3 replies to this topic

[centurion]

Hi everyone,

I've got a project I'd rather like to do but absolutely no idea where to start. I don't yet know any languages but at the same time, I understand the basic functions used in various programs; I'm not totally foreign to it all. I like to think that I learn quickly and would like to overcome as many obstacles as I can myself, but I will definitely need some major pointers.

My goal is as follows: I want to make myself a calorie counter to assist with weight loss/maintenance. I know some exist on the web but my experience is that they are very tedious, trawling through drop down menus to find the right make of apple is so time consuming that I just give up. I envisage building my program up over time through several phases.

Initially I would like to start simply with a variable that is the number of calories consumed. Each time I eat/drink something I would like to input that number and have it added to the total. I will have a similar variable for calories burnt. I then need some way to recall these easily, preferably not having to go into a script and manually finding them.

The next step is to increase the complexity to record time of inputs and somehow integrate days into the program. Then, I will introduce some method for recalling input numbers and times in a visually friendly fashion.

Finally, I would like to be able to add text with inputs and have a really nice easy way to display everything possibly even with a desktop icon or an item in the taskbar (this may be wishful thinking, no idea how easy it is)

So there's my plan. I think my first issue is choosing a language. My top criteria is the ease of display. I would love a really polished pop-up window to open giving me the important numbers like net calories burnt and ideally, have some sort of menus or tabs allowed me to look at certain days/weeks or even graphs. Ease of programming takes a slight back seat, but if one language would be a lot tougher then I'll avoid it.

Thats enough from me, I look forward to hearing people's thoughts.

Thanks in advance,

P

[Alexander]

First of all welcome to our forums!

Menus and graphs should not be too hard, but some languages require a lot of knowledge to make some simple things, therefor I would say Visual Basic.NET as possibly the best choice, it supports drag and drop menu/form building, and has a BASIC-derived syntax which should aid in doing your application rather than worrying about the more advanced things.

I think it may take registration to download: Microsoft Express Downloads - Visual Studio Express and SQL Server Express

Other languages include C# (another Microsoft language), and there are more portable languages such as Java or C++, which require knowledge of threads often to program GUI. Maybe look examples of some of them and see what you think it easiest for you.

Scripting languages such as Python is another option, but those are a bit more restrictive in allowing you to do stuff with the desktop (like create task bar icons or forms)

[Dreamcatcher]

Hey,

Working on a similar project (Gym-Diet Calendar) seems that people are more and more taking under consideration their health. That's good... well in order to stay in topic...
For your first step don't use databases unless you need them... I mean If you don't care to collect the measurements of many users (like statistics). You increase the complexity. I thing that for your first step it would be nice to read/write from/to files.

For my point of view I suggest Language like Java or C++... As Alexander told portability is really a decisive factor... I would suggest Java... The reason for that... There are very few boxes without a JRE... but people, that are not programmers or woriking with sth similar, don't have compiler for c/c++ in their pc's. So if you have plans for selling your app you have to make a small research .

Don't be afraid the GUI. Netbeans Gui Builder should help you a lot ;)

I hope to have fun in your programming period and to learn a lot of new stuff dude ;)

[centurion]

Thanks for the replies.

Okay, I've started off with visual basic, despite my current incompetence it does seem like a good way to achieve what I want. Its going to take a while of messing about and googling to make progress but I'll see if I can't get the first step of my project done.

I think I'll go set up another thread keeping track of all my problems/solutions as I plough on with this project.

http://forum.codecal...html#post294301
Its there if you're interested.

Edited by centurion, 25 February 2011 - 12:31 PM.