Release Notes DDS 2.9.1 ----------------------- test/print.cpp: Fixed bug in equals_to_string() noticed by tucsu. src/Makefiles/Makefile_linux_shared: Fixed use of static variables. Noticed by Nicolas Hammond. test/testcommon.cpp: Added initializations that some compilers complained about. Noticed by Nicolas Hammond. Added rimmington's fixes for some memory freeing problems. Added suokko's fixes to Makefiles (cleanup of some flags, making windres a parameter). Added df7cb's include of bool definition in C mode. Added df7cb's fix of Linux memory size detection. Added df7cb's change to avoid compiler errors where char is unsigned. Added small explication of solving boards with partial tricks to the documentation. Added three small fixes from elkhrt (namespace, init, static init optional). Added aleaxit's three changes to some int/unsigned types. Removed Drop -mtune=generic as suggested by df7cb. Added SolveAllBoardsBin interface function for symmetry, as suggested by rimmington. Release Notes DDS 2.9.0 ----------------------- - Fixed crashes in certain multi-threading types - Added GetDDSInfo to Exports.def (thanks to Paul Barden) - Fixed casting problems with some compilers in ThreadMgr - Updated documentation Release Notes DDS 2.9.0 beta ---------------------------- Included code for a number of multi-threading systems: - Windows API (was already there) - OpenMP (was already there) - GCD (new, intended for Mac, not really tested) - Boost (new, works on many systems, but you may have to install it) - STL (new, should work on most systems with a modern compiler) - TBB (new, not so broadly available, but portable in principle) - STLIMPL (new, experimental) - PPLIMPL (new, experimental) Tested combinations include: - Visual C++ with Windows API, OpenMP, Boost, STL - Cygwin g++ with Windows API, OpenMP, Boost, STL - mingw g++ with OpenMP, Boost, STL - Linux g++ with OpenMP, Boost, STL - MacOS clang with GCD, Boost, STL (static and shared library) - MacOS GNU g++ with OpenMP, Boost, STL The number of threads is now unlimited in principle, although the DLL will not let you go beyond the number of processor cores. Enabled the transposition-table code for both the large and the small versions in the same DLL. Therefore there is only a single DLL distributed now for both. The SMALL_MEMORY compile switch is gone. Enabled the DLL to pick the best combination of large and small transposition tables for a given resource set-up consisting of available memory and number of threads. Yes, the DLL can choose to run 4 large and 2 small threads, for example. Expanded the DDSInfo systemString (which now needs 1024 chars as stated in the new dll.h). MAXNOOFTABLES was increased from 32 to 40. Fixed a reliance that char == signed char (not the case on Android, which caused a bug). Dealt with the reported issues on the GitHub issues list. Lots of clean-up of internal code. The code also looks more like C++. Release Notes DDS 2.8.4 ----------------------- Added a lower-memory DLL version with a compile flag. This is about 11-14% slower, but uses a lot less memory. For example, for a single thread on one PC, the memory usage was 24 MB rather than 110 MB. For 12 threads, the numbers were 89 MB rather than 1.1 GB. Added TDC 32-bit and 64-bit Makefiles contributed by Sergio Polini. Made the SolveAllChunks functions aliases to SolveAllBoards. Release Notes DDS 2.8.3 ----------------------- Fixed bug in Scheduler that caused a crash in case 200 very similar hands were solved in one invocation. If you didn't experience crashes, you don't have to upgrade for this bug fix. Generalized the AnalysePlay functions. Previously they required a complete 13-trick hand with no cards played in a partial trick. Now they work for any number of remaining tricks and for partial tricks as well. Included Pierre Cossard's code for using GDC multi-threading with Apple's LLVM compiler on the Mac. Added a Makefile for compiling a shared library on the Mac. Added a GetDDSInfo interface function that can be used to ask the DLL how it was compiled and how many threads it is using. Modified the documentation names not to include the version number in the file names (easier to maintain). Updated the documentation to fix an error (the playTracePBN structure uses an array of chars, not an array of ints; this was correct in dll.h). Also described pass as a valid par score. Release Notes DDS 2.8.2 ----------------------- Fixed bug in the calculation of par score contracts (par score values were OK) in certain rare cases. Fixed a typo in in the CalcAllTables.cpp example in the examples directory. Release Notes DDS 2.8.1 ----------------------- Added Makefile for shared library (.d) under Linux. Contributed by Foppe Hemminga and Paul Hide. Added Makefile for Visual C++ using Windows command-line tools, so the Windows make and no "mv" etc. Contributed by Philippe Capron. Fixed bug in scheduler that caused some hands to be considered identical when they aren't. Alexis Maugat found the bug and contributed a simple test case. Fixed bug in initialization that affected some cases when initial moves are given. Alexis Maugat found the bug and contributed a simple test case. Added in Foppe Hemminga's version of the documentation, written entirely in .md markup format (looks great on Github) and capable of being converted into html and pdf. Release Notes DDS 2.8.0 ----------------------- 2.8.0 is about 15% faster than 2.7.0. The move generation code has been re-implemented and is much faster. The CalcAllTables function now allows solving a larger number of DD tables in parallel (32 rather than 10). A scheduler module rearranges hands within a batch of hands to be solved. This has two purposes: 1. It detects duplicate hands and does not solve the same hand twice. So it a more general version of the "chunk" mechanism which requires the user to construct a batch in a specific way. 2. It attempts to solve hands first which are likely to be difficult to solve. When the hands are scheduled onto multiple threads, this reduces the average time wasted in the end while one thread is finishing up its last hand. The code for initialization and the SolveBoard interface functions have been restructured. Two bugs in the memory management of the transposition tables have been fixed. Thanks for Brian Dickens for pointing them out. Brian also helped to make the code compile with fewer warnings at high warning levels. The directory structure of the distribution has been streamlined. The old algorithm document has been updated, particularly in the transposition table section. An ErrorMessage() function has been added to the interface. The old DDD program has been updated to work directly with the "modern" DDS; DDS had not been touched for many years. A more modern test program has been added, testing the main modes of the current DDS. The code has been cleaned up to compile with a very high level of compiler warnings on Microsoft Visual Studio, minGW, Cygwin g++, Ubuntu (and probably other Linux flavors with OpenMP), Mac OS with clang (single-threaded) and with g++ (OpenMP). There are Makefiles for each system and each program. Soren has become a co-author as of this version. Release Notes DDS 2.7.0 ----------------------- The transposition table solution has been replaced by a faster one. The new solution is 8-15% faster. Many thanks to Soren Hein for writing this part of the code. Soren has also improved the code at numerous places. Additional Par functions have been added to ease the use of a DDS user specific format. Release Notes DDS 2.6.0 ----------------------- 2.6.0 is 2% faster than 2.5.2. The Par function has been corrected. The DealerPar and the PlayAnalyser functions has been added, written by Soren Hein. Soren Hein has contributed numerous improvements. Release Notes DDS 2.5.2 ----------------------- A bug in the par calculation has been fixed. The fault could wrongly cause presentation of extra par contracts in cases were the sides had different vulnerability. Release Notes DDS 2.5.1 ----------------------- The Windows DDS DLL now always uses the Windows API for implementing the multithread functions (i.e. OpenMP is not used for Windows). Release Notes DDS 2.5.0 ----------------------- Added function SolveAllChunks. Release Notes DDS 2.4.3 ----------------------- Problem pointed out by John Goacher with missing par contract has been corrected. Tuned code for increased performance, especially in function MoveGen and in the WeightAlloc function. Release Notes DDS 2.4.2 ----------------------- Fixing bugs in CalcAllTables, CalcAllTablesPBN and CalcPar. Release Notes DDS 2.4.1 ----------------------- Updates of functions CalcAllTables and CalcAllTablesPBN for improved performance. Release Notes DDS 2.4.0 ----------------------- Fixed a bug in the calculation of par score contracts. Added the new functions CalcAllTables and CalcAllTablesPBN. Numerous fixes for better adaptation to Linux. Cleaning the code to remove some warnings given at code compilation. For Windows users, adding readable version information of the DDS DLL file. Release Notes DDS 2.3.0 ----------------------- The main news is the support of calculation of par scores / contracts. The Mingw DLL now uses the Win API instead of OpenMP, so no supporting DLL for pthreads is now needed. Release Notes DDS 2.2.4 ----------------------- A newer port from GCC to Windows, the TDM-GCC 4.7.1 version is used. It gives faster DLLs and only requires one supporting DLL, which supports OpenMP. Also, the move ordering has been slighly improved. A total speed increase of 4% is achieved compared to 2.2.3. Release Notes DDS 1.1.18 ------------------------ The main news is that this release is licensed under Apache 2.0 instead of GPL for the previous releases. There is a slight change of the move ordering compared to 1.1.17. Release Notes DDS 1.1.17 ------------------------ A newer port from GCC to Windows, the TDM-GCC 4.7.1 version is used. It gives faster DLLs and does not require any supporting DLLs. Also, the move ordering has been slighly improved. A total speed increase of 4% is achieved compared to 1.1.16. Release Notes DDS 2.2.3 ----------------------- DDS 2.2.3 adds Mingw compiled DLLs and makes a number of code improvements. Maximum number of threads is increased to 16. The 2.2.3 Mingw DLLs are about 5% faster than the 2.2.2 DLLs. Release Notes DDS 1.1.16 ------------------------ DDS 1.1.16 add Mingw compiled DLLs and makes a number of code improvements. The 1.1.16 Mingw DLLs are about 5% faster than the 1.1.15 DLLs. Release Notes DDS 1.1.15 ------------------------ The rel table missed initialization for absRank and relRank when all cards in a suit are missing. DDS 1.1.15 is about 7% faster than 1.1.14. Release Notes DDS 2.2.2 ----------------------- DDS 2.2.2 is mainly a bug fix release. 1. An uninitialized variable used in move generation required that the compiler initialized it by setting it to zero. This is true for Visual C++ but might perhaps have caused a problem with some other compiler. 2. The rel table missed initialization for absRank and relRank when all cards in a suit are missing. DDS 2.2.2 is slightly faster than 2.2.1, about 4%. Release Notes DDS 1.1.14 ------------------------ Bug fixed in using the Windows function to detect RAM memory size that could cause DDS termination. Release Notes DDS 2.2.1 ----------------------- Bug fixed in using the Windows function to detect RAM memory size that could cause DDS termination. Clarifying that DDS 2.2.1 is a 32-bit DLL not capable of using more than 4 GB. The maximum number of threads is 8. Release Notes DDS 1.1.13 ------------------------ DDS used a deficient function in Windows to detect RAM memory size, which could cause too few threads to be allocated. DDS now uses a correct Windows function to detect the RAM size. 1.1.13 is 5-10% faster than 1.1.12. Release Notes DDS 2.2.0 ----------------------- A new callable function, SolveAllBoards, has been added. Bug fixed: 1. DDS used a deficient function in Windows to detect RAM memory size, which could cause too few threads to be allocated. DDS now uses a correct Windows function to detect the RAM size. 2. DDS failed to detect PBN text coded card distributions with less than 52 cards. 3. DDS hanged when a faulty card distribution was provided in the CalcDDtable call. This fault was not present in the openMP alternative, though. 2.2.0 is 10-15% faster than 2.1.2. Release Notes DDS 1.1.12 ------------------------ Two new callable functions have been added: SolveBoardPBN and CalcDDtablePBN. They both accept PBN format for the remaining cards in the deal information instead of the bit codes. Code improvements have been done concerning quick tricks detection and move ordering. 1.1.12 is about 15-20% faster than 1.1.11. Release Notes DDS 2.1.2 ----------------------- Two new callable functions have been added: SolveBoardPBN and CalcDDtablePBN. They both accept PBN format for the remaining cards in the deal information instead of the bit codes. Code improvements have been done concerning quick tricks detection and move ordering. 2.1.2 is about 10% faster than 2.1.1. Release Notes DDS 2.1.1 ----------------------- The maximum number of threads is now configurable depending on the size of the physical memory. The configuration is either done automatically by reading out the physical memory size by the operating system, or by supplying parameter values in InitStart. Release Notes DDS 2.1.0 ----------------------- Added OpenMP as multi-thread support for CalcDDtable when compiling with gcc 4.4.0 or later. Added a similarity deals test function for reuse of the transposition table contents when the current deal is similar to the previous deal. Release Notes DDS 2.0.1 ----------------------- In 2.0.0, the contents of the transposition table could erronously be reused when the previous position contained a different number of cards. This was caused by an erroneous implementation of the deal similarity test. This bug was fixed by removing the similarity test. The DDS version number is defined by a #define statement in dll.h. Release Notes DDS 2.0.0 ----------------------- A bug was fixed. SolveBoard is now thread-safe. The SolveBoard parameter "mode" no longer needs to be set to 2. DDS automatically detect situations when the transposition table contents can be reused. Used with a single thread, DDS 2.0.0 has about the same speed as DDS 1.1.9. Used with 2 parallel threads, DDS 2.0.0 is twice as fast as the single thread case. A new function, CalcDDtable, has been added. CalcDDtable calls SolveBoard using parallel threads. The number of parallel threads is the same as the number of processor cores. CalcDDtable calculates the double dummy values of the initial 52 cards for all the 20 trump suit/leading hand combinations. Release Notes DDS 1.1.9 ----------------------- 1.1.9 is about 10-15% faster than 1.1.8. Main improvements come from 1) and 2) below. 1. Much faster initialization of variable rel (struct type relRanksType). Implementation done by Thomas Andrews. 2. Move generation: If the hand-to-play is trick leading hand, the first positions in the move list now come each from a different suit. In 1.1.8, the first positions were groups of 2 cards from each suit. 3. DismissX renamed to NextMove. A bug was corrected in NextMove, increasing performance. (The bug did not give incorrect result.) The bug was found by Joël Bradmetz. 4. The function CountOnes is replaced by a table look-up. Implementation by Thomas Andrews. 5. The handStore variable is replaced by a macro. Based on an implementation by Thomas Andrews. 6. The WinAdapt function is replaced by a table look-up. 7. A new table, highestRank, gives the highest rank from a bitmap of ranks. Makes functions UpdateWinner, UpdateSecondBest and QuickTricks slightly faster. Release Notes DDS 1.1.8 --------------------------- The transposition table solution has been redesigned. Each "winning ranks node" now contains all ranks for one suit. When a new transposition table entry is created, it is now positioned at the front of the alternative "winning ranks node" list rather than at the end as before. Each leading hand now has own root pointers pointing to the "suit lengths combination" tree. Some changes in QuickTricks. Release Notes DDS 1.1.7 --------------------------- A bug fix and recoding of the dynamic transposition table implementation. Release Notes DDS 1.1.6 --------------------------- A bug has been fixed. It could show up (but hasn't as far as I know) after the transposition table became full. Only a minor part of the maximum transposition table, about 30 MB, is now allocated at initialization. If more is needed it is dynamically added as need arises. Each incremental addition is about 2 MB. This continues until the maximum allowed space is reached, for 512 MB PC this is about 400 MB. Then the incrementally added transposition table pieces are wiped out and the initially allocated table is cleared. Release Notes DDS 1.1.5 --------------------------- A correction has been made removing a risk of DD value miscalculation. The fault has not however yet showed up as far as I know. A survival mechanism has been added to handle the situation if the transposition table becomess full: The transposition table is emptied. Before this, a full transposition table would in practise lock up the program. Therefore the present size of the transposition table is quite large (393 MB) to handle the most difficult deals. This could lead to extensive memory swapping with the hard drive if the PC RAM size is 256 MB or less, slowing down the program. With the new survival mechanism, the program will not lock up in case of a full transposition table. The calculation time will increase because of the extra time to build up stored positions in the table, but the increase will be reasonable. This means that DDS should be possible to run with such small PC RAM sizes as 64 MB (this has not been tested, though). Release Notes DDS 1.1.4 --------------------------- Improvements when the SolveBoard parameter mode is set to 2. The mode parameter can now be set to 2 for SolveBoard calls with parameter target set to -1 or a value 0-13, and solutions set to 1, 2 or 3. Following the first SolveBoard call with mode = 1, mode can be set to 2 for any further SolveBoard call for the same deal, also when an opponent hand leads the trick. If scores are to be calculated for all 4 possible leading hands of the deal, one SolveBoard call can be made with mode = 1, and the other 3 SolveBoard calls for the other 3 leading hands can be made with mode = 2. Compared to dds 1.1.3, the better support of mode = 2 means improved calculation speed. Compared to using only mode = 1 when calling Solveboard 4 times, each time for each alternative leading hand, the calculation time is roughly halved using mode = 2 as described above. Release Notes DDS 1.1.3 --------------------------- 1. Compiles with Visual C++ 2005 Express edition 2. Some improvements in move ordering, quick tricks and the new later tricks algorithms. 3. Total improvement about 20% including the faster code generated by Visual C++ and the algorithm improvements. Release Notes DDS 1.1.2 --------------------------- 1. Increased performance of about 15% due to improved algorithm for move ordering. For more information, look in the algorithm description. Release Notes DDS 1.1.1 --------------------------- 1. For target = -1 and solutions = 1/2/3, the transposition table contents are now reused also when SolveBoard is called with a new target value. 2) Slight improvement of the QuickTricks algorithm. 3) Moderate speed improvement compared to 1.1.1. Release Notes DDS 1.1.0 --------------------------- 1. Performance improvement giving a speed of about twice that of 1.0.6. 2. Redesign of the transposition table solution, see algorithm description. 3. Improvements in the Quicktricks algorithm, see algorithm description. 4. Dump in text file of SolveBoard parameters if SolveBoard returns with error code. Release Notes DDS 1.0.6 -------------------------- 1. A bug has been fixed in the DDS start up code. The bug did not affect the accuracy of the solver. Thanks to Fabien Bradmetz for spotting this! 2. About 10% increased speed due to improvements in Quick Tricks. 3. An error code has been added for checking the input of of cards earlier played in the trick. 4. A document (mode2.txt) describes source code examples of calling SolveBoard using the parameter mode set to 2. Release Notes DDS 1.0.5 -------------------------- 1. About 25% speed improvement due to a search algorithm improvement: For moves generated in the search tree, only one "small" card move per hand and suit is generated. By "small" card is meant a card with a rank that is not winning due to its rank value. Earlier all "small" cards generated their own moves. This improvement comes from a tip by Hans Kuijf. 2. The size of the transposition table has been increased by 25%. This was done after realizing that for some extreme deals, rarely occurring, when solutions = 2 and 3 the transposition table could get completely filled up, making the search time extremely long for those cases. The increased transposition table size should still fit well inside a 256 MB machine. 3. Parameter mode = 2 indicates that the transposition table is reused from an earlier SolveBoard call. It is restricted to the case where the same conditions apply for the two calls, except that the leading hand in the second call is the partner to the leading hand in the first call. I.e. same deal incl same trump suit, same target (not equal to -1), solutions = 1. Release Notes DDS 1.0.4 ----------------------- When introducing the possibility of reusing the transposition table between subsequent searches in 1.0.1, unfortunately a bug was introduced as well. It occassionally gives wrong scores when evaluating the last hand of the trick using solutions = 2 or 3. This bug is fixed in 1.0.4. Release Notes DDS 1.0.3 ----------------------- Includes: 1. An improvement of the move ordering algorithm. When LHO ruffs, this is now given a low weight if the highest rank of RHO beats both the rank of the leading card and the highest rank of the leading suit at the partner of the leading hand, assuming that the partner of the leading hand is not void in the suit of the leading card. If these conditions do not hold, the weight for the LHO ruffing card is high. 2. For the SolveBoard parameter solutions = 3, reuse of the transposition table contents between card searches has been added. 1 and 2 together give on average an improvement performance. Release Notes DDS 1.0.2 ----------------------- Includes a bug fix for the case when the SolveBoard parameter "solutions" is set to 3. SolveBoard did not correctly handle the case when the scores of the alternative cards were a mix of zero and non-zero. This is now fixed in 1.0.2. Release Notes DDS 1.0.1 ----------------------- Includes support for reuse of the transposition table contents for a subsequent search. (This idea was brought forward independently by Alex Martelli and Flip Cronje.) When setting the SolveBoard solutions to 2, the transposition table contents will be reused when searching for alternative cards, giving a slightly decreased search time in most cases, in a few cases the decrease is substantial. Earlier the contents of the transposition table was always emptied between searches. The way to control whether or not to empty the transposition table is to properly set the parameter mtd in the InitSearch function: mtd = FALSE means that the transposition table is emptied, mtd = TRUE that it is not emptied.