Document First - then Code

Davy Dick's talk to the JAL Special Interest Group last night was a not to be missed event for anyone wishing to program in any language.

The critical analysis process was succinctly expressed as

" If you can't describe it - you can't code it"

Comments in a program are essential for the understanding of others and for yourself if looking at it after a prolonged delay. Davy suggests that we shouldn't write code and then comment on it, but the opposite.

Write comments describing your requirements and then write the code for each part.

Davy used a few examples to outline his method of designing using Psuedo Code.

A road roller, a canal boat with intermediate animations, a traffic light simulator, a lighthouse and Ezypoints were demonstrated and discussed showing different programming methods.

I would recommend that you watch this presentation which is now available on the JALSIG area of the MERG website.

You might have to Join the JAL Special Interest Group to gain access.

Comments

Train sequence / timetable using Arduino

Following discussions in a MERG Zoom meeting about potential projects for the Cumbria virtual area group I have started this blog to share my ideas for building a train sequence / timetable system based on an Arduino UNO. The trigger for this project was Andy Robb's article in the MERG journal (June 2020 edition). In it Andy describes using an UNO with a OLED display to produce an electronic station display board. Having tried out Andy's version I started thinking about expanding the idea and have come up the following list of possibilities: 1. Replace my card index train sequence with an electronic version. 2. Have the train sequence synchronised with the on platform displays. 3. Display an analogue clock on the station display and have it display the train times. 4. Store the position reached in the sequence so that it starts where it left off on power up. To mak...

3D Printing Presentation

Sunday's Zoom meeting had our largest audience so far with 19 members attending from various parts of the country. Alan Geekie gave us an excellent and well received presentation on 3D printing that included FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) and SLA (Stereolithography apparatus) types He first showed how we can source "things to print" using sites like Thingiverse. His own filament printer was the Prusa i3 Mk 3S which is available either as a kit (£699) or pre-assembled (£899) and features a self leveling bed. It also benefited from an additional multi material upgrade kit and he demonstrated the start up sequence of leveling, homing, clearing remaining filament from the hot end and then beginning the print. The process of slicing where a 3d object drawing file (.stl) is broken up into the x,y,z drawing coordinates for each individual layer was also explained. Alan then moved on to resin printers using another Prusa model, the SL1 and its associated curing and washing mach...

Mimic Points in Visual Basic

For this project, I wanted to create a moving graphic to mimic a set of points moving from one position to the other. This Blog shows all that is needed. The first Picture shows the 6 lines needed. This Picture shows the Line Properties. The tracks are shown with 5 lines, though only the middle ones in red are involved. The other line shown below the others is the one that actually "moves". It is shown below the other lines for clarity only. At the start of the Program running, it is positioned over the lower red line. In VB, each Line has properties and these are shown above. To get a line to appear to move, all that needs to be done is to gradually change the X2 and Y2 co-ordinates of the line. This is the code for the program. The first 6 lines create a pause Function in the program, by using the Computers internal C...

Welcome to the Cumbria & Scottish Borders Area Group Forum

Search This Blog