONE> are couples twosome<ANYONE> are tandem <ANYONE> are tandem twosome<ANYONE> are couples of 3 <ANYONE> are couples threesome<ANYONE> are tandems of 3 <ANYONE> are tandem threesomethe couples are solid the couples are twosomethe tandems are solid the tandems are twosomethe couples of 3 are solid the couples of 3 are threesomethe tandems of 3 are solid the tandems of 3 are threesomeinside triangles are solid inside triangles are threesomeoutside triangles are solid outside triangles are threesomein point triangles are solid in point triangles are threesomeout point triangles are solid out point triangles are threesomewave-based triangles are solid wave-based triangles are threesometandem-based triangles are solid tandem-based triangles are threesome<ANYONE>-based triangles are solid <ANYONE>-based triangles are threesome3x1 triangles are solid 3x1 triangles are trianglesomeas couples in a 1/4 tagas couples in a 3/4 tagas couples in a 1/4 lineas couples in a 3/4 lineas couples in point-to-point diamondsas couples in a tidal lineas couples in a tidal columnas couples in a tall 6 16 matrix of parallel diamonds siamese twosome
diamond circulate
or
16 matrix of parallel diamonds siamese twosome
assume normal diamonds 6x2 acey deucey
or
16 matrix of parallel diamonds
assume normal interlocked diamonds
siamese twosome 6x2 acey deucey
The ‘as couples in a tall 6’ is intended to be used from parallel 2-faced lines. It puts a phantom couple in front of each lead couple, making two wave-based triangles.
The ‘tandem’ or ‘as couples’ concepts, and their twosome and fractional twosome/solid variants, may be preceded by a modifier such as ‘4x4’ or ‘2x1’. These cause people to be grouped as indicated. ‘4x4 tandem’ is equivalent to ‘tandems of 4’. ‘3x1 couples twosome’ directs 3 people (determined by the usual rules—whichever 3 people face the same way if that determines it, otherwise the 3 in front or the 3 on the right) to work as a threesome while the other person works alone. When calling, concepts like this are often expressed in the form “threesome by one” or “one by tandem of 2”. When only two people are being grouped, it is also possible to designate them explicitly. ‘2x1 couples twosome’ can often be expressed equivalently as something like ‘girls are couples twosome’.
Any of the tandem or couples concepts may be used with the
phantom concept in front of it. There are no concepts like
phantom tandem listed separately—you must use the
phantom concept followed by the concept that you want. Of
course, when using Sdtty, this issue doesn't make any
difference—you can just type
phantom tandem swing thru <ENTER>
When using a melded concept, it comes before the word phantom;
for all others the word phantom is first.
The phantom tandem and phantom as couples concepts expand the
people into a 4x4 matrix whenever possible. When that is not possible,
a 2x8 matrix is formed. You can use the 2x8 matrix concept in
order to force this. For example, from normal columns, phantom
tandem puts all the real people in tandem with each other, and makes
them the centers of lines. You could call a ferris wheel,
but not a checkmate the column, from this setup. If you wanted
the pairs of real people to be centers of columns, so that you could
call checkmate the column, use 2x8 matrix phantom tandem
checkmate the column. Concepts with the word “gruesome” always form
a 2x8, and require that the people be paired in a direction parallel to
that 2x8. The gruesome twosome concept is the same as
gruesome couples twosome, with the additional requirement that
the resulting virtual setup be waves. It appears to be the only concept
in that family that is widely accepted.
staggerbig block (any kind of lines)big block waves (this means ``assume waves'')Obutterflymini-Omini-butterflyOXstairstep C/L/Wsplit phantom columns split circulate from normal
columns. You may wish to use the distorted C/L/W concept instead.
ladder C/L/Wsplit phantom waves split circulate from normal
waves. You may wish to use the distorted C/L/W concept instead.
offset C/L/W (plural)offset C/L/W (singular)Z C/L/Wdistorted C/L/Wdiagonal C/L/W (singular)<ANYONE> in your diagonal C/L/W (singular)diagonal C/L/W (plural)diagonal C/L/W of 3 (plural)staggered C/L/W of 3 (plural)C/L/W of 3 (plural)distorted tidal C/L/W (singular)offset tidal C/L/W (singular)offset 1T/3Toffset split phantom boxesparallelogram triple boxesdistorted C/L/W (singular) of 6stagger D/1T/3T/1L/3L/GTdiagonal D/1T/3T/1L/3L/GTdistorted D/1T/3T/1L/3L/DS/GTdouble bent tidal C/L/W (singular)<ANYONE> in your double bent C/L/W (singular)bent C/L/W/B (plural)<ANYONE> in your trapezoid<ANYONE> in your distorted C/L/W/B/D (singular)<ANYONE> in your diagonal box<ANYONE> in your offset C/L/W (singular)<ANYONE> in your staggered C/L/W/B (singular)<ANYONE> in your Z (singular)parallelogramparallelogram diamondsphantom big block L/Wphantom stagger columnsphantom stairstep C/L/Wphantom ladder C/L/Wphantom offset C/L/Wphantom butterfly or O
splitonce removedtwice removedthrice removedonce removed diamondsonce removed concept encompasses diamonds. so you can
say either once removed or once removed diamonds.
magicdiagonal boxtrapezoidoverlapped diamondsoverlapped linesoverlapped wavesoverlapped columnsinterlocked parallelograminterlocked boxesZ C/L/W once removed.
twin parallelogramsZeach Zinterlocked Z'striple Z'sZ diamondZ diamondsjayback-to-front jayback-to-back jayfront jayback jayclockwise jaycounterclockwise jayleft jayright jayfacing parallelogramback-to-front parallelogramback-to-back parallelogramjay concepts, except that
the center line is required to be a 2-faced line.
blocksin your blocks4 phantom interlocked blockstriangular boxes4 phantom triangular boxesdistorted blocks
leftreversecrosssinglegrandmirrorinterlockedsingle filetriangletriangle peel and trail.
leading triangleleading triangle reach out.
diamonddiamond quarter thru and
diamond single wheel. You should not need to select diamond
except when you actually want this concept. There are cases in which it
may seem that the word diamond ought to be added after selecting
interlocked and/or magic. The program will insert the
extra word diamond for you. So, for example, selecting magic
and then alter the diamond
will produce the output ‘magic diamond, alter the diamond’,
and selecting magic, interlocked, diamond,
as couples, and quarter right will get ‘magic interlocked
diamond, diamond as couples quarter right’.
12 matrix16 matrixphantomfunnymatrixassume <some setup>assume normal castswith active phantomsinvertfanyoyofractalgenerousstingystraighttwistedcentralinvert centralsnaginvert snagsnag the <ANYONE>mysticinvert mystic<ANYONE> are standard instable<ANYONE> are stable<N/4> stable<ANYONE> are <N/4> stableemulatenoserectifydrag the <ANYONE>trace [must be entered by itself]outeractingferrisreleasestretchstretched setupstretched C/L/W/B/D/1T/3Tstretched <any triangle concept>overlapped siamesecentersendscenters and ends [must be entered by itself]center 6/outer 2 [must be entered by itself]center 2/outer 6 [must be entered by itself]<ANYONE><ANYONE> (while the others) [must be entered by itself]<ANYONE> disconnected<ANYONE> disconnected (while the others) [must be entered by itself]same sex disconnected<ANYONE> do your part<ANYONE> do your part (while the others) [must be entered by itself]on your own [must be entered by itself]own the <ANYONE> [must be entered by itself]ignore the <ANYONE><ANYONE> lead for aheads lead for a
wheel around, it will have everyone wheel around, resulting in 2-faced lines.
To get the effect that
is usually indicated by the words “promenade, do not stop ..., heads wheel around”,
you must enter enter heads lead for a heads wheel around.
<ANYONE> move in andends concentricouter 2 concentricouter 6 concentriccenters and ends concentric [must be entered by itself]checkpoint [must be entered by itself]reverse checkpoint [must be entered by itself]checkerboardcheckerboxcheckerdiamondorbitboardorbitboxorbitdiamondtwin orbitboardtwin orbitboxtwin orbitdiamond<ANYONE> preferred for trade, checkerboard<ANYONE> preferred for trade, checkerbox<ANYONE> preferred for trade, checkerdiamondshadow lineshadow boxshadow diamondparanoid<ANYONE> are paranoidcenters is used, it is
evaluated at the start of the call.
anchor the <ANYONE><ANYONE> workends work tandem, swing thru
is performed by having the ends do their part of a ‘tandem swing thru’
while the centers do a ‘swing thru’.
two calls in succession [must be entered by itself]precede it by [must be entered by itself]follow it by [must be entered by itself]add [must be entered by itself]precede it by and follow it by take two subject
calls. They perform the first call (first in textual order, that is)
before or after, respectively, the second.
The concept add is the same as follow it by.
For example, follow it by roll, swing thru does a swing thru and roll.
There is only one context in which these concepts are sensible—they can be
the subject of the piecewise, random, or reverse random
meta-concepts. For example, piecewise add criss cross the
deucey, turn the key will do a ‘criss cross the deucey’
after each of the three parts of ‘turn the key’.
These concepts are among the situations in which the program does not attempt
to print out the exact words that are appropriate to use when calling, but
instead prints out an unambiguous description of what is supposed to happen.
The exact words you should use depend on the context and on your judgement.
You might say “piecewise add a criss cross the deucey, and turn the key,”
or “do a criss cross the deucey after each part, and turn the key,” or
something similar.
crazyreverse crazy<N/4> crazy<N/4> reverse crazy<N>/<N>1-<N>/<N>twice<N> timesdo the last <N>/<N>N/N concept, where N and N are numbers, causes that
fraction of the subject call to be executed, as in ‘3/5 swing the fractions’.
In Sdtty, just type in the numbers directly, as in 3/5.
In Sd, the concept is listed as <N>/<N>. A popup will appear asking
for the numbers. Enter two of them.
The 1-<N>/<N> concept causes the subject call to be executed once and the indicated
fraction of a second time, as in ‘1-1/2 split circulate’.
The exact way you should
say the fraction might vary according to the call or your individual taste.
Proper fractions always appear before the call in the transcript, but you might want to
say the fraction after the call, as in ‘swing the fractions four fifths’.
The program will place improper fractions after the call, as in
‘split circulate 1-1/2’. You still specify the concept first when entering
it into the program. That is, you type 1-1/2 split circulate.
In any case, you must use your judgement when choosing what to say when calling.
In extremely tricky cases, such as ‘1/2, mix’, ‘3/4, mix’, ‘3/4 mix’,
and ‘2/3, 3/4 mix’, these concepts can lead to ambiguity. It may
be necessary to type the concept by itself, that is, to press
<ENTER>
at the appropriate moment, to get what you want. (If using the menu in Sd,
select just the concept, and then select the call.) For example, if you really want
3/4 of the call ‘mix’, type
3/4 <ENTER>
mix <ENTER>
If using the menu in Sd, select <N>/<N>, and then select mix.
In the finished transcript, a comma will appear after fractionalizing concepts,
but not in the call 3/4 mix. You of course never type in any of the
commas that serve to separate concepts.
The twice concept simply causes the subject call to be executed
twice. This is a notion familiar at all levels from Mainstream
(‘spin chain thru, the girls double circulate’) to C4 (‘piecewise
twice, recoil’).
The <N> times concept causes the subject call to be executed that number
of times. In Sdtty, just type in the number directly, as in 3 times.
In Sd, the concept is listed as <N> times. A popup will appear
asking for the number.
No universally recognized words for these exist, so the program uses the generic
phrases noted above. When calling, use whatever words you think are appropriate,
such as “twice,” “circulate two positions,” or whatever.
initiallysecondlythirdlyfourthlyfinallyinitially and finallypiecewiserandomreverse randomevenlyoddlyinitially concept.
shiftyshift <N>shift 1/2shift <N>-1/2interlace [must be entered by itself]reverse orderechoreverse echodouble/triple/quadruple echodouble echo meta-concept is followed by two concepts. It applies both
concepts first, then skips the first concept and applies the second only, and finally
skips both concepts and just does the call. triple echo and quadruple echo are
similar.
randomize betweentriple randomize amongroundtriproundtrip concept is most simply explained by example: swing the fractions
is the same as roundtrip remake. The roundtrip of a call is the call followed by the reverse
order of the call without its last part. The roundtrip of an N-part call has 2N-1 parts.
finishlike alike anfinish means “skip the first part” and is only legal for
calls for which the first part is recognizable. Sd also recognizes the concept
like a, meaning “do the last part.” You need to be aware, however,
that there are calls for which, while it is technically legal to say such things,
they are not accepted as common usage. For example, finish shazam as a way of
saying U-turn back, or finish mix or like a mix as ways
of saying centers trade, would have to be considered rather peculiar.
You must exercise your judgement when using these concepts.
One occasionally hears things like cross chain reaction, centers
finish like a wheel the ocean, in which the final cast off 3/4 of the
chain reaction was “pushy.” While the plain English language meaning
of that is clear, the way you must enter that to Sd is
CROSS chain reaction
CENTERS LIKE A wheel the ocean
You must, of course, verify yourself that the casting direction is correct for
smooth dancing of this figure.
<ANYONE> startskip the <Nth> partsandwich [must be entered by itself]boys start quarter thru <ENTER>
See Anyone Start, for more on the <ANYONE> start concept.
do the <Nth> partdo the last partfirst <M>/<N>middle <M>/<N>last <M>/<N>half and half [must be entered by itself]<N>/<N> and <N>/<N> [must be entered by itself]replace the <Nth> part [must be entered by itself]replace the last part [must be entered by itself]interrupt after the <Nth> part [must be entered by itself]interrupt after <M>/<N> [must be entered by itself]interrupt before the last part [must be entered by itself] replace the 3rd part <ENTER>
swing the fractions <ENTER>
2/3 recycle <ENTER>
use for the <Nth> part [must be entered by itself] use for the 3rd part <ENTER>
ah so <ENTER>
swing the fractions <ENTER>
It will apear in the transcript as “use ah so for the 3rd part:
swing the fractions”.
use [must be entered by itself] reverse random use <ENTER>
acey deucey <ENTER>
swing the fractions <ENTER>
start with [must be entered by itself] start with <ENTER>
fan the top <ENTER>
the difference <ENTER>
Because the replace, interrupt, start with, and use
concepts require two calls, you must press <ENTER>
after typing them, and then type the two calls with <ENTER> after each one.
See Interruptions and Replacements, for information about some tricky aspects
of these concepts.
inside trianglesoutside trianglesin point trianglesout point trianglestall 6short 6wave-based trianglestandem-based triangles<ANYONE>-based trianglesconcentriccross concentricsingle concentricsingle cross concentricgrand single concentricgrand single cross concentricconcentric diamondscross concentric diamondsconcentric Z'scross concentric Z's3x3 concentric3x3 cross concentric4x4 concentric4x4 cross concentricgrand working forward/backwardgrand working right/leftgrand working as centersgrand working as endsgrand working clockwise/counterclockwise<ANYONE> are centers of a double-offset 1T/3T/1L/3L/GT/D/DSinriggeroutriggerleftriggerrightriggerbackriggerfrontriggerright wingleft wingmystic winginvert mystic wingother wingmimiccommon point galaxycommon spot/point diamondscommon spot/point hourglasscommon spot point-to-point diamondscommon spot 1/4 tagcommon spot 1/4 linecommon center/end L/Wcommon spot C/L/Wcommon spot two-faced lines
The “common spot” concept directs people to do their part of the call
as though the presumed collision from the previous call had not forced
them to take right hands, and they are simply occupying the same spot.
(This is not to say that a collision from a previous call is the only
way that such a setup can be created—the dancers are simply directed
to act as though that is how they got there. Some people consider the
use of collisions to set up “common spot” calls to be among the
less creative ways to get into these formations.)
The program therefore expects the “common spot” people to have
right hands. If you want to use these concepts with people in left-hand
miniwaves, we recommend that you apply the ‘mirror’ concept to the entire operation.
Common spot point-to-point diamonds can arise from
certain fractional exchanges of point-to-point diamonds.
Note that switch to a diamond and diamond circulate
never produce this setup – the Callerlab C1 definitions specifically
state that the colliding people center themselves.
The common point galaxy concept is used from a “rigger” or “bat” setup in
which the “wings” are collided points.
The common spot diamonds or common point diamonds concept
is used from the kind of setup one obtains after a ‘6x2 acey
deucey’ from facing diamonds. The common spot hourglass or
common point hourglass concept is used from the kind of setup one
obtains after a ‘6x2 acey deucey’ from a facing hourglass.
The common spot 1/4 tag and common spot 1/4 line concepts
are used from a tidal wave. Everyone acts as though they are in the center
wave or two-faced line.
The common spot columns concept is used from “clumps”,
“stairsteps”, Z columns, or waves. From clumps or stairsteps everyone
is presumed to have collided. From Z columns some people have collided
and some (those that are centered) have not. From waves, everyone has
collided and is in the center of the imagined columns.
The common end lines/waves concept is used from a parallelogram
in which the “wings” are collided ends of the lines. It can also be
used from outer triple boxes, in which everyone has collided at the ends
of lines. People in the center triple box, if any, are natural.
The common center lines/waves concepts are used from waves in which
everyone is presumed to have collided in the center. The ends of the
imagined lines or waves are all phantoms.
The common spot lines/waves concepts may be used from waves,
having the same meaning as common center lines/waves.
The common spot waves/two-faced lines concepts may also
be used from a 2x8 that is either a fully offset parallelogram or
is a “miniwave zipper”. That is, everyone is in a miniwave with
someone, and they collectively occupy a 2x4 matrix of live minwaves
or phantom miniwaves. The concept name tells how the people should be
grouped together, in case that matters.
1x2/2x1/2x2/1x3/3x1/3x3/4x4/6x6/8x8all 4 couplesall 8all 8 (diamonds)all 4 couples and all 8 concepts currently appear to
be undergoing some re-examination.
The program's behavior on these might not be
satisfactory at the present time. The all 8 (diamonds) concept
is used from a thar, in which the call is intended to be performed in
each of two interleaved diamonds. In real life, one can generally call this
as just all 8, and the dancers will know what is required. The
program is not that smart, and requires the “(diamonds)” hint.
each C/L/W/B/Deach 1x4each wave
concept can be used to cause a ‘counter rotate’ to be performed as a
‘lockit’. The each 1x4 concept splits the setup into 1x4
setups without regard for individual dancers' facing direction. From
columns, each 1x4 sidetrack can cause the ‘sidetrack’ to be
done in individual columns (though single sidetrack will do the
same thing). These concepts can also make your intentions clear when, for
example, you give a box call when the setup is a 4x4 matrix with boxes
occupied in each corner.
These concepts may also be used to “justify” using 4-person calls in
large phantom setups. They will suppress the warning message that the program
would otherwise give when such calls are used without an appropriate concept.
For example, from a parallelogram, the parallelogram concept must
be used when giving 8-person calls such as acey deucey, but it is possible
to give 4-person calls such as mix without any concept. However, the
program will issue a warning. Using the each wave concept will prevent
the warning. In either case, the exact words you would use whan calling the card
are up to you.
1x6 matrix1x8 matrix1x10 matrix1x12 matrix1x16 matrix2x5 matrix2x6 matrix2x8 matrix2x10 matrix2x12 matrix3x4 matrix4x4 matrix4x5 matrix3x6 matrix3x8 matrix4x6 matrix16 matrix of parallel diamondsphantom tandem would expand the setup to a 4x4 matrix,
making each person in tandem with a phantom, and creating a virtual 2x4.
2x8 matrix phantom tandem would leave live people tandem with live
people, create phantoms in tandem with other phantoms, and create a virtual
tidal line. The 16 matrix of parallel diamonds concept expands to
quadruple diamond spots.
The ‘concentric’ and ‘cross concentric’ concepts are formulated as follows: The rule tells how the people who finish on the outside should elongate their 2x2 if they finish in one. This is the only case that needs to be addressed.
There are a number of concepts that you can use to tell the dancers how phantoms are facing. They are
assume waves
assume miniwaves
assume couples
assume two-faced lines
assume one-faced lines
assume inverted lines
assume normal boxes
assume inverted boxes
assume normal columns
assume magic columns
assume eight chain
assume trade by
assume dpt
assume cdpt
assume facing lines
assume back-to-back lines
assume general diamonds
assume general 1/4 tags
assume 1/4 tags
assume right 1/4 tags
assume left 1/4 tags
assume 3/4 tags
assume right 3/4 tags
assume left 3/4 tags
assume 1/4 lines
assume right 1/4 lines
assume left 1/4 lines
assume 3/4 lines
assume right 3/4 lines
assume left 3/4 lines
assume normal diamonds
assume facing diamonds
assume normal interlocked diamonds
assume facing interlocked diamonds
assume split square thru setup
assume I setup
assume galaxy
assume hourglass
Additionally, there are two related concepts, assume normal casts and
with active phantoms, which will be discussed below.
When these concepts are used by themselves, the information
that they convey tells the dancers how to begin certain calls such as
‘hinge’, ‘vertical tag’, and ‘in roll circulate’.
The information is thrown away after the call begins. That is, the program
does not hold the dancers responsible for tracking phantoms through a call.
It only tells them how to begin.
Use these concepts with care. Many dancers don't like to be held responsible
for the facing direction of phantoms.
These concepts will be implicitly applied whenever something like split
phantom waves or triple diamonds is used, except for 1/4 tags and 3/4 tags.
Concepts like split phantom 1/4 tags and split phantom 3/4 tags
assume that the ends are facing in or out, respectively, and that the centers
form any kind of line at all. The concepts
assume 1/4 tags and assume 3/4 tags
create the additional assumption that the centers are in a wave (of either handedness.)
The concepts split phantom 1/4 lines and split phantom 3/4 lines
require a 2-faced line, and so an additional
assume 1/4 lines and assume 3/4 lines
concept would have no effect.
It is of course illegal to use one of these concepts, either explicitly
with assume or implicitly with something like split phantom
waves, if the live dancers are not facing in a way that is consistent with
the assumption.
The concept assume normal casts may be used in cases in which you
do not require the dancers to track phantoms through the call, but you
want to resolve any ambiguity about the ‘cast off 3/4’ operations
that happen at the end of such calls as ‘chain reaction’ and
‘motivate’. You might read such an operation as ‘12 matrix
motivate, assume the final cast off is normal’.
The concept with active phantoms, used after one of the assume
concepts (either implicit or explicit), effectively places invisible but
intelligent dancers
on the phantom spots, with facing directions deduced from the assumption.
Those phantoms proceed through the entire call, interacting with each other
and with the live dancers as necessary. If the call is impossible for the
phantoms to do, or if illegal collisions occur between live dancers and phantoms,
an error message is displayed. At the end of the call, any live dancers or
phantoms that come to the same spot may take right hands with each other,
if that is appropriate for the call.
Most of the types of assume concepts listed above are sufficiently
explicit that, if even a single live dancer is present in the setup, everyone's
facing direction may be inferred. This is necessary for the with active
phantoms concept, of course. For example, a single live dancer can determine
the handedness of all the phantoms when assume two-faced lines is given.
Two of the concepts are not sufficiently explicit for this, and may not be used
with with active phantoms. They are
assume general diamonds
assume general 1/4 tags
If you are going to use with active phantoms, you must give more detailed
assumptions than these two, such as assume left 1/4 lines or assume
facing diamonds.
Use the with active phantoms concept with extreme care, if at all.
It is extremely dangerous in terms of what it may require the dancers to do.
Many dancers find it difficult enough to do the live people's parts of calls
without having to do the phantoms' parts also.
You can put Sd into a mode in which there is an implicit
with active phantoms whenever any assumption is made.
The toggle active phantoms command toggles (turns on or off)
this mode. See Changing Modes.
When in this mode, Sd will not actually insert the text
with active phantoms after each assume concept.
Callers sometimes wish to perform a generalized quarter-tag call (e.g.,
‘scoot and little’) from a setup in which only the center wave
contains real people, and the outsides need to be assumed. For example,
from an as-couples wave, one could wish to specify that the live dancers
are the as-couples center wave of a quarter-tag. The way to specify this
when calling is typically something like ‘as couples in a quarter-tag,
scoot and little’.
You can do this with Sd in either of two ways. You can use the concepts with names like
as couples in a 1/4 tag. These concepts exist for ‘1/4 tag’,
‘1/4 line’, ‘3/4 tag’, and ‘3/4 line’ formations, with all the usual
‘twosome’ variations. There are no tandem variations of this.
Alternatively, you can use the as couples (or whatever) concept,
followed by a suitable assume concept, such as assume
general 1/4 tags or assume 1/4 tags.
For example, from an as-couples wave, you could select:
as couples in a 1/4 tag scoot and little
or
as couples assume 1/4 tags scoot and little
Or, from parallel waves, you could select:
tandem assume general 1/4 tags ping-pong circulate
There are a number of ways you can get Sd to interrupt calls
or replace parts of calls, just as there are a number of ways to
tell the dancers what you want.
For some calls, it is natural to indicate the interruption or
replacement point by a part number. This typically occurs when the numbers
are well known but the names of the parts might be ambiguous.
For example, callers say ‘Pass the Axle, replace the 3rd part
with Split Trade Circulate’. The third part is a type of Trade, but
the fourth part is also a Trade, so it is safer to refer to it by number.
The concepts that Sd provides for this are:
replace the <Nth> part
replace the last part
interrupt after the <Nth> part
interrupt after <M>/<N>
interrupt before the last part
skip the <Nth> part
The first four listed take two calls—the principal call and the replacement/interruption. You must press <ENTER> after typing these, and then enter the calls separately.
replace the 3rd part <ENTER>
pass the axle <ENTER>
split trade circulate <ENTER>
or
interrupt after the 3rd part <ENTER>
contour the line <ENTER>
fan relay the top <ENTER>
You can also interrupt a call (though you can't replace a part) by giving
the fraction of the call at which the interruption is to occur. The concept
for this is interrupt after <M>/<N>. You can use this concept to
interrupt calls that don't actually have parts, as in
interrupt after 1/2 <ENTER>
scoot back <ENTER>
cross over circulate <ENTER>
or to interrupt at a point that is not a part boundary, as in
interrupt after 1/8 <ENTER>
load the boat <ENTER>
grand swing thru <ENTER>
For ‘anything anything’ calls, such as ‘trade motivate’, just type it in.
For calls with a star turn, you can usually modify the amount of the turn, or omit it, by typing ‘, turn the star 1/4’ (or 1/2 or 3/4), or ‘, don't turn the star’. (Remember that you never need to type commas or apostrophes.) When in doubt, type a question mark immediately after the call.
chain reaction, don't turn the star
scoot and plenty, turn the star 1/4
To replace the star turn with some other call, you need to use the “brute force” method described below.
Calls that end with the centers casting off 3/4 (with the ends usually
“moving up”) can usually have the cast off replaced by typing
but [<some other call>]. The replacement call is put in
square brackets.
tally ho but [2/3 recycle]
chain reaction, turn the star 1/2 but [mix]
When in doubt, type a question mark immediately after the call.
Some calls by convention allow “but” modifications of certain agreed-upon parts. Just type it.
spin the pulley but [reach out]
line to line but [catch [grand mix] 2]
slant [swing thru] and [turn and deal]
When in doubt, type a question mark at the tricky part. If it shows you a choice with ‘<ANYTHING>’, you can type in another call, in square brackets, in place of the ‘<ANYTHING>’. For example, if we are not sure about the replacement for ‘line to line’, we could type
line to line?
and it would offer
line to line
line to line but <ANYTHING>
The second is the one we want. It tells us that the program takes ‘line to line but’ followed by some call in brackets. So we type
line to line but [catch?
and it shows
line to line but [catch <N>]
line to line but [catch <ANYTHING> <N>]
line to line but [catch <ANYTHING> <N>, only the resulting
centers finish]
The second is the one we want. So we know that we can type
line to line but [catch [grand mix] 2]
Similarly, if we had typed
slant?
the program would offer
slant <ANYTHING> and <ANYTHING>
slant <ANYTHING> and wheel
slant touch and <ANYTHING>
slant touch and wheel
The first of those indicates that we can type
slant [swing thru] and [turn and deal]
Some calls can take a subcall in front, typically meaning to replace the first part. The replacement call is placed in brackets. All of the ‘anything anything’ calls are of this type, when the replacement call isn't a circulate replacement. (If it is a circulate replacement, just type it with no brackets.)
split counter percolate
[2/3 recycle] percolate
[reverse the top] an anchor
[reverse the top] an anchor but [ah so]
[bingo] cover up but [step and fold]
There are many other “brute force” ways to modify calls, typically
by saying something like ‘but replace the diamond circulate with
6x2 acey deucey’. This is done in Sd by giving the command
allow modifications before the call. Sd will ask
about the various subcalls to be replaced. Answer y or n
to the questions, and enter the selected subcalls.
--> allow modifications
--> alter the wave
The "swing" can be replaced.
Do you want to replace it? n
The "turn the star 1/2" can be replaced.
Do you want to replace it? n
The "flip the diamond" can be replaced.
Do you want to replace it? y
REPLACEMENT FOR THE flip the diamond
--> relocate the diamonds
or
--> allow modifications
--> scoot and plenty
The "right scoot back" can be replaced.
Do you want to replace it? n
The "turn the star 1/2" can be replaced.
Do you want to replace it? y
REPLACEMENT FOR THE turn the star 1/2
--> turn the star 3/4, interrupt after 1/2 with [2/3 recycle]
(Yes, that last line is a real call that you can type.)
Some of the replacement/interruption meta-concepts push the semantics of the language to the limit. Whenever a call undergoes an interruption or enters or leaves a part with an additional concept on it, there is an implicit piecewise at that instant. That is, concepts and setups are re-evaluated. This behavior is not always obvious to the dancers. (However, the dancers' positions within the setup will not be re-evaluated if the call depends on carrying this information from one part to another, as in ‘patch the <anyone>’ or ‘rims trade back’.) Furthermore, some cases of replacements or interruptions may lead to situations that are likely to be perceived as wrong. For example, an implied piecewise on a concept such as cross concentric or single cross concentric is very likely to be considered wrong, because the centers and ends will switch with each other multiple times. If you have any doubt about whether some instance of concept stacking is correct and will be understood by the dancers, do not use it. Furthermore, replacements and interruptions are normal, that is, they do not carry any concepts that were on the call being replaced—only those on the entire operation. Example, from a starting DPT setup:
DELAY: TANDEM TWOSOME clean sweep 1/4 BUT REPLACE THE
3rd PART WITH A [CHECKPOINT crossfire BY crossfire]
Normally, the tandem twosome behavior is not re-evaluated after each part of the clean sweep. But, since the third part was replaced with something else to which that concept did not apply, the setup is re-evaluated before doing the final part. Note in particular that the replacement was normal—the call having a part replaced was a tandem twosome clean sweep 1/4. If we wanted the entire operation, including the replacement, to be tandem twosome (with no re-evaluation, of course) we might call:
TANDEM TWOSOME DELAY: clean sweep 1/4 BUT REPLACE THE
3rd PART WITH A [SINGLE CROSS CONCENTRIC turn thru]
There are some calls that behave as though they had “state” information
that one must remember as the call progresses. Take the case of
‘exchange the diamonds’. When two people meet at a diamond point
during this call, the person who has “already exchanged” takes the
outside track, and the person who hasn't takes the inside track.
If they have to stop, they take right or left hands depending on who is
on which track. (If they have both exchanged, or neither has exchanged,
they are on the same track and therefore take right hands.)
It follows from this that people need to know how far they have progressed
through the call. If a call is interrupted, interlaced, fractionalized, or otherwise
manipulated, this can become tricky. The dancers may need to know how to
complete a call that they didn't begin, or that they haven't been doing a consistent
part of. This can become very unnatural relative to
the parts of the call that are being performed. Some theories have been
promulgated that involve people remembering individually what parts of the call they
themselves did (e.g. whether they had passed the exchange point),
or “leaving notes on the floor” when an interruption occurs, intending to tell the
dancer who will resume from that point what they should pretend they had done.
We believe that these methods are of
marginal utility even in simple cases, and unworkable in complex cases.
Sd takes the position that the only state information is what part of the call
one is doing now. If a collision occurs after parts 1 or 2 of an ‘exchange the
diamonds’, the person who is an out-point has exchanged and the other has
not. If a collision occurs after parts 3 or 4, both have exchanged, and
hence they take right hands. (You can work this out with checkers.)
Sd therefore considers parts 1 and 2 to be different from parts 3 and 4.
No matter what interruptions, interlaces, or other concepts were in use,
the dancers only need to know which of the 4 parts of the ‘exchange the diamond’
they are doing at each instant. They infer whether they have passed the
exchange point from that information alone.
If you think that some instance of a replacement or interruption will
cause confusion on the dance floor because of these sorts of issues,
you should not use it.
There are six related concepts here. You must have a clear understanding of how the program treats them in order to use them effectively. Compared to the natural and fluent way most dancers and callers use these ideas, the program may seem idiosyncratic and ignorant in its handling of them. See Linguistic Idiosyncrasies. The six concepts are
<ANYONE>
<ANYONE> disconnected
<ANYONE> in your distorted setup
<ANYONE> do your part
ignore the <ANYONE>
own the <ANYONE>
In general, be aware that the choice of words and punctuation that the program
uses for these concepts is determined by the need to avoid ambiguity, and may
not be the words that you should use when calling.
Also, the program is very fussy about using the designators correctly. A large
number of designators are provided to help you with this. Some are quite obvious,
and some are intended for dealing with difficult situations.
Some of these designators will not be understood by dancers below high
challenge levels, but the program will allow them at any time. You will
need to use your judgement in calling. For example, you may need to use
sideliners to get some particularly tricky effect. Below C4, you
would need to read the card as something like ‘those facing the side
walls’.
The available designators are:
heads / sidesboys / girlscenters / endscenter 2 / center 6very centerscenter 2 and very centers are the same.)
outer 2 / outer 6very endsouter 2 and very ends are the same.)
leads / trailersbeaus / belleshead corners / side cornershead boys / head girls / side boys / side girlslead ends / lead centers / trailing ends / trailing centersheadliners / sidelinersfirst 1, 2, or 3 / last 1, 2, or 3first 3 are
tandems of 3, peel and trail. These may not be the exact words you
should use when calling.
leftmost 1, 2, or 3 / rightmost 1, 2, or 3leftmost
3 here comes the judge. I am not aware that callers actually use these
designators.
those facingeveryonealleveryone and all are the same. In practice you should hardly
ever need to use them to the program, though in some situations you may need
to use them when calling.
no one
center 4centers will not be
effective here.
outer pairscenter 4.
In a parallelogram, it designates the pairs of people in the outer triple
boxes (the “wings”). In offset lines or columns, it designates
the the pairs of people in the outer triple lines or columns.
center diamond1/2 circulate from waves.) In this setup, centers
means the center wave. If you want the center diamond instead, you
must say so.
center box
center 1x4center columncenter linecenter wave1/2 acey deucey from waves.) In this
setup, centers means the center diamond. If you want the
center wave instead, you must say center 1x4. These can also be
used in a tidal setup to disambiguate the “who are the centers?”
issue. The program uses the designator center 1x4 as a catch-all
term. In most cases, you can use one of the other designators to be
more specific. The program often checks that the more specific designator
is being used properly, but it doesn't always check. Use them with care.
center 1x6center column of 6center line of 6center wave of 6grand swing thru. Another situation in which
this is necessary arises after a sets in motion but hold the column.
If you get a column of 6 and you want them to do something, you must identify
them as the center column of 6. The designation center 6 is not
correct for this—it would include the person not in the column, and
exclude the ends of the column.
outer 1x3snear line / far linenear column / far columnnear box / far boxnear 2 / far 2near 4 / far 4near 6 / far 6nearest person / farthest personthe diamondthose facing the callerthose facing away from the callerthose facing the caller's leftthose facing the caller's right#1 boy / #2 boy / #3 boy / #4 boy#1 girl / #2 girl / #3 girl / #4 girl#1 couple / #2 couple / #3 couple / #4 couplecouples 1 and 2 / couples 2 and 3 / couples 3 and 4 / couples 1 and 4ANYONEThe concepts are
<ANYONE> <call>or<ANYONE> <call> while the others <other call>
When used with two calls, this must be entered by itself, like this:
boys (while the others) <ENTER>
hinge <ENTER>
switch to a diamond <ENTER>
This will come out as:
boys hinge while the girls switch to a diamond
If the designated people are centers or ends, the program will do
the call(s) according to its best judgement of what the calls mean.
Otherwise, it will find the maximal connected undistorted subsets, and
do the call in those subsets. For example, from boy-boy-girl-girl waves,
the boys are in two miniwaves that have nothing to do with
each other. The boys can do 2-person calls, such as trade or hinge,
in those setups. If the others are told to do a second call, they do it
in their connected undistorted subsets. For example, we could say
boys, hinge while the others shazam. The results will be
reassembled as a 2x4, a C1-phantom setup, stars, or something similar.
From boy-girl-boy-girl waves, the boys are in 4 1-person connected undistorted
setups. Using this concept, the boys can quarter right, but they can't trade
or hinge.
Now it is commonly accepted practice to say ‘boys trade’ when the boys are
looking out, and have them effectively trade the wave. This is because
the call ‘trade’ is a special case, not because calls in general can be
done from that setup. To see this, consider the call roll away.
It, and two-person calls in general, are not legal unless the people are
adjacent. The special property of the call trade, that it can be done
by designated people who are not adjacent, is simply an idiosyncrasy that
everyone knows.
The Sd program recognizes this by having a call in its database
<anyone> trade as well as the call trade. Use that call, not
the <anyone> concept, to get the appropriate people to trade
down the line when in waves.
If you really want non-adjacent people to roll away, use the
disconnected concept.
Incidentally, this is why concepts are capitalized. Otherwise, the line
boys trade appearing on a printed sequence would be ambiguous.
The Sd program is designed to make it possible to determine unambiguously, by looking at
the printout, how an action arose.
ANYONE DisconnectedThe concepts are
<ANYONE> disconnected <call>or<ANYONE> disconnected <call> while the others <other call>
This is like <ANYONE>, but finds the maximal undistorted subsets,
whether they are connected or not. This is a recognized C2 concept. It is
generally intended to be used from grand (1x8) setups, in which the designated
people leave the room and compress themselves into a 1x4 setup. After doing
the call they come back and place themselves in the same four spaces that
they had vacated. Shape-changing calls are permitted. In this case,
whichever set of people occupied the centermost spots prior to the call will
occupy the center of the result, in accordance with accepted usage for
this concept.
When used with two calls, this concept and its designator must be entered by itself, like this:
boys disconnected (while the others) <ENTER>
swing thru <ENTER>
switch to a diamond <ENTER>
This will come out as:
boys disconnected swing thru while the girls switch to a diamond
ANYONE in your Distorted SetupThe concepts are
<ANYONE> in your distorted line <call>or<ANYONE> in your distorted wave <call>or<ANYONE> in your distorted column <call>or<ANYONE> in your distorted diamond <call>or<ANYONE> in your distorted box <call>
The designated people are identified in a geometrically distorted setup.
If the result of the call has a different shape and orientation from the
beginning setup, those dancers may nevertheless be able to go back to the
same collective spots, or may be able to maintain the same general location
in the total formation.
Be aware that the program requires you to use the most specific concept
in each case. The distorted concept requires that the setup be
geometrically distorted in shape, not just disconnected. Do not say
distorted when disconnected will do, and do not say
disconnected when just telling the people to do the call will do.
This concept has been set at C2. You can use it at lower levels if
you issue the toggle concept levels command.
ANYONE Do Your PartThe concepts are
<ANYONE> do your part <call>or<ANYONE> do your part <call> while the others <other call>
When used with two calls, this concept and its designator must be entered by itself, like this:
boys do your part (while the others) <ENTER>
swing thru <ENTER>
switch to a diamond <ENTER>
This will come out as:
boys do your part swing thru while the girls switch to a diamond
This means that the non-designated dancers leave the room and re-form their own
setup in another room. The setups are not shrink-wrapped—they stay
the same size in each room, with phantoms where the other people are.
The appropriate call is done in each room. The non-designees come back,
and the two setups are merged. This merging operation is similar to that
used for <ANYONE>. It may result in things like C1-phantom
setups. From boy-boy-girl-girl waves, boys do your part, hinge
will leave C1 phantom setups, just as boys, hinge will.
In fact, the difference
between these concepts is rather subtle in many cases. The important point
is that, in each room, the dancers work in the entire setup. For example,
from facing lines, if the centers do their part of right and left thru,
they work on their own side, with the nonexistent ends, rather than working
in the center.
From boy-girl-boy-girl waves, boys do your part, hinge creates a mess.
No sensible dancer would consider it acceptable. Do not use such things.
The second form of this concept will be printed in the final transcript
as do your part, <ANYONE> <call> while the others <other call>.
You must still enter it as shown above, with the designator first and
the phrase ‘do your part’ second.
Ignore the ANYONEThe concept is
ignore the <ANYONE>, <call>
This means that the designated people do nothing, while the others do
the call in the distorted or disconnected setup that remains. From the standpoint
of the non-designated people, the spots occupied by the designated
people do not exist.
This concept has been set at C1. You can use it at lower levels if
you issue the toggle concept levels command.
Own the ANYONEThe concept is
own the <ANYONE>, <call> by <other call>
This is similar to the <ANYONE> do your part concept, except that the
result setups are reassembled according to strict matrix positions. That
is, instead of a C1 phantom setup, a 4x4 matrix may result.
This is a recognized C3A concept.
ANYONE StartIt is often useful to designate that certain people are to start a call, with everyone joining in after the first part. There are two general ways to do this:
<anyone> startorinitially <anyone>
These are very nearly the same, and in many cases may be used interchangeably. However, there are differences that you may need to be aware of. These arise most often when the centers are the designated people. The concept ‘<anyone> start’ means that the designated people do their part of the start of the call. They do this in the entire setup. That is, they are aware of the spots occupied by the others. The concept ‘initially <anyone>’ means that the ‘<anyone>’ concept is applied to the first part of the call. When a selector name is used as a concept, what happens depends on what the formation is, and on who are designated. If the centers are designated, they do the first part of the call, working in the center. They are usually unaware of the other people around them. Suppose we have an hourglass and wish to have the centers start a ‘reverse order alter the wave’. The parts of ‘reverse order alter the wave’ are ‘flip the diamond’, ‘diamond counter rotate twice’, ‘fan back’, and ‘swing’. We clearly want the centers to work by themselves, flipping the center diamond. The result will be twin diamonds, from which everyone can finish the call. We could say:
initially centers reverse order alter the wave
The ‘centers’ concept picks out the center diamond, and tells them to work in that diamond. If we had said
centers start reverse order alter the wave
it wouldn't work. The centers would try to do their part of a ‘flip the diamond’ in the entire hourglass, which is impossible. A similar thing happens if we have a galaxy and call
initially centers tally ho.
The centers recognize their 2x2 box, and do a ‘1/2 circulate’. If we had said
centers start tally ho
the centers would have to try to do a ‘1/2 circulate’ in the galaxy, which is impossible. Suppose we have a galaxy and wish to have the centers begin a ‘with confidence’. That is, the centers ‘hinge’ but the ends do not do a ‘1/2 circulate’. The first part of ‘with confidence’ is ‘centers hinge while the ends 1/2 circulate’. If we say
centers start with confidence
the centers will do their part of a ‘centers hinge’ in the entire galaxy. That means, of course, that they will recognize themselves as centers, and will ‘hinge’, so the call will work. If we had said
initially centers with confidence
the centers would recognize only their center box, from which a ‘centers hinge’ is impossible because the centers have been designated twice. In some cases you can do it either way. From appropriate facing diamonds, you can call
centers start swing the fractionsorinitially centers swing the fractionsor just swing the fractions
From the setup obtained by having the centers ‘step and fold’ from a tidal wave, you can call
ends start 2/3 recycleorinitially ends 2/3 recycle
The ends know how to do the ‘centers fold’ in either case.
When the setup in which a call is to be performed is larger than 8 people
due to the presence of phantoms, some modifier is usually required in order
to acknowledge the existence of the phantoms' spots. The rules governing
the use of such modifiers are not very precisely defined, but Sd attempts to
follow accepted usage.
These modifiers are not required if some concept has been applied
that takes a setup larger than 8 people and forms virtual setups
of 8 or fewer people. Examples of such concepts are ‘triple boxes’,
‘parallelogram’, and ‘split phantom waves’. They are also not
required for certain calls that can be done in a setup of any size, such
as ‘press’, ‘truck’, and ‘counter rotate’.
They are required whenever a call that is not one of the special ones
needs to be extended to more than 8 people, or a setup of more than 8 people
needs to be split in order to execute a call in smaller setups.
As an example of the former case, consider offset waves, that is, a 3x4 matrix
with the outer waves not fully occupied. If we use a concept like ‘offset
waves’, ‘triple waves’, or ‘triple waves working forward’, we can use
a call directly. However, if we want to call a 12-person call like
‘circulate’ or ‘motivate’, we need to legitimize the phantom spots.
By saying 12 MATRIX circulate or 3x4 MATRIX circulate, we
indicate that the phantom spots actually count, and that we want a 12-person
version of ‘circulate’. If we are in parallelogram waves, that is, a
2x6 matrix, we can also say 12 MATRIX circulate or 2x6 MATRIX
circulate. (In this case there are 3 concentric circulate paths of 4
people each.) One could also say 12 MATRIX in roll circulate from
some 2x6 matrices. Exactly what large setups a call can be done from
depends on the call.
Also, some calls, like ‘circulate’, can be used with either ‘12 MATRIX’
or ‘3x4 MATRIX’, while other calls require ‘12 MATRIX’.
For example,
12 MATRIX motivate is legal, but 3x4 MATRIX motivate is not.
The rationale is that ‘12 MATRIX’ and ‘16 MATRIX’ are call
modifiers; 12 MATRIX circulate and 12 MATRIX motivate are
calls that have definitions in this setup. Concepts like ‘3x4 MATRIX’,
‘4x4 MATRIX’, ‘2x6 MATRIX’, and ‘2x8 MATRIX’ simply state
how big the setup is. The call ‘circulate’ is defined in such a way
that it can be executed in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, simply by knowing
the size and shape. ‘Motivate’ is more restricted. There are calls
12 MATRIX motivate and 16 MATRIX motivate, but there is no
general rule for all matrices.
The other case in which a matrix size modifier must be given arises when the
setup must be split. In setups of 8 or fewer people, it is well accepted that
splitting occurs automatically when required. For example, facing lines are
split into facing couples when ‘flutter wheel’ is called. This phenomenon
does not automatically happen when the setup is larger than 8 spots.
For example, from parallelogram columns, you can't just say 2x1 transfer
the column. You must legitimize the phantom spots by giving a concept such
as ‘12 matrix’ or ‘2x6 matrix’. The setup will then be split into
two end-to-end 2x3's, in each of which the call will be performed.
These concepts all have the additional
property that they can expand a smaller setup as required, so, for example,
‘12 MATRIX circulate’ is legal in normal (2x4) columns. It expands the setup
to a 2x6 by placing pairs of phantoms on the ends. (Special case: in a 2x4
setup, the ‘16 MATRIX’ call modifier doesn't know whether to expand to a
4x4 or a 2x8, so you may need to use ‘4X4 MATRIX’ or ‘2X8 MATRIX’ explicitly.
In other cases, the expansion is clear.)
Explicit matrix concepts can also be used to dictate the precise formation
with phantoms when using tandem or as-couples concepts.
For example, from two-faced lines,
the concept ‘2X8 MATRIX AS COUPLES’ leads to virtual 2x4 lines (in
which the ends are all phantoms), ‘4X4 MATRIX AS COUPLES’ leads to virtual
2x4 columns (this happens to be the same as ‘PHANTOM AS COUPLES’ in this
setup), and ‘4X4 MATRIX BOXES WORK SOLID’ leads to a virtual 2x2.
‘2X8 MATRIX BOXES WORK SOLID’ leads to a virtual 1x4. From twin diamonds
in which each diamond has all 4 people facing the same way,
‘16 MATRIX OF PARALLEL DIAMONDS DIAMONDSOME’ leads to a virtual 1x4
in which both ends are phantoms. ‘DIAMONDSOME’ leads to a virtual 1x2.
If a call that you believe is legal does not appear on the menu,
click on allow modifications. This will bring up the universal call
menu. You can then thrash out which of you or the computer is correct.
The program sometimes gives non-fatal warnings about calls.
These are intended
principally as advice to you, the user of the program, that the call
you have just entered may not be a reasonable thing to call. It is not
necessarily the case that reading the warning aloud when calling the
sequence is the correct thing to do, though it might be. The call
might simply be inappropriate, or it might be wise to say something along
the lines of “be careful; everyone do your part.”
The significance of a warning may also depend on the level. Some things
that are extremely peculiar but barely legal at high challenge levels are
simply not done at lower levels. You should use your judgement.
Warning: The database is not without errors or misunderstandings in
nonstandard uses of calls. The program generally tries to be extremely
conservative. However,
you should not blindly accept what the program does, particularly if
a call was used in an unusual way. The management will not be
responsible for any sequences left unattended.
Warning: Some combinations of things that seem obvious
to the program might not be agreed to by the dancers. Particularly
at high challenge levels, some things are controversial. Proceed with
caution. Unless you agree wholeheartedly with what the program did, and
believe that the dancers will also agree, it may be best not to do it.
Don't stack outrageous interrupts and replacements, with concepts going
every which way, unless you are prepared to explain yourself at the end
of the tip.
Warning: The program's notion of levels is only keyed to concepts and
calls, not to concept/call combinations, and not to calls in the context
of certain setups. For example, since split and square thru are
both Mainstream, it thinks that split square thru is Mainstream, even
though it is A1. Also, chain reaction should only be used from a
normal 1/4-tag setup at A1, but the program doesn't know this.
For debugging, there is a hidden level called all, which is above
C4. At this level, even the invisible calls that are used in the
definitions of other calls are legal. They typically begin with an
underscore. Also, when the all level is selected, all
sequentially-defined calls are fractionalizable, even if they aren't in
practice.
With the X Window System interface, the font for the text output window
must be fixed-width so the formation pictures are legible.
If you do not get this by default, set this X resource:
Sd*text*font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-*-*-*-c-70-iso8859-1
The file Sd.res is a sample X user resource file for the program. It
contains values for a number of parameters, including most of the
text on the screen that is not fetched from the calls database.
All values in the distributed Sd.res file—except the
colors—are the defaults and are in the file for illustration only.
To change a value, copy its line into the file $HOME/Sd and make
the change you want.
People who have many user resource files for different applications
may wish to store them in a directory other than their home directory.
To do so, set the environment variable XAPPLRESDIR to the directory
where your resource files are. For example, one of the authors uses
the subdirectory app-resources, and his .cshrc contains this line:
setenv XAPPLRESDIR ~/app-resources
To use a different value for any of these parameters, either edit the
resource file or load the changed value into your X server's resource
database. To modify the server resource database, put a modified
version of the appropriate line in the .Xresources file in your home
directory (assuming you run xrdb .Xresources from .xsession or
whatever your X startup file is called). You will have to re-run xrdb
after editing your .Xresources file.
You should add ‘Sd’ to the front
of any lines you move to your .Xresources file.