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From: Jeff Higgins <jeff@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Help with Deck of cards assignment and getting it to deal...
Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 17:37:18 -0400
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On 08/03/2014 05:05 PM, Eric Sosman wrote:
> On 8/3/2014 4:01 PM, Jeff Higgins wrote:
>> On 08/03/2014 03:45 PM, Jeff Higgins wrote:
>>> On 08/03/2014 03:00 PM, Eric Sosman wrote:
>>>>      Given the variety of card games, Comparable is a wrong-headed
>>>> approach for ranks, for suits, and even for hands.
>>>>
>>> Perhaps, but just for my own enlightenment, allow me one more interface
>>> and then describe a *simple* game that that cannot be implemented given
>>> the provided interfaces.
>>>
>>> package scratch;
>>>
>>> import java.util.Collection;
>>>
>>> /**
>>>   * A Card game controller.
>>>   * While we have hands to play, compare hands.
>>>   *
>>>   * @author jeff
>>>   *
>>>   */
>>> public interface Ruler extends Iterable<Ruler>,
>>> Comparable<Collection<Card>> {
>>>
>>> }
>>>
>>>
>> Well, that could probably have been done better but you get my drift.
>
>      I think so.  However, I've already mentioned the "high-low" types
> of Poker, where a single hand can be both higher and lower than another.
> I gave one example upthread; here's another:
>
>      With Aces high, A A A 7 7 is a "full house," a very strong hand.
> It is just a little bit stronger than K K K J J, another full house,
> because when two full houses meet they are ranked by their triples:
> In this case, AAA beats KKK so the first hand is higher.  But play
> the Aces low instead, and now KKK beats AAA so the second hand is
> higher.  If the deal's final showdown involved these two hands, the
> first could be *both* high and low, and win the entire pot by
> trapping the second hand "in between."
>
>      Your challenge, then, should you choose to accept it: Write a
> compareTo() method for which AAA77.compareTo(KKKJJ) returns a
> value that is simultaneously positive and negative.  Maybe when
> quantum computing comes of age ...

I've not written an interface that compares Collections of Ranks
or Suits or Cards or Decks. A Game will require such behavior.
I still believe that behavior is implementable using the interfaces
I've described, and not uncleanly. Please describe a *simple*
situation that disproves my belief, I promise not to exercise my
Weasel options.

>      Yes, okay, I see your "*simple*" -- but I reject it as weasel-
> wording: Confronted with a game for which your approach won't work,
> you could just say "Oh, but that's not *simple* in the way I choose
> to define it."  Problem-avoidance is a viable strategy sometimes, but
> it shouldn't be mistaken for problem-solving.
>