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Admin
This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
Note from Alex: This has been fixed (for me in XP at least). I rebuilt it and reuploaded it.
Admin
And this is ranked #6 ???
OMG... awesome idea. Can't even barely fathom the others.
Admin
I don't think it is ranked 6th... I believe the top 12 are being published in the order submitted...
Admin
+1
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omg that's fantastic hahahaa..
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Same problem here- any ideas anyone?
As for the submission- I've been looking forward to this one ever since he posted a snippet of his configuration file on the contest forums. Absolute insane genius (but I still think Massimo's going to win!)
Admin
cool!
this would be an interesting application for palmtops and alikes
it also reminds me of a Aasimov story where everyone had some sort of palmtop as a calculator and everyone forgot how to make calculations without it.
Admin
Very 1337 indeed. A completely WTF design to a WTF task. My favourite!
Configurable numbers. Very useful for when they decide to redefine the shape of zero. Come to think of it -- this may be the world's only completely globalisable calculator. Redefine the shapes to match your culture's number representation...
Admin
OCR shape definitions in plain English?
A calculator you can draw on?
Really. WTF or not, this submission is COOL.
It even has an application. I'm thinking of a calculator printed on electronic paper, or something...
Also, I'm vaguely disappointed by most submissions so far. Sure, they use ridiculously roundabout ways to accomplish a simple function, but it just isn't the same when it's done on purpose. They're missing that hint of despairing ugliness, of code grown organically for years in a vast monolithic corporation, of developer fossils who emulate COBOL's behavior in .NET, of Wizards who write a program part Visual C++, VBScript, and part decompiled FORTRAN.
They're weird, but more shiny than ugly.
Admin
On Vista with UAC on I had to run the application as administrator or it couldn't find the instructions file in the same directory :D
Bit hard to draw the stuff but so much fun :P
Admin
Wow... just wow.
Up until this entry, I thought I still had a chance at winning. Now I'm not sure I deserve to win.
Admin
This solution has gone around the circle past wtf, past over-engineered, arriving back near an acceptable solution (if there were no calculators). Well, maybe not... or may be. I'm certainly impressed.
Admin
The number-shapes definition file is a work of art! I am so going to copy that approach in a future project...
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Sadly my handwriting with a mouse is absolutely aweful, either that, or the app doesn't work very well. (I could only get a 1, a 0, a -, a / and a =. All other signs were not recognized)
Admin
Awesome!
Has anyone defined the roman numeral configuration file yet? As stated before... insane genius.
Admin
Anyone notice how he parses out comments?
Any line with a ' anywhere in it is considered one.
....
craaaaazy indeed.
Admin
I have the same problem. I guess the OCR is picky.
Admin
Admin
"it looks like a sheet of paper"?
or... eet looks like sheet?
(I don't actually think it looks like sheet. I just like saying "sheet".)
Admin
Is anyone else having as much trouble as I am defining the D'ni numerals?
Admin
I once saw a video of a Mac OS widget that did a similar thing. You could just write a sum and it would convert it to text in place and give you the answer. You could also circle numbers and drag them about. I could never find it again though, so I don't know if it was a piece of completed software or a concept.
Admin
You're talking about my self-destroying objects?
I guess you're wrong, 'cause it looks like I didn't even make it to the finals (no email from Alex) :-(
Admin
Wow...
Some people have WAY too much time on their hands :)
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I especially like how the keypad copies the image to the work area, rather than bypassing the OCR function for keypad'ed characters. It's a built-in user-driven unit test. Brilliant!
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This is the best one yet, all because of the plain English config file. Brillant!
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:-O
But you made my two favourite entries! The self-deleting objects, and the single-function-overwriting-its-own-operator-instruction-in-machine-code thing... how you've not got through is a mystery to me, but you can console yourself with the fact that you're a firm favourite in the office!
Admin
This application could usher in a whole new era of "softcoding!" Not only could the business rules be softcoded in config files, but the actual look and feel for the entire application could be softcoded! Brilliant!
Admin
To all having trouble to enter digits: You have to do it one shape per mousedown. (e.g. three: mousedown-semicircle-mouseup-mousedown-anothersemicircle-mouseup) If you draw the entire digit at once, it won't recognize it.
Admin
Here is an example of me doing all of them: http://www.javaop.com/~ron/images/screenshots/ocr1.png http://www.javaop.com/~ron/images/screenshots/ocr2.png
Go me!
Admin
Ok, just wow. I've worked with OCR before and knowing that to write a from scratch OCR-ish application based on a plain English configuration file... I'm blown away. The WTF here is that someone spent this kind of effort on a programming contest.
Very very impressive nonetheless.
Btw, I've gotten it to recognize all of the characters, but it's picky about number of strokes, each stroke must match a line in the config rather than the whole shape.
Admin
bow
Even if I too think my submissione were great (of course ;-)), I'm not going to make any complain, because it has been made clear from the beginning that the judgning criteria were purely subjective... and I'm quite sure Alex and the others tried their best to be as impartial as possible, even if actually isn't possible to be impartial when judging entries in such a contest; they're an art form (well, sort of...), and everyone of course has his own likes and dislikes.
From what I've seen until now, they appear to like overly-complicated approaches and terribly convoluted code more than little but crazy programs; which is fine, of course. Besides, some entries were actually quite great :-)
I'd have really liked to see more small-but-utterly-crazy entries, those that (in my opinion) make you scream "WTF?!?" a lot more than over-complicated ones; I definitely prefer them, as I already stated in another thread, and as it should be clear from what I submitted ;-)
Addendum (2007-06-06 11:22): Update: as Alex states here, looks like my guessing was right: the most complex solutions were liked the most.
Admin
Wow, the plain-text grammatical English configuration file is amazingly awesome.
The vector definition syntax(describing a line implicitly gives it a name "first", "second", etc., and lines are given position by being joined to each other) is actually very readable. I may have to borrow that sometime.
Admin
I'm thinking that you would not be able to configure this for roman numerals because he foolishly hardcoded it to use only decimal systems of numbers. The real WTF is that I can't configure it for binary or hexadecimal ;)
Admin
I was working on it, but it looks like I can't tell it to put a line beside another one. Instead, it stacks them. For example, I configured "II" (2) and it puts the lines on top of each other. If I include "never intersects", it makes a really long line (stacked). For "IX", it originally puts the I in the middle of the X. If I put "never intersects" for both slashes, it puts the I on top of the intersect point instead of to the left.
shrug
Admin
In case anyone is interested, here are the two examples I mentioned:
Two is a long vertical line a long vertical line first never intersects second
Nine is a long vertical line a long backslash line a long slash line first never intersects second first never intersects third second intersects third
Nice job, BTW. It's mind-boggling.
Admin
This is brillant ...!! Awesome idea.
Admin
I pretty sure you will not ever get it to work. From the original article:
These limitations would make it impossible to configure it for roman numerals (for instance, roman numerals has no 0) regardless of whether it can recognize two lines next to each other.
Admin
This is due to the executable being built with an embedded manifest file which references two different versions of the same DLL. (Usually the CRT runtime DLL.)
This usually happens when you link a static library built with the RTM version of Visual Studio 2005 into an executable built with VS which has service pack 1 installed. (And vice-versa.)
The executable will work on machines which have both versions installed and registered (such as the machine the program was built on or any machine which has VS SP1 installed) but will most probably not work on any others.
It's the new version of DLL hell for a new millenium, basically.
Admin
Still doesn't work for me... I'm with XP SP2
Admin
I have to say -- from all the entries so far, this is the one which both should and shouldn't take the cake. There is no "a normal wtf" here, but this is so awesome, so crazy, so perfect by its idea that there hardly can be any match for this.
I wouldn't say this should win the competition. Seems too well written for a wtf. But this is an amazing piece of work.
Admin
The WTF in these comments is your use of grammar. :P
Admin
Isn't that what WPF is?
Admin
Not quite...
If a line has a ' in it and it is not preceded by a space, the whole line is a comment. But if a line has a ' in it which is preceded by a space, only the remainder of a line is a space. E.g.
This is not a comment but 'this is now a comment 'This is a comment too This whole line's a comment
Admin
Winner of nerdiest person on this site.
Or does that make me runner up for knowing what this guy is talking about?
crap.
This is just plain awesome.
Admin
I feel like a piece of shit. I have no talent at all, not even to think of software like this.
Admin
Nope, nerdiest person would actually be able to code them.
D'nian number system. Ah, the nostalgic memories of Riven.
I think it's possible given the grammar in the definition file, but it would take a whole lot of statements.
Admin
The entry needs a rename.
It's not really OCR, more like MCR (Mouse Character Recognition).
If it was real OCR I could write an equation on paper, put the paper on a wooden table...
(... all non-newbies know where it goes from there)
Admin
Impressive.
Too bad it wasn't implemented as a web service. We could have mounted a camera or a scanner to the output tray of a printer. On a wooden table, of course.
Admin
Weird... Yesterday, I was nostalgic for the game and I pulled out the game and started playing it again.
So, would it be nerdier if I could get the Narayan numerals working?
Admin
Obviously true Roman numerals couldn't be done. But, I was experimenting with just 1 through 9.