Card deals

In bridge literature diagrams of distribution of cards over the hands are often given in order to demonstrate bidding sequences or to explain play technique. In order to do this systematically and to abstract from layout details I wrote a macro — crdima — with six parameters

first parameter:: text, especially who is the dealer and what is the vulnerability. For example: N/None, for North dealer and vulnerability none.
second parameter:: text, for example indication of play, e.g., number Play 1 or otherwise, e.g.,
\begin{minipage}[t]{\br}
Play:\\demo
\end{minipage}
next four parameters:: the four hands in the sequence N, W, E, S. Each hand is a call of the hand macro with four parameters: the ♠, ♥, tex2html_wrap_inline&diams#diamondsuit;, tex2html_wrap_inline&clubs#clubsuit; cards.

Example

\crdima{N/None}{%
  \begin{minipage}[t]{\br}
     Play:\\demo
  \end{minipage}}%
  {\hand{J74}{AJ}{QJT2}{Q874}}%
  {\hand{A3}{K76}{963}{KJ952}}%
  {\hand{K86}{T9542}{874}{T3}}%
  {\hand{QT952}{Q83}{AK5}{A6}}%

yields

N/None


 
♠  J74 


♥ 		 AJ 


♦		 QJT2 

♣ 		 Q874

Play:
demo

$\usebox{\NESW}$


 
♠  QT952 


♥ 		 Q83 


♦		 AK5 

♣ 		 A6

Remarks
By this levelling I circumvented the limit of the number of parameters. Because parameter substitution is done by `text' replacement there is no `(strong) type checking' as in modern high-level programming languages.
There is no check on the correctness of the cards (correct number, distribution, multiple occurrence or omission), nor on the correct sequence of the parameters. In SGML compliance with the input syntax can be imposed with enhanced user convenience and alleviated proofreading, but at the expense of elaborate coding, [3]. No test on the correctness of the sequence of the hands is ever possible, however.
The crdima macro can be used to display all phases of the play. Hands can be suppressed at discretion of the user by empty actual parameters. A renounce can be supplied via --. In the listings of the commands used for the examples the quote environment command is omitted.

For tournaments (bridge) plays are often dealt by computer. At the end of tournaments players appreciate prints of the deals. For that purpose my (Pascal) deal program generates ASCII output — for simple display on the PC — as well as L^ATEX input, optionally. This input is printed with the aid of crdima. Parameter testing is superfluous for L^ATEX input generated this way.