From: Warren Brown <warrenbrown@...>
Date: 2005-11-23T23:47:54+09:00
Subject: Re: [SOLUTION] Euchre Hands (#55)

James,

>> I see other solutions trying very hard to make sure
>> that two suits of the same color do not appear next
>> to each other.  As a Euchre player, I would be quite
>> upset if the order of the suits changed during play.
>
> Hold on there Tiger...  I didn't say anything about
> changing the suit order.  We're only working with the
> initial sort here.
>
> I believe a "correct" implementation caches the
> initial suit order for each player and holds that
> until the hand is played out (even if black/red
> suits eventually touch).  Note that you will have to
> order the hand twice though, once after the deal and
> once after Trump is chosen.

    Well, the sort before the trump is chosen is outside the scope of
this quiz (and trivial to implement), so we're only talking about the
sort after trump has been chosen.  However you are right, the sort
routine would only be called once per hand, not once per card.  There
are several other card games where sort is called once per card, and I
didn't stop to think that Euchre wasn't one of them.

    That being said, in a card game where suits are important, I would
still prefer the suits in my hand to remain in a predictable order
rather than get shuffled around (no pun intended) depending on what
cards were in my hand.

> Of course, this is all just *MY* opinion of right.
> We've already heard of several others.  This quiz
> just isn't about those...  ;)

    And likewise this is just *my* opinion of right.  But I would argue
that this quiz *is* about other opinions, since the original quiz
stated:

> The three non-Trump suits are equal, but it is good
? interface to sort the by suit alternating red, black,
> red, and black, I think.

    If the "I think" had been left off, this would have simply been a
requirement of the quiz.  But since it is there, I would argue that this
topic is open for discussion.  I just gave a solution that showed a
differing viewpoint.  I'm sorry if I stepped on any toes.

    - Warren Brown

P.S. Tiger??? :o)