[iandayre]

We haven't heard from anyone at BBO in some time, nor has a recent upgrade been announced. But there HAS been one, and it is an improvement. One is an auction we have been asking them to fix for quite a long time, after an inverted minor raise and a 2 level suit rebid by opener, 2NT by responder shows at least partial stoppers in the unbid suits and 10-12 HCP. The other is after a 2NT response to a 2C opener. 3NT shows a minimum 22 balanced HCP. I am glad to see these improvements made and am hoping to find others. I wonder why BBO isn't talking?

[barmar]

There have been no unannounced changes made to GIB.

[iandayre]

OK Barmar, I don't wish to be disagreeable, but then how do you explain these changes that I referred to?

[Stephen Tu]

1. Maybe at some point georgi posted a "fixed v34" or whatever in some thread somewhere and you missed it/forgot.
2. Maybe it falls under the "various bug fixes" they usually have for each release.

Barmar is probably just saying they haven't had any new release very recently. They tend to batch up a bunch of things and release new version 2/3 times a year. Some of these auctions are rare enough that maybe you just don't encounter them and realize they have been fixed for awhile.

Or did you specifically see these specific auctions say one month ago, found them broken, then tried them this week and found them fixed?

[barmar]

There have been no changes to GIB since v34 was deployed about 4 months ago. If you think something has changed since then, you'll need to provide specific details.

[iandayre]

OK, I will try to be more specific.

For as long as I have been playing in GIB events - almost 2 years - the auction 1m-2m-2x-2NT was game forcing. So GIB would have to bid 3C over 1C-2C-2H with KJx, xxx, AQx, Jxxx or something similar. I know that Jack has complained about this several times, as have I. Just this past week GIB bid 2NT with me in this situation, and the description of 2NT is now 10-12, with at least partial stoppers in the unbid suits. As I said, a big improvement.

The other auction is after a 2NT response to a 2C opening bid. Previously one had to bid 4NT to show a balanced 22-24, with 3NT supposedly showing only 19 plus, presumably somewhat unbalanced. This was a nonsense interpretation, and it has now been changed so that 2NT shows exactly 22 balanced. Perhaps not ideal but certainly better than before. There was a thread here perhaps 2 months ago that discussed this auction - perhaps those better than me at searching through the archives can find it.

In both cases there is no question that the descriptions have changed. I am just happy for the improvement and wanted to make others aware, but if you wish to comment further, I'd be interested.

I've now rechecked the notes for the most recent upgrade in June of this year. There is no mention of either of these auctions.

[Stephen Tu]

iandayre, on 2015-October-06, 11:51, said:

In both cases there is no question that the descriptions have changed. I am just happy for the improvement and wanted to make others aware, but if you wish to comment further, I'd be interested.

I've now rechecked the notes for the most recent upgrade in June of this year. There is no mention of either of these auctions.

The announcement has a line "Other various bug fixes and improvements."

Are you demanding item by item accounting of every single change? I would just be happy there are improvements & not gripe that every single one isn't specifically singled out.

I think the thread you are thinking of is:
http://www.bridgebas...and-slam-quant/

Probably you are confused because this was a Lovera necro'd thread for an original complaint 4 years ago and it was probably fixed sometime in those 4 years!

And for your first complaint, in the version 33 upgrade announcement in the GIB release notes pinned above:
"After an inverted minor suit raise, if responder rebids a suit on the 2 level or 2NT it will no longer be forcing to game, allowing for investigation of stoppers while still stopping in a partscore."

Maybe it would be nice to have a public bug database searchable by auction, but it would take a fair amount of effort to set one up.

[iandayre]

I am not demanding anything. I already stated that I am pleased with the changes and wanted others to be aware. I have always treated you with the highest respect and you talk to me as if I am stupid.

The 2C - 2NT auction doesn't come up that often. But the inverted minor one does, and I am quite certain that the change to the current, superior method did not happen more than 6 months ago in V.33.

As long as they improve GIB, then changes are welcome. That's all I have to say on this subject.

[barmar]

I just checked versions going back to 27, and the meaning of the auction 1m-2m-2NT has been the same in all of them:

3-5 C; 2-5 D; 2-4 H; 2-4 S; 11-14 HCP; 12+ total points; partial stop in D; partial stop in H; partial stop in S

I didn't compare the details of the rule definition, though. It's possible that the priorities of different options changed, so it may bid 2NT now in cases where it would have bid something else before, or vice versa.

I checked the other auction, and it looks like the meaning of 2♣-2NT-3NT changed in version 30. In v29 it said :

5- H; 5- S; 19-22 HCP; 23+ total points

[Stephen Tu]

barmar, on 2015-October-09, 13:20, said:

I just checked versions going back to 27, and the meaning of the auction 1m-2m-2NT has been the same in all of them:

Ian was referring to 1m-2m-2X-2nt, not 1m-2m-2nt.

[barmar]

Stephen Tu, on 2015-October-09, 14:50, said:

Ian was referring to 1m-2m-2X-2nt, not 1m-2m-2nt.

Oops, sorry about that. This changed in v34. It just wasn't listed in the detailed list of changes in the announcement, it probably should have been.