This is a good idea for a cyclic stack I think, and I am interested to know how it compares to Doug Dyment's DAO Stack. The description of the DAO stack sounds very similar (a single addition followed by an either/or choice). Any commentary would be appreciated.

I am sad to say, Barry passed away a just a week ago, anyone who has his work is very lucky, as far as I know, most will be withdrawn from sale at some point, unless arrangements can be made for monies to pass to his heirs......

I was lucky enough to be privy to all his works and toughts over a 30 year friendship.....I will miss him very much.....

Doc, Sad to hear that. 30 years! Wow! You must have GREAT stories and memories!

Barry's Stack is identical to DAO, though his description is very "bare bones", missing some of the functionality, and all of the performance subtleties. Barry's was published later than DAO, but its provenance is unclear, and might have been independent development. It's hard to tell, though: in his description, he admits that "I had heard of ...", without explaining how/where he had heard of it. So it's an unsolved mystery.

I may be wrong, Doug, but hasn't DAO been published in 2010 in your book Tricyclic?

Because to the best of my knowledge Barry first published his stack in 1999; this is backed up by one of Barry's proofreaders and by the information provided at Lybrary's.

It should read 2009 instead of 1999.
Sorry for the typo!

Nicolino is correct, per the info at lybrary.com. DAO was conceived in late 2009, and published/copyrighted in 2010. My copy of Barry's PDF contains no copyright date, and I don't now recall how I got the idea that it was post-Tricyclic. In any case, I seem to have been mistaken.

Doug, thank you very much for your words in the name of Barry Ray! He would really appreciate it. Chapeau! Sadly to say that Barry passed away.

I got from Barry his book "Barry's Stacked Deck" in December 2008. Barry Rays words "I had heard of ..." in his book "Barry's Stacked Deck" are related to me. Barry bought in 2008 my German book "Si Stebbins abgestaubt und getuned" (Si Stebbins dusted and tuned). We discussed in several emails different stacks and the possibilities of stack building varying parameters like suit order, color, value and increment and so on. Barry could not really read German. But as a Sudoku lover and puzzle friend he was able to interprete my stacks and the formulas behind the stacks. After that Barry Ray developed Barry's stack (and other stacks) and wrote his book.

That's fascinating news, hcs. Thanks for sharing!
And heads up to Doug for correcting himself.