Hypothetical First Project! - A Map Viewer!

[Sockratease]

OK, so I got my hands on Visual Basic for Free!!

As pointed out by others here, it's just not a good idea to even try to make a Fractal Generator with it.

But I want to try to create something that may be found useful by others.

So...

Back-story:

I downloaded Dentaku's Color Maps on his Sourceforge Page (with Endlos!).

WOW!

So Many Maps!!!

It gave me the idea to scrap the clunky Fractaldactyl program and just write a simple little program that would take a folder of ".map" files and display the whole folder as Thumbnails (gradients)!

I don't see anyother way to make use of ALL Those Maps!!

It would take just as long to write this program as it would to take screenshots of them all and compile a reference! Maybe.  Plus, it would be dynamic, changing with the contents of whatever folder is open, unlike a screenshot.

Does this sound like an application that anyone would care about?

Sadly, VB would mean Windows Only, but it's the only programming language powerful enough to do this that  I can get completely Free!  (I'm not in a position to be buying Anything for quite a while!).

So...

Stupid Hippy Idea, or Useful Application?

Any thoughts would be welcome, but I may just make it for me even if nobody else cares!! (Unless one already exists...) (The map making programs are nice, but geared for indivuiduaal files!)

I have too many color maps to use effectively from just text titles!!

[Nahee_Enterprises]

"Sockratease" wrote:
>
>    OK, so I got my hands on Visual Basic for Free!!
>    As pointed out by others here, it's just not a good
>    idea to even try to make a Fractal Generator with it.

Actually, there have been quite a few fractal rendering programs written over the decades using various forms of Basic compliers and language code.  It is just that there are some people who become a bit snobbish if you do not use a programming language they prefer.

>
>    But I want to try to create something that may be
>    found useful by others.

Then I say go for it !!   
It will be a good learning situation for you, especially if you downloaded the Microsoft Visual Basic .Net 2005 edition.  And if you need any assistance (and I have the available time), I will do what I can to help your endeavor.

>
>    I downloaded Dentaku's Color Maps on his Sourceforge Page (with Endlos!).
>    WOW!    So Many Maps!!!

Actually, it appears that is one of my older collections which has had a folder path added and the Date/Time Stamp modified for each file.  I say this because it only has 1,618 .MAP files within it, making it probably 2 or 3 years old.  The most updated copy may be found at the following location, and it still has the original Date/Time Stamps for when each of the .MAP files were created (some going back two or more decades):
                   http://www.nahee.com/Fractals/FractInt/

This current collection has about 1,742 .MAP files within it.

>
>    It gave me the idea to scrap the clunky Fractaldactyl program
>    and just write a simple little program that would take a folder
>    of ".map" files and display the whole folder as Thumbnails (gradients)!
>    Does this sound like an application that anyone would care about?

I am sure that there would be people that would download it and give it a try.  And there may be some that will use it on a regular basis if you can get it working with a nice interface and make it fast enough to view hundreds of .MAP files.

Give it a try !!   

[Sockratease]

Thanks for the kind offer of assistance!

I may  just take you up on that!!

I am now downloading the VB 2005 thingy...  I was under the impression that this had to be purchased, but it appears to be free!

And looking around there seem to be many levels of this and other languages available...

So I guess the first question is "Which of the freely distributed programming languages / compilers would best suit a map viewer project?"

I suppose if these are available for free, I can learn any one language as easily as another (Hooray for Libraries!).

After sleeping on it, I really like the idea of a map viewer!  The maps file with Endlos, like the one to which you linked, also has  over 1,000 maps.

I now have so many map files and so many map making tools, that I see this program as filling a Need!

I really think it will help tremendously and am surprised one does not exist already. 

How do people choose from all those files??

I'm babbling...  Coffee.

I'll stop.

Just killing time while something downloads...

[cKleinhuis]

this can be a quite useful proggy

why not multi platform ?

i use c++ and wxwidgets, as ide you could use code::blocks

http://www.codeblocks.org/
http://wxwidgets.org/downloads/

[dentaku2]

By the way: I already thought about showing the map files gradient in the box with all the files' names in endlos. But this could take somw time  as all 1600 files need to be scanned and the gradient to be built up. Maybe in one of the next versions ... 

[Sockratease]

By the way: I already thought about showing the map files gradient in the box with all the files' names in endlos. But this could take somw time  as all 1600 files need to be scanned and the gradient to be built up. Maybe in one of the next versions ... 

The load time, and my decades away from programming, are what made me decide that this would make a nifty little stand-alone application!

I am still having ridiculous trouble getting my java crap working right...

I know this computer has serious issues and I may need to "Nuke" it (uninstall and reinstall the operating system)  (ug...)  (I know it's the 'puter because whole sections of my flash -imitator program vanished and are still gone on a clean re-install from the disc...  and I installed it on another 'puter and the program works normally...  so Something got "Intercoursed" in the registry or somewhere..)  (Probably why Endlos wont work properly for me)  (I Like Paranthesis!)

But if you work this feature into Endlos, I would use the program Just For That even if it didn't work for fractals on my system!!

Due to the load time I would suggest having the gradients open in a pop-up window or something to keep it seperate and resizable.  I really like the way many programs let you stretch or shrink the width of the displayed gradient with the window.  (Chaoscope and Chaos Pro do this nicely)

This weekend is my scheduled time to pick a programming language for whatever I choose to do.  It will probably be this viewer.  It has so much room for growth. It could evolve to display other pallette formats too.  Maybe even become an editor in it's old age...

And I am just not able to compete with the Fractal Generators I see being made by folks here...  I just  don't have all the Math ... Yet!

I still have a lot of acronyms to learn!  Everywhere I look nobody writes for those of us who took 25 years off!!  I don't even know what IDE Stands for!!!  Everyone uses it, but nobody defines it!!

Does nobody remember that when writing technical stuffs one should NEVER use an Acronym without First using the entire phrase??

It's Grammatically Incorrect I tells Ya!

Hmmm...

Gotta stop posting during this morning coffee fix!

[Nahee_Enterprises]

"Sockratease" wrote:
>
>    I still have a lot of acronyms to learn!  Everywhere I look nobody writes
>    for those of us who took 25 years off!!  I don't even know what IDE
>    stands for!!!  Everyone uses it, but nobody defines it!!

    http://www.acronymfinder.com/

    http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/

    http://silmaril.ie/cgi-bin/uncgi/acronyms


>
>    Does nobody remember that when writing technical stuffs one should
>    NEVER use an Acronym without First using the entire phrase??

You will be hard pressed to find me even using a contraction, much less not commonly known acronyms.   
 

[lycium]

a number of people, myself included, would really really appreciate a 2d environment editor.

soon after i wrote my article on 2d lighting some years back, someone emailed me about a visual basic implementation he had done. it didn't have so many material features and was quite slow, but what really made it cool to play with was the environment editor. you just place circles (usually as lights), lines and possibly other interesting shapes down in 2d, then hit the render button and it bounces a lot of light around your little lightmaze (tm).

two friends of mine are currently writing such renderers and we're all starved for good scenes to play with!

i'm happy to help out with any programming questions you have; the file format should be a really simple xml-like thing:

<circle>
<centre>0.0 10.0</centre>
<radius>10.0</radius>
<emit>10.0 10.0 10.0</emit>
</circle>

etc.

would you consider it?

[Sockratease]

That's a great idea...

But if I'm having difficulty turning a simple map viewer into reality...

That would make a better third project than a first!

I'm still learning the basics of this new stuff!

I have the logic, but not the syntax!!

Time...


ug.