[pigpenz]

I woud think in a way it does allow one to take a peak, but maybe they could make it so that one cant view their own card while playing...but then they could just print it out.

[kenberg]

Possibly it will become acceptable to use FD and view your card as you play. Or perhaps it has. I think I prefer that not be so, but bridge will survive if it does. Online poses some problems. I fairly often play pick-up or as a sub in a tourney. My preference in such situations is to play SAYC, maybe with capp and or 1430 added on, but basically SAYC. But of course that's considered beginnerish and so I agree to all sorts of things. In these circumstances it is impossible to play, and would make a joke of the game, if I didn't regard the cc as available for inspection. But with a regular partner, with a detailed system, it seems to me that remembering what's on your card is part of the game. Otherwise we are all playing kitchen bridge: "I bid 4NT, now you remember what that means, don't you dear?"

All in all, I don't fret much about this. For me, if I am going to sit down and detail a system, I want it to be something sensible enough that I can remember it. A matter of aesthetics, if nothing else.

[barmar]

sceptic, on Nov 25 2006, 07:18 PM, said:

my questions was really about taking away room for human error, undos (yahoo does this also) so it is not site specific

Most of the "human errors" that computer bridge prevent are relatively minor parts of the game. They aren't part of the strategy that one uses when playing the game -- when planning your play of the hand, you don't consider the possibility of revokes, leads out of turn, etc. Yes, when these occur to your opponents you should try to take advantage of them, but they are specifically called "irregularities" in the laws. We have to account for them in the rules of the game because in f2f bridge you can't avoid them, but this is not really the "pure" form of the game -- it's just the best that could be done in real life. Online bridge prevents these blemishes in the game, although it does have its own ideosyncracies that the laws don't account for.

As for the particular question you asked in the title of the thread, is seeing your own side's explanations really any more "cheating" than hearing your partner alert or answer a question in f2f bridge? Honest, ethical players will try to avoid letting these influence them.