Reviews for Chess Programmers and Tournament Directors

Chess Programmer's Links

Chess Engines (C/C++ source code):
Source Code and Tools:
  • Isaac -- Free 32-bit and 64-bit random number generators
  • Mersenne Twister -- Free 32-bit random number generator
  • San Kit -- Chess library: Import/export PGN files, etc.
  • Splint -- Splint is a tool for statically checking C programs for security vulnerabilities and coding mistakes. Open-source.
  • SFL -- Standard Function Library: Handles ini files, linked lists, red-black trees, memory leak detection, etc. Open-source.
  • Snippets -- Portable C source library: ini files, string/bit-level manipulation, regular expressions, checksums, sorting, searching, data structures: linked list, queue, tree, hash, stack, etc. Free. Much of the code is public domain.
  • Gnu Indent -- Gnu indent for Windows. Use it to modify C code to your favorite indentation style. Open-source.
  • Artistic Style -- Source code indenter, formatter, and beautifier for the C, C++, C# and Java programming languages. Open-source.
Utilities and Tools for Chess:

Programming Resources

Free C/C++ Compilers:
  • Visual C++ Express -- Microsoft's free 32-bit C/C++ compiler and GUI IDE
  • GCC WPG System64 -- a 32/64-bit Native Portable Build and Development Environment for Windows with extensive toolchain and several GUI IDEs. Open-source. Contains GCC 4.4.2 & 4.5.0.
  • MinGW-w64 -- a 32/64-bit Build and Development Environment for Windows (CygWin) with minimal toolchain. No GUI IDE. Open-source. Contains GCC 4.5.0.
  • Open Watcom -- Open Watcom 32/64-bit C/C++ compiler with IDE + tools for Windows. Open-source.
  • MinGW -- 32-bit builds for Windows. No GUI IDE. Open-source. Contains GCC 3.4.5.
  • Digital Mars -- C/C++ and D 32-bit compilers for Windows. Free. Some Free GUI IDEs support the D language.
  • LCC-Win32 -- LCC C compiler with IDE + tools for Windows. Free.
  • OnBoard Suite -- C compiler targeting the Palm platform (runs on the Palm). Free.
  • PRC-Tools -- Windows/Linux package targeting the Palm platform. Free.
  • Pelles C -- Windows C compiler targeting Pocket PC platform. Free.
Free Editors and IDEs:
  • Code Lite -- a fully featured Windows/Linux/Mac GUI IDE front-end for any C/C++ compiler. Open-source.
  • NetBeans -- a fully featured Windows/Linux/Mac GUI IDE front-end for any C/C++ compiler. It also supports many other languages: PHP, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Groovy, Python, etc. Open-source.
  • Code Blocks -- a fully featured Windows/Linux/Mac GUI IDE front-end for any C/C++ compiler. Open-source.
  • Notepad++ Editor -- Programmer's editor. Built atop the powerful Scintilla edit component. Very fast loading and searching. Open-source. Plugins available. Has every feature imaginable including auto-complete. Syntax highlighting for many languages.
  • Crimson/Emerald Editor -- Programmer's editor. Open-source. Back into active development after a long pause. I always seem to come back to using this one.
  • PSPad Editor -- Programmer's editor. Free. Can be configured to an orthogonal cursor. Has most features you would expect. Plugins available.
  • medit (MooEdit) -- Programmer's editor & lightweight IDE. Free. Has most features you would expect.
  • Geany -- a Windows/Linux/Mac Programmer's editor & lightweight IDE front-end for many (more than 40) languages (still in beta!). Syntax coloring, code completion, etc. Code explorer feature for classes, functions, and vars for any supported language. Open-source. Awkward configuration.
Free Web Hosting for Open Source Programmers:
Web Programming References:
Free Open Source SQL databases:
  • PostgeSQL -- Fully-featured SQL database. Lots of documentation, add-ons, and productivity tools are available. Perhaps the best db choice for heavy usage.
  • SQLite -- An almost fully-featured SQL database for C programmers. It is free for all use (including commercial). It's a simple, small, fast, and reliable database that's great for desktop usage (NOT intended for heavy client/server tasks) with zero-administration necessary. An SQLite database will survive a program crash or even a power failure.
  • MySQL -- An almost fully-featured SQL database that is no longer free under all circumstances. MySQL is hugely popular due to its speed. Lots of 3rd party documentation is available. Has the most add-ons and productivity tools of any of the open source SQL databases.
  • HSQLDB -- Fully-featured SQL database written in Java. Lots of documentation, add-ons, and productivity tools are available. "The latest version 1.9 has the widest range of SQL standard features available in any open-source product."
  • FireBird -- Fully-featured SQL database based on InterBase code. Ample documentation, add-ons, and productivity tools are available. It is free for all use (including commercial), has acceptable performance, has a small memory footprint, doesn't need to be performance-tuned, and does not require administration. On the other hand, it is difficult to modify existing database apps that use advanced features such as stored procedures and triggers due to the database's design constraints that enforce data consistency.
  • MonetDB -- The most unknown of the mature, open-source, fully-featured databases.
  • ODBC Programmer's Reference -- Complete reference to programming the ODBC API. This is the preferred access method to remain independent of database used. The above-mentioned databases all have ODBC drivers available.