September 11, 2006 THE 2006 DONATIONCODER.COM C++ BUILDER DONATIONWARE PROGRAMMING CONTEST RESULTS Discuss the contest on our forum. About Judging The Results There were many excellent submissions to the contest, and choosing winners was difficult and several of the decisions could honestly have gone either way. Judging was based on a number of criteria including completeness, documentation, polish, the existence of alternative free tools, the possibilities of improvement, the estimated difficulty of implementation, the usefulness/fun of the entry, and more. We categorized entries as described on our contest rules page, in order to ensure some diversity, but also awarded prizes to individual coders based on multiple entries. Download and Try For Yourself! One of the main points of this contest was to encourage the development of donationware software. On behalf of the authors we invite you to download and use these programs. If you find them useful, will you please consider making a donation to the authors to support their continued development?

TOP PRIZE WINNERS

Three entrants were chosen to receive our Top Prize Package (which included Borland's BDS 2006 Enterprise Edition):
Darko Kalinic & Nikola Labovic, Detlef Meyer-Eltz, and Sasko Usinov.

Darko Kalinic & Nikola Labovic won for their very professional SQL database management tool, SQL Advanced Manager:

	SQL Advanced Manager SQL Advanced Manager is a great solution for: -professionals and amateurs who in any manner work with databases, especially MS ACCESS -students -people who would like to learn SQL It’s main purpose is to work with database via SQL queries. However, it also provides many other things such as fast accessing to all the tables in the database, and also to all the fields in those tables… Some main features are: -Quick access to all the data in any table with just one mouse click -Many tools and wizards which simplify working with your database -Syntax assistant is also integrated into the program, so the beginners would not have any problems while learning SQL, and the professionals, on the other side, would have a quick reminder on basic SQL syntax. -Many more.. Download: Here     See more screenshots and read more about SQL Advanced Manager.. posted by Blaster - August 17, 2006, 07:12:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 7 comments)

Detlef Meyer-Eltz won for a pair of submissions using his excellent TextTransformer algorithms:

	Minimal Website "Minimal Website" is a program to make a complete websites from plain texts. The texts are translated to formatted HTML contents automatically which then are embedded in a common layout for the website. A navigation menu is generated automatically too. Colors, fonts etc. can be adjusted in corresponding dialogs. Special attention was put on search engine optimization. As a special feature you can call your own HTML converters. That's where the the TextTransformer components are used. You can see, how such a website looks like at: http://www.texttransformer.org   There you also can download Minimal Website or download it directly from: http://www.texttransforme...ini_ws/MiniWs_Inst_en.exe     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by dme - August 16, 2006, 06:29:00 PM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 2 comments)

	TextTransformer Components The TextTransformer components can be used to change the structure of text strings or files, like transforming wiki text into HTML. The HTML text of the help for the components is a good example: It was generated automatically from a plain text file. Many varieties of text conversions are possible. The TextTransformer package consists of three components: 1. TTextStringTransformer for the transformation of a string into another string 2. TTextFileN2NTransformer for the transformation of one text file into another one 3. TTextFileN21Transformer for the transformation of several text files into a common destination file The components can be downloaded from the TextTransformer web-site: http://www.texttransformer.com Or directly from: http://www.texttransforme...loads/TetraComponents.zip     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by dme - July 19, 2006, 03:49:00 PM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 1 comment)

Sasko Usinov won for a very impressive new Programming IDE called SkyIDE. While it still has some rough edges, it looks to make a real splash:

	SkyIDE - a Free C++ and Java Integrated Devlopment Environment SkyIDE is a free integrated development environment for C++, Java, and other projects. SkyIDE stands for Sky Integrated Development Environment. * Multiple project support * Multiple C++ compiler support * Each project of type C++ can be set to use a different C++ compiler * Tabbed document Interface implemented using MDI with drag-tab support * You can have different projects open at the same time. You can have HTML, C++, Java, PHP and JavaScript projects all open at the same time. * Powerful text manipulation functions:   Project URL and DOWNLOAD: http://www.skyide.com Main Screenshot: http://www.skyide.com/images/main.png Other screenshots: http://www.skyide.com/screenshots.html     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by SkyIDE - August 16, 2006, 02:41:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 6 comments)

MAIN PRIZE WINNERS

Seven coders received our Main Prize Package (which included Borland's BDS 2006 Professional Edition):
Reinhard Scharnagl, Malcolm Smith, Jake Greenwood, Gianni Luciani, Martin Nicholas, Tomasz Blajek, and Jim Kinsman.

Reinhard Scharnagl won for an extremely impressive Chess Tool and Game Engine:

	SMIRF 8x8 + 10x8 Chess Program SMIRF Chess Program and Engine "SMIRF covers a lot of chess downwards compatibly extending variants like Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess) including traditional 8x8 chess. But its main goal is to open the world of 10x8 chess to everyone by supporting e.g. Janus Chess or the new Capablanca Random Chess. Though playing already well as a beta, this SMIRF project still is under development and thus will be updated from time to time." Download (~1.7 MB) could be found at my page: http://www.chessbox.de/Compu/schachsmirf_e.html     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by Smirf - July 16, 2006, 10:08:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 65 comments)

Malcolm Smith won for one of the most polished and professional entries submitted, a powerful Cleanup tool designed for developers:

	Development Cleaning Suite Here is my initial submission for this contest.  The suite is fully functional and has performed well for me (I just cleaned 400+ MB of temporary files from my development machine). The "Development Cleaning Suite" (DCS) is a utility that provides a cleanup handler for Widows 2000 and above.  Additionally, the suite includes a configuration tool as well as an independant host (DCSUtil) for the handler - providing for additional benefits and more advanced features. An example of its presence with the Windows Disk Cleanup Tool: Clicking the "Review" button shows a detailed view of all files found and allows you to indicate which files should / should not be deleted. DOWNLOAD the installer and manual from official web page: HERE.     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by mjfreelancing - July 16, 2006, 10:20:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 33 comments)

Jake Greenwood won for a delightfully clever and slick tool full of options for assembling random selections of music of a specific length (mixtapes):

	Random MixTape Maker Random Mix Tape Maker allows you to create custom playlists from multiple mp3 file sources on your system. You can use these playlists to burn fresh, always new compiliations to a CD or drag & drop to your portable mp3 player, or just save a playlist for your listening pleasure. You have complete control as to how the playlists are created. Controlling such things as song length, compilation size, compilation length, and files/directories you want to exclude allows you to custom tailor playlist creation to fit your needs. Making "mix tapes" is as old an idea as the tape recorder itself; Random Mix Tape Maker was made to create a completely unique list of your favorite songs every time you use it, thus taking the hassle of searching through specific songs every time you want to make a mix of your own. Use it to make fresh mixes for your own listening pleasure, or use it to turn your friends on to your genre of music. Download Here: http://www.donationcoder....edling/MixTape/index.html     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by seedling - July 16, 2006, 10:37:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 2 comments)

Gianni Luciani won for Demina, a bizarre entry that won us over because of its surprisingly sophisticated implementation:

	Demina: A Minesweeper Solver/Helper Tool A program that can help in solving Minesweeper game. Download zip files with program and a help file: Here. Editor's Note: The description and screenshots do not do this tool justice - it is quite amazing to see it in action. It actually finds the normal windows minesweeper executable running, then takes screenshot of the window(!) then figures out the grid given the screenshot, then solves as much as it can, and then sends clicks back over to the minesweeper exe. It actually made me laugh out loud in suprise and pleasure as i was watching it work.. pretty damn amazing.. see the help file inside for a bit on the mathematics of how it works.     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by C++Speaker - July 17, 2006, 06:17:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 24 comments)

Martin Nicholas won for GameChat, an internet chat and multi-game system, that works very well despite it's somewhat dated appearance:

	Gamechat The submision that i am making to the borland competition is a Lan or network game/chat server. Game chat makes a winsock connection betweeen the two processes and allows a simple text chat over this connection as well as gameplay for chess,checkers,norts and crosses and Reversi. here is  a screenshot of the main program. My website has a page explaining the process of using the program at http://www.members.optusn...au/~martyjn/download.html Direct downloaded from http://www.members.optusn....au/~martyjn/GameChat.zip     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by martyjn - July 16, 2006, 10:42:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 5 comments)

Our last two main prize winners won based not on a single standout program, but on a collection of programs.

Tomasz Blajek won for an odd combination of programs. Two wonderful little games (TPXonix and TPCube), and a utility for serious http debugging (HTTPJupiter):

	TPCube - test your 3D imagination! In this game what you have to do is to choose a cube that can be made out of a cube net shown. Cubes have different symbols on sides, sometimes they are arrows, so that you can say what direction they point, and sometimes they are just fully symmetrical shapes, so some problems are easy to solve, and some are really difficult. What inspired me to write this game was this book: 'Why Men Don't Listen And Women Can't Read Maps', Allan and Barbara Pease. You can download the game here:  TPCube.rar (28.92 KB - downloaded 880 times.)     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by TPReal - July 25, 2006, 09:45:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 6 comments)

	HTTPJupiter - Internet utility The idea of HTTPJupiter is very simple - you connect to some TCP server and port, send there a request, and retrieve an answer. However, it has many options that make the process much easier than using, for instance, telnet. The program may be used just as a regular browser, if someone has an HTML parser implemented in his or her brain Warning: using this program needs some knowledge on HTTP protocol! I use this program really often, mostly for example for solving problems on www.slyfx.com or www.mod-x.co.uk, also for viewing damaged pages, using fake cookies or tracing the path of visited pages, when they have Location header line, and are not displayed in regular browser. Also, an advantage of HTTPJupiter is that your computer cannot get infected when you visit some page, as nothing on the page is executed - the content is only displayed to user. Download program with user manual here:  HTTPJupiter.rar (324.39 KB - downloaded 831 times.)     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by TPReal - July 24, 2006, 04:11:00 PM social bookmark this story (permalink) (leave a comment)

	TPXonix - remake of the old Xonix game with MULTIPLAYER mode! Has any of you ever seen Xonix game with multiplayer mode? In TPXonix, up to four players can play together (locally, on one computer), as enemies or in teams. It can also be played in single mode, just like classic Xonix game. Multiplayer mode allows a lot of new playing techniques. For example: Blocking other players while they draw a trail - if you make your own trail in the place where they want to get back to terrain, they cannot do it. Chasing players that have less lives. When two players collide, both of them lose a life, so it gives an advantage to the player with more lives. Destroying other players' traps (U-shaped structures) by filling them. It is an easy way to earn some points, because it is easy to close an empty trap. On the other hand, when nobody makes traps, the game becomes really rough for all players... Simultaneous conversions. If your opponent is just cutting off a really nice area and you are somewhere close to the area, you can try to make a short trail inside of this area, and finish it EXACTLY simultaneously with him finishing the main cut. Then, both your trails are borders of the cut-off area, so... no one gets points for it! (If you fail, the score just goes to your opponent.) But nobody said it is easy, especially when your rival is aware of what you do, and he or she REALLY doesn't want to let you spoil his or her work... Game configuration screen: In action: Download TPXonix ver. 1.2:  TPXonix.rar (39.02 KB - downloaded 769 times.) very cool and fun game to play if you have multiple people at the same keyboard. posted by TPReal - July 23, 2006, 03:38:00 PM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 7 comments)

Jim Kinsman won for his desktop utilities (a virtual desktop program, a dockable todo list, and flashcard tool) and Oracle database tool:

	FlashCard Pro FlashCard Pro is a tool to help you study. Works great for high school and college students. I used it for my Spanish class last semester! Download:  FlashCardPro15.zip (465.22 KB - downloaded 865 times.) Documentation: http://www.xhirl.com/software/flashcardpro/webhelp posted by relipse - August 14, 2006, 11:44:00 PM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 2 comments)

	Trandesk Multiple Desktops Trandesk Multiple Desktops A Multiple Desktop Manager Well, have you ever tried XP's powertoys, Microsoft coded a multiple desktop app, but I found many improvements and started working on Trandesk. I think the best part is doing Ctrl-Alt-D and pressing left right up or down to switch desktops... Documentation: http://www.xhirl.com/software/trandesk/webhelp Download:  Trandesk091.zip (392.63 KB - downloaded 796 times.)     See more screenshots and discuss.. posted by relipse - August 14, 2006, 02:58:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 5 comments)

	Oracle SQL PlusPlus Oracle SQL*PlusPlus If anyone uses ORACLE for a database server, then you'll love SQLPlusPlus. Syntax highlighting, a nice Grid to view your queries. A command history. Support for running scripts. I was sick and tired of SQLPlus, so I coded my own and now I use it all the time for complex queries and for simple ones... Here is a screenshot of the latest version, with options to view your data how you want it. You can download a demo here.  You will need oracle server (or some connection that allows you to connect remotely):  SQLPlusPlus1-98b.zip (880.7 KB - downloaded 757 times.)     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by relipse - July 25, 2006, 09:06:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (leave a comment)

	Pandemic To-do List Pandemic List A self-customizing to-do list The problem that I had was that not every program has a to-do list, furthermore, I was working on a project that consisted of multiple sub-projects using different IDEs, and I would use a to-do list in one, and then switch to the other app and i lost track of all my items. My solution was to create a self-customized todo list. There are 4 different views for the todo list, my most recent view I added today was the TrayIcon popup view. When you switch applications and a new todo item happens, the tray icon animates. Screenshots: Download:  PandemicList.zip (459.88 KB - downloaded 2339 times.) posted by relipse - July 23, 2006, 06:55:00 PM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 2 comments)

SPECIAL RECOGNITION PRIZE WINNERS

We chose three coders to receive a special unplanned Prize Package to encourage further development on their software, which included the new Borland Turbo C++ Professional:
Tran Chi Kien, Mark, and Piotr Jurga.

Tran Chi Kien won for his nicely done Database VCL component and promising PHP/ASP Web Server:

	SqlManager Component Basically, this component allows you to monitor and admin an instance of MS SQL Server 2000 and 2005. Quote I will submit a component, a sample program, all with source codes for this contest this week. Right now I'm working on the document for this component. Sample program to preview: http://tchikien.donationc....com/SqlServerMonitor.exe Full Download: here References: here     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by tchikien - August 10, 2006, 04:59:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 4 comments)

	PhpWebserver PhpWebserver is a webserver with PHP and ASP.NET 1.1 support. Support ISAPI extenstions...  I plan to make it work with JSP too. This program is freeware/donationware with source codes. PHP page example: ASP.NET page example: Download Here:  PhpWebServer.rar (711.52 KB - downloaded 827 times.)     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by tchikien - July 18, 2006, 02:39:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 1 comment)

Mark won for his work on a motion detecting component using DSPack (not shown), and a well done accessible-keyboard desktop tool:

	Virtual Keyboard Tool Virtual Keyboard Tool let's you type into programs using only the mouse: Download available soon. posted by mouser - September 07, 2006, 11:53:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 3 comments)

Piotr Jurga won for his work on a translation teaching tool to help in reading foreign language books:

	Educational SuperMemo Utility A small educational program/tool using dictionary and given text to produce list of words which can be imported by SuperMemo (vocabulary learning software). Screenshots : Dictionary window Files window Simple flashcard window: Read.zip contains application itself, manual & sources.  read.zip (1192.79 KB - downloaded 818 times.)     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by trachx - July 20, 2006, 02:31:00 PM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 1 comment)

OTHER NOTABLE ENTRIES

There were a lot of great entries which deserve recognition even though they didn't win a prize in the contest.

	Soduku Game, Editor, Solver Complete Soduku Game with Editor and Solver. Download: here. This is a really fantastic entry, complete, polished, documented, and fun to play.  Helps you solve and manage soduku games as well. posted by gillz67 - September 07, 2006, 11:56:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 4 comments)

	Forecasting of the Financial Markets Forecasting of the financial markets for developed and less developed countries of the world. For a demo daily efficiency of strategy of forecasting of base and fast systems on the average 70 % - 80 %. The project of game strategies developed for financial markets by definition of the causal moments of market movements. For definition of the determined movement of the market we offer to use as the basic approach methodology of the coordinated spectral analysis stated in article R.S. Rutman " On phisical iterpretations of fractional itegration and differentiation ", from University of Massachusetts, published in Russian magazine " Theoretical and mathematical physics", volume 105, № 3, in December 1995. Download here: http://www.deforex2.com/contest/Market.zip Screenshot here: http://www.deforex2.com/contest/Market.jpg     Continue reading the rest of the entry and discuss.. posted by bob248 - August 13, 2006, 11:35:00 AM social bookmark this story (permalink) (read 1 comment)