Deck specific reversals

[Gisela Rodriguez]

Hi Richard,

Programming, like Nature, always seems to side with the hidden flaw. (g)

I find that if I switch from a deck with reversals (A) to a deck for which I don't want reversals (B), the B deck uses reversals exactly as A did. Not exactly what I want, but understandable from a comparative reading standpoint. Chalk that up to it has its uses.

However, if I gather up the B cards, reshuffle, and deal out a new reading, B *still* shows reversals, which it really shouldn't since I'm not asking it to duplicate the previous reading's cards.

Can this be corrected? Thanx in advance for your patience.

Hugs,
Gisela

[Programmer]

Hi Gisela,

Thanks for your feedback. By the way, I know I still didn't reply to your post a little while back about adding more complexity to the spread format. I have been thinking about that on and off, but I am not really sure how it would work without it being very specific to certain assumptions about how the cards are going to be numbered. It will have to stay on the back burner for a while at least.

Re this question about the reversals, I think the confusion might be coming about because of the way shuffling works. If you have the pack shuffled and containing say 30 reversed cards, then switch to another deck where you have specified 2 reversed cards and shuffle again, you will still have about 30 reversed cards after shuffling. This is because for the inverted cards there is a 98 probability that they will stay inverted after the second shuffle (unless by chance they are double-reversed back into an upright position).

When you switch decks, the card are not automatically shuffled (for the purpose of comparative reading, as you point out). Because of these two factors you have the slightly surprising behaviour of the reversals persisting between decks. The solution would be to reorder the deck (ascending or descending) before shuffling when switching decks, as this also returns all the reversed cards to upright.

I can see that this would require quite a few mouse-clicks. Can I suggest the solution of having an option you can set, to reorder and then shuffle automatically every time the user switches decks? Let me know if you think this would resolve it!

Cheers,

Richard

[Thomas H]

Hmmm.

I wonder if this new reversed cards for specific decks function could be made so it was possible to turn it on/off by setting a mark and when unmarked, the program would continue to run with a 5 default for all decks as usual.

Best

Thomas

[Gisela Rodriguez]

Hi Richard,

OK, let me get real specific so I can follow what's going on... I can sometimes get lost easily if I don't say it out loud, so please bear with me here...

Are you suggesting that when I gather up the cards and request a new reading with a different deck with a different (perhaps greater, perhaps lesser ) reversals setting, that a dialog box should come up to ask if I want the cards in the newly requested deck to be all turned right-side-up before shuffling, with the new deck's reversal being applied at this shuffle? If that's what you mean, then yes, that's a good idea, because it makes the new reading independent of the previous reading.

After thinking about it a bit, I do like the idea of having the reversals persist into a new deck when what I'm doing is simply changing decks within the same reading. for comparative purposes, that's really very good, and please don't change that. Now I see that that's actually a good feature, as comparative readings aren't supposed to be independent events. They're supposed to be the same event under different artistic/symbolic visions/perspectives.

Hugs
Gisela

[Programmer]

Hi Thomas,

Effectively you can do that, by checking the Apply Percentage of Reversals on the General part of the options form and then setting the percentage at 5. This should be the default, and it will come into play whenever there are no deck specific preferences.

Cheers,

Richard

[Programmer]

Hi Gisela,

Well, that is not exactly what I meant but I think it is a good idea. I actually meant to have the option as a checkbox on the Options form, i.e. the program would have two modes that you could choose between: 1) it never reorders the cards when changing decks and 2) it always does.

I think your way might be the way ahead though, i.e. there is a checkbox on the Options form (default would be unchecked) that would be labelled something like Prompt me whether or not to reorder cards when changing decks. If this is the user preference a dialog box like the one you describe would appear. Otherwise the program would behave as before, not reordering. I can see that this would be advantageous to users who sometimes do comparative readings but at other times would like to start from scratch each time they change a deck.

Cheers,

Richard

[Gisela Rodriguez]

Yes, Richard, yes! This is lovely! You're really the best!

Hugs and kisses too,
Gisela