Who:	Stephen Rahn

What:	Hearts version 0.7.2 alpha (please note: VERY ROUGH FIRST preBETA!)

Where:	the Internet (www.geocities.com/shhizm/downloadables/dls.html)

When:	June 26, 2008

Why:	"Just for giggles"

How:	C++; Windows executable and source code are included


Notes
____________________

Be warned--This program is still very buggy! I'm working to remedy that, but
PLEASE keep this in mind. If you're a beta tester, kindly give priority to clearly
illegal happenings over poor plays by the AI that are technically legal but a
really stupid move.



Known Bugs
____________________

Until I or another kind soul can finally fix the sort function, there will remain
a glitch where occasionally the person to start the game (who has the 2 of clubs)
will play a different card instead. Because the 2 of clubs should always be the
first card in the hand, the same bit of code in the AI can be used for starting
the game in addition to leading any other normal hand. Unfortunately, it only
works nicely like that if the hand is sorted correctly, so if the 2 of clubs
happens to be one of the missorted cards, gameplay can get a bit screwy. This bug
should be fixed shortly.

If you enter bizarre input at the prompt for which card to play (for example, text
or obscenely high or negative numbers), the program may react unpredictably. The
error-catching should recognize numbers that are off by up to a couple thousand or
something, but just don't try any funny business and you should be fine.

 * AI doesn't feel like following suit sometimes
 * AI glitches and doesn't choose a card in some circumstances
 * when an AI player breaks hearts, they don't always actually play a heart



The Settings File
____________________

The settings file is, of course, vital to the execution of the program, so you
probably want to keep this readme somewhere handy if you happen to delete it.
By now, the program isn't quite so cranky if it's missing--it'll just make a
default one for you if it can't find the file.

For those of you who are inclined to crack it open in Notepad and have a gander,
it is indeed in plain ASCII so you shouldn't harm anything. The stuff inside
corresponds to:

Use system time for rand seed flag
	* 1 = true, 0 = false
Number of times to shuffle deck (each shuffle is 52 2-card swaps)
	* 2-100, or 0 (i.e., "don't shuffle")
Display deck (useful for debugging)
	* 1 = true, 0 = false
Player names (human player's first)(one word--no spaces!)
	ASCII string

The default file is:

1
50
0
Player1
Caleb
Heather
Julie



The Disclaimer
____________________

I have tested this program on my own computer, and it appears to be stable
(enough), but I make no guarantees that it won't screw up your computer. Use this
program at your own risk, as I have not had the time yet to thoroughly test every
aspect of it at length. That being said, testers are always welcome.



Contact Information
____________________

* email: kinglordplacebo[at]hotmail[dot]com (include "Hearts" in the subject line)
* IRC: ogame1.ogamenet.net #o.uni21, nickname "scuba" (no guarantees on this one)

my website: www.geocities.com/shhizm