If I were to learn a programming language that would allow me to write a TBJ simulator which one should I choose? I know Snyder is promoting some open source code on his site. Has anybody used it? Is it any good? Assume I can learn anything !!!! I have been forcing excel to "simulate" for me and it seems to work on a very simple level and has thrown up some interesting data, but I'm currently looking at different betting strategies and I'm very limited with what I can do with it. Cheers Reachy
Any language will work of course, so if you're already partially familiar with one, use it. If you're just starting, I'd probably recommend downloading Eclipse and developing with Java.
Programming language During 1979, I wrote a black jack simulator using compiled microsoft basic, running on a Radio Shack, Model III. It would simulate 100,000 hands in approximately 12 hours. Running on today PCs one could probably simulate a few million hands in the same amount of time. The simulator provided an easy interface to vary playing strategy, betting patterns and various card counting methods, separately, or in concert with one another. At any rate, using this simulator allowed me to develop a BJ system that I still use today,35 years later.
Basic I used to be a pretty hot basic programmer in my very early teens and I'm curious what the most similar language to that would be now. Xbasic? Cheers Reachy
Microsoft Visual Basic .net 2.0 is the latest generation of BASIC, but it bears very little resemblance to the version from the 70's.
Simulations I commend you, Fredguy, on your early work with computers. While most people were just saying "gi wiz" you put the power of the computer to do real work. Only one thing, today's simulators will do about 250 million hands in a few of minutes, not hours. Good luck to you.
Another Place for Your Quest Reachy, Another spot you might look would be at http://www.advantageplayer.com/blackjack/ , they have a board called "Computing for Counters". But I'm guessing that if you already found Arnold's freeware, then you have already been here. Good Luck, Dan
Reachy, If you are thinking of 'PowerSim', it seems to be focused on evaluating the strength of different card-counting scenarios against particular rules, deck-penetrations etc. I downloaded it a while ago, but didn't do much with it. It's written in XBASIC, and I found it pretty impenetrable. A better starting point for what you want might be Eric Farmer's C++ library and programs - http://mywebpages.comcast.net/erfarmer201/blackjack Some time ago, I started amending this to add various enhancements and try to make it a more general-purpose tool. However, at the rate I am going, you'll be an old man before I have it finished
What about Java? I have got a book on Java programming and thought I might see whether that was up to the job. Cheers Reachy
Any language will do Java may be easier to learn than C++, but it seems to me that you'd be better off building on the work that somebody else has already done than starting from scratch, and that may dictate which language you use. (whether it is the BASIC used by PowerSim, or the C++ used by Eric's stuff.) I do have hopes that I will make some progress with the work that I started, which in turn ought to give you an even easier starting point. I'll let you know if anything comes of it, but as I said, it may take a while
