Brief Information about the Jan '08 CSIG Meeting

Ship Guru - A Package Shipping Utility

C++ Version 7 and Visual Studio 2005

Written by B. Arnold

Ship Guru Utility Random Number Check

Welcome to the CSIG, a Special Interest Group of the ACGNJ. The subject for this month is a utility for packing shipping containers. It uses the latest C++ compiler in Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005. There are a number of ways to refer to this compiler and code. Here's what Wikipedia says:

The Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) is an open specification developed by Microsoft that describes the executable code and runtime environment that form the core of the Microsoft .NET Framework. The specification defines an environment that allows multiple high-level languages to be used on different computer platforms without being rewritten for specific architectures.

Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0
C++ 7.0
.Net 2.0
CLI
Common Language Infrastructure
Managed

Here are the details of this utility. Object: This program takes as input a list of boxes to be shipped in a container. It then iterates a large number of possible locations for the placement of the boxes while calculating the volume of the container. When the program finishes, the dimensions of the smallest container is displayed along with the packing efficiency. The ideal is 100 percent.

For example: 5 boxes dimensioned 3x4x4 will fit in a 9x4x10 container with a packing efficiency of 66.7 percent.

The program demonstrates a number of tools as well as Monty Carlo iteration techniques.

This is an exciting time for the C Language programming since Microsoft now has 4 different language compilers: C++, C++ Express, C-Sharp, and C-Sharp Express. These are all capable of creating Windows (tm) programs and the "Express" versions are free ! Additionally, Borland has just announced that it also has four new programs that are also available in free versions. These are Turbo C++, Turbo C-Sharp, Turbo Delphi and Turbo Delpi for .NET. You may also want to check with Intel and others for their generally free evaluation versions.