                            *** Kabale ***
                        A RISC OS patience game


  The word 'kabale' entered the Danish language in the 17th century as a
misinterpretation of the hebraic word 'kabbala', which means 'secret
teachings'. In the Danish, German and other languages it also got the
meaning 'scheme/plot, intrigue'. Only in Denmark and Norway has it got the
additional meaning 'card game for one person'. The equivalent word in
English, French, German and Swedish is 'patience' and, in American English,
'solitaire'.
  Because this particular patience game was made by a Dane, he chose to name
it with the Danish word for patience, to differ it from other similar games.

  To start the game application, double click on its icon in the directory
window. When the icon appears on the icon bar, clicking SELECT on it brings
forth the game table. If you do this after having closed the game window
yourself, it will re-appear, exactly as it was when you closed it.


--- The cards ---
  This game uses a standard deck of 52 cards.


--- The lay-down ---
  Along the left edge of the table a column consisting of four stacks is
placed, each containing four cards. Only the topmost of the cards in each
stack is visible at any time. Beside the first stack a base card is placed.
The rest of the deck constitutes the cards on the hand.


--- Playing the game ---
  On the base card you may put cards belonging to the same suit. Below the
base card, beside the stacks, three more rows may be built, each containing
cards belonging to one of the remaining three suits. However, the first card
to be put down on each row must have the same value as the base card. E.g.
if the base card is the ace of spades, a new row of hearts may be initiated
by placing the ace of hearts below the base card. Further, a row of clubs
can be started similarly by placing the ace of clubs below the ace of
hearts.
   When you want to put a card on a row, you may only do so if the card of
the same value is present on the row above the destination row. The only
exception to this, of course, is the top row, on which cards may be placed
when you want to. Cards for building the rows may be taken from the stacks
or from the hand cards by dragging the desired card to its destination.
  The hand cards, which are shown at the bottom of the window, are dealt
three at a time. Only the topmost one of the up to three visible cards may
be used. When it has been used the second card of the three will become the
topmost one and available for use, and so on. The next three cards will be
dealt if you click on the icon representing the back side of a card. When
all cards on the hand have been dealt, a dark green spot will replace the
back of card icon. Clicking on it makes the computer deal the hand cards
from the start once more. The hand cards may be looked through as many times
as necessary. A counter shows how many cards are left on the hand.
  The game is finished when all four rows are complete, containing 13 cards
each, i.e. all cards in the deck have been added to the rows, leaving no
hand cards or stacks left.


  This program is the debut RISC OS application by the author (one has to
start with something simple!).

NOTE: Because of a bug in the WIMP in RISC OS 2.00, this program will cause
screen corruption when used with programs which update the screen by their
own initiative during card dragging. Such applications include !Madness,
!Clock and !Alarm. The corruption is not fatal or harmful in any way, but it
sure doesn't look good! By the way, is this the first Wimp application to
use the user-drag feature?

Distribution notice:
   This program is Public Domain, meaning that anybody may give away a copy
of this program to anybody else. However, the free distribution is only
allowed if no charge is asked for for doing so (except the cost of the disc
itself etc.), and that the program and other material in the application
directory is distributed in its whole and unmodified form.

Comments, bug reports etc. should be addressed to:
  Olav Reinert
  Marius Simonsensvej 15 1th
  8200 Aarhus N
  Denmark
