Version 1.1 Beta now available

19-Jan-2011

The first build of version 1.1 beta is now available for testing on the downloads page.

This version has been updated to use Microsoft .NET 4.0. If you do not have the .NET 4.0 runtime on your machine, you can either let Windows Updates install it for you or download it from Microsoft. There is a link to the Microsoft page to download it on our page.

Version 1.0 Released

26-Dec-2010

I decided that it's time I took this thing out of "Beta" status and made it official. This is version 1.0!

I have some ideas for some enhancements that I'll be working on in the next few weeks which will become the start of version 1.1. Some of these enhancements are:

• Add the ability to have multiple "weigh-in" stations all communicate to a single Tournament Manager program.
• Competitor photos. I added this feature at somebody's request a while back, but you can't actually do anything with them yet.
• Next Match message on the bottom of the scoreboard.
• Update the network protocol between the Scoreboard and the Manager program. The current version is using some technology that was available in .NET 2.0 that seems to have problems with two-way communication after it's been connected for a while.

Translation Project

Since the Judo Scoreboard and Judo Tournament Manager is getting used in more and more countries, I thought it might be time to start offering it in other languages. Unfortunately, I only speak English, so I'm not really qualified to do the translations myself, which means I'll need some help. If you'd like the user interface in your own language, here's how you can help:

• Go to http://translate.google.com/toolkit. If you don't already have a Google Docs account, set one up -- it's free.
• Click the Upload button and then go to the Web page tab. Enter the following URL: http://www.willissoft.com/AllText.html. Name the file something that will distinguish what language it's going to be translated to, preferably, using the standard language code from the second column of this table. For example, AllText.de.html or AllText.pt-BR.html. Or just name it something descriptive and I'll look it up later.
• Select the language to translate it to and then click the upload button.
• Google will attempt to translate the file. This is an automated translation, sometimes it will have to guess and usually wrong. For an example of how it translates, just try the "Select Language" control at the top of this page. But you have the ability to review and fix the errors.

  Here are some terms that it likes to translate incorrectly.

  • Bracket -- Should be like a tournament bracket, not a support.
  • Key -- Should be like a typewriter key, not a musical key.
  • Mate -- A Japanese word which should not be translated. Not companion, spouse or "to copulate".
  • Pin -- Should mean hold-down, not the acronym for Personal Identification Number.

• In the translated text, you'll sometimes see bold text. When you click on them, they'll look like "{0}value{/0}". These are placeholders. For example: Delete "{0}value{/0}"? is the message that will be shown when you try to delete a competitor. The stuff between the {0} and {/0} is unimportant--the competitor's name will be filled in when the message is shown. What is important is that the punctuation has to go on the outside of the tags or it will get stripped out. The Google translator toolkit tends to want to put them inside the tags. I've also added comments in gray to help when it might not be clear what the context of the word means.
• Once you're comfortable with the translation. There are two ways to get the translation to me.
  • When you have the file open in the Google translator toolkit, click on the Share button at the top and invite me (dwilliss@inetnebr.com) to share the document.
  • Download the file to your PC and email it to me.
  I'll then use the translated file to build the resource DLLs to enable the translation.

The AllText.html file contains hidden attributes in the HTML which tie the translations back to the original English version. If you just open the file in Office or some other word processor and translate it there, those tags will be lost.

Here are the languages currently available

• Spanish
• German
• Italian
• Dutch
• French (Canadian)
• Ukrainian

Rules Change Again

In 2010, the IJF changed some of the rules again. Most of the changes were to things that would effect refereeing but not the scoreboard. However, one change did require a modification to the scoreboard program. Of course this change was only brought to my attention an hour before a tournament.

The change was that if the score is tied at the end of the regulation match time, the scores carry over to the "Golden-Score" round. The main reason for this is that if one competitor had a shido in the first round, then another shido in the second round will now give their opponent a yuko, thus ending the match. If you clear the scores (which is what the rules said to do before 2010), then a shido in the 2nd round would just be another warning.

Another reason to keep the scores is so that you know the total score at the end of the match. This is important for determining the winner in the event of a tie in a round-robin.

This all got me to thinking about how to make the program more flexible with regard to rules. As a result, there will be a new Rules Editor. In the Tournament Manager, this is under the Tournament menu. In the Timer program, the Timers tab is now a Rules tab.

The rules we use here are the USA Judo rules, which are adapted from the Official 2003 IJF Refereeing Rules and all IJF approved changes added from 2003 to 2010. The AAU has rules which are based on the IJF rules, but there are differences. For example, under the IFJ rules, a duration of a golden-score round depends on the duration of the original round. Under AAU rules, golden score rounds are one minute.

I'm curious as to whether or not other countries have slight variations which should be accounted for. If anybody knows of any, please let me know. I now have a way to account for them.

Support for Freestyle Judo and Jiu-Jitsu added

The timer program now has support for Freestyle Judo and Jiu-Jitsu. The scoring is different for these two styles of tournaments.

First Real Test of Tournament Maneger

We used the Tournament Manager for the first time at the UNL Ashida Spring Classic Judo Tournament on April 25th, 2009. There were a few problems, but nothing we couldn't get around. I have several pages of notes for things that need to be fixed or improvements that could be made.

The Tournament Manager now has an optional second display like the timer does. This display can display "On The Mat", "On Deck" and "In The Hole" status, as well as showing the bracket screens.

One suggestion that came up at this tournament is that the scoreboard should really be operated by two people somehow. It's too much for one person to try to control two timers and the score. Especially when somebody is thrown and you're trying to increase the score when the ref calls osaekomi. One solution would be to have the keyboard mappings clearly labeled and make sure that the person running it has had some practice. Trying to use the mouse is just too slow some times.

We were trying to come up with a way to have two operators and one idea that came up was to purchase an external USB numeric keypad. You can pick these up online for as little as $10. I don't know if that's a good permanent link. If not, search newegg.com for "Keypad". You could have one person on the main keyboard controling time and score and another person doing osaekomi timing on the numeric keypad. If you wanted to go even further, you might be able to get two of these things and have 3 people operating it. One just doing start/stop main time, one doing score and one doing Osaekomi.

IJF Rules Change

The International Judo Federation announced some changes to the official rules of judo which go into effect on January 1, 2009. The main change is that the "koka" score has been eliminated.

The Judo Timer program has been modified to account for this and is available for download now.

The only other real rules changes are about measuring judogis to make sure that they fit correctly. There are also a few "reiterations" of rules that haven't actually changed but which have not been enforced well in the past.

Judo Timer Makes its Debut

The Judo Timer program got its first real test at the fall judo tournament at the Sho-Rei-Shobu-Kan dojo in Lincoln, NE on November 1st, 2008. We ran it on a laptop computer hooked up to a large television in the corner.

While testing it in this environment in the weeks leading up to the tournament, we discovered that, while the television was capable of displaying an 800x600 image quite nicely, the edges of the secondary display window were behind the screen's bezel and so parts of the display couldn't be seen. The television doesn't seem to have any size adjustment settings, so I had to allow for user-settable margins around the outside.

The idea of setting the margins didn't work as well as I hoped so for the Nov 1st tournament, we ended up setting the secondary display window to be 800x600 and dragging it to the center of the TV. A change to allow the 2nd display to be any size has been logged in bugzilla and will be given high priority before the next tournament.

There were a few other ideas that came from this first tournament. The Ippon indicator is hard to see from the spectator's point-of-view and hard to set by the controller. We also need a way to switch which player has the pin during an osaekomi in case the score table accidently sets it to the wrong player.

One final idea has nothing to do with the software at all. We'd like to build a platform to allow the television to be higher up so that it's easier to see.

Thanks to Aaron Hall from the UNL Jodo club for letting us use his laptop computer for this and for his input and suggestions on making the program better.

The timer program should get its next real test on December 13th when the UNL Judo club has their winter tournament. Due to scheduling conflicts with the University, they're having their tournament at Sho Rei Shobu Kan.