Messages

26

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: LittleRunner

« on: May 27, 2010, 01:45 PM »

LittleRunner 1.2.1 is now available.

Big fixes

• Fixed a bug that occurred when a database upgrade failed due to the lack of a backup directory

Link: LittleRunner 1.2.1

27

Developer's Corner / Re: Python Language Annoyances

« on: January 25, 2010, 03:33 PM »

For someone like myself, without any formal development background, Python is great as it is easy to learn and quick to develop in. I can't comment on any of the issues that mouser raises, as I don't know anything different.

I did start to learn C++, but barely enjoyed a moment of it due to the trickiness of some of the syntax.  As someone who only develops in spotty bits of spare time, having a simple language is a godsend.

Simple languages with easy syntaxes are great for allowing beginners to get into developing and that can only mean more people developing 

Plus, having implicit variable declaration quickly teaches you to write tests everywhere 

28

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: LittleRunner

« on: January 16, 2010, 10:53 AM »

LittleRunner 1.2 is now available.

New features

• Routes can now be edited.
• Automatic backup of files.

Link: LittleRunner 1.2

29

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: LittleRunner

« on: January 10, 2010, 11:03 AM »

LittleRunner 1.1 beta is now available containing the following new features and bug fixes:

New features

• A URL can now be associated with a route (e.g. for a link to a run mapping site)
• Each run can have one of the following types - Normal (default for existing runs), training, race, intervals or Fartlek

Bug fixes

• Fixed an error when a letter was inserted into a time in the new run dialog (Redmine bug#55)

It's vitally important that you back up any existing LittleRunner data files before running the new version as it contains brand-new code for the update of the save file data structure. The application will backup the file before starting the upgrade...but, it's a beta and you shouldn't trust it...

Link: LittleRunner 1.1 beta

30

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: LittleRunner

« on: January 09, 2010, 03:50 AM »

Thanks Nod5 

I'll add two new future features - one to hold a new URL with each route and one to import some stats from these sites.  The former should be fairly simple and will probably make its way into the next version.  I'll need to look more closely into the latter.

31

Developer's Corner / Re: generic form designer

« on: January 03, 2010, 04:25 AM »

I struggled a bit at first, but it gets easier.  Here's an example screen:



So, here's a hierarchy of how I lay things out (not sure of this is the proper way, but it works for me):

Project
-- Frame (if screen can co-exist with others) or a dialog (if a screen should take all focus away from its parent)
-----Panel
-------PanelSizer (vertical)
---------Horizontal sizer for each row

Once you've got them all into position, you just need to play with the proportion settings of each component on each sizer.  Once this is done, I copy the code, refactor and then tweak manually to line things up.

The code that comes out of wxFormBuilder is relatively clean.  I guess that anything that comes out of a "drag and drop" designer tends to be messy as it has to worry about the absolute positioning of each component (this might also cause all kinds of issues when expanding the window).

32

Developer's Corner / Re: generic form designer

« on: January 03, 2010, 02:19 AM »

you migth try one of the wxwidgets form designers, like:
http://wxformbuilder.org/

-mouser (January 03, 2010, 12:44 AM)

Agreed - this is a really good tool.  From experience, it doesn't produce too much "clutter", but you will need to refactor as it produces one big lump of code.

33

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 - The Event Concludes

« on: January 02, 2010, 03:16 PM »

Another thanks from me too 

34

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: LittleRunner

« on: December 31, 2009, 04:44 AM »

I'm now pleased to say that LittleRunner 1.0 has been released 

Thanks to Perry Mowbray for NANY2010 and thanks to mouser for the screencast 

35

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Pre-release: LittleRunner

« on: December 31, 2009, 02:18 AM »

Thanks mouser 

I'll look into the bug and fix it for today's final release.

36

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Pre-release: LittleRunner

« on: December 27, 2009, 09:47 AM »

Good news everyone - LittleRunner is feature complete and has reached release candidate

The file is attached to the first post and can be extracted straight into a folder that you have access to on your Windows machine.  Once we're stable, I'll release the code under the GPL licence and it'll become cross-platform.

If you have problems with dependencies, there is a list in the help file.

If you get any other problems, just execute littlerunner.exe from the command line and let me know the error message.

There is a project tracker available at the DC Redmine page.  Please leave any bugs reports / feature requests there.

Enjoy  

37

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have Windows Programs

« on: December 23, 2009, 03:43 PM »

I couldn't do without:
Dropbox - File syncing / backup
Keepass - password management
Editplus - Text editor
Bibble - photo processing software

38

Living Room / Re: How Success Killed Duke Nukem - A heartbreaking story of developer failure

« on: December 22, 2009, 02:56 PM »

I guess that's why developers need project managers to get scopes agreed and ensure that they're kept to.

39

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: LittleRunner

« on: December 22, 2009, 07:27 AM »

CSV export should be easy enough for 1st January.  I'll add it to the planned features.

40

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: LittleRunner

« on: December 22, 2009, 06:58 AM »

 

Looking great!

The other thing I wondered about before was other statistical calculations 

-Perry Mowbray (December 22, 2009, 06:15 AM)

Thanks Perry 

Do you mean things like miles / minute etc?  Or plotting the information graphically (e.g. graphing speeds and distances, average distances per week etc.)?  Both of these sound like good functions to have.  I just need to work out how to implement these and still keep it as LittleRunner 

41

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: LittleRunner

« on: December 22, 2009, 05:34 AM »

I've now added some new screenshots of the application.

It has all of the basic functionality required for an initial release and just needs some bug fixing and some better validation of inputs before being ready.  Depending on how long that takes and how difficult sorting happens to be, I'll look at a pre-release in the next week.  If sorting proves a nightmare, this is the one function that will be dropped.

Any functionality suggestions are welcomed, whether for the 1st January version or for a future version. 

42

Living Room / Re: Infectious Greed: Dishwashers, and How Google Eats Its Own Tail

« on: December 20, 2009, 03:35 AM »

He's hit on a really good point there.  If you try and type any shareware title followed by the word "review" into Google, you get  hundreds of useless results from the same shareware download sites.  Even if they have a "review", it's generally just the author's blurb.  Or one of those "5-star must download software" awards that sites give away to any old piece of software, irregardless of quality.

The only one that is generally worth looking at for customer reviews is Fileforum.  Problem with customer reviews though is that they're only ever written by fanboys and haters.

Rant over 

43

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: LittleRunner

« on: December 20, 2009, 03:15 AM »

with GPS or mapping? ... that would be neat!

-Perry Mowbray (December 20, 2009, 01:25 AM)

It would...maybe version 2 though!  For now, a route is just a name, a distance and a text description.  In the "new run" screen, there is a drop-down with all the routes.  Selecting a value in this drop-down pre-populates the distance and displays the description.  I'll add some more screenshots when they're more finalised.

Mouser - yes, averages are on the todo list for this version.

44

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / NANY 2010 Release: LittleRunner

« on: December 19, 2009, 05:02 AM »

NANY 2010 Entry Information

Application Name	LittleRunner
Version	1.3
Short Description	A runner's database.
Supported OSes	Windows.
Web Page	LittleRunner on RedMine
Download Link	[url=http://redmine.dcmembers.com/attachments/download/49/littlerunner_1_3.zip[/url]
System Requirements	Windows.
Version History	1.0 Final - 20091231 1.1 Beta - 20100110 1.2 - 20100116 1.2.1 - 20100526 1.2.2 - 20100601 1.3 - 20100702
Author	https://www.donation...tion=profile;u=48731
Screencast	http://donationcoder...er/littlerunner.html YouTube: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=irMirzOh9B0

Description
A little application that records a runners schedule.

Features
The application will allow routes to be programmed in and then runs to be recorded against those routes.

• Records routes and descriptions
• Records runs and times, along with comments
• Shows individual run speeds and overall average
• Allows both DD/MM/YY and MM/DD/YY date formatting
• Allows specification of distance units in either miles or kilometres
• CSV export
• Sorting of data
• (Very) basic printing

Planned Features

• Filtering what is shown on mainscreen e.g. only a certain route, only runs this month (definitely not ready for 1st January)
• Totals and averages by month, week etc. (definitely not ready for 1st January)
• Better printing support

Screencast

Screenshots
Adding a new route:


Adding a new run (distance and description automatically populated via selecting a route from the dropdown):


The main screen:


The settings dialog:


Usage
Installation
Unzip into a folder that you have full write access to.

Using the Application
Add some routes.
Then add some runs.
That's it.

Uninstallation
Just delete the directory.

Known Issues
It's the first thing I'll ever have written for general consumption, so make of that what you will...

45

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 - Pledge to Participate Here

« on: December 18, 2009, 10:40 AM »

I'm also going to try and release a little app this year.

46

Living Room / Re: What have I done!?

« on: August 26, 2009, 01:21 PM »

Good luck.  I did a PhD a few years ago (in chemistry) and it was a good experience.  Took me a year to write up the thesis at the end and it helped me discover that I never wanted to step into a lab again 

My tip would be to keep a good bibliography of source papers while you're going along - I left it until the end and it was painful trying to find that obscure reference that I needed for the introduction...

47

General Software Discussion / Re: Spotify

« on: August 26, 2009, 01:16 PM »

It's a great service and the ads aren't that intrusive as they only appear about twice an hour (except that there are only about three of them, which gets a tad tedious).

Only issue is the same as lots of these services - you find a track you want to listen to and it isn't licensed in your country.  Spotify has most labels, so it isn't too much of a problem.

The radio function is great.  Just choose a time period and a genre and it'll play a selection.  Don't bother trying to find any hip-hop from pre-1950 though, as there seems to be a distinct lack of it 

48

Living Room / Re: Myer-Briggs Personality Test For Programmers (or anybody)

« on: August 09, 2009, 04:26 PM »

There seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging here 

49

DC Gamer Club / Retro remakes

« on: July 30, 2009, 03:22 PM »

These guys have made a few fantastic remakes of old games:

Ovine by Design

I've now managed to fulfill a lifelong dream and finally complete Cholo 

50

Living Room / Re: Post Your Funny Videos Here [NSFW]

« on: July 30, 2009, 01:16 PM »

This is an oldie, but a goodie from The Onion (SFW):

New Macbook Wheel