Re: [Rails-devel] 1835 share selling

[John D. G. <jd...@di...>]

>> There are two distinct use-cases here:
>>
>> 1. I sell a share, then realize I meant to sell multiple shares as a
>> single sale, and so I sell more shares.   Result:  This should be
>> counted as a single sale, with a single drop in stock value for the
>> whole sale transaction.
> 
> You click "undo" and then sell them all as a single transaction.

This seems needlessly cumbersome to me.

> (Alternatively, Rails could generically prohibit selling shares
> one-at-a-time, since all games I'm aware of that discuss the topic
> explicitly disallow it.)

The 1830 FAQ by Bruce Shelley, published in The General, specifically
allows one-at-a-time sales (though in 1830, you would be doing it not
to reduce the stock's final price, but to receive less money in
preparation for intentional bankruptcy).  However, not everyone accepts
the Shelley FAQ, and I can't see any other reason ever to want to do
one-at-a-time selling anyway, at least in games which follow the 1830
rule in determining the new share price.

Of course, there are some games that do prohibit it as you say.  1870
is one.  (Of course in 1870, the stock price doesn't drop until the
president decides not to price-protect, so the only effect, if it were
allowed, would be to break up the sale into separate sales, thus
allowing the president to price-protect some shares but not others of
the same company on the same turn.)

In 1835 it is not at all clear that one-at-a-time sales are allowed
during a single stock turn.  The example in paragraph XV.8 (of the 2nd
edition English rules) has these sales taking place on separate turns,
thus seeming to imply (although not explicitly saying) that if you want
the price to fall more than one row, you have to make each sale on a
separate turn (though they may be turns of a single stock round).

>> Personally, I'm totally okay with saying that the correct way to
>> execute #1 is to click Undo, and re-do your single sale as intended.
>> This means that Rails should treat all sales as individual
>> transactions, and so achieving #2 is as easy as "Sell 1... then Sell
>> 1.... then Sell 1..."

I disagree.  I'd rather have Rails treat all sales on a single turn as
a single sale even if made as separate transactions, possibly with an
explicit exception for 1830 (or maybe an override in the moderator menu).

This is similar to my issue with the drop-down menus on the CGR-formation
window in 1856: the program should behave so as never to induce mistakes,
even if it sometimes means not following the rules to the extent of exact
pedantic details that no player at the table ever follows anyway.