C / C++ / C# Sitemap - Page 7
More iPhone Source Code Appearing
I've added two more links to the iPhone code library. The first is an ingenious Objective-C Class explorer that lets you view the various libraries on your
More on Example 2
This explains the example of random access strings stored in an index and data file.
More on Example 2
This continues explaining example 2 and how it works
More on Example 3
This completes the tutorial explaining example three that demonstrates random access files in c++ with variable length records.
More on Random Access - Data Schemes
This discusses the best way to use random access binary files and how to code them
More on The Challenge
My last blog entry about Programming Challenge 1 obviously struck a chord as I've now had a few entries that use a non brute force approach. There is almost
More on Two Out of Three are True
Kudos to RJ and others in the comments in an earlier post for the return a ? (b||c) : (b&&c) Which is very elegant. Being so used to C#
More on the ASP.NET Development
As it was a public holiday in the UK on Monday I spent most of it on the website project. I made a break through in that I got my own dynamic menu system
More on the Game Architecture
This describes the game architecture and decisions made in creating it.
More on the Kinect
More on the Kinect
Most Popular Programming Languages on Google
Doing a straight comparison on search engines gives a distorted view of the current popularity. C++ gives 231 million results compared to 113 million for C# but
Motion Detection in C#
Traditionally motion detectors work through infra red detectors picking up change in heat levels as a warm body moves in front of a cooler area. With the
Moving Up and Down between Folders in Csharp/C#
A class that lets you easily move between folders (up and down) in csharp/c#
Moving to Mercurial/TortoiseHG
One of the best things about the Subversion version control system was the book
Multi-Threading - Definition
Definition of Multi-Threading
MultiFlex 3 Website Design in ASP.NET
I do the odd website and like to have nice designs. One thing I'm not though is a designer. Luckily there are websites such as oswd.org where proper designers
MusicBrainz Client API
You might have come across the MusicBrainz community music metadatabase. If not, it's a handy free way to label your unlabeled music files in mp3, wav, vorbis,
My Answer to the C Programming Puzzle
As I'm writing this there have more comments than entries in some programming challenges! Here is my answer which I see others have also done. The conditional
My Comments on Comments in Programs
Traditionally there are two schools of thought with comments. You need them because your code is way too clever and hard to read or understand.You don't need
My Conversion Strategy
this explains how I converted the Tiny basic application into C, using a multi pass approach and lots of cutting and pasting.
My Experiences with a Windows VPS
This is one of a series of articles about my experiences developing an online game in C# running on a Windows VPS
My First iPhone App
This programming tutorial explains how to create an iPhone App
My First iPhone App Tutorial Published
It's a very simple App but I'm pleased with it. There's quite a learning curve towards mastery of Xcode, Objective-C, the UIKit and other frameworks so this
My Game Server Quest Continues
The game server world has until fairly recently been a bit of a Linux dominated area. It's cheaper than Windows and you can run Java, C, C++. Along with VPS and
My Internet Connection is Getting Hammered!
My Internet Connection is Getting Hammered!
My Love Affair With My Kindle Continues
I've been playing with my new Kindle, reading books, and even found out how to alter the fonts on it. For that though you have to jailbreak it. I recommend the
My Mailbox is groaning, under the weight
Thanks for all the entries for the Programming Challenge 1, please keep them coming- there's still 29 days to go! I've not looked at them all yet, but so far
My New Linux Box - A Saga
It is 4 inches x 2 inches x 2.5 inches and has 0.5 GB of ram and 0.5GB of flash ram, draws 5W and is now setup and working. I bought a Tonidoplug and it arrived
My New Linux Crashed and Burned
My New Linux Crashed and Burned
My Position on Software Patents is Unchanged
My Position on Software Patents is Unchanged
My Progress With ASP.NET
It's not that it is intrinsically difficult, I think I was just trying to run before I could walk. I've just spent three days last week taking an existing
My code for the 10 x 10 Array
I could probably make this a little bit faster by subtracting 1 from every number in the row() function, or better still moving the body of the function into
MyGeneration - Open Source C# O/R Mapping
I really love open source (yes I know that the iPhone and open source are incompatible- sad really) and some of the projects around are quite remarkable. I've
MySQL type alternatives to MySQL
MariaDB is a fork of MySQL with a number of differences; it has a new database engine called Aria (It was called Maria but renamed to avoid confusion with the
N-Gage 2.0 C++ Games Platform Launch
Nokia's original N-Gage shown in the photo, came out over four years ago and was a dedicated games console and mobile phone that aimed to rival the Nintendo
NAEV - Open Source Space Trading Game in C
Back in 1984 the big game release was Elite, a space trading and combat game that well deserved its accolades and gave it a place in computer gaming history. I
NETZ - An Open Source .NET EXE/DLL Compressor
Puzzle Answer The answer to the puzzle was 8 days. If it was 100% on day 10 and had been doubling every day then on day 9 it must have covered 50% and therefor
NSIS - A Free Professional Installer
As a games developer in the 80s, I did some work on writing installers- I developed a software installer authoring system for the CBM-64 tape deck. Commodore
NTL - A C++ Library for High Precision Arithmetic
On 32 bit PCs the highest precision you can get is roughly 15 digits with doubles (in C and C++) and 28-29 significant digits in C# with decimal type. But
NULL - Definition
Definition of NULL
NWeb - A Tiny Webserver in 200 Lines
If you want to play with a simple web server, written in C, just 200 lines long and running on a Linux box this is for you. Nweb only sends htm/html, gif, png,
Name the Open Source Project!
That is 429.3 MB in size and requires Visual C++ 2005 to build on Windows. The new open source browser from Google is called Chrome and is initially only
Namespace - Definition
Definition of Namespace
Nasa - Forging Ahead in Space
Nasa - Forging Ahead in Space
Nasa World Wind is 5 Years Old
But still remains a really impressive open source demonstration of what C# can do. Comprising some 489 .cs files, this is an Earth visualization tool.
Nasa's Home Grown Open Source Collection
Earlier this month I looked at Nasa World Wind but did you know Nasa actually hosts a number of other home grown open source applications in a mixture of
Nathan's Zombie Simulator in C#
A 21 year old programmer who hosts the blog Wr3cktangle has published the source to his Zombie Simulator. It's a simple simulator, a variant on the
Native Client Now Supports Mono
Native Client Now Supports Mono
Native Client SDK for Chromium
It was December 2008 when I first mentioned it but since then Google have released that that was quite cumbersome and a couple of days ago they released a
Need to Zip in .NET? Use DotNetZip
Although .NET has built in Zip handling classes in the BCL, there's always room for improvement and DotNetZip which is open source certainly does that. Back in
NeoAxis Game Engine
Many people I know dream of writing their own games. I did it in a simpler time, 24 years ago when one person could design the graphics, create the sounds (and
NetFlix Competition still Running
I mentioned the Netflix competition a year ago and it's still running. In fact, it runs for another 4 years and there is still a large amount of cash
NetHack - from ASCII to 3D
NetHack, a descendant of Rogue is one of the oldest games around, having just reached 21 years old and is still in development at version 3.4.3. It's a hack
New Article - Long Password Generator in C#
A few years ago I came up with an idea to easily generate very long passwords in a way that was easy to remember, so if the password was lost it could be
New C Tutorial Posted- Strings and Text Handling
The latest C tutorial on strings and text handling is now live with the longest example program yet- 140 lines long! This tutorial will also work in
New C++ Tutorial + Answer to the C++ Programming Problem
This asked which of the two default constructor styles (initializer or defaulted parameters) was preferable. It really depends on whether you want to
New C++ Tutorial Posted on Strings
Just live is the latest C++ tutorial on strings. This covers initializing strings, interacting with C Strings and using virtually all of the functions
New C++ Tutorial Published
Text files, love em or leave them are a vital part of computing. An XML file is just a text file holding xml data. I regard them as a necessary evil. So this
New C++Tutorial on References Posted.
This is the second requested C++ tutorial on references. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be filling in the missing C++ tutorials up to the point where the
New Cygwin Version Released
Cygwin is a dll that provides partial Posix compatibility via a wrapper layer so that applications running on Windows can make Posix calls just like they were
New Direct APIs in Windows 7
Direct2D and DirectWrite are two new APIs provided with Windows 7. Direct2D is a hardware-accelerated, immediate-mode 2-D graphics API that provides high
New Features in C# 4.0 + New Express Versions
C# has a new static type called dynamic that you can assign anything to at compile time. However it is checked at run-time so if it would have failed had you
New Lesson - How to Compile with Visual C++ 6
For the last five years, Visual C++ 6 has been Microsoft's flasgship development system for 32 bit Windows. With an IDE, debugger, and excellent compiler
New Project Posted
As well as writing the serious tutorial stuff, I've been relaxing by converting a classic computer game 'Star Trek' from Tiny Basic into C. It's now live in the
New Site Feature - How To Do Things
These are in the C, C++ and C# sections of the site. The first ones are two C and C# applications that simulate rolling three six-sided dice, 10 million
New Tutorial - Game Programming in C
New Tutorial - Game Programming in C
New Tutorial - Installing Turbo C# Explorer
If you fancy trying out Borland's free Turbo C# Development system (a subset of the full Borland Development System), this tutorial will show you how to
New Version of Internet Explorer
I missed out on the original Mosaic browser and got into the web about the time Internet Explorer 3 was out in 1996. Internet Explorer 9 has just come out
New Weekly Challenge - the Boardgame Acquire
This is part of the weekly programming challenge to write bots that play the boardgame Acquire, implemented as dynamic link libraries in C,C++ or C#. This article describes the game.
New iPhone Features Announced
Unless you have been living in a cave, it's hard not to have heard about version 3.0 of the iPhone software that was announced last week and will appear in a
New on my shelf
Microsoft has released a free version of Visual C#. Now you've no excuse for not finishing the C# tutorials. Visual C# 2005 Express Edition includes an IDE,
Next Asteroids Tutorial Published
Next Asteroids Tutorial Published
Next C Tutorial Published
The promised C tutorial on low level operations, manipulating bits with the binary form of and, or and xor (&, | and ^) is now live. If you are into C++,
Next C# Tutorial Posted
The second C# Tutorlal has been posted. Instead of lots of small examples, I've created a 150 line application- a simple car simulation which moves a car
Next Ongoing Challenge To Start Soon
I've been busy writing the code for it and should have it ready, possibly this week or if not, the week after. This challenge is for you to write a bot that can
Next Weekly Challenge?
Not many people replied to the #2 Ongoing Programming Challenge so I'm looking for ideas for something to replace it. Also Weekly Challenge sounds better than
Nice Little C Problem
I'd expect experienced C developers to get this, but it's a good one for beginners. Why does this crash? char *s =
Nintendo Writing an Operating System?
Nintendo is famous for their NES, SNES, GameBoy and of course Wii game consoles. But now it looks as if they are working on an operating system architecture
No Free Desktop Development in Visual Studio 11 Express
No Free Desktop Development in Visual Studio 11 Express
NoSQL - Definition
This is the glossary entry for NoSQL
Nokia Publishes Symbian Code
Well you have to be registered and technically a partner/collaborator but tell em Dave sent you! I feel a bit sorry for Nokia who thoroughout most of the last
Nokia to Acquire TrollTech- the QT Company
Following on from the recent Sun buying MySQL announcement, today came the announcement that Finnish company Nokia will make a public voluntary tender offer to
Nokia's Big Giveaway (and purchase!)
I know I harp on about non computer devices, but while it's now estimated that there are a billion PCs of all sorts in the world, there are probably 4 billion
Not Client - Server - That's Scary!
Not Client - Server - That's Scary!
Notes about the Original code
Describes how I dealt with line numbers and single letter variables
Notes on C Programming
Notes on C Programming
Notes on Objective C
Some Notes on Objective C
Now You see It!
Here's a nifty bit of code (in C++) that is shown an object defined by a bounding box in one frame. It then tracks that item in subsequent video frames. Even
Null Coalescing in C#
That's a title guaranteed to put people to sleep! In SQL you can check if a value is Null by using is null or is not null. select * from table where a is
ODBC - Definition
Definition of ODBC
OISC - One Instruction Set CPU
In these days when CPUs have Instruction Sets that are either CISC (Complex) or RISC (Reduced), there is an abstract 3rd type called an OISC which has just one
OR - Definition
Definition of OR
Object - Definition
Definition of Object
Object Code - Definition
Definition of Object Code
Object Oriented Databases
Most developers will answer
Object Oriented Programming
Learn about Object Oriented Programming
Object Oriented Programming with ANSI-C- Free E-Book
Professor Axel-Tobias Schreiner teaches computer science classes classes at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is the publisher of several books on Unix,
Obscure C# Programming Feature : ??
All three languages C, C++ and C# support the conditional operator ?: which returns one of two values according to the value of a boolean expression.
Off for a Couple of Days
Christmas was fine but my poor Mac Mini isn't working, so that's being repaired and I'll be away for a few days up North visiting relatives but will still be
Old Skool but Still Relevant!
No not me, but the technique of patching executables. In the old days, resources for moving files were somewhat limited. 20 years ago when I got my first 3.5
On Flamewars and Java
It's all to easy to get sucked into bitter online discussions about the merits of different programming languages but it's a bit like debating say Hammers
On Poker Bots and PokerPirate
Anyone who has ever played online poker has dreamed I guess of writing a poker bot that can play online Poker 24x7 and earn you an income. The cold harsh
On a Solitary Death March!
Most programmers encounter the Death March at some time in their career. It's not that bad- the work I am doing will succeed (not fail) but it has been a long
On printf, fprintf, and sprintf
A look at the printf, fprintf and sprintf functions in c programming
One Thing I Miss
I learned programming in 1976 back when there was no games industry as such. Back in the very early 80s what games there were were usually written In basic.
One of those Days!
The C++/C# sample bots still aren't ready yet though we have had one entry so far for the Stock trading Ongoing Programming Challenge #2 so things are getting
Ongoing Programming Challenge 1 - Rock Scissors Paper Tournament
This is an ongoing challenge where players write dlls to play Rock Scissors and Paper in C, C++ and C#.
Ongoing Programming Challenge 2 - Write a Share Trading Bot
This is an ongoing challenge where players write bots to buy and sell virtual shares
Ongoing Programming Challenge One - First Results
I've posted the first weekly results for the Rock, Scissors and Paper challenge. Serbian developer Darko sent in a C# bot that has to be the smallest possible
Online Programming Challenge 2 restarting in August
The start date is August 9th. I've created a bot in C. The dll interface for C and C++ is the same as before but with a few more parameters. You get the company
Oolite - Open Source Elite Clone
After mentioning NAEV last week, I came across OOlite which is a cross platform clone of the original Elite. It's accurate down to the ships, the commander's
Open Source - Definition
Definition of Open Source
Open Source ASP.NET Packages
One of the signs of maturity of a web platform is how many big open source packages are released for it. By any standards, the LAMP platform (and WAMP) are both
Open Source Bug Tracking Systems in C, C++ and C#
This page has links to
Open Source Bug-Tracking Software
Tracking bugs is one of those things that computers do very well. If you're developing software commercially, or even open source or for yourself then you
Open Source C Compilers
Given the relative simplicity of building a C compiler (compared to C++), it's not surprising that the web is almost awash with different C compilers. I've
Open Source C# Game Web App
The Dutch firm Q42 has open-sourced their lightweight web app that lets developers create their own server based web game applications. It comes with an
Open Source C# PHP Compiler
Open Source C# PHP Compiler
Open Source Code Styling for C,C++ and C#
I have to admit that for many years my pascal programs were all in upper case. After an absence of six years from a job, I got some part time work enhancing my
Open Source Embedded C# Webserver
Developed by Swedish developer Jonas Gauffin who runs his own telecoms company, C# WebServer lets you embed a webserver into your .NET applications, just like
Open Source Graphics in .NET
If you're looking for charting software in .NET, either on the desktop or in ASP.NET web pages, take a look at Zedgraph, an open source C# library. You can
Open Source Projects Listing
A list of open source projects in C, C++ and C#
Open Source Projects Looking for Help
A list of open source projects that are looking for volunteers to help in programming, documenting, translating, testing or porting to other computing platforms.
Open Source Video Compression From the BBC
As paid for by the tax payers of Britain (including me!). Dirac, named after a British physicist and Nobel prize winner is a video compression/decompression
Open Source Virtualization Software
VirtualBox is a general-purpose Enterprise and Open Source virtualizer for x86 hardware written by the German software house innotek GmbH. It implements full
Open Source from Apple
The iPhone is not a machine that is considered Open, (unless jail broken of course), but other aspects of Apple are much more open. For instance Mac Development
Open Source iPhone Sudoku Solver with OCR
Open Source iPhone Sudoku Solver with OCR
Open a Sample Project
Learn how to compile a sample application.
Open the Watcom IDE
Learn how to load the Open Watcom IDE
Open-RA - Open Source Command & Conquer Clone
I recently came across an open source version of Command & Conquer Red Alert written in C# and cross-platform via mono. Open-RA is just somebody's hobby project
OpenCL - Definition
This is the glossary entry for Silverlight which is a browser technology that allows you to use C# in browser applications on Windows, Mac and eventually Linux
OpenCL - Utilising Diverse Computing Devices
You may have noticed that over the last 5 or 6 years, the speed of CPUs hasn't been their biggest selling point. There is still a battle for supremacy between
OpenGL C++ Visualization Library
Developed by Michele Bosi, this is a portable library (Linux, Max OS X and Windows) for creating 2D or 3D graphics using OpenGL. Essentially it's a thin layer
OpenGL reaches 4.0 + C# Toolkit
Currently only supported by one set of graphics cards, OpenGL reached 4.0 about two weeks ago. It's one of a set of open APIs that are published by the Khronos
OpenID - The future of the Web?
OpenID is an increasingly popular decentralized sign in system for websites. It allows signing in without requiring the traditional username and password.
OpenSimulator - 3D Worlds in C#
OpenSimulator - 3D Worlds in C#
OpenkeyVal - An online datastore
Openkeyval.org is a free service that lets you store JSON data in a public data store. JSON is short for JavaScript Object Notation. Think of it as like XML but
Opera Extends their Browser
First it was Google with Google Wave (which integrates Email, and Instant Messaging and other Applications), now it is Opera with Opera Unite. This adds a
Operating System - Definition
Definition of Operating System
Operating Systems and Programming Languages Implemented in C
a collection of links and descriptions of Operating Systems and Programming Languages that are implemented in C with source code.
Operator Precedence in C++
Learn about the order of evaluation
Optimization of Floating Point in C++
Optimization of Floating Point in C++
Optimizing C++ - an E-Book by Agner Fog
Continuing yesterday's theme on improving C++, here is a 155 page PDF E-Book by Agner Fog of the Copenhagen University College of Engineering on Optimizing
Optimizing C++ Wiki Book
Wikibooks Optimizing C++ E-Book
Optimizing Your Code
You should always write the fastest code? Well yes and no. It's nice to develop code that is the fastest possible but unless you're in a programming contest
Optional Parameters in C# 4.0
In methods, optional parameters have existed in other programming language for quite a while; C++ and Delphi for instance. What makes them more interesting is
Origami Designed by Open Source Software
Origami is the art and craft of making models of animals, aircraft, basically anything from just one sheet of paper with no cuts and tears. In the last
Other Uses of a Function Pointer
This demonstrates the library function qsort which uses a function pointer to do the comparisons.
Over Twenty Years of Linux
Over Twenty Years of Linux
Overloading - Definition
Definition of Overloading
Overriding - Definition
Definition of Overriding
P2P - Definition
Definition of P2P
P2P Is as Natural as Networking
For some reason, P2P (Peer to Peer) is regarded as an illegal activity that must be condemned and stopped. This is pretty stupid as P2P is just a way for two or
PDF Toolkit
An open source cross platform PDF toolkit
PDFsharp - PDF Generator for .NET
Over the last few years before moving to .NET I spent considerable time investigating PDF libraries on Win 32 both free and commercial. Getting text flowing
PNG - Definition
Definition of PNG
POCO 1.3.2 Just Launched
POCO is a free cross platform library of C++ libraries for networking with very comprehensive documentation. Version 1.3.2 was just released yesterday. I've
Packing Bits with Bit Fields
This shows how to use bit fields to pack several bit sized variables into one or more bytes.
Pandora - Portable Linux Games Console Coming Soon
Well my quest for a low cost portable Linux box (as opposed to the desktop PC which I now have) continues, and Open Pandora looks a very interesting open
Parallel Programming - Definition
Parallel Programming
Parallelism - Definition
Definition of Parallelism
Parallelization and Cilk/Cilk Plus™
A big problem in computing is how the main programming languages can support multi-cores. If you have 8 cores then shouldn't your heavy computation program be
Parameters - Definition
Definition of Parameters
Parser - Definition
Definition of Parser
Parsing Techniques - a Free Ebook
Most parsing I do these days is dealing with CSV files which is pretty trivial or the occasional text editing utility and much of that can be done with regular
Pascal - The Programming Language
About the programming language pascal.
Pass By Reference - Definition
Definition of Pass By Reference
Pass By Reference - Definition
Definition of Pass By Reference
Pass By Value - Definition
Definition of Pass By Value
Pass By Value - Definition
Definition of Pass By Value
Paste C/C++ and run it online
As well as the C/C++ interpreters I've mentioned in the past there is another way to compile and run a C or C++ program. Just visit the website codepad.org,
Pattern - Definition
Definition of Pattern
Pawn - A C like Scripting Language
Pawn is an open source scripting language that was formerly known as Small and is over ten years old. It's cross platform though I get the impression that
Peeking Under the Hood; NIB Files Exposed
I continue to work on my iPhone application and out of curiosity today copied the .NIB file for it over to my Windows box. I'm still feeling my round the Mac
Peer Review - Definition
This is the glossary entry for Peer review which is a method of inspecting code by other team members to ensure it complies with coding standards etc before it is checked in to a version control system
Perplexing Portrait Page Print Preview Problem
Perplexing Portrait Page Print Preview Problem
Personal Rant about Game Development
I saw a press release last week about a project supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Phalanger - PHP on .NET
PHP is the most popular scripting language for websites, and runs on Linux hosts primarily but also on Windows and is a major success story for open source. The
Photon - MMO Game Server
Photon - MMO Game Server
Pike - An open Source Interpreted Programming Language (In C)
There are many programming languages out there that you will have heard about. Pike on the other hand is a new one to me. Written in C, it's an interpreted,
PixelCity -a Stunning Example of C++/OpenGL
Shamus Young's Pixelcity is a Windows screen saver written in C++ using VC++ 6.0 that generates a massive city scape by night, with lit windows in buildings,
Pixellation - Definition
Definition of Pixellation
Pixelwave Framework for iOS Development
Pixelwave Framework for iOS Development
PlayerIO.com Commercial and Free Game Server Service
Running a game server can be expensive; it takes a decent PC with a good internet connection and of course the software. There are a number of commercial game
Playing Catchup After the Storm
As I said on Wednesday, things got a little hectic at work and over the last days I've put in about 50 hours work (no I don't get paid overtime!) which is why
Playing Rock, Scissors and Paper for real money!
If you are in Toronto, Canada next month on the 13th and fancy a go at $7,000 prize, consider entering the real world Rock, Scissors and Paper contest. Not
Playing With Silverlight 2.0 Tools
Following yesterday's announcement I installed Silverlight on my PC. It's just under 5MB so didn't take very long. I also installed the Silverlight tools for
Playing With Visual C# 2008 Express Edition
So I downloaded Visual C# 2005 Express Edition just to have a play- next week I'll do the same with Visual C++ 2005. The help is optional but to not download it
Playing With a Kinect for Windows
Playing With a Kinect for Windows
Please Can You Help Me?
You'd be amazed how many such emails I get each week asking for help. I try to reply to them all and if it's something simple then no problem, but I also get a
Please Read If Entering Programming Challenges
Some tips on helping me when entering programming challenges
Pocohontas - A Project to Create a Texas Holdem Poker Test Harness and Poker Bots
This project is about creating a Texas Holdem Poker Test Harness that will allow poker AI (Bots) to be designed and tested, including playing against a human player
Pointer - Definition
Definition of Pointer
Poll Results and Turbo C++
With nearly 450 poll selections in after just a few days, the poll results tell a pretty clear story. C++ is leading, with C not that far behind and C# in 3rd
Polymorphism - Definition
Definition of Polymorphism
Port - Definition
Definition of Port
Portable C Compiler - Old but Still Going
Pcc was one of the oldest C compilers, following on from Dennis Ritchie's original C compiler (DMR) and addressing a major deficiency of that with regards to
Portable Puzzle Collection with C Source
Just added to the C Code Library is a collection of 27 puzzles by developer Simon Tatham, all with C source code. What makes these interesting, as well as their
Porting - Definition
Definition of Porting
Porting of Doom
Long regarded as one of the first 3D first person shoot-em-up and introduced in 1993 (I preferred Quake 2 but it's a free world!), developers have had fun
Post Decrement - Definition
Definition of Post Decrement
Post Increment - Definition
Definition of Post Increment
Potrace - Smooth Code
Imagine taking a bitmap (ie raster image) and tracing it then converting it to a vector image with all the jagged bits smoothed out so the image can be
PowerShell in ASP.NET
The power of .NET is that it is language agnostic. There are over twenty different programming languages implemented on it with more no doubt in the pipeline.
Practical Compiler Construction - Book and Compiler
Practical Compiler Construction - Book and Compiler
Pre Decrement - Definition
Definition of Pre Decrement
Pre Increment - Definition
Definition of Pre Increment
Precision - Definition
Definition of Precision
Preparing to Download
This shows you what you will be downloading, where it will download and how much disk space it needs
Preprocessing for Beginners
Preprocessing for Beginners
Preprocessing for Beginners
Preprocessing for Beginners
Preprocessor - Definition
Definition of Preprocessor
Preprocessor Built In Names
Learn About the Preprocessor's Built In Names
Preprocessor Built In Names
Learn About the Preprocessor's Built In Names
Printing in C#/.NET
Printing in C#/.NET
Privileged Instructions - Definition
Definition of Privileged Instructions
Problem Answer
Well done those who worked it out. It was pretty evil as there were two factors to take into account. The first is that the 3rd part of a for loop is
Procedural Programming - Definition
Definition of Procedural Programming.
Procedure - Definition
Definition of Procedure
Professional XNA Game Programming
I've always had an interest in games development, though my actual involvement within the industry ended about 15 years ago. This is a bit like someone who
Program - Definition
Definition of Program
Program Challenge 35 Marked + 36 Published
Congratulations to Tiaan Geldenhuys whose C++ entry won in a very fast 0.00001357 seconds, just pipping Gaurav Sarode's entry. Tiaan also gets a 2nd mention
Program Contest 49 Finished
Program Contest 49 Finished
Program Your Mac in C#
It's been a good week for C# what with the Windows phones being launched (No I don't have one!) and now MonoMac which is a new foundation for building Cocoa
Programmer Productivity
If you work as a programmer, have you ever tracked how exactly you spend your week hour by hour? Here's a breakdown of mine for a typical 40 hour week, I.e. not
Programmers Fonts Revisited
Back in the stone age when I first started university (1977), most people in my year there preferred teletypes (30 characters per second noisily onto paper)
Programming An Odometer in C with SDL
This is an article on how to program an odometer (trip meter) in C using SDL
Programming Challenge 1
Please be patient while I get through this. So much for careful planning - I'm now working my way through about 40 entries, That means adding timing code,
Programming Challenge 1 - Calculate a Sequence
This is the challenge page for the first Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to calculate the 100000th number in the sequence from 123456789 to 987654321 where each digit occurs only once.
Programming Challenge 1 Results
Thank you to all 33 entrants, 23 of whom got the correct answer. Interestingly, the slowest correct answer took 350 million times as long to run as the
Programming Challenge 10 -Hide a Message in Text
This is the challenge page for the tenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to take a short sentence and somehow conceal it in a block of text so it isn't apparent. You must also write the decoder as well!
Programming Challenge 10 Now Live
I'll have nine marked in a day or two but challenge ten is now live and is about a form of steganography. When people mention steganography (Greek for hidden
Programming Challenge 11 - Find Matching Sets of Cards (Completed)
This is the challenge page for the eleventh Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to find matching sets of cards from the commercial card game Set.
Programming Challenge 11 Results Posted
If there is a problem with a programming challenge entry I try and fix it. Not to make it run faster but just to make it compile and run. Usually this is only
Programming Challenge 11 is now live
A card puzzle game I've owned and played for many years is Set invented by a geneticist Marsha Falco in 1991. You have to identify matching sets of three cards
Programming Challenge 12 - Find the Lowest Cost Route
This is the challenge page for the twelfth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to find the shortest route between ten points on a map.
Programming Challenge 12 Marked
Congratulations to Jared Cox with a lightning fast time of 0.166 seconds and the lowest score. (The total of ten different routes). There were four entries in
Programming Challenge 12 Posted
This one is a bit early for a change and doesn't start until May 1. You have to process a file containing a map of ten points with every location in the file
Programming Challenge 12 now Live.
This challenge is about writing a program to find the shortest path between ten points in a data file designated by the characters A- J. This is what a very
Programming Challenge 13 - Best Battleships Algorithm
This is the challenge page for the thirteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to sink all the enemy ships in Battleships in the minimum number of shots.
Programming Challenge 13 for June 2008 Now Live
Yes I know there's just under a week to go for Challenge 12 (is anyone going to enter that?) so hopefully you'll find this challenge, less er challenging. I saw
Programming Challenge 14 - Multiply Big Numbers
This is the challenge page for the fourteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can multiply several pairs of very large numbers together..
Programming Challenge 14 Posted
Thanks to all who entered Challenge 13 which is being marked now and I'll hopefully publish the results tomorrow or Wednesday. The next challenge is a very
Programming Challenge 14 Still Being Marked
There were 13 entries; thanks to everyone who entered. I'm working my way through these and will hopefully have them marked by later tonight or at latest
Programming Challenge 15 - Generate a Simple Dungeon - Completed
This is the challenge page for the fifteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can a nine level dungeon of rooms and corridors.
Programming Challenge 15 DeadLine Today
I think that Programming Challenge 15 joins the ranks of the too hard as there was only one entry so it looks like congrats to Pedro Graca from Portugal for an
Programming Challenge 15 Posted
Yes this one is definitely a bit early; it doesn't start until August but I wanted to make sure there weren't any gotchas or things I've overlooked. If I've
Programming Challenge 16 - Solve 1,000 Sliding Puzzles - Now Completed
This is the challenge page for the sixteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can solve 1,000 sliding puzzles.
Programming Challenge 16 Marked
Congratulations to Aliaksei Sanko from Belarus whose entry solved all 1,000 puzzles in three minutes. the other entrant (there were just two) took about
Programming Challenge 17 - Implement Life - Completed
This is the challenge page for the seventeenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can play Life quickly.
Programming Challenge 17 - Implement the Cellular Automaton known as Life.
This isn't due until the end of October but as I thought of it the other day, I thought it best created before I forgot about it. Nearly 40 years ago a British
Programming Challenge 17 Properly Marked
Congratulations to Aliaksei Sanko of Belarus who came first with his C++ entry that took 0.0654754 seconds, beating Joshua Warner of the USA by under 4
Programming Challenge 18 - Map Generator - Completed
This is the challenge page for the eighteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can generate a map.
Programming Challenge 18 Marked
Congratulations to Kenneth D Weinert for his winning entry and commiserations to Vikas Ranjane who came a close second second. You can see tiny versions of both
Programming Challenge 19 - Fill a Grid of Tiles Deadline December 31 2008
This is the challenge page for the nineteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can read a file of tiles and by changing the character of the top square fill the whole grid.
Programming Challenge 2 - Count Connected Locations (Entries Closed)
This is the challenge for the second Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to count the number of connected locations (forming a continent) and output the list of continents.
Programming Challenge 2 Correction
Challenge 2 entries are now coming in and as one person has pointed out the text file description as given was slightly wrong. (Thanks Sidharth!). I have
Programming Challenge 2 Preliminary Results
I have now run the 20 entries and the success rate this time was much higher! Congrats to Faisal Yousuf for very fast code. In fact there has only been 4
Programming Challenge 20 - Sieve of Erathostenes
This is the challenge page for the twentieth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can generate the prime numbers up to a million
Programming Challenge 20 - Sieve of Erathostenes
This is a technique for working out if an integer is prime, i.e. can't be divided cleanly by any number except itself and 1. 2 is prime but no other even number
Programming Challenge 20 Results Finally Posted
There were actually 19 entries and congratulations to Zufolek whose entry pipped Joshua Warner's entry by just 1 millisecond! Two got it wrong but the rest were
Programming Challenge 21 - Data Preparation
This is the challenge page for the twenty first Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can read excel .xls files.
Programming Challenge 21 - Preparing Data
My favorite data preparation tool is MS Excel. Considering that most of what I prepare is put into a relational database, it makes sense to lay it out, get it
Programming Challenge 22 - Generate Hexagons
This is the challenge page for the twenty second Cplus programming challenge. Write an application that can generate hexagons and convert coordinates.
Programming Challenge 22 Slightly Altered
I've created newer cleaner graphics, altered the text and the input file is now posted. I realized 8 x 8 was a bit big so I've trimmed it to 6 x 6 hexagons and
Programming Challenge 22 is Posted
I've always liked and played board games, wargames and computer games and many of those use hex grids. So challenge 22 is to generate a board of hexagons,
Programming Challenge 23 - Reassemble Numbered Tiles
This is the challenge page for the twenty-third Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that reassembles numbered tiles.
Programming Challenge 23 is Live
Though challenge 22 still runs till next Tuesday and 23 starts then. We've 4 entries for 22, so just time to get one in before Tuesday night. Challenge 23
Programming Challenge 24 - MineSweeper Redux
This is the challenge page for the twenty-fourth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that takes an input file based on the MineSweeper game and outputs where the mines are located.
Programming Challenge 24 Posted
Basically this is about solving a MineSweeper like 10 x 10 board. Your application reads in a 10 x 10 grid then tries to locate the mines under the * below
Programming Challenge 25 - Count the Ones
This is the challenge page for the twenty-fifth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that counts the number of 1 in the numbers 1-99,999,999.
Programming Challenge 25 - I got it Wrong
Thanks to the 7 who have submitted entries already (st0le, Aguda Olabode, Volker Vanoni, Peter Jansson, Josh Cheek, Georgi Iliev and of course Michael Chock). I
Programming Challenge 25 Won! (Not really but...)
Michael Chock's entry for this was first over the post, very clever and impossible to beat. It runs in the time it takes to output a number because it uses C++
Programming Challenge 25a - Fit Tetris Shapes in a box - Deadline July 31 2009
This is the challenge page for the twenty-fifth (2nd Attempt) Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that reads a file of tetris shapes and drops the piece into the box.
Programming Challenge 25a - Like Playing Tetris?
In this replacement challenge, you are given an input file of 56 Tetris pieces. There are seven different shapes each with 4 squares. Your entry must attempt
Programming Challenge 25a finally Marked
It doesn't help to compile competition entries when an entry uses Boost (nothing wrong with that!) but my machine has the same object under std::tr1. I'd
Programming Challenge 26 - Text Processing
This is the challenge page for the twenty-sixth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that processes a large body of text, counting words and sentences.
Programming Challenge 26 Marked
It was Greece against Portugal and Makis Tsintsikloglou's C# code beat Pedro Graca's (Portugal) C code by just under half a second. As always you can read the
Programming Challenge 26 Published
I'll have 25 marked shortly but here now is Programming Challenge 26. You're given a book, some 400KB+ of text and have to identify the sentences, including any
Programming Challenge 27 - Pack them In!
This is the challenge page for the twenty-seventh Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that packs a large number of points in a grid (representing cities in a game).
Programming Challenge 27 Just About Marked
I've posted preliminary results for it but two entries need a little bit more work, one because it lacked timing and the other because it wasn't picking up the
Programming Challenge 27 Published
Challenge 26 will be marked on Wednesday evening so there's still time to get your entry in. There's just one so far. Challenge 27 is a simple but
Programming Challenge 28 - An Optimization Problem
This is the challenge page for the twenty-eight Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to optimally move a large quantity of fuel across a desert.
Programming Challenge 28 Published - Get trucking!
Only a few days to go for Challenge 27 so get a move on! And from the first of October here's Challenge 28. Write a program that works out the optimal number of
Programming Challenge 29 - Treasure Hunting
This is the challenge page for the twenty-ninth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that finds which treasure hunters are nearest the treasures
Programming Challenge 29 Heating Up
We've now got five entries with average times running from 0.11 to 3.3 seconds. Anyone can send in (hopefully) faster entries from now until the end of
Programming Challenge 29 Updated
I've got two others to run and will add them tonight- Michael Chock and James C. Congrats to Kovacs who has nudged ahead but it is a pretty close field! Still
Programming Challenge 3 - Controlling Elevators in a Building
This is the challenge for the third Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to manage three elevators in order to minimize customer waiting and travel times.
Programming Challenge 30 - Planet Zapping
This is the challenge page for the thirtieth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that zaps the surface of a planet carefully avoiding the settlers down there.
Programming Challenge 30 Published
You get to zap the surface of a planet from your orbiting spacecraft but the targeting system is broken and so you must define the targeting locations according
Programming Challenge 31 - Flipping Coins
This is the challenge page for the thirty first Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that flips coins.
Programming Challenge 32 - Looping Loops
This is the challenge page for the thirty second Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that makes loops like in the old game Loopz.
Programming Challenge 32 Published.
There's a week to go for challenge 31 (just one entry so far), so still time to get your entries in. I've published Challenge 32 early, though it lacks the
Programming Challenge 33 - Evaluate Expressions
This is the challenge page for the thirty third Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that evaluates a number of expressions.
Programming Challenge 33 Marked
Congratulations to Jonathan Scabich of the USA whose C program managed to evaluate all the expressions in a respectable 52 micro-seconds. Neither of the other
Programming Challenge 34 - Complete Straight Lines
This is the challenge page for the thirty fourth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that processes turns and tries to complete a straight line
Programming Challenge 34 Marked
Congratulations to Australian Shashi Sadasivan, our sole entrant this month whose C# entry was able to work out a straight line in 8 ms. I am always impressed
Programming Challenge 35 - Knight's Tour
This is the challenge page for the thirty fifth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that does a full knights tour visiting every square on a 20 x 20 chessboard only once
Programming Challenge 35 - Knight's Tour
This challenge is the classic moving a Knight round a chess board so it visits every square just once. Your application must do it in the fastest possible time.
Programming Challenge 37 - Simple Search Engine
This is the challenge page for the thirty sixth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that searches text questions for search phrases
Programming Challenge 4 - Solve Mastermind codes
This is the challenge for the fourth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to solve a code breaking puzzle in as few steps as possible.
Programming Challenge 45 - Defrag a Disk
I've been defragging disks since 1988 (a whopping 20 MB disk) when I first encountered Norton Utilities. In this programming contest I don't really want you to
Programming Challenge 5 - Solve A Crossword
This is the challenge for the fifth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to fit 14 words into a grid leaving as many empty spaces in the grid as possible.
Programming Challenge 51 - Draw a Series of Squares
This is the page for the Fifty First Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that takes an input phrase and draws a series of squares.
Programming Challenge 51 Published
Programming Challenge 51 Published
Programming Challenge 52 - Follow The Lines
This is the page for the Fifty Second Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that takes a file of data and follows the lines.
Programming Challenge 52 - Follow the Lines
Programming Challenge 52 - Follow the Lines
Programming Challenge 52 Results Published
Programming Challenge 52 Results Published
Programming Challenge 53 - Decode Morse Code
This is the page for the Fifty Third Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that takes a file of morse code encoded as 0 and 1 and decode it to English text.
Programming Challenge 53 Published for December
Programming Challenge 53 Published for December
Programming Challenge 53 Results Published
Programming Challenge 53 Results Published
Programming Challenge 54 - Railroad Routes
This is the page for the Fifty fourth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that takes a file of railroad stations and track and works out the shortest route that takes in every one of the 19 stations.
Programming Challenge 54 Published - Rapid Railroad Routes
Programming Challenge 54 Published - Rapid Railroad Routes
Programming Challenge 55 - Manage Checkout Queues
This is the page for the Fifty Fifth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that takes a file of shoppers hitting checkout tills and devise the most efficient way to take their money!
Programming Challenge 55 published - Starts Feb 2012
Programming Challenge 55 published - Starts Feb 2012
Programming Challenge 56 - Flood the Board
This is the page for the Fifty Six Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that tries to solve the Flood game in under 25 steps.
Programming Challenge 57 - Orienteering Maze Mouse
This is the page for the Fifty Seventh Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that tries to move a mouse around a maze.
Programming Challenge 58 - Place Words
This is the page for the Fifty Eightth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that tries to place words on a Scrabble® board.
Programming Challenge 58 Published- Play Scrabble®
Programming Challenge 58 Published- Play Scrabble®
Programming Challenge 59 - Find the Numbers
This is the page for the Fifty Ninth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that tries to find a numbers from a list as quickly as possible
Programming Challenge 59 Published Starts June 1st
Programming Challenge 59 Published Starts June 1st
Programming Challenge 6 - Quick List Search
This is the challenge for the sixth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to fetch a value from a linked list as fast as possible.
Programming Challenge 6 is Now Closed
I've been hit by the triple whammy of marking all the entries for Challenge 6, getting the Challenge 7 Chess boards file created and receiving three new RSP
Programming Challenge 7 - One Day Left! Plus Challenge 8
As it's near the end of the month and I have been working on the Poker Harness (not quite ready yet- but soon!) I thought why not set the scoring of poker
Programming Challenge 7 - Validate Chess Positions - Now Completed
This is the challenge page for the seventh Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to validate 10,000 chess positions, indicating whether a position is valid or not.
Programming Challenge 7 Posted
As it's the end of the month you have a few hours to get your entries in for Programming Challenge 5 and start thinking about 6 which is the linked list
Programming Challenge 7 Preliminary Results Posted
We had five entrants for this. One had an exception in his code but since sent a working version. Congratulations to Robert C Cartaino who scored highest with
Programming Challenge 8 - Score Poker Hands
This is the challenge page for the eighth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to score 1,000 Texas Holdem Poker positions showing which of 8 hands is highest (or drawn).
Programming Challenge Eight Closing and Nine Starts Tomorrow
We've a couple of entries to mark so I'll have those done over the weekend. As I won't be marking until then, I'll allow late entries until Sunday morning.
Programming Challenge Five- Solve a Crossword!
Programming Challenge 5 has now been published. This runs through the month of October and asks you to write a program in C, C++ or C# to fit 14 words into a
Programming Challenge Four Updated
Thanks to the three developers who spotted that there was a bug in the Programming Challenge Four dll. This was in the file game.c in the DoMove() function
Programming Challenge Nine Marked
Well done to everyone who entered- all got the correct answer and special congratulations to Robert C Cartaino with the fastest time. One question,
Programming Challenge Six - Search a Linked List Fast
The latest Programming Challenge Six has been posted. Nothing too complex this month- all you have to do is write a function that retrieves an int value from a
Programming Challenge Six Marked
Programming Challenge 6 has now been marked and congratulations to N.Navaneetha Krishnan for his fastest entry. This was the challenge to retrieve items
Programming Challenge Ten Results In
Congratulations to Sameerkumar Namdeo (India) whose code managed to beat the others for hiding and then extracting a text string from a complete book in under
Programming Challenge Time Again
This weekend is the deadline for challenge 17, so you have until Sunday lunchtime to get your entry in. From tomorrow Challenge 18 is live and it is to generate
Programming Challenges - a New Contest!
As well as the programming puzzles which always get comments, I thought it might be fun to have programming challenges. These are programming competitions,
Programming Challenges 24 (Marked) and 25
Thanks to Aliaksei Sanko of Belarus and Uwe Werner of Germany for their entries. Both solved the minesweeper puzzle in a very quick time but Aliaksei's was 30
Programming Challenges 55 and 56 Marked
Programming Challenges 55 and 56 Marked
Programming Computer Chess
Programming Computer Chess
Programming Contest 36 - Fibonacci Sequences
This is the contest page for the thirty sixth Cplus programming contest. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that calculates values in other Fibonacci sequences
Programming Contest 37 Published
Number 36 has a few days to go but as I'm away next weekend, it won't get marked until July 5th so still time to get your code in. In case you're wondering,
Programming Contest 38 - Fighting Fires
This is the contest page for the thirty eighth Cplus programming contest. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that minimizes fire damage.
Programming Contest 38 Marked
Not one of the best contests with just three entrants but congratulations to James Border whose entry saved 11 houses from immolation by forest fire. Kudos
Programming Contest 38 Published
If you're really good at decryption you'll probably figure out that decrypting this block below will not win you a million dollars. It's not even encrypted!
Programming Contest 39 - Calculate Levenshtein Distance
This is the contest page for the thirty ninth Cplus programming contest. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that calculates the Levenshtein distance between 100 word pairs.
Programming Contest 39 Marked
It's not over for another week yet and Pedro Graca's entry which is fastest seems to have an impossibly fast time (0.000000!), so maybe a few more decimal
Programming Contest 39 Published
The Levenshtein Distance between two strings a, b is the number of changes to transform one string into another. For example to transform mouse into house would
Programming Contest 40 - Best Poker Hands
This is the contest page for the fortieth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that calculates the best poker hand from 7 cards.
Programming Contest 40 Marked Early
As there are two entries for the Poker scoring contest already, I've started marked them.There's still nearly three weeks to go so plenty of time to get your