INTRODUCTION ============ This archive contains the Java PbnViewer, a Java program for viewing PBN files obeying the standards PBN 1.0, PBN 2.0, and PBN 2.1 . The PBN standard and PBN files can be found on the PBN homepages http://www.tistis.nl/pbn and http://www.kolumbus.fi/sackab/kgb This program has been ported from the PBN Viewer that has been written in C for the IBM PC and processes only PBN 1.0 files. The Java PbnViewer is slower than the C PbnViewer, but the Java PbnViewer can be run on any platform (having Java). INSTALLATION ============ For using this Java PbnViewer you need JAVA! I hope that is clear. It means you must have installed Java, and made it operational. If you don't have Java on your platform, then you can download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) from: http://www.java.com The contents of the PbnJView.zip archive is: PbnJView.rme this file PbnJView.jar the JAR archive containing the Java class files PbnJViewSource.jar the JAR archive containing the Java source files PbnJView.lnk a Windows shortcut file for starting the viewer Pbn_View.ico an icon (for Windows users) *.gif the gif-images of the suits Please, unzip this file PbnJView.zip to retrieve the above files. Windows users are recommended to unzip in directory C:\pbn\viewer. EXECUTION ========= The main Java program is called PbnViewer.class . This program is NOT an applet, so that it is impossible to run it in a HTML browser. Instead, you can start it by a shell command as follows: java -jar PbnJView.jar Windows users can start the program in 3 alternative ways: 1. Double click the shortcut file PbnJView.lnk to start the PbnViewer. If you have not unzipped the file in directory C:\pbn\viewer. then edit file PbnJView.lnk via its properties: - Select file PbnJView.lnk - Press right mouse button - Select Properties - Select Shortcut - Change in "Start in:" directory "C:\pbn\viewer" to your own directory. 2. Alternatively, double click the PbnJView.jar file itself. (I have changed its manifest, indicating PbnViewer as the main class.) 3. It would be even easier by linking file extension .pbn to the PbnJView.jar file. So, double clicking a pbn file starts the program automatically. This can be configured as follows: In the Explorer, select Tools / Folder Options, and then the tab FileTypes. Click New and enter PBN Click OK Select the new extension PBN Click Advanced Click ChangeIcon... Click Browse and select Pbn_View.ico (in directory C:\pbn\viewer) Click Open Click OK Click New... In field "Action:" enter "Open" and in field "Application used to perform action:" enter the command: javaw.exe -jar C:\pbn\viewer\PbnJView.jar "%1" Click OK Click OK Click Close MENU OPTIONS ============ Project Open Open a PBN file. The file is verified, and only the valid games can be viewed. The file 'pbnJview.log' contains the logging of possible errors. About A message about the PbnViewer appears. Exit Exit the program. Game First View the first game. Next View the next game. Previous View the previous game. Last View the last game. Rotate Rotate the cards. Options PBN Version Select version PBN 1.0 Input file is checked against PBN 1.0 PBN 2.0 Input file is checked against PBN 2.0 PBN 2.1 Input file is checked against PBN 2.1 Annotation The game annotations are shown in the text window. PbnFile The raw tags of the game are shown in the text window. Tables The tables of the game - as defined in PBN 2.0 - are shown in the text window. DD Analysis Double Dummy Analysis: Show the number of tricks, and the optimal cards. This only works when the GIB engine is installed, see below. once Execute the analysis once on Toggle for executing the analysis permanently GIB Engine ========== The option of the 'DD Analysis' only works when a GIB engine is installed. The installation is fairly simple by copying the following files from GIB's directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\GIB) to the same directory as the PBN Viewer: BRIDGE.EXE EVAL.DAT MB.TXT Comments.txt The file 'Comments.txt' is located in GIB'S subdirectory: LOCALE\\GIB-DATA . A variant of option 3. in the above EXECUTION chapter is needed to double click a pbn file at any directory, such that the 'DD Analysis' can be used. Create (e.g. with Notepad) a file, named e.g. PbnJView.bat, with the contents: cd C:\Progra~1\GIB javaw.exe -jar C:\pbn\viewer\PbnJView.jar %1 The first line changes the directory to the place where (copies of) the GIB files are located. The second line starts the PBN viewer. Furthermore, this bat file must be linked to file extension .pbn as described above at option 3. In field "Application used to perform action:" just enter PbnJView.bat (optionally with the complete directory path). Note that after double clicking a pbn file a dummy black CMD window appears, that will disappear at stopping the PBN viewer. EPILOG ====== Please inform me, if you have any problems executing the PbnViewer program. Don't hesitate to ask questions or to mail bug reports. Tis Veugen tis.veugen@gmail.com 2011-05-19 History list: Program version 1.0 ------------------- 1999-01-13 Program version 1.1 ------------------- When a trick is taken back, then the number of tricks was not correct. Added GIB's Double Dummy analysis. 1999-02-27 Program version 1.2 ------------------- Bug fix: Event tags of "#" without earlier event. 1999-04-04 Program version 1.3 ------------------- Prepared for PBN 2.0 Tolerant acceptance of tag values. 1999-06-12 Program version 1.4 ------------------- Prepared for PBN 2.0 Only a single PBN game is kept in memory, so that large PBN databases can be viewed. Added interpretation of header tags starting with ##. 1999-08-17 Program version 1.5 ------------------- Bug fix: reading games 1999-08-25 Program version 2.0 ------------------- Viewer for PBN 2.0 1999-10-13 Program version 2.1 ------------------- Bug fix: card annotation 1999-12-30 Compiled with Java 1.3.1 Updated the installation instructions 2001-09-01 Program version 2.2 ------------------- Check order in tables 2001-09-27 Program version 2.3 ------------------- Added showing tables Updated text about using GIB engine 2002-02-24 Program version 2.4 ------------------- Check contract before playing 2002-08-25 Program version 2.5 ------------------- Result not updated in case of unknown cards 2003-03-30 Program version 2.6 ------------------- Added ability to rotate the cards (comment is not rotated!) Fixed small bugs 2004-08-23 Program version 2.7 ------------------- Adapted DD analysis to GIB Version 6.1.3 2005-01-22 Program version 2.8 ------------------- Enabled start of program from any directory by clicking PBN file 2005-09-30 Program version 2.9 ------------------- Added PBN 2.1 Allow DD analysis permanently 2007-09-08 Program version 2.10 -------------------- Fixed bug, and added some checks for export format 2009-10-04 Program version 2.11 -------------------- Set minimum window size to prevent rendering artefacts 2009-10-06 Program version 2.12 -------------------- Fixed small bug 2011-05-19 Program version 2.13 -------------------- Fixed bug about bad leadcard 2012-04-18 Program version 2.14 -------------------- Fixed rare bug 2012-04-29