[Kde-games-devel] Unify pixmap caching across card games

[Ian Wadham]

On Wed, 9 Jan 2008 11:37 am, Luciano Montanaro wrote:
> So "Two" is the common name of the card, outside the US?
>
Yes.  AFAIK (correct me if I am wrong) "two" is understood and used
*inside* the USA also.  I think "deuce" may be poker tech-talk, as
in: "This game is seven card stud.  One-eyed jacks and short-
sworded kings are wild" ... :-)  I used to play poker with some
American computer engineers circa 1966 ...

> > And Tarot cards do have suits (4 of 14 cards each, called swords, staves,
> > coins and cups), but there are 22 special cards with names like The Fool,
> > The Lovers, The Wheel of Fortune and Death.
> > Artists knock yourselves out! :-)  According to
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_cards there
>
> > are Tarot card games, played in several European countries, but the cards
> > are mainly used for fortune-telling in English-speaking countries.
>
> Yes, I have a rule book describing a game called "Tarocco Piemontese",
> played with a tarot deck. It is three player game, and I have tried playing
> it with my family, but the rules take a while to learn, and computing the
> score is not easy. A computerized version would be useful to quickly find
> the winner!
>
> I know there are a few places in Italy where the tarots are used to
> play different kinds of card games.
>
> The international card deck is a simplification of the tarot deck, I have
> read, and the Jolly Joker is a vestigial Fool card.
>
> The swords, staves, coins and cups are still used in many regional decks in
> Italy (and in Spain, I have seen).
>
Interesting stuff!  How about a KDE Games multicultural section?

According to the Wiki article quoted above, the international deck was
invented *before* Tarot.  There is a lot of confusion about mediaeval
inventions.  One book I read even claimed the only mediaeval invention
was the wheelbarrow!  Actually the period was a ferment of technological
development ... outside the Church and royal courts that is.  It laid the
basis for modern experimental science and modern business.  How could
you have telescopes without the invention of lenses and eyeglasses?
How business without banking and double-entry book-keeping?

All the best, Ian W.