Cyprus-Forum.com

[Pyrpolizer]

Because I use Excel quite extensively for my job I learned how to program using Excel's own VBA. I am quite familiar with programming logic, and from what i know the logic is the same in every programming language.I have written a lot of programs with that, my problem is they cannot be used by anyone unless he also has Excel installed.
Hence i decided to learn a few more programming languages and I already started with C++.
Well what can i say, I got totally sick with that. For one you have to compile your complete program to see if it works. At compile stage you may get 100 errors for just one missing semicolon. Let aside the bugs your program might eventually produce.There is no step procedure to check what your program is doing step by step....
I think I will abandon that monstrosity.

Which other programming language would you propose me?

[kurupetos]

I used C++ in my early days in uni. Not too bad, if you are a complete geek. Maybe you could try Octave which is free but rather bulky... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Octave

Mathematica is more entertaining (and expensive), but depends on your line of work... I reckon you don't optimize nuclear reactors...

[Lordo]

what is the big deal about installing excel. you can have 365 at 80 pounds per year and you get 5 licences for it. what do you want, to be paid to install it ffs.

[Get Real!]

Up until a couple of years ago I would’ve recommended one of the contemporary 4GL’s (4rth generation languages) like C# (C-sharp) in your case since you’re familiar with some C++, but recently something wonderful happened that changed the course of programming history forever!

The magic word is “Web Apps”… the way forward!

The world had been piling up wonderful creations that they had written in HTML+Javascript+CSS, which suited an Internet browser (see online sites that look and behave like normal software) but couldn’t be used without a browser (<-similar problem to your Excel script) and had too many security obstacles (<-couldn’t access the user’s files etc), until someone invented Node.js…

https://nodejs.org/

"Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications."

In other words, Node.js overcame all the security barriers that browsers imposed like file access, and OS access, etc and was fully compatible with the browser’s logic… Javascript!

What this means is that you can now take HTML+Javascript+CSS (<- the three elements of a website) and add Node.js to it to create a full blow web-compatible application with the only thing lacking being a shell (housing).

Enter Google’s Chromium!

https://www.chromium.org/

Probably the best thing that Google has ever done to the world was to release their excellent browser engine to the world as open source!

(Not to be confused with “Chrome” the browser which itself is using the Chromium engine to interpret web script)

And binding it all together to create a wonderful single executable package?

A wonderful creation called "node-webkit" that now takes HTML+Javascript+CSS (the web creation) PLUS Node.js (full system access) PLUS Chromium (the wonderful shell) to build re-distributable executable files that work on any platform (Windows/Mac/Linux/Unix/etc) and on any hardware (PCs, mobiles, servers, tablets, etc)

http://nwjs.io/

My current main project “CSS3 Machines” is a perfect example of such a creation.

http://www.thebequertools.com/

I hope I haven't confused you with all this...

[Get Real!]

Model.jpg

[Pyrpolizer]

One of the most difficult programs I ve written was something for a GPS application for mobile phones, that basically uses the google maps offline plus other paper maps converted to digital. Everybody was screaming in that forum for such a program, nobody was doing it, I ve spent nearly one week to do it, and 15 days later another guy did exactly the same thing on Java. Using Excel to write programs is a serious burden, even people who have it installed don't even know how to use it...
My program got downloaded 4000 times, his 46,000 (from 2008).
http://forum.mgmaps.com/viewtopic.php?t ... ac755b27dd

I think I will go ahead with Java, and Python, then probably try GR's

[Get Real!]

One of the most difficult programs I ve written was something for a GPS application for mobile phones, that basically uses the google maps offline plus other paper maps converted to digital. Everybody was screaming in that forum for such a program, nobody was doing it, I ve spent nearly one week to do it, and 15 days later another guy did exactly the same thing on Java. Using Excel to write programs is a serious burden, even people who have it installed don't even know how to use it...
My program got downloaded 4000 times, his 46,000 (from 2008).
http://forum.mgmaps.com/viewtopic.php?t ... ac755b27dd

I think I will go ahead with Java, and Python, then probably try GR's

Give me the (accelerated) tech info of what your program does or is meant to do... maybe it's something I can do for you over a weekend!

[Pyrpolizer]

One of the most difficult programs I ve written was something for a GPS application for mobile phones, that basically uses the google maps offline plus other paper maps converted to digital. Everybody was screaming in that forum for such a program, nobody was doing it, I ve spent nearly one week to do it, and 15 days later another guy did exactly the same thing on Java. Using Excel to write programs is a serious burden, even people who have it installed don't even know how to use it...
My program got downloaded 4000 times, his 46,000 (from 2008).
http://forum.mgmaps.com/viewtopic.php?t ... ac755b27dd

I think I will go ahead with Java, and Python, then probably try GR's

Give me the (accelerated) tech info of what your program does or is meant to do... maybe it's something I can do for you over a weekend!

That was some 7 years ago, forget about it. I don't even remember the technical details behind those MTPF files.
I am not doing "hello world" programs, most of what i do is very technical and very specific.
My most recent idea was to write a program that converts *.xg backgammon files to *.mat
To do that one has to know backgammon, has to at least tried the XG program, has to know the format of mat files,has to have a software that uses *.mat files. I knew all that, i knew nothing about the Xg format. Hence started from here:
http://www.extremegammon.com/xgformat.aspx
Got the idea?

NB. I have already done the conversion program. I am just posting these details to give you an idea of what I usually do, to enable you advice me what new programming language i should start learning.

An example of XG file is this one:
http://ukbgf.com/wp-content/uploads/hos ... t-match.xg
Decompress it using Petch's scripts and you will get a huuuuge text file 1000 times larger than the original.
From memory this one produced me some 115,000 lines of text!! And the final *.mat file was only about 200 lines.

NB2. Oh btw I don't sell my programs, i am not a professional, I just use them for my job, or just share them .Programming is actually a hobby for me.

[Get Real!]

That was some 7 years ago, forget about it. I don't even remember the technical details behind those MTPF files.
I am not doing "hello world" programs, most of what i do is very technical and very specific.
My most recent idea was to write a program that converts *.xg backgammon files to *.mat
To do that one has to know backgammon, has to at least tried the XG program, has to know the format of mat files,has to have a software that uses *.mat files. I knew all that, i knew nothing about the Xg format. Hence started from here:
http://www.extremegammon.com/xgformat.aspx
Got the idea?

NB. I have already done the conversion program. I am just posting these details to give you an idea of what I usually do, to enable you advice me what new programming language i should start learning.

An example of XG file is this one:
http://ukbgf.com/wp-content/uploads/hos ... t-match.xg
Decompress it using Petch's scripts and you will get a huuuuge text file 1000 times larger than the original.
From memory this one produced me some 115,000 lines of text!! And the final *.mat file was only about 200 lines.

NB2. Oh btw I don't sell my programs, i am not a professional, I just use them for my job, or just share them .Programming is actually a hobby for me.

So why don’t you parse this text file? Can’t be that hard… post a screen-full of it so we can see its contents.

As for the best language for you… it depends on whether you just want to be fiddling with other people’s file headers or whether you want to write your OWN backgammon game and create the “.PP” file format!

To tinker with file headers you only need C++ as it can easily handle data structures and string parsing. These are the only two things you need to extract header info so I can't understand why you're not happy with that.

But… if you want to write your own backgammon game, get into Web Apps!

[Pyrpolizer]

1)So why don’t you parse this text file? Can’t be that hard… 2)post a screen-full of it so we can see its contents.

As for the best language for you… 3)it depends on whether you just want to be fiddling with other people’s file headers or whether you want to write your OWN backgammon game and create the “.PP” file format!

To tinker with file headers you only need C++ as it can easily handle data structures and string parsing. These are the only two things you need to extract header info so I can't understand why you're not happy with that.

But… if you want to write your own backgammon game, get into Web Apps!

1)Who said i didn't? I was just answering your question to provide you a quick technical description of one of my recent projects.
2)Full screen of the parsed output is impossible..Like I said it produces thousands of lines. I will upload one tomorrow.
3)I already said that in this particular case the issue was for converting from one file format (from the parsed file) to another (the *.mat file format). No I am not interested to write any software that is already available.
I am only writing solutions to specific issues mainly for my own use that sometimes might also interest a limited number of people .Most have to do with tables , calculations, graphs, and text manipulation.