[pigpenz]

so far the new version of GIB seems to be alot better in bidding

auction:
1♥ 1♠ pass 2NT
pass 4♠ pass 5♣
pass 5♠

---

GIB was north, was not the dummy I was expecting

[kfay]

So did you make it?

[jdonn]

Maybe the old GIB would have bid 3NT? Then you'd really have a problem!

[TylerE]

Old GIB would probably raise 5♠ to 7.

[fred]

During the next week or so we will decide which areas to focus on for the next version of GIB.

As this example illustrates, responding to overcalls is not exactly one of GIB's strengths. This area of bidding is already on our radar screen and there is a good chance we will address it in our next pass of improvements.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[keylime]

Fred,

To be fair, GIB now is not nearly as overactive or strange when it comes to bidding - it's more predictible than in the past. It's like a child who is starting to settle down for dinner.

[pigpenz]

yes overall the hands i have played with the new version the bidding has been good, I just found this one a little interesting.

[kgr]

..just wonder:
Who made these changes to GIB? Are they made by BBO team or by 'GIB team'. And is GIB still a commercial product? Or is it only used as part of BBO?

[Dwingo]

I have been fixed by GIB a couple of times. If you open 1NT, GIB uses Texas transfers and when you see the dummy, you are disappointed to see a 5 card suit.

I am not sure, if this has been fixed in the recent release.

[fred]

Dwingo, on Nov 13 2008, 12:34 PM, said:

I have been fixed by GIB a couple of times. If you open 1NT, GIB uses Texas transfers and when you see the dummy, you are disappointed to see a 5 card suit.

I am not sure, if this has been fixed in the recent release.

Yes, that has been fixed.

Just about everything after a 1NT or 2NT opening as been fixed.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[fred]

kgr, on Nov 13 2008, 11:35 AM, said:

..just wonder:
Who made these changes to GIB? Are they made by BBO team or by 'GIB team'. And is GIB still a commercial product? Or is it only used as part of BBO?

GIB was created by a very smart guy (and also a fine bridge player) named Matt Ginsberg. Very smart might qualify as a underbid actually - Matt would make my short list of "smartest people I have ever met" and I have met a lot of smart people.

About 8 years ago, circumstances in Matt's life meant that he no longer had time to be actively involved in develping GIB and selling GIB CD-ROMs. He made a deal with Bridge Base Inc, the company that sells educational CDs for bridge and was responsible for the early development of BBO, to take over GIB sales, marketing, and technical support. Matt also granted us permission to try to improve the product, but we lacked the resources to do this effectively so GIB itself has remained more or less stagnent for a while.

A few year later, when Bridge Base Online, Limited (the company that runs BBO), decided we wanted to use robots in various places on our site, naturally we approached Matt about making a deal. BBO has been interested in working on improving GIB for several years now, but for various reasons we were not able to make much progress until the last 6 months or so.

So, to answer your questions, GIB still is a commercial product (a CD-ROM) but the "GIB team" is the same thing as the "BBO team". We typically create new CD-ROMs in batches of 1000. When our current batch runs out (soon) I strongly suspect that the next batch will include the most recent version. Probably at some point I will try to figure out how to make "patch files" available for download so that people with old GIB CDs can upgrade to the latest. Current policy is that people with old GIB CDs can upgrade (by download) for free. I have no reason to believe that this is going to change, but the policy is not exactly written in stone.

If you are interested in learning more about GIB and/or buying a GIB CD, you can do so through the GIB web site:

http://www.gibware.com

Matt Ginsberg remains interested in the GIB project and, though he does not have the time to be actively involved in this project, he has been very helpful in terms of answering our questions and offering us advice.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[andych]

Great announcement

Please also describe GIB defensive carding / leads in the "Click here for GIB system notes" page.

[barmar]

I agree that GIB's bidding is much improved. I've played about a half dozen $1 Robot Rewards tourneys, and I'm about $5 ahead already. It's much easier to do well when you're playing real bridge, not playing "who understands GIB best?".

[Mike_P]

Sorry, still a little confused.

I bought the commercial CD of GIB for about $80 some time ago, not realizing that it was not being actively supported. Thus, I didn't use it much and bought other bridge software.

Is there some sense in which my local copy of GIB can be used in conjunction with BBO in some way?

-- Mike

[Mike_P]

Mike_P, on Nov 16 2008, 10:14 AM, said:

Is there some sense in which my local copy of GIB can be used in conjunction with BBO in some way?

Hmm... I assumed the answer was going to be a quick and simple "no," but maybe it's more complicated than that.... ??

-- Mike

[fred]

Mike_P, on Nov 17 2008, 12:38 PM, said:

Mike_P, on Nov 16 2008, 10:14 AM, said:

Is there some sense in which my local copy of GIB can be used in conjunction with BBO in some way?

Hmm... I assumed the answer was going to be a quick and simple "no," but maybe it's more complicated than that.... ??

-- Mike

Sorry about the slow response. We tend to not work full time on weekends and we don't read every post to Forums. If you have a support-related question and you want to make sure someone at BBO sees it, the best way to ensure this is to e-mail support@bridgebase.com.

The answer to your question is "no".

The time will come in which you will be able to upgrade the GIB you purchased to reflect the work we have done on the BBO version, but it is hard for me to predict when that will be. When the time comes, it is likely the upgrade will be free.

The eventual upgrade to the CD version of GIB will be announced when it is ready on the GIB web site:

http://www.gibware.com

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[cherdano]

I am considering buying GIB (now that I have a new laptop...). It would be nice to know if I could use the newly improved bidding databases - I don't mind if I would have to copy the relevant files by hand from the BBO-GIB directory to the actual GIB installation.

[F_T]

fred, on 2008-November-13, 08:56, said:

GIB was created by a very smart guy (and also a fine bridge player) named Matt Ginsberg. Very smart might qualify as a underbid actually - Matt would make my short list of "smartest people I have ever met" and I have met a lot of smart people.

About 8 years ago, circumstances in Matt's life meant that he no longer had time to be actively involved in develping GIB and selling GIB CD-ROMs. He made a deal with Bridge Base Inc, the company that sells educational CDs for bridge and was responsible for the early development of BBO, to take over GIB sales, marketing, and technical support. Matt also granted us permission to try to improve the product, but we lacked the resources to do this effectively so GIB itself has remained more or less stagnent for a while.

A few year later, when Bridge Base Online, Limited (the company that runs BBO), decided we wanted to use robots in various places on our site, naturally we approached Matt about making a deal. BBO has been interested in working on improving GIB for several years now, but for various reasons we were not able to make much progress until the last 6 months or so.

So, to answer your questions, GIB still is a commercial product (a CD-ROM) but the "GIB team" is the same thing as the "BBO team". We typically create new CD-ROMs in batches of 1000. When our current batch runs out (soon) I strongly suspect that the next batch will include the most recent version. Probably at some point I will try to figure out how to make "patch files" available for download so that people with old GIB CDs can upgrade to the latest. Current policy is that people with old GIB CDs can upgrade (by download) for free. I have no reason to believe that this is going to change, but the policy is not exactly written in stone.

If you are interested in learning more about GIB and/or buying a GIB CD, you can do so through the GIB web site:

http://www.gibware.com

Matt Ginsberg remains interested in the GIB project and, though he does not have the time to be actively involved in this project, he has been very helpful in terms of answering our questions and offering us advice.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

The www.gibware.com link is no longer alive. I purchased a CD version of GIB about a year ago from Bridge World. I am using the bridge.exe program from the CD in a non-commercial app I have written to allow partners to replay a club game for learning purposes over the web. I use the play and bid interface found at orig.gibware.com/engine.txt but would like to be able to customize the bidding convention card (as the GIB CD version does) but cannot find any interface information for that aspect of the program. I am wondering if anyone in the BBO community can help. Thanks -

[hrothgar]

F_T, on 2019-October-15, 11:01, said:

The www.gibware.com link is no longer alive. I purchased a CD version of GIB about a year ago from Bridge World. I am using the bridge.exe program from the CD in a non-commercial app I have written to allow partners to replay a club game for learning purposes over the web. I use the play and bid interface found at orig.gibware.com/engine.txt but would like to be able to customize the bidding convention card (as the GIB CD version does) but cannot find any interface information for that aspect of the program. I am wondering if anyone in the BBO community can help. Thanks -

Recommend switching over to Jack or Winbridge or some such

Far less trouble in the long term