CLOP Pools Package
==================

This is CLOP, which calculates optimal picks for sports betting pools.

CLOP is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License.

The GNU General Public License does not permit this software to be
redistributed in proprietary programs.

CLOP is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Availability
============

The official web site for CLOP is:
http://math.slu.edu/~clair/pools/clop/
The latest release is available there.

Contents
========

This distribution of CLOP contatins:
  doc - texinfo documentation for CLOP
  src - source for the CLOP binaries
  src/testapps - source for test applications
  data - example data and real data from NFL and NCAA pools

Installation
============

CLOP requires GSL  - the GNU Scientific Library, available from
http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/

To build CLOP, cd into the src directory, type 'make' and pray.
This will create a number of executables in the src directory.
Building CLOP should not require a priviledged account, and will
not install files onto your system outside of the CLOP directory.

To build the testapps, note that the testapps directory must be
a subdirectory of the src directory.  cd into testapps, type 'make'
and pray a lot.

Author
======
CLOP is written and maintained by Bryan Clair (bryan@slu.edu).

More information about CLOP
===========================

The project homepage is http://math.slu.edu/~clair/pools
See the file NOTES for (brief) notes on the source code.

Gambling
========

The author does not encourage or condone the use of this program
for gambling purposes.  If you or someone you know may have a
gambling problem, please contact the National Council on Problem
Gambling at 1-800-522-4700 or at http://www.ncpgambling.org

Changes is version 1.4
======================
Minor fixes to many files to remove deprecations, specifically
char * variables initialized with string constants, and
lack of #include <unistd.h>

Changes in version 1.3
======================
Football pool files:
  Lines with only whitespace now recognized as blank and skipped

Changes in version 1.2
======================
fstats:
  Added -w option to allow variation of perceived values (mirroring
  the -v option)

tsim:
  Added the option to simulate using a file of opponent picks.

Changes in version 1.1
======================
Football pool files:
  Number of games and trailing '.' are no longer needed (or allowed).
  Blank lines are allowed and ignored.
  Lines beginning with '#' are considered comments and are ignored.

fseek:
  Now initializes with a good guess instead of random.
  Fixed a bug with the 2-away neighbor search, and sped it up.
  Removed -S and -z options.

fstats:
  Fixed usage statement.