OverLook - a Visual Basic 6 project analyser - Written using VB .net 2005.
Status Ongoing
This is my latest project which I hope to expand to cover all Visual studio languages. At the moment only Visual Basic 5/6 projects are covered. Overlook is simple to use, once you have selected your project Overlook starts analysing the project files and displays the project structure in a treeview plan. By selecting nodes off this treeveiw more information can be obtained regarding variables both local and global, sub and function structure and their interconnections. You can also view the individual sub/functions source code, also a full search facility allows you to easily find individual project files and search within these for individual sub/function code. Overlook is written to aid programmers who take over old projects (but new to them) to gain a quicker understanding of the way the program works and fits together. Also it will aid programmers who go back to previous projects they've written to give them a quick refresh of the codes structure.
------------------------------
Golf Course Designer - Written using VB .net 2005.
Status Ongoing
This program simulates my local golf course. Holes 1 through 5 have been completed, only another 13 to go. This is a great project for learning all about .nets GDI (Graphic Device Interface). The approach I have taken is to use text files to hold all coordinates for each hole, this give a very flexable/fluid simulation. You can also view the course in different weather conditions and even at night.
------------------------------
ICAL - Intelligent computer aided life - Written in C, Visual Basic 6.
Status Ongoing, coverting to VB .net 2005
A few years ago I decided to make a computer generated life form and this took the form of an ICAL(Intelligent Computer Aided Life), this is an ongoing project which I treat like an old friend and regulary dip back into when the mood takes.
An ICAL has some basic attributes to allow it to function as a lifeform within it's digital world.
The first attribute was a life span cycle, of course it could live forever as long as the computer isn't switched off!, but I thought it should have some sort of given life cycle structure. I decided on 100 ICAL days, the first question that came to mind was, what is an ICAL day! I think we'll have to come back later on for the answer after we have set in place some further attributes.
Does the ICAL have a gender!, is it male or female, do we have to have a gender at all!. Yes we do have to have a gender. Some where down the line we have to perpetuate the species(is this a species!) beyond the life cycle structure we have already imposed, so we need a way to reproduce before an ICAL grows old and dies.
Now another two attributes come to mind, energy and appertite. Our ICAL must have energy and here I'm not talking about electrical energy as supplied by the computer, but energy that the ICAL must expend to move itself around our digital environment. If our ICAL requires energy to move and do tasks(more about tasks later) then it needs a replacement energy store where it can replenish itself when required. So our ICAL can lose energy which means it gets hungry!. So our ICAL needs a food store for which it can go and eat!.
Could our ICAL grow it's own digital food!, maybe our ICAL could be a digital farmer!. Growing binary code to fuel itself and lifestyle!. Maybe, but not yet, but certainly a possibility for the future.
So if our ICAL needs food to replenish it's energy we'll supply it with a supermarket that it can go to and shop!. Of course for the ICAL to shop(a task) would require a certain amount of energy!. And what would our ICAL use for money!, well actually, digital money. Our ICAL would earn digital money from going out to work(a task), of course it would need a certain amount of energy to go to work in the first place. If this sounds as though it's getting complicated that's because it is and so far we've only designated five attributes out of a basic seven that I feel we need in this first life simulation attempt.
So lets recap, we've created an ICAL with five basic attributes. These five attributes are:
Life Span(Age)
Gender(Sex)
Energy(Health)
Appetite(Hunger)
Money(Earnings)
Our ICAL can go shopping to replace energy it loses through working(tasks) and moving around it's digital world. By working our ICAL earns money so as to be able to buy food(task) to replace it's lost energy.
There is a danger that our ICALs energy level falls so low that it has'nt got enough energy to go to work and earn money to buy food, what happens then!.
Our ICAL will go to sleep. By going to sleep will restore the ICALs energy to 50% plus of the energy state on going to sleep. When our ICAL wakes up it will be one day older, every time our ICAL goes to sleep and subsequently wakes up it will be one day older, so our ICAL will now age on a pattern of when it sleeps.
The next attribute to apply is the most difficult, and at present I don't have all the answers as to how this attribute will be applied to the life simulation.
But I have enough answers to be able to apply a basic building block for this attribute, intelligence. First lets start with the old adage what is intelligence!. Many people far more qualified than me to answer this question have tried in the past but I don't think anyone has come up with a definitive answer.
So I'm certainly not going to be able to do so here, except in the context of the life simulation, in this context intelligence is avoiding danger, finding food, living as long as possible.
How will our ICAL get intelligence!. By going to school. Just as we supply a supermarket we'll also supply a school and every time our ICAL goes to school he or she will earn a intelligence point at the expense of losing some energy and some money. What good are points!, what do points make; points make prizes! eh no, not in this case. Intelligent points will allow our ICAL to access it's memory, no points = no memory. The more points the more memory access. Going to school will only supply points to our ICAL, but by getting these points will allow our ICAL to store more information gained during the life simulation and help it hone its life simulation and also pass on more information to its offspring.
In this first simulation intelligence does not play a large roll at all but in future simulations the intelligence factor will become I believe the dominant factor. For an example in future simulations there will be more than just one ICAL, there could be many ICALs living and working together. When ICALs meet in these simulations some may be aggresive to other ICALs, a ICAL with a good education (intelligence) will learn through contact (memory) to avoid these aggressive ICALs and therefore stay clear of a possible dangerous situation. As you can see there is a lot of work to do regarding intelligence and applying it to the simulation, but I also hope you can see or glimpse the enormous scope that can be opened up by applying it successfully.
Our final attribute is what we shall call the feelgood factor. This is attained by looking at four of the other six attributes to arrive at how our ICAL is feeling at any given point in the simulation. These attributes are energy, appetite, intelligence and money. In other words if your healthy, weathly and bright your happy anything else and your either just fine or unhappy. This feelgood factor will be expanded in later simulations.
------------------------------
PLAS - A profit and loss analysing system. Written in Sinclair basic.
Status Completed.
This program took the wholesale price of items, the retail selling price of items to give you the profit forecast. Other factions it covered were wastage of fresh food, staff wages, electric and phone costs and of course unfortunatly, theft.