Firstly, what do you mean by "mobile app"? Are you referring to a web-hosted app that is usable by a mobile device? Or are you talking about an app that's running in a mobile device, like a iPhone or Android app?
I guess it should be called a smart device application. If you go under projects, it's listed as a smart device, and in there create a device application.
Dude... don't take this the wrong way, but if you want help, you have to answer the questions. You haven't yet. I have no idea what a "smart device" application is. That doesn't tell me if you're building a web site that is usable by a smartphone or building an application that is installed and runs in the phone. Sounds like you have no idea about the architecture of the application you want to build, and that is the FIRST place you have to start.
I've recently started to learn Java using a lot of the video tutorials on youtube. My ultimate goal was to be able to create physics applets such as this, although I don't know how long it will take to get there. The thing is is that I thought they just used Java whereas I now understand they used Java script. Can you still make things like this with Java and embed them in a web page?
As I'm sure you know by now, Java and JavaScript are two completely different things. Completely. The use of a web-page embedded Java Applet has really dropped in popularity in the past few years. Java plug-ins are usually sketchy across platforms, and third party downloads. Versioning can also be an issue. For the most part, people moved more into the Flash stuff because it was ubiquitous. Every browser had it and it was built in. Not saying Java Applets don't exist any more, but I just don't see them as often. A lot of the stuff applets were doing has been moved into a web-application style app using AJAX, etc. Still quite doable, though. What exactly do you mean by a "physics" app? A graphical thing with a ball bouncing around kind of stuff?
Thanks for the response. A physics applet simulates a physical system where the user can interact with it and see how the system changes to get a better understanding of what’s going on. Here’s another example: Optics Background: I just finished a contract of working in a chemistry lab and while I’m looking for something else I thought I’d learn a programming language. I thought making a physics applet such as these would be a great way of demonstrating what I’d learnt (or would learn) in programming and had understood the physics. Initially I wanted to do it in C++ because I think it’s the most useful language in the sciences (correct me if I’m wrong). I also made a really basic genetic algorithm in C++ while at university which I really liked doing. Although it’s not absolutely necessary I thought the best way to show it to people would be to make it web based, hence why I moved to java. Do you think it would be best if I just went back to C++ and just made executable files?
I'm not qualified or have the experience to address the "C++ in the sciences" part, and that's an incredibly broad scope. If you gave me a specific context, I could guess. For instance, I have a Life Sciences product (reagent database management system) that's written in Java so that it can be run on multiple platforms (currently deployed on Linux, Windows, Mac). I know a few people that do some chemical process development, and they generally program data collection and instrumentation systems in VB because it's easy. I know others that do process control and robotics that use C, not C++. Actually, quite a few programming languages were invented to handle scientific programming better than the ones that already existed, like SCALA. I'd say that learning any language is a good start, if all you want to do is learn. If you want to do more, like display it to more people and show it off easily, then choosing FLASH might be the best bet. Now, I haven't done any FLASH programming myself, but from the complexity of some of the apps I've seen, it does seem like it would be capable of simulating the basics of a physical system. Java applets are a bitch, in that they have to use a java-enabled browser, which are becoming less and less common. Flash, though, is everywhere. (As an interesting side, I used to work for a company that made dynamic process simulation models for pulp and paper that would do complete mass and energy calculations of the entire system, like lime kilns and recovery boilers, in real time, and this was back in the 80's. It was written in Fortran, of all things, and we integrated it with existing process control systems as the front end controller).
Maybe some programming science types can chime in here... I don't have much experience in programming in academia, recently, anyway. I could tell you about the work we did in the 80's developing neural nets using LISP, if you like. Almost as much fun as my old-time slide shows from the family trips in the Vista Cruiser.
I don’t have any particular application in mind, I just want to open any career paths in the programming direction, and some of the scientific/programming job ads I’ve seen tend to want C++. Considering what you’ve said I may as well just stick with Java now that I’ve spent so much time on it. It’s really annoying because I wrote up a post about this before starting but thought I should just get on with it rather than ask newbie questions. I remember reading that genetic algorithms can be used in neural networks. It sounds like quite an interesting subject but I it's probably a bit beyond me. Anyway thanks for your help.
Then there's your answer. There's a whole shit-load of problems and religious discussions that can be had about the merits of C vs C++, but most hiring types feel that C++ is newer so is better. And as to the neural net stuff, one of the projects that my ComSci prof was working on was for underwater, untethered remote control submersibles. Basically radio controlled submarines. (One of the joys of going to a military college, most projects were military funded and directed). The problem is that for a bunch of reasons radio waves don't work worth shit underwater; salinity, thermoclines, etc., etc. So occasionally, this multi-million dollar research vessel would lose it's signal, and then the mission would have to be aborted. We were using neural nets to help create a better "relocate signal" process, whereby the submersible would realize it had lost it's signal, and then start the process of finding it again. Somewhat simple to do, really, in a shallow pool, but out in the depths of the ocean with current and all sorts of shit, not easy at all. Most of it was well beyond me, and I just implemented some code as requested, but it was still pretty interesting stuff.
Does anyone happen to know how to program circuits? I have an assignment for my computer architecture course in which I need to create a circuit to compute the fibonacci sum for a given number. I'm just having issues with timing clock cycles and can't figure it out for the life of me. The prof is sick and unable to really help much over email. I have the circuit all done, apparently my code just has timing issues. PM me if you can help, it'd be much appreciated.
The good people at JKI have foregone their usual April's Fools antics and posted an xtranormal video this year. Since I have this battle on a regular basis I had to share it with somebody.
I had my head very firmly up my ass in highschool (which is why I started as a political science major) and sort of ignored modern math curriculum. Now as I try to break into the somewhat-math-heavy gaming field, I need to get learned. I know this obviously wont happen overnight, but I was wondering if anyone had a good resource other than wiki-ing theories, googling homework help, or digging up/buying old highschool textbooks? The skills I need to develop mostly relate to trigonometry and implementing movement. I've found if I have an issue I can easily google a solution, but I'd much rather properly learn how the solution works.
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Hey guys-- I'm looking to get into programming, so I'm wondering what's a best "First language" to pick up and start learning? I'm not completely green; I've done lots of hand-coded script and macros in VBA that have been fairly complex; arrays, while loops, nested if statements, etc. I've also launched my own website recently that looks good but only took me a 5-6 days. So I've fooled with some javascript and PHP as well by hand. Anyway, though, while I can eventually get stuff to do what I want, and I have great math and logic abilities, a lot of my code is spaghetti code, piecemeal type stuff that is not optimal by any means and I never really academically studied any of this stuff. So I was wondering what's a good language to really delve into as like a first language to attempt to learn inside and out? VBA is obviously limited by its MS platforms and PHP is too easy to have it help you learn more languages. The most common answer I've heard in my search is to learn Python first so you don't get bogged down in syntax and can focus on more abstract computer science concepts. On the other hand I've heard arguments for C++ because you'll learn the computer more and once you learn its tough syntax, it'll be easier to go to other languages. My goals are mostly to tinker around with my own projects, create scripts for websites, maybe create my own basic software or a smartphone app ---- you know, create stuff that I can use and be amused by. Sort of like a hobby. For these purposes, maybe learning a mid-level language like C# or Java would be best? Just wondering your thoughts, as I'm not completely green to programming, but still very new to it.
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So you're saying I should have a project in mind first? That's a tough one because I'm not really sure what's feasible/ possible at this point. Like I said, I've created one website that looks pretty good - though it doesn't rely on much "real" programming code. I'm helping a friend launch a website now that is basically a hub/ messageboard for his fraternity. Again, I can make some really nice looking style sheets and am pretty good at using graphics programs, but that of course does not feel like real programming like when I used a lot of VBA scripts at work to solve some complicated problems. We have some ideas but --- does the website need any applications right now? None that I can think of. Again, I'm not sure what's possible or what's worth the effort. I would prefer to start learning a language and just tinker around with my own ideas. I know having a project certainly helps because it makes you think creatively and go out and learn when you hit a speed bump, instead of just reading about abstractions. A bunch of projects at work have definitely forced me to learn a lot about VBA. But I don't know --- I don't have any concrete examples in mind. Maybe one idea is creating a mobile phone app that can translate a few words into a different language? That seems sort of simple but maybe sort of not. I don't know. I'm about to just go out and grab some books on Python.