Note: this programming contest is the property of myself and is in no way a reflection of Tripod. All decisions are made by myself in collaboration with various judges that advise me.

This programming contest is open to all Tripod members, especially TechBits members. It is designed to increase participation in the TechBits pod and does not have formal prizes, only recognition for all of your hard work.

Programming languages that are allowed in this contest as of right now are QBASIC/QuickBasic, Visual Basic, and C(++). More will be added as judges are added that can handle those languages. In order to suggest a language, use the form below:

Please note that whether you choose to judge or not does not determine that a language gets chosen. That is a function purely of how many people subscribe to that language.

The Rules

• The format: once a month, I will send out a "program description". This program description will be about one to three paragraphs, and will cover basic rules. For instance:

Do you like Tic-Tac-Toe? Well, I do, but I like a different format of Tic-Tac-Toe. I like to play Tic-Tac-Toe in 3D. For this month, design a program that plays Tic-Tac-Toe in 3D. In other words, the program plays Tic-Tac-Toe on three parallel fields (or a cube, if you so choose), and can be won when a person gets a Tic-Tac-Toe either on one field, or on a combination of the three fields. Bonus points for computer player.

• Programmers, after designing program, should send in the following via e-mail:
  1. Source code only (no executables allowed). Source code can be zipped up with a program like winzip. This is preferred for programs written in Visual Basic, where there might be multiple forms and modules. Note: when you are naming your source code file or zip file, add your initals and the date to the contest. For instance, program1.zip becomes programkr062398.zip, the reason for that is so I don't get five or six files named program.zip or program.c or whatever, causing each to overwrite the other.

  2. Name
  3. Subject line of "Programming contest" on e-mail.
  4. URL of web page.
  5. Waiver saying that you agree the programs become the property of the TechBits poderator. Don't worry; I delete the programs after I have decided the winner.

• Note: programs will then be sent out on a random basis to judges who are pre-selected by myself. Judges are chosen on a random basis, along with a form as to analyzing the programs. They will then return those results to me and I will make my decision sometime after.
• The winning programmer will be mentioned in the next TechBits newsletter and will have his page mentioned on the TechBits page. The exceptions are pages that violate Tripod's Terms of Service and pages not on Tripod. Pages that are not TechBits publishers are allowed.
• Programs that are pirated or copied will be disqualified.
• Programs containing a virus or virii will be disqualified. Bugs that crash computers will be reported back to the writer of the program.
• The TechBits poderator assumes no responsibility that these programs will not harm your computer if compiled and run. It is up to judges to prescan and scan the programs beforehand. Judges should report programs that crash or are otherwise buggy to me.
• Judges are expected to turn in their reports in a timely manner. If you do not report within a week of the deadline, I will send you a letter asking you to turn it in. If you do not turn in your report then, I will remove you from the list of judges. Exceptions will be made, but should be made in advance.
• After judging a program, judges should abide to an "honor system" by deleting the program and any copies from their machine. The reason is that I want programmers to feel safe that their programs are not being stolen.

Check back often.