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The index page for all
Programs on the site?
The DFF Play CD?
Zipped file
DFF Play CD.zip contains executable version of about
75 of the 200+ programs from the site, mostly those I particularly
liked or thought would be of widest interest for non-programmers.
The file is rather large, about 20mb..
Anything else?
Not a programmer (yet)?
That's OK - the executable
version for any puzzle or game you find here is available for
download. Just scroll down to the bottom of most any
description page and you'll find a "Download executable"
link. Downloaded programs are in "zipped" format to reduce size and
may require an "unzipper" program unless you are running Win XP or
later.
Here's a
link to a free one.
Check out the
Most Popular Downloads from
DFF (updated weekly)
First time visitor?
Take a look at the
Introduction page to see what this site is about
Notes
for Teachers
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What's New
September 20, 2016: A viewer recently reported
significant error with the BigFloat "Divide" and "Reciprocal" operations.
Divide works by computing the reciprocal of the denominator and multiplying
by the numerator. If the value passed to Reciprocal directly or as a
denominator is negative, values returned were incorrect. The
error has existed for several months, so hopefully negative denominators are
rare. BigFloatTest was
reposted today with a link to the corrected test program executable, source and
a new version of the DFF Library file containing the offending module.
If you use this unit and 1/-1 does not return -1 as the result,
you need this fix!
September 18, 2016: It seems like our License
Key Generator program has hit a busy streak recently, averaging 12 downloads
per day for the past month and moving it into the top 10 downloads for the year.
And that was while lacking the ability to encode the letter M! I suspect
that many of the downloads are by those wishing to generate an activation code
for Windows or Office, etc. They'll be disappointed. The program
implements how I might protect my programs if they were for sale. They are
not (everything on this site is free!) Anyway,
License Key Gen Version
2,2 posted today adds a few refinements and allows Mary Doe (as well as
John) to register their programs J.
September 8, 2016: A program that still gets
updated after 14 years must fill some "niche" demand. My "Logic Problem
Solver" fits that description. Originally written to help solve those
Logic Grid problems appearing in the Dell puzzle magazines, solving requires
filling a truth table grid using a number of formal logic reasoning
strategies with Latin names like "Modus Tollens", "Modus Ponens", and "Reductio
ad Absurdum" whether the solver knows it or not. . Thanks to "geocaching",
tougher
logic puzzles are still floating around. This week's update to our
Logic Problem Solver V5. 6
program was triggered by note from a "cacher" solving a large puzzle called "Misadventures
on Goose Island". I alternated between trying to solve it and
fixing/enhancing the program with more success on the fixing than on the
solving. Although it is almost as addictive as coding, I'll leave the final solution to
the fellow who reported it to me and just post the updated program
for now. :
August 29, 2016: Either the projects are getting
harder, I'm getting busier with non-coding projects, or I'm just getting
slower with age. Probably all three. In any event, here's a puzzle
from the August 11 Mensa Calendar page that occupied a couple of hours a day for
the past 2 weeks: Mind Your ABCDs
requires placing those 4 letters in a 5x5 grid with the number of each letter in
each row and column as specified in this diagram. There is an added
restriction that the same letter cannot appear in two adjacent cells the the
same row or column. The program allows user play with counts updated as
letters are placed. There's also a Solve button that was the fun part of
creating the project.
August 3, 2016: Here's a "Word
Attribute Puzzle Solver" which uses predefined rules to apply
predefined "letter sets" to a given set of phrases with unknown common
characteristics. The objective is to find for a rule/letter set
combination which applies to all of those phrases and to a single
phrase in a second list of solution candidates. I peeked at the backside
of this calendar page to get the solution and coded the appropriate rule, but the program might provide a
platform for me to do better with future puzzles of this type.
July 20, 2016: Whew! I'm up and running on a
new laptop after a three-week conversion effort. New computer + New
Operating System = Lots of learning opportunities! The old faithful Dell Studio 17 decided it was time to retire, so action was required .
The upgrade story was originally posted here, but moved to this
HP Envy page because it is rather long.
I did manage to get one project written and posted today -
Keypress Display Demo displays
all character keys entered on the keyboard from any application. A user
had suggested it as a way to view password entry for older programs that do not
have the option of viewing the keyed characters before submitting the password.
June 28, 2016:
2 1/2 weeks of this month found us out west in Utah,
Montana, and Wyoming visiting five National Parks with a daughter and her
family. Seeing the animals and geological wonders was nice, but the
family time was even better.
Probably only time for one program this month; this June 16 Mensa
calendar puzzle was chosen because I couldn't solve it manually in the 5 minutes
I allocate to these things. The program
Revolving Letters allows users to
rotate columns to find a solution, or let the program do the grunt work and
solve it for you. Computers really shine at "grunt work"!
May 28, 2016: A fix applied last month to our Cutlist
program (See April 3, 2016 "What's New" post), introduced a problem which
prevented the printing of user generated solution diagrams.
Cutlist Version 4.04 was posted today to
correct this problem.
May 27, 2016: May has been a busy month - one granddaughter
earned her Dr. Pharmacy degree and another got married. We travelled to
attend both. We're proud of Kristen and happy for Sarah.
Coincidentally, if things go as planned, we will be attending Kristen's wedding
and Sarah's graduation as a Chem. Engineer next spring!
The intervening days were spent catching up with mowing, garden care, tree
trimming, etc. Evenings allowed me to complete the
DTMF (Touch-tone) Decoder Test program. Here's a picture of the device
put together by the family Electrical Engineer (my son) which
listens for tones and sends the decoded digits to my program for display.
Probably not of interest for the majority of viewers, but if it is, visit the
link for more details.
The What's New Archives
(Click to expand)
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2014
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July 7, 2014: Note:
this "Collapsible" month by month list of postings since year
2000 is not collapsing for some reason, making this a very large
home page. Until it gets fixed, you can reference the complete
quarter by quarter list of postings on the
Newsletter page.
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