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Re: Looking for Suggestions on School Project
by PodMaster (Abbot) on Sep 14, 2002 at 04:46 UTC
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How about a College planner, that makes sure you have all your major requirements and there is no overlapping and such? Make it very generic, and database based, so it isn't specific to a particular major or college, as long as the database is stuffed (i was gonna do it with damian1301, but he hit puberty, and lost interest ;)
Make it modular, so you can build multiple interfaces. My plan was a web based one, using CGI::Application and HTML::Template.
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** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy. | [reply] |
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Re: Looking for Suggestions on School Project
by FoxtrotUniform (Prior) on Sep 14, 2002 at 04:47 UTC
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One thing I've always wanted to look at is unsupervised
modelling: given a few basic concepts and some parameters,
produce a semirandom 3d polygon model. L-systems
look like a workable approach: specifying the generation
rules and terminals gives you a lot of control over your
output, and it looks easy to build an interesting and
complex system. Not exactly trivial, though.
If you choose to do this, Wavefront's OBJ file format
(more info
here) is the
obvious choice: nice and easy to work with, and powerful
enough to do pretty much everything you'd want.
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The hell with paco, vote for Erudil!
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Hmm. Okay, in this context, an L-system is sort of like
a grammar with extra information. Doesn't help much,
eh? :-)
Here's a simple example: random models of trees (those
big leafy things in the room with the tall ceiling, not
graphs). We can describe a (kind of) tree with this
L-system:
Tree: Stick . (Branch)+
Branch: Stick . (Branch)+ | Stick . Leaves
Stick: <model of a stick>
Leaves: <model of leaves>
Basically, a tree is one big stick (the trunk), with a
bunch of branches on the end. A branch is a stick with a
bunch of (smaller) branches on the end, or a stick with
leaves on the end. Sticks and leaves are "terminals":
they're well-defined, and we don't make more of the model
once we're at a stick or a leaf.
There's a lot of information that we didn't specify for
each of these rules. For instance, we don't want to have
branches scattered just anywhere on the trunk; we probably
want at least one or two of them right at the top. We also
don't want them growing at just any angle; probably around
30 degrees of the branch they're growing off of (we pick
the exact angle for each branch randomly). But that's the
basic idea. (You can find a nice demo of L-system trees
here.)
Now, the interesting thing about L-system modelling is
that it gives you different results each time, but those
results are all related. You won't get the same tree twice
(well, okay, up to the period of your PRNG) from this
system, but you'll always get trees. So what if you
apply this to a different problem? What if, instead of a
grammar for trees, you make a grammar for fighter craft in
a Homeworld-like game? It might look something like
this:
Fighter: Body . Wing . Wing . Engine+
Body: Fuselage . Cockpit . Weapon+
Wings: (Control Surface) . Weapon? | Weapon?
Engine: Intake? . Thruster . Exhaust
...
Now, every time the player encounters a new enemy fleet,
you can generate a fighter model that they haven't seen
before, but still looks something like a fighter. Your
player never knows quite what to expect, and gets a slightly
different experience every time.
The really hard part is making these models look
good....
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The hell with paco, vote for Erudil!
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Re: Looking for Suggestions on School Project
by diskcrash (Hermit) on Sep 14, 2002 at 14:37 UTC
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Dear Flame,
Your GMS site looks very interesting and has some open issues on features. You might extend those but use a broader context for use in other apps. Some other suggestions:
1. Development of a script for some specific USB device support.
2. Create a new client server app (pick an open port number) and create some nifty chat/game/news/mail/file share display toy.
3. Find a pair of file types that need conversion but no one has built yet. For example astronomy FITS files.
4. Serial port I/O support in Perl has always needed some improvements. How about reviewing it and offering updates.
5. Code and set up an "always on" network port location for other people to test client server apps to. Config it with an e-mail then test it with a socket.. or?
Turn up the heat, Flame!
Diskcrash
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Dear Flame,
USB -support - there are a few USB test kit vendors out there who provide drivers and small USB test boards. They usally read switches and light LEDs. There are USB ref docs on the web. I'd contact a vendor and see if they would help you out.
Client-server apps are documented with code in several Perl books. They usually let you send and receive a buffer full of bytes between two ports on two machines. You would add some structure to the buffer content and possibly use simple TK to display the results. You might make a master/follower mouse display or perhaps a "public scratchpad" app. Check out "Perl in a Nutshell" - Chapter 13.
The file server converter is interesting. Use hex mode in vi (or similar editor) to look at the byte by byte content of a file. Start with a simple text file. You'll see the text and the "whitespace" characters, like line feeds, spaces etc. You can use Perl to read and parse this file and then spit out a different format. Consider a simple Unix /PC converter. You might also try a simple encryption technique.
In the broader sense think about any app that needs to move info of one type to another in a consistent way. The term often used is "Data Munging" and there is a good book by that title for Perl (by David Cross). This sounds pedestrian, but a whole lot of people get paid a whole lot of money to come up with fast and accurate format conversions.
Good luck and use strict
Diskcrash
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Re: Looking for Suggestions on School Project
by Nemp (Pilgrim) on Sep 14, 2002 at 13:35 UTC
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Hi Flame,
Can you tell us a little more about where your interests lie and what kind of things you'd like to work on? It's all too easy to throw out suggestions but we could end up starting you down a track you don't care for too much or something you won't enjoy donig. (and to me if I'm working on a project I get to help define I make very sure it has elements in it that I think I'll like :))
Regards,
Neil | [reply] |
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