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BBTipCalc: Open Source Free Tip Calculator With Bill Splitting Feature

by Ronen Halevy on May 1st, 2009 at 2:05 pm EST
30 Comments »
 
Developer: Red Rover Cost: Free

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bbtipcacl[2] Earlier this week we let you know about the commercial Tip Calculator program. Some people complained about paying for a app that does simple math you can replicate in a spreadsheet. One of the commenters, Red Rover, actually took the words to heart and created a simple app called BBTipCalc which is an open source free application that clocks in at a tiny 5kb install file.

This app simply calculates your tip along with splitting the price between however many people ate. This is a no frills app and just simply works. The developer does not have a homepage other than SourceForge and no OTA download. I decided to help out a bit and put the files up for OTA download on BerryReview.

You can find the source code and desktop install files at this link or download the app free OTA at this link below:
www.berryreview.com/ota/TipCalcBB/TipCalcBB.jad

Report back with your thoughts & nice work Red Rover!

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 and is filed under Free Software, News, Software Directory, Utilities.

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30 Comments to “BBTipCalc: Open Source Free Tip Calculator With Bill Splitting Feature”

  1. Posted by: theo
    May 1, 2009 at 3:01 pm EST

    Thanks been waiting for a while for a free one o these to show.

  2. Posted by: Ed
    May 1, 2009 at 3:12 pm EST

    Cool. Remember that the total should be the pre-sales tax number

  3. Posted by: Ronen (not Halevy)
    May 1, 2009 at 3:37 pm EST

    Red Rover, thank you! can you add a field for “Tip Amount Per Diner” (basically “Tip Amount / Number of Diners”) to the bottom list? this will make it easier to split the “tip”.

    Also is it possible to add a “Tax Amount” (with 0 default) as an input field and then change the “Bill Total” and “Amount Per Diner” to include the “Tax Amount” added to the “Amount of Bill” (I hope I make sense).

    Thanks!!!

  4. Posted by: ruhrohs
    May 1, 2009 at 7:15 pm EST

    simple yet very useful program. THANK YOU!

  5. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 1, 2009 at 8:17 pm EST

    Ed & Ronen,

    Apparently a proper tip should be calculated before taxes, I never really considered that as I have always tipped on the total bill including tax. I will make some changes so that the tip can be calculated pre-tax for those who wish to do it that way.

    I will also be adding the “tip per diner” suggestion.

    I hope to have a new release this weekend.

    Thanks all for trying it out and offering suggestions to improve it.

    R.R.

  6. Posted by: Ronen (not Halevy)
    May 1, 2009 at 10:59 pm EST

    Thank you Red Rover!

  7. Posted by: grrrr
    May 1, 2009 at 11:29 pm EST

    “Commenter’s”?

    Kids who are unable to realize not all plurals need a ‘ make me puke.

  8. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 2, 2009 at 12:08 am EST

    I have made the changes mentioned above.

    I did have to change the layout to get everything to fit on the screen on my Curve. After all, that is the device I originally wrote it for. :)

    For now, you will have to check out the sourceforge link listed in the original article. I will post an OTA line once I have the resources to do so.

    Thanks again and let me know what you think.

    • Posted by: Brandon
      May 2, 2009 at 12:56 am EST

      v.1.1.1 doesn’t fit into the Bold screen. The “Exit” button is “…”. Can the “About” button be removed? Thanks.

      • Posted by: Red Rover
        May 2, 2009 at 1:17 am EST

        Hmmm. I would like to leave the about button. However, I understand the concern, especially if the exit button is getting cut off. That is bad.

        I have hidden the about button for now. You can download v1.1.2 and it should work better. Let me know how it goes.

        Thanks

    • Posted by: Dino
      May 2, 2009 at 2:04 am EST

      Hi,
      Here is a suggestion. Instead of “tax amount” (which needs to be copied from the receipt) you could use “tax percent” (software should remember the last value).

      As example you can see: http://gpeters.com/tip

      Thanks!

  9. Posted by: FOSSroxTHX
    May 2, 2009 at 12:49 pm EST

    Thanks for your time and effort. Very much appreciiated.

  10. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 2, 2009 at 5:33 pm EST

    New version 1.1.3 is up on sourceforge. I have changed Tax Amount to Tax Percentage as requested. I have also made some minor cosmetic changes and corrected an exception that I had missed.

  11. Posted by: crookedview
    May 2, 2009 at 10:12 pm EST

    Very cool – nice to have a free app that does math :D

  12. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 2, 2009 at 10:23 pm EST

    I have changed the ota link to reflect version 1.1.3 of TipCalcBB.

    I have also added a link to the zip file containing all of the source files for those who may be interested.

    http://www.berryreview.com/ota/TipCalcBB/TipCalcBB.jad

    http://www.berryreview.com/ota/TipCalcBB/TipCalcBBv113.zip

    Thank you, Ronen, for hooking me up.

    • Posted by: Dino
      May 5, 2009 at 1:02 am EST

      Another suggestion: In the next release would be great if the software can remember the “Tax Percentage”.

      Thank you.

      Dino

  13. Posted by: Phreqd
    May 4, 2009 at 6:05 pm EST

    Thanks Red! Looks and works great on my Bold.

  14. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 5, 2009 at 2:11 pm EST

    Dino,

    I plan to have that in a future release.

  15. Posted by: version
    May 8, 2009 at 10:46 am EST

    thanks red rover, this is so clean and simple. i’d love to design a new icon for you tho if i could? also when i install it’s still showing version 0.0 despite the updates to 1.1.3?

  16. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 8, 2009 at 12:57 pm EST

    Yeah, I noticed the version issue too but hadn’t made the time to look into it. That is, until now. It is fixed in the newest version.

    Also, I shortened the version numbering so the latest is 1.4.

    I would be thrilled to have a nicer icon. I am certainly not an icon guy. I slapped that one together in about ten minutes so that I could release the app with something. :)

    • Posted by: version
      May 8, 2009 at 2:49 pm EST

      not sure if i was clicking to reply to you or if you’d pick up on posted comments in sequence / not sure how this board works tx

  17. Posted by: version
    May 8, 2009 at 2:45 pm EST

    ok cool well i’m happy to help all in the spirit of things.
    what are the icon params (dpi, size, color count allowed) and we can dish out some ideas and post again soon

    n.b. is the OTA link above being updated with the new stuff? happy to offer a free site/page for your lil applet if needed.

  18. Posted by: version
    May 8, 2009 at 2:47 pm EST

    also an about screen might be nice too. mr rover! so humble you are!

  19. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 8, 2009 at 4:36 pm EST

    I will have to double check the icon parameters. I created that one on the fly and never really did get the whole story. However, I made the icon in two sizes, and two color depths, and both worked great. I think the BB must resize the icon if it isn’t ideal. Which is good given the difference in screen capabilities for different models.

    The link in the original article is always updated with the latest version. Ronen was nice enough to give me access to the ota link folder and I have been keeping it up to date. In fact, it is more up to date than the sourceforge link.

    I did have an about screen, but the extra button was causing some issues for Bold users. I have temporarily hidden the button until I can come up with a solution. One option is to add a menu to the application and put it in there. This is the most likely solution, however, I have not purchased the application signing keys from RIM yet and the menu class is a “protected” class.

    However, purchasing these keys will allow me to add menus, remember previous settings (like tax percentage), etc… However, it might cause some issues with the open source aspect of the application as my personal signing keys will be on display, something I certainly do not want.

    Either way, the application will always be free, but I might not be able to distribute the source files any more.

  20. Posted by: S3NTYN3L
    May 26, 2009 at 3:42 pm EST

    How about doing away with the calculate button and having the outputs computed on the fly?

    Also the ability for the app to remember the last tax rate used would be nice.

    While you’re at it, how about just doing away with all the buttons and putting things side-by-side while in ladscape mode. That way, we don’t have to scroll the screen when the keyboard is up. (I’m running a Storm 9530).

    Lastly, (I’m not trying to be rude, but), what is the point of the Tip Per Diner line? IMO, it just creates needless confusion.
    All that’s needed really is the following:
    Tip Amount:
    Total Due (incl. tax & tip):
    Total Per Diner:

    Well, I’ll be watching this article for your thoughts/updates.
    I’ll also be watching the article regarding the app you’ve created Red Rover. For some reason, we cannot post comments in it. It also seems to be pointing to the comments of some top-10 article…

    Thanks the the wonderful free app, just the same! ;)

  21. Posted by: Red Rover
    May 31, 2009 at 6:10 pm EST

    Hmm. It does appear that the comments are screwed up on the other article.

    Anyway, thank you for your comments S3NTYN3L. I will make some changes for the next release. I did purchase the RIM signing keys so I can have the app remember previous tax/tip percentages used.

    However, I did originally have the screen much cleaner but added things such as “tip per diner” as it was requested by another user. Personally, I didn’t see much of a need but it was easy enough to add. You can simply ignore it if doesn’t serve any purpose for you.

    As I have not tested this out on a storm, I am not sure how to go about adjusting the layout so that it works better in landscape mode. My simple solution would be to use it in portrait mode. :) I know that answer might not be what you are looking for. However, I am trying to make sure that one version works on all blackberry devices reasonably well. If I change the layout to accomodate the storm, others will start having problems. Also, I do not want to create another version just for the storm.

    I will take a look at having it calculate on the fly however, that is an excellent idea. That alone would cut down on the buttons required. Also, the exit button is rather redundant as it is in the menu anyway.

    I will, take another look at the layout and see how I can shrink it a little. I might be able to make it work by removing the buttons and adding them to the menu.

    Anyway, thank you for checking out my little app. It has certainly become more popular than I expected. :)

    • Posted by: ed
      May 31, 2009 at 9:11 pm EST

      “Anyway, thank you for checking out my little app. It has certainly become more popular than I expected.”

      You deserve a gratuity!