Free software!

[clickerati]

Just wanted to give LineCutter a shout for creating FullMonte. As I got a new sight in November, I've never used it for outdoor sightmarks. So far, it's been nearly spot on. It certainly helps give me a quick starting point reference when trying to get things sorted.

[FunkyBadger]

I'd use it, but I've got a Mac...

[LineCutter]

I can do Windows, or Linux, but not Mac. At least not without a significant expenditure.
WINE might be useful, as might something like QEMU, in running windows software... I don't know 'cos I haven't got a Mac.

[dfunct]

If you can do *nix you should be able to do mac, even if its not a smooth user experience - OSX is fully POSIX and is actually fully certified UNIX

[LineCutter]

OK, GTK 2+ Linux executable is here. Tell me if it works on a Mac with Linux. If so I'll spread it more widely...

[dfunct]

Alas no - I made it an executable and get the rather unhelpful - "./FullMonte: cannot execute binary file" when I try to run it from either the terminal or X11 - I might try and work out why it won't run after my exams have finished.

What other packages are required for it to run? Also would it be possible to compile it using GCC?

[archer_thom]

- Now I've tried it I'll leave it alone -

Once I figured out that the data was entered via the Excel file (not a computer person) it became clear that the program works and gives you a probability graph of your competition score. Great in theory, but not really for me.

- Probability is based upon one round. Great, but was the round above/below/dead on your average? That could cause misleading results.

- How accurate can this be in competitions? It cannot take into account weather conditions or nerves.

- What's really the point? I can see that it's nice to be able to say, "this is the probability of me shooting whatnot"; but this is more applicable to 'pub archery' than real archery where all you can do is shoot arrows. My view is that archers could easily get distracted by probability rather than living in the real world which does not run on such rules.

Nonetheless, it is a very impressive piece of software.

[LineCutter]

Originally Posted by archer_thom

- Now I've tried it I'll leave it alone -

Once I figured out that the data was entered via the Excel file (not a computer person)

This is a problem, that will be solved in version 2. In colour too.

Originally Posted by archer_thom

- Probability is based upon one round. Great, but was the round above/below/dead on your average? That could cause misleading results.

It's based on as many arrows as you care to enter. Again, version 2 will allow you to calculate full, multi range & face size, rounds

Originally Posted by archer_thom

- How accurate can this be in competitions? It cannot take into account weather conditions or nerves.

Quite right, but then again, do your competition nerves significantly affect your scores?? If so then you need to practice something that is not your physical technique. FullMonte may give you the answer. It might even prove that the weather really does affect your scores!

Originally Posted by archer_thom

- What's really the point?

It's a tool. It lets you work out if things are really different, or it was simply luck. It can help compare competition scores to practice scores. It can't do anything about your archery skills, besides helping to tell if some identifiable factor is affecting them.

Originally Posted by archer_thom

Nonetheless, it is a very impressive piece of software.

Thanks Hopefully the next version will be of a little more use to you, but if it isn't I'd be interested to hear from you (or anyone else) what novel analysis might be of use. (I'm not going to recreate TargetPlot or Accurate Sights for example, those are worth paying for).

[archer_thom]

Version 2 sounds like it will address a lot of those issues. Also, despite what I said I've spent all afternoon playing with it while waiting for the cricket to start, so that should be amended to, "now I've tried it, I'll spend some time figuring out a more intelligent comment".

My comment about it only accepting one round wasn't very clear. Certainly it is possible to enter any number of arrows and from that get a better average, but I meant that it only accepts one block of data. In other words, you cannot currently tell it; "this was round A, this was round B, etc", as well as being unable to specify many of the factors that would affect results such as distance.

From your reply it is clear that this is being addressed in V2 and this should become a very helpful program.

What I'd like to be able to do is enter rounds shot at different distances, different targets etc, and see what differences actually appear. I felt that the current version was not sufficiently detailed to give more than a predicted score, but V2 sounds like it will be a useful analytical tool.

Ps: I have a history of tournament nerves being the most important factor in my shooting, so yes, I have other issues as well.

[LineCutter]

Thanks for the comments & the prompt. I've swapped development system, so have had a lot less hassle both starting from scratch & adding all the stuff missing from the last version (which was knocked up on a whim as I tried to remove the last club indoor record from Davros).
You can get an alpha version of FM2 from here. Expect bugs, it's only been on the way for 3 evenings. However, that's the right place for interested people to point me in better directions if such exist.
The alpha expires at the end of the month, but I'll make a vague promise not to mess with the data format too much if you get well into things.

Windows (or Linux if you get mono to do it) with .NET >2 required

I'd like to move the thread over to here, so I can keep track. If an admin would like to close this one I'd be quite happy.