[blml] Sea shalls, weevils, dWs, MS and the next laws

[Matthias Berghaus]

The situation: the old, old conflict between the dWs and what Herman has 
termed the MS.

We should now make good use of our time by discussing whether the _next_ 
version should look like the old one or whether the dWs works better, or 
whether the two can somehow be combined. I do not think that anybody 
denies that Herman has a point, so we should devote ourselves to how the 
next laws should be. Grattan and Ton (and probably others involved in 
that) are listening, even if they should (understandably, in my view) 
prefer not to express their opinions in this forum. In order to steer us 
in that direction I open this new thread.

To get some system into this we should try to collect advantages and 
disadvantages for both positions (and maybe discover some new 
positions), discuss the effects on play and the players, and find out 
what is desirable, how to effect that, what is undesirable, and how to 
get rid of that.

For a start I try my hand at some advantages and disadvantages. This 
will by necessity be inclompete as I have only one brain and have not 
thought about all the details. So please no catcalls from either side 
for leaving something out that has already be mentioned, or something I 
have simply overlooked.

MS:
Advantages  - Easy to follow. Don`t worry, just tell the system, let the 
TD handle the rest
                    - Easy to spot a difference between the (alleged) 
system and the hand

Disadvantages - Lots of UI
                       - Results prone to be 12C2 or C3 rulings if UI 
may have been used


dWs:
Advantages  - More boards can be scored as played in relevant cases (if 
the description really matches the hand)

Disadvantages - More cheating potential? I have not really digested this 
aspect yet, but it seems to me that a lot of abuse can be done, 
especially in the lower echelons of (opponent`s) bridge ability.You
                         cannot cheat a good plaer twice with abuse of 
dWs, but in the clubs?
                       - More difficult to follow. What should I tell 
opps if I can see that partner has not replied to RKCB, but I have no 
idea what he has done? If I guesss wrong the UI impact is no smaller 
than in
                         MS

OK, so much for my first run. I have tried to point out the pretty 
obvious things for now. Even if I only find just one advantage of dWs 
(at the moment), the advantage I see is a major one. Whatever the WBFLC 
comes up with, two things should IMO be foremost in all considerations: 
Is it easy to understand and apply for the player (never mind the TDs, 
we can manage), and does it help to score boards normally. Furthermore 
any decisions should be explainable more or less by reading the laws to 
the players, without any comments, notes etc whenever possible.


Regards
Matthias