CS 422: Project 1

For the assignments in this class you have a choice of user interface toolkit that you wish to use. Good options are Swing for Java, fltk for C or C++, or wxWidgets for a c++ or Python. The limitation is that we need to be able to check your program on the CS department linux machines on the second floor of SEL.

Project 1 will give you a chance to program a small interface and get used to the UI toolkit of your choice before we proceed onto the main project in the course: Project 2.

Each person will work individually on this project. This project is NOT a team project.

It is expected that all of the code used in these programs will be written by you. You can use code from the web as examples and a guide to writing your code, but the code must be your own. We will be using computer software to compare people's programs and it is very good at finding similar programs.

Any code, images, icons, or other elements borrowed from others must be cited in the work and in the README file.

Thermostats to control central heating and cooling in a house or apartment used to look like this:

Now programmable digital ones are becoming more common with small b/w LCD screens and a few physical buttons, and some even with touch-screens.

It is also possible now, and more likely in the future, that you will be able to control your thermostat remotely and wirelessly from a tablet-PC-like device. This device could be used within the apartment / house or it could be taken with you to control the temperature at home while you are on vacation somewhere else.

It is important to note that this system is designed to be used by 'normal people' so there is a need to balance more powerful features with the desire to keep from confusing the user.

You may want to look at some real programmable thermostats (including some touch-screen ones) for ideas, but in general they do not have very intuitive user interfaces - so don't pick up bad habits from them. Remember that the user might be seeing/controlling the interface from work or from the beach, so feedback will be important. Keep the concepts from class in mind: making things visible, good mappings, good feedback, designing for error.

I would suggest writing the simulation code first, but I would also think about the kind of controls the user will need to have as hooks into the simulation.

The project will be graded on whether it works, as well as whether it has a reasonably good user interface given what we have talked about in class so far. Both are required to get a C or above. So, for example, writing a fully functional application that gives the user a touch screen keyboard and a command prompt to interact with the system would not get a very good grade.

Make sure your project works on the linux machines on the 2nd floor of SEL. You can develop this on whatever machine you prefer, but that is the platform that we will be testing on, so be sure that it compiles and runs there.

Be sure to have a README file that explains what your program does, and what it does not do so that while grading we know what to expect. I would suggest using an html-based readme file so you can include images in it.

We will be using the traditional CS turnin system. Projects are due by the beginning of class on the due-date so please be sure you have your program turned in before then. For more information on turnin you can do 'man turnin' on any of the CS machines, but basically if you have a directory called 422 containing your project you would go to the directory level above 422 and type:

were the -c tells which course and -p tells which project. Turnin definitely works from bert.cs.uic.edu

An important part of creating user interfaces is getting feedback and using it to improve your design. Given the class size, this can be a bit of a challenge. On 2/7 and 2/9, after the project has been turned in, we will have some group discussions and presentations about the solutions to Project 1.

On Tuesday 2/7 the class will break into 8 groups. Each group will compare notes on their solutions to the problem and come to an agreement on a single interface design. This design does not have to be implemented; it should be presented as a series of screen snapshots/mockups for the major functions.

Before Thursday's class each group should create a web page with the team members' names, the screen snapshots, and a description of how the interface will be used. The address of this page should be emailed to Andy before class begins on Thursday.

On Thursday 2/9 each of the 8 groups will give a 8 minute presentation on the combined interface that their group came up with, using their web page, showing the snapshots and giving a brief description of its functionality.

and here is a shell script to get the current outside temperature using wget which is available for unix/linux asnd windows ...

#!/bin/sh

# uses wget: http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

# cities: http://my.aol.com/weather
# Chicago: USIL0225

city="USIL0225"

wget -q -O toto.txt "http://my.aol.com/weather/index.psp?city=$city"
grep 'Current Temperature' toto.txt | awk '{print $3}'
/bin/rm -f toto.txt

Chris Rick Felix Joe	http://www.rickdogg.com/cs422/cs422.html
Samuel Mandeep Dubi	http://www.cs.uic.edu/~spro/
Arunan Marco Vijay	http://arunan.50webs.com/cs422p1.html
Brian Sana James B.	http://www.amaze-inc.com/Brian/CS422/GroupProject1/GroupProject1.htm
Bindu James J. Manisha	http://www2.uic.edu/~mrajku2/cs422/proj1.htm
Cristian Benjamin Cara	http://home.earthlink.net/~dxvii/422/
Dat Darshan Greg	www.sapne.net/datdarshangreg.html
Satya Eric Bharath	http://www.cs.uic.edu/~eho/cs422/project1/

Cristian Chris Ben
Brian Marco Manisha
Darshan Dubi James Vijay
Mandeep Arunan Satya James
Sana Joe Eric Dat
Bharath Greg Rick Bindu