In August 1996, I searched the internet for
the existence of a universal notation for bridge games. Because
the search was not successful I started developing the "Portable
Bridge Notation" (PBN).
At 2 April 1998, the PBN standard 1.0 has been released. It is in
use by many bridge programs and tools, refer to PBN software.
At 4 September 1999, the PBN standard 2.0 has been released. It
contains several updates, extensions, and refinements. PBN 2.0
and PBN 1.0 are compatible with respect to eachother.
The PBN standard has been developed thanks
to the input of many readers of the newsgroup rec.games.bridge.
Every month in the period from May 1997 to March 1998 a new
proposal of the PBN standard has been offered to the newsgroup
community. All monthly reactions have been compiled to improve to
PBN standard. This process has resulted in the PBN standard 1.0 ,
that was released at 2 April 1998.
A similar process from February 1999 to August 1999 took place to
develop PBN standard 2.0 , that was released at 4 September 1999.
I closely cooperate with Kaj G Backas (KGB@sackab.fi). Kaj converts the text of the PBN standard in many
word processor formats. The converted documents can be found on
the homepage of Kaj G Backas .