December 28, 1999

Dear OKScript User,

The OKScript Status Report is sent to OKScript licensees,
developers and friends when significant updates have been made
to the program. To be removed from the distribution list
please reply to this message and indicate that desire or go
directly to www.onelist.com.

Topics covered in this issue include:

- the addition of button hints.
- a correction to the help file.
- DealPump program announcement.

If these issues affect your scripts you can download the latest 
revision from http://home1.gte.net/yweare. Your existing license 
will automatically be active on the new software if you install 
it to the same directory, otherwise you will have to re-enter 
the registration data (or copy the okscript.ini file from the
folder where your licensed program was installed.) The current
build is dated December 28, 1999. Click Help | About to determine
the date of your copy of OKScript. Please note that following
update announcements the OKScript web site may become sluggish.
If you experience this try again later or write me and I'll send 
you the installation package as an email attachment. (Please 
specify the particular package that you want sent.)


Button Hints

Hints, in Windows parlance, are those little popup messages
that occur in some applications when you move the mouse
pointer over a particular control. Now you can add hints
to your OKScript buttons. One use for hints is in large
panels containing many buttons with condensed, space
saving, names whose functions are not always easy to 
remember. Descriptive hints can be added to these buttons
without taking up more screen space. 

Hints can be added in two ways. The first is to include
the PRAGMA HINTSON line before the button(s) that you
want "generic" hints applied to. This approach simply uses
the button's text (last) field as the hint text. It can
be turned off for a group of buttons by preceeding them
with PRAGMA HINTSOFF.

The second hinting method (which overrides the PRAGMA
setting) allows you to add custom hint text right in
the BUTTON declaration. Just add the "quoted" hint,
prefixed by a grave accent ( ` )character right
after the color field, e.g.:

BUTTON sample blue "`this is a hint" OKbridge yada yada

The grave accent keeps OKScript from thinking that it
is looking at the Window field. The hinting feature 
is optional and does not affect existing scripts.


Help Correction

An error concerning parameter processing in the PROC 
description of the help file was corrected.


DealPump Announcement

DealPump is now available from my website at

http://home1.gte.net/yweare

DealPump is a bridge hand exploration tool that:

1. reads and replays PBN (Portable Bridge Notation)
   and OKBridge club and tournament hand records.

2. optionally searches for hands (from hand record
   files or a random deal generator) that meet
   specific requirements. Over 30 hand attributes
   are available for filtering (hcp, losers, shape,
   quicktricks, bids, etc.), and they can be combined 
   to form very specific criteria. This feature is
   great for dealing problem-specific practice
   hands or searching for particular hand types from
   exhibition archives, e.g. GoldWay.

3. will deal out a large collection of hands and
   count the number and/or log the hands that met 
   the filter criteria. (DealPump can deal and 
   test over 20000 hands per second on a 200MHz 
   machine.) Hands can be logged in a variety of 
   formats, including PBN which is suitable for 
   input to other bridge software.

For more information, or suggestions for enhancements
to this program, write me at yweare@gte.net, or
visit the website. 

Thank you for your support in developing these 
programs.

Michael Mardesich
okb://mikezzz