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SkillsUSA 2009 The Bowling Challange

This Assignment is to show what you know about programming.

It is very hard so don’t get discouraged. It's supposed to be hard.. It's a test.

The Task is to write a program to allow an untrained user to calculate and display bowling scores. You should assume 3 or 4 people bowling 2 or 3 strings .

A string is a set of 10 Frames, a typical game.

You should try to make it look like the sample bowling score card you are given.

It should do all the math including current score and optionally the bowlers average scores for each game

This assignment is probably too hard to complete in the time allowed

You will be graded on how well you have thought the problem out and how well organized you code is.. NOT on How complete the project is. So Comment your code..

And it is acceptable to have a button that says Recalculate and the code is just a comment explaining how you would do that with a message box that say "incomplete"

I am very fussy that the application looks good and is easy to use. It does not have to be "pretty" but the buttons should be aligned and text and layout attractive.

Pay Attention to How Strikes and Spares are handled

It should be easy to use.. The <TAB> key should take you to the next thing.

ToolTips are required. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires us to use ToolTips because they can assist people with vision problems.

Comment your code (I said that twice now!)

The big issues I see are

The layout of the screen might be too wide for the computer screen

You have to handle the Strikes and Spares with different symbols and handle the math correctly

You probably need to store the data someplace.

Storing data IS NOT REQUIRED but It's a skill you really should have

You can use a database

You can use a text file (Comma Delimited?)

You can use XML

You can wing it your own way

NOTE: The Articles provided are not tested. You do not have to use them. They are just reference materials to help you get started.

The Following Artciles were printed Since not Web Access was permitted..

http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/math/bowling.html

http://www.bowling2u.com/trivia/game/scoring.asp

Sills USA 2008

Once again Foursquare Solutions has been selected to design and administer the SKILLS USA Massachusetts programming contest. This will be our 3^rd year of competition and promises to be the best yet.

To assist student and teachers in understanding this competition I am posting previous years instructions to the students. Please understand I know these assignments are difficult.. Most students do not finish in the time allowed.. This is by design. The contest is testing the student's organization and understanding of the concepts.

As a parent and a professional software developer I am overwhelmed by the energy and dedication that the students bring to this event.

However many of these hard working kids are disadvantaged in that their curriculum is still using older and harder technologies. To help release the energy and creativity for this year’s event I am recommending that all participants and their instructors read VB 2005 Jumpstart Chapter 6 from the Required Reading list to the right.

I’m also recommending that students down load the free copy of VB Express 2008 Download and SQL Express Download.

Here is the 2008 Assignment

For 2008 the SkillsUSA competition revolved around using a Bar Code Scanner to look up items in a provided database (SQL Express or MS Access) and add them to a Grocery list.

The database consisted of a couple of hundred sample records from a commercial UPC Bar Code database, and a pile of labels clipped from my own cupboard. UPC is the Universal Product Code seen on most grocery store product labels.

The task was to build a system that would allow a home user to scan in the UPC from the label and add that item to a grocery list. Then adjust the quantity or delete items from the list. And finally print the list to the screen for review.

A Bar Code scanner device was available for testing.

Pat Tormey

PTormey@4square.net

Skills USA 2007

Skills USA VB Contest 2007

Task
For the SkillsUSA contest for 2007 Pat Tormey assigned the task of imagining a program to collect all the substantive information from a file system directory and save it to a file or a database. The concept is that the end user wants to catalog all the files on a series of CDs or DVD, so they can later search and find any file from any CD or DVD.

Objective
The objective is to write an application that will have a form to allow a user to enter the drive letter or directory name, and a textbox that describes the source of the file (CD Name for example) and then push a button to start the process of collecting file names, dates and sizes then write that information with the description to a disc as a flat (text) file or a simple database table.

The application must cycle thru all subfolders (directories) and return to the main form to accept another drive to search and append its contents to the same file or database with the new location description.

Hints Provided
Contestants were give a sample of code in VB and VB .Net that would collect the information from the file system, sample code that would write text to a file, and the definition of a recursive subroutine. i.e. a routine can call itself as many times as needed to complete a task.

Skills USA 2006

Skills USA Massachusetts
Visual Basic Competition

Overview
This competition is to design an easy to use, single user, desktop Visual Basic application.

Competitors will be expected to design an attractive, desktop application in Visual Basic Version 6 or any version of VB.Net that will allow an unsophisticated end user to add edit and delete records of a database consisting to two related tables.

While it is common for applications in VB to use 3^rd party tools for data grids and assistance in the design process, no 3^rd party tools are allowed for this competition.

All work must be original.

Task Expectations

Competitors will be given a specific task that will require entering new data into a Parent table and then adding child records to a linked Child table.

Competitors can expect to perform sums and averages on the data.

For this competition a Database will be provided in MS Access 2003 and SQL Express but the competitor is free to use any data source of their own design.

The Database will be designed to hold Parent Records (for example Customers List) and related Child Records (for example Customer Orders).

The exact nature of the task will be explained at the start of the competition.

Judging

The Primary Criteria for this contest is an attractive easy to use interface. Special care must be taken to ensure that an unskilled user with a working knowledge of MS Windows will be able to find and edit the data with the least amount of complications.

Buttons and menus should be descriptive, large and easy to read with tool tips to assist the user. Only standard icons, colors and fonts are required. Do not distract from a good design with elaborate colors and graphics.

The Secondary Criteria is design of the application itself. Code should be concise and naming conventions clear and consistent.

The Third Criteria is the completeness of the application. This application will probably take more time that the competition allows. Competitors should design their application with some functionality “stubbed out” with a short descriptive comment in case they do not get to complete the full application.

For example a Function to delete a record might have a button the simply pops up a message box that says “Delete Child Record”

For this competition it is more important to show good design sense and clear concise code than to complete the application itself

About the Judge

Pat Tormey BS, MS, PE is a Microsoft Certified Developer in C# and Visual Basic and is prominent in the Microsoft Developer community.

SkillsUSA