Hey, I recently started getting into c++ and have an idea for an eventual project. The idea is a program that emulates the iconic Matrix falling code but instead of random letters and symbols, displays actual information from system info, to news articles, and weather updates.
from what I can figure out I think I need to learn openGL but that is the extent of my knowledge. What should I learn/do that could make this project possible?
it might be a little more efficient to use a premade engine for this, rather than spending all your time learning and implementing opengl.
[URL="http://www.love2d.org/"]love2d.org[/URL] would be a good place to start
Oooo that sounds cool, how would I go about getting web and system info for use in the program, like Facebook notifications, hard drive info or even recent FP threads
You can use Lua's http library to fetch data, maybe Love has one as well.
I would personally recommend finding an online API from weather websites, or whatever, that returns data, say... JSON, you can then parse the data into Lua tables and implement it.
I'm not sure how much system info the os library returns, but you can always use love.system to get a bit more info. [url]https://www.love2d.org/wiki/love.system[/url]
The types of data I want to try to access with the program are: Email, news articles (including facepunch), facebook/ social media updates, computer process info, ram info, cpu info, and calendar. Does anyone know how I can do these or if any are not possible?
Any tips at all?
Email: You connect to the mailserver via IMAP.
News articles: RSS feeds?
Social media: They have HTTP APIs, or you could again grab RSS feeds.
System info: Wouldn't know how by heart
Calendar: Just time and date? Or do you want to include events from some calendar application?
To be honest, if you have no idea how to begin with any of these, this project is probably a little too ambitious for now.
anything from a social media site is going to be hard to get, the authentication is pretty hard to understand
start by fetching an RSS feed and extracting meaningful data from that, or simply recreating the matrix effect with random letters and then combining the two
[QUOTE=DrTaxi;45521380]Email: You connect to the mailserver via IMAP.
News articles: RSS feeds?
Social media: They have HTTP APIs, or you could again grab RSS feeds.
System info: Wouldn't know how by heart
Calendar: Just time and date? Or do you want to include events from some calendar application?
To be honest, if you have no idea how to begin with any of these, this project is probably a little too ambitious for now.[/QUOTE]
I just want some idea for where to start
[editline]28th July 2014[/editline]
I know what I essentially have to do, but I need to know what I have to learn.
[QUOTE=SIRIUS;45524945]I just want some idea for where to start
[editline]28th July 2014[/editline]
I know what I essentially have to do, but I need to know what I have to learn.[/QUOTE]
It has been given to you and you already do (as far as anyone else can tell you).
If you do not you need to start at the very basics and learn general programming first, which should make the advice clear.
However, if you have problems mostly with problem solving (decomposing them into parts, looking up stuff you don't know, then building the whole out of them), that is something no one can teach you. (Not knowing the standard library doesn't count, it takes pretty long to not have to look up stuff constantly. You should be able to find if something already exists just with the required behaviour and Google though.)
There is no such thing as a "recipe" when programming, because if there is the computer can already do it for you. Programming is creating recipes from scratch (or compositing existing ones into something new). In my experience this is something that's really difficult to actively train. (I'm not saying that hard work doesn't pay in this case, but [I]how much[/I] it pays depends very much on who does it.) Logic puzzles and the like have been shown to be nearly completely useless in that regard too..
There is nothing more we can tell you about the solution to your problem with the information you've provided, except doing the work in your place. If you have specific questions or trouble understanding a piece of code post it back here though, it's extremely likely someone will help you out.
[editline]28th July 2014[/editline]
Not necessarily all of this applies to you, I thought I'd just put it here because we get people once in a while who don't get what programming is about.
Once you get started and have something to work off of, hit up the [I]What Do You Need Help With[/I] thread for questions. Try not to ask super vague questions though. Good luck!
Like everyone said here just get started! Try implementing little features first and then combine them. Maybe make the iconic matrix falling thing first. When that is done try getting it to display certain text. When you are all done with that start grabbing news feeds and all of that good stuff and let your application display it.
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