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How about a file synching program for multiple computers (i.e, your laptop to your pc to your office pc). Could judge on alot of different things that way (such as automatability, overhead on the OS, conflict resolution, etc) Have options to sync entire folders, or specific files, etc.
Bill
Doing the Sudoku contest was great fun.
Why isn't there a next contest?
Just start it da**it.
Start what? Where is the idea/suggestion for the contest? Will you join the contest no matter what it is? Cause even if you do, there aren't many others that will (join no matter what). So unless a good idea is suggested (my imagination is limited) and people express some interest, there isn't much point starting a contest and having 2 or 3 people join... Correct me if you think I'm wrong or if I'm missing the point :)
Well, four persons have shown interest to a wordwrapper, which is the most interest in a long time in this thread for a certain idea. Though I'm still not sure if I'd have the time to do it. But I guess that leaves more room for others to participate and win ;)
The rules that probably would be the most reasonable:
- make a function that returns a string that is formatted to max. given amount of characters from the given string
- the default input value is 80
- if a word is too long to fit into the character limit, it should be cut off and a - should be placed into the end of line
- lines must be separated by a CRLF
And I guess the results would be purely based on benchmark time.
How about a chat program contest? Everyone is always asking in classic vb how to make one. Then when its all done everyone can chat with everyone. Make it a P2P type app?
How about a speed challenge for stretching a rectangular image into a non-rectangular polygon? :D :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Raedwulf
You up for that keda :)
Hey, that's a good idea... I'm up to that !Quote:
Originally Posted by RobDog888
Though, I don't know if I'll have time to actually to it, if this contest starts...
It is a good thing that Mods can not be in the contest as if we did the Chat contest Badger Boy would probably win. :lol:
How about a font detector? You have to take a letter from any picture and identify its font and its size?
Any takers? I think thats interesting..
When will the next contest be? Do any mods have the time to host one?
They already have a few sites that can do that. They ask you questions and then at the end they tell you which font it is that your looking for.
But i dont want to do it with questions or anything..just a picture of a letter or something..Doesnt anyone else think thats a good idea?
私 <- go ahead and code a detect! Yup, doing it for 65535 characters and all the fonts on the system... it takes time :)
Also, if you install Far East Language support, your Windows can do character detection all by itself. Just draw a letter and Windows tells you which character it is. Of course it doesn't tell which font is the closest, but that doesn't really matter. Which I guess is the point.
Well not how i was thinking of doing it..maybe i dont know what im saying (probably)..but i was thinking of usign a picture box to print out a letter into it, and then compare the two..Quote:
Originally Posted by Merri
What about fastest home grown vb string function?
Mid,Len,Right,Left etc?
Time to liven up the contests again? It's seems rather dead here =/
I'm DIEING to have another contest. I don't care if I fail miserably, I just really like them. Do any mods have time? It would be an awesome thing to do over winter break. Maybe its just me that has free time then though. I guess a lot of people are busy.
I like the idea of solving this:
http://vbforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=43019
Sounds like hacking to me. It would definitly be cool though. A good chance for me to learn GDI too. We couldn't make it too complex (gradients) though.
Someone's sure to do it though. Then they'll change things, just like they did when they were one font.
Why not have bigger contests with more cooperation so to speak, things like making BotWars or messenger clones which can be rated on looks, usability and speed. etc :)
Those things have one thing in common, they all have a common server and the ability to interact with other players (multiplayer so to speak ;))
We have to find a mod that is willing first...
True :/
I'm allways willing if there is enough interest.
I think there is enough interest if you look at my poll in the Classic VB forum :)
Atleast 5 so far, which would be good for a contest. and Imho there is no need for prices, the glory of winning should be enough to boost their ego ;)
Suggestion: The Sieve of Eratosthenes
http://www.math.utah.edu/classes/216/assignment-07.html
I spose drumming up interest is really the hard part.
I guess if Pino is willing then we just need to come up with a contest to have. Considering that is the whole point of this thread, we should be able to narrow it down to something. Does anyone have any favorites. We can narrow it down then take a vote in CC or something.
If someone PM's me with a suggestion list of new contest (as many as you wnat) i'll create a thread in chitchat stick it up and you can all vote. Just PM me
Pino or catch me on msn
That is such a great idea that is has already been done. Prime numbers was the contest before last.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Sell
I like math contests though. Maybe pascal's triangle? Speed would be the goal again. How fast you can calculate the nth row of the triangle. That wouldn't be much of a challange though. Almost all the code would be the same and whoever could optimize the most would win (Merri ;)).
The Sieve of Eratosthenes sounds very intersting - but you said its already been done???
Why not have the contest to generate all prime numbers to a number n. - not necessarily having to use the Sieve of Eratosthenes? - so we can implement variations and our own ideas - if its possible.
How about a speech-to-code generator program. You speak the code and it will be auto-typed into a textbox or textfile. :D
Speech recognition? - not sure if i have all the time in the world to do it though :) - nice idea nevertheless.
The Sieve of Eratosthenes has NOT already been done, but a prime number contest has. It is very similar and I think there are enough good ideas in here that we could chose something else.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raedwulf
I love math so anything relating to that sounds great to me. I'll try to take some time this weekend and weed through these ideas for some good ones.
ahhhh ok :) - i only joined the forums for the last contest lol :)
btw - http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is
My implementation appeared to be the Sieve of Erathosthenes in it's most pure VB6 speed optimized form one can do. I didn't win the contest though because I didn't optimize listbox display (I still don't understand why the listbox was benchmarked).Quote:
Originally Posted by eyeRmonkey
Nice display pic :)
lol - benchmarking listbox :D
Hmmmm btw...what has happened to all the entries and info about the previous contests - there should be a hall of fame and shame :)
Yeah probably another maths related problem should be done as those pose more ingenious solutions and do not require too much tedious programming.
btw - this looks cool :)
http://www.recmath.com/contest/description.php
its actually an on going competition - but let's change the rules slightly. - best solution + best time :) What d'ya think ;)
Just wondering.. why math? There are more aspects to coding then just math. (and I suck at math which is the reason I'm writing this ;))
Well thats fine too. Whats your idea?
Well maths is fun - especially when you get your program to solve it for you :).
I'm voting for that circle one- it seems very 'challenging' :D
There's a whole set of older problems we could dig into here - http://www.recmath.com/contest/archives.php
A challenge.. make an AI bot that can fight other AI bots made by other players. Requires a central server thingy tho :]
Lol :) - thats maths related - Artificial intelligence - path-finding minimum connector etc. etc.
Anyone interested with sorting algorithms :)???
Semi math related.. not totally. picture this; The bots run in unknown space. The server has a specific boundary of which any bot runs through will end up on the other side (like the old snake games) - Bots would have several functions to use depending on the energy reserve they have. [Scan], [Move], [Fire], [Pass]. the 3 actions basically would require 2 variables. Angle and Energy. The bot has to figure out how much it would need to fire a certain length.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raedwulf
The ultimate goal would be for someone to make a bot that kills, maims and causes overall destruction over the battlefield :]
Not a bad idea devion. I have no idea how servers work (or how to connect to one in VB).
I just got finished with a term of Robotics. We used Lego Mindtorms and did some pretty cool stuff.
Yeah thats a cool idea - hmmmmmm would this be like 1v1 or FFA?
Could there be obstacles - so path finding would have to be achieved ....or maybe we could start off with your idea as first contest - then second contest - we would need obstacles etc....
Hmmmmm - a server system - yer...i guess so :) - and for fun we could have a human controlled players too :).
A server and a client.. Both present a few challenges to overcome :)
- A network protocol
- Client protocol handling
- Server protocol handling
- Game loop
- Authentication (we don't want people nick-stealing)
- Scoreboard
- Anti-Cheat practices
- 2d rendering techniques for those that wanna play themselves
- AI Method practices for those that don't wanna play themselves ;)
And whatever comes to mind during development of client and server. Though the server should be made by one person who doesn't want to participate with the Challenge imho. The challenge would be only the client.
Extra features would be:
- Team based
- Fog of War
- PvP instead of bots
Though the initial idea I posted was only Bots versus Bots (each game could take like only 1 minute with >40 frags on the score .. depending on the bot skills tho :}
That's a nice idea...
Too bad I don't have time for this :cry: :cry:
I like the Pancake contest on the recmath.com site linked to by Raedwulf.
In a similar vein, perhaps we could have a contest to determine the best solver for a Tile Slide game. By way of description, a Tile Slide game is traditionally a 4x4 array of 15 tiles numbered 1 to 15. The object is to get all tiles lined-up sequentially (left to right, top to bottom) by sliding tiles into the empty, 16th slot.
Solvers could/should handle puzzles of different sizes.
And like the Pancake contest, there could be two parts to the contest. One part to determine the "best" solver (as determined by the # of moves solved and, in case of a tie, time to solve) and another part to determine the hardest puzzle (as determined by the minimum # of moves needed to solve).
Also, like the Pancake contest, both the starting puzzle arrangements and solutions are in a simple format - just a list of numbers (where zero could represent the empty slot in starting arrangements). This should make the interface and scoring relatively easy.
ahhhhh---time consumption detected :)
Btw- we got quite a few ideas collected now - someone care to make a list and maybe poll the suggestions?
Only as a means of breaking a tie.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raedwulf
Come to think of it, there may be a better way. Use solutions to successively larger puzzles as the tie breaker. That is to say, if more than one person has the best solution for a 3x3 game board, the winner is determined by the one with the best solution for the 4x4 game board (etc.). Of course, if two or more people created perfect solvers (ones that always gave the best results regardless of board size), there'd still need to be some way to determine a winner.
no i was referring to general programming time :) - sohould have quoted what i was referring too but i forgot
Quote:
A server and a client.. Both present a few challenges to overcome
- A network protocol
- Client protocol handling
- Server protocol handling
- Game loop
- Authentication (we don't want people nick-stealing)
- Scoreboard
- Anti-Cheat practices
- 2d rendering techniques for those that wanna play themselves
- AI Method practices for those that don't wanna play themselves
And whatever comes to mind during development of client and server. Though the server should be made by one person who doesn't want to participate with the Challenge imho. The challenge would be only the client.
Extra features would be:
- Team based
- Fog of War
- PvP instead of bots
I like the server game idea, but I would have no idea to where to begin so it would have to be teams for me to participate and even then I wouldn't be able to contribute much to my team. But, thats just me. :)
The last contest was a puzzle solver so I think we should do something else. Not a bad idea though.
The server idea sounds cool but would take my entire winter break + a month.
I guess we could start a poll, but wich ideas should we include? I think we need more that havn't been done in recent contest but wouldn't take 3 months to complete. Thats just my opinion though.
I started to think about some simpler contest idea: what about a cannon AI? Here is the scenario: there is a airplane/car/ship/spaceship/whatever moving on the playfield. The task is to code an AI for the gun so that it makes hits on the object. The challenge would be to determine what path the object is taking so that the gunfire would hit the object.
- the gun would stay still, but it could rotate
- the gun would get information about the angle where the object is and how far away it is
- the gun would know where the object is heading to (ie. the end position)
- the object could vary its speed and path, but would be time limited to get to its target
- the object would never die, but hits are counted
- the object would have a speed limit
- the gun would have a limited ammo
- the gun would have a reloading time
- the gun would know the speed of the bullet
The object could be both player controlled and for the contest quality test it should have a possibility to code premade player movements. After the contest it would be very interesting to have another contest in which the target would be to make an object that avoids the gunfire as much as it can :)
I think I could be able to code a VB6 base engine for this in a day or two.
That sounds like an awesome idea Merri! I really like it. Speed isn't as much of an issue so I might have a chance, although the coding would have to be very creative. :)
I would definitly be up for that. Would we all get to see the game engine before we started? Wow. Thats sounds awesome. I almost don't want to start a poll anymore, but maybe we should?
Does anyone else like this idea?
EDIT: You should also write some simple graphics to go with it. It could literally be some circles and squares, but I think it would make it a ton cooler just to have a little visual stuff to go with it. It might not be worth the effort though.
Nah, the asnwer would have to be 42!
Hmmmm dglienna, you suggesting a program to calculate the ultimate question of 6x9 :D
Merri, sounds like a bit of relative velocity :) and guess work :) - ai would be rather limited :P.
Connect 4 anyone?
Raedwulf: not actually, if you think about it: the shooter (= gun ai) would know, that some time the object MUST move, must start moving somewhere, must be heading for it's target... the AI just has to figure out when is the best time to shoot so it would get a hit. We've had a contest a bit like this before: it was the pathfinding contest. You get very limited information, but it is still possible to make it work well.
eyeRmonkey: yeah, I thought it to be visual. Otherwise it wouldn't be very exciting and it would be hard to code as you couldn't see anything. By separating the engine from the code I could keep improving the visual side of the thing and it would stay perfectly compatible with what you've already coded.