[blml] convention

[richard willey]

A few comments here:

> A long time ago, I tried to define *natural* *artificial* and
> *conventional* in a Bridge article.  I felt that conventional calls are
> those with an agreed meaning that was not immediately obvious.  I
> defined *natural* as the opposite of *artificial*
>
> I started by defining a "natural" call as call that seriously advances
> the suggestion that the last contract or denomination become the final
> contract or denomination. Thus, if you are bidding suits, it would be
> natural to mention your suits in order of diminishing length. (

If you are trying to have an intelligible discussion you should really
try to avoid changing the definition of words that have a well
established meaning.  "Natural", "artificial", and "conventional" are
already defined.  Trying to change this nomenclature doesn't advance
the discussion, rather, it destroys people's ability to communicate.
Case in point...  I am going to extract quote from later on in your
posting:

"So that, in America, the SAYC Canape 1C openers are redefined 'natural'."

Canape is a well established / well defined term.  Standard American
1C openings have nothing to do with canape principles.  You might
enjoy throwing arround expressions like "canape", however, this type
of ignorant statement detracts from the point that you are trying to
make.

I also think that its a mistake to introduce Electronic Bridge into
this discussion.  I agree with your basic point:  Once the Full
Disclosure application transitions into widespread use it will have a
revolutionary impact on alerts and announcements in the electronic
playing environment.  From my perspective, the most significant change
will be that the alert regime will become a user configurable option.
I can have the FD application alert all artifical bids.  My partner
can have the FD application alert all bids that don't match SAYC.  The
opponents will be alerted if any bids correspond to their own version
of Polish Club.  Effectively, ease of automation allows us to sidestep
a lot of nasty little problems.  Equally significant, the FD
application will create a host of new issues.

However, I don't expect that any of this will have much impact on the
traditional face-to-face game, nor does it have anything to do with
the definition of "conventional"







-- 
"It's no disgrace not to be able to run a country nowadays, but it is
a disgrace to keep on trying when you know you can't"

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