Programming help: How do I make a simple program? - Help.com

wingdingkill
offline Verified (9 months, 2 weeks) Visit wingdingkill's shoutbox
An Unknown Location

How do I make a simple program?

I am trying to fake out my little cousins by showing them a program that will look like some kind of secret agency headquarters type login system.

All i need are lines of text that ask me for login stuff, like name; id; password and stuff like that.
I also want it to act like its ‘processing’ information and give me status messages like ‘verifying mission assignment status’

I know its stupid sounding, but it will get a huge laugh from the kids. Any ideas?

This open post was written 9 months, 2 weeks ago | V/U/S: 317, 7, 5 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


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Since writing this post wingdingkill may have helped people, but has not within the last 4 days. wingdingkill is a verified member, has been around for 9 months, 2 weeks and has 3 posts and 2 replies to their name.

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Zone offline Verified User (11 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 2 weeks ago (1 minute after post)

What language do you want to use?

If you want a program that’s useless for anything but the basics, and simple enough that a kindergarten drop-out could use, go for visual basic.

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wingdingkill offline Verified User (9 months, 2 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 2 weeks ago (3 minutes after post)

ok. but i don’t have any experience in programming, but I could definitely learn. Is Visual Basic free or is it something I have to buy?

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fuzzy-wuz offline Verified User (9 months, 2 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 2 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 2 weeks ago (32 minutes after post)

if you get the 2008 express version it is free

http://www.microsoft.com/Express/VB/

pretty easy to do simple stuff, drag and drop for the GUI and the script side isnt that hard to learn either

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Fire offline Verified User (3 years, 7 months) Long Term User Shouts: 2 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 2 weeks ago (56 minutes after post)

i used to use batch files for that. you can set a loop of pulling up a dir and it looks like its processing stuff or something… people think your some kind of hacker…

- Fire

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Anonymous #
9 months, 2 weeks ago (56 minutes after post)

I would recommend python. Also free, and incredibly simple, easy to learn, etc. Python.org

You can probably manage a fun little program like the one you are describing in just a few python lines. Well, the processing info deal could be a little more involved, depending on how fancy you want to make it, but the main segment is fairly simple. Something like:

print “Enter username:”
Username = raw_input()
print “Enter password:”
Password = raw_input()

correctname = “AgentSmith”
correctpwrd = “omegaforth”

if Password == correctpwd and Username == correctname:
—–Login=true
—–ScrollingText() #you will need to figure out how to write this bit yourself :)
else:
—–print “access denied”

This is sorta a very basic sketch of what it might look like, and probably contains errors, but hopefully it will show that programming isn’t too complex to try. You’d probably want to enclose the whole thing in a “while” statement so that it keeps repeating until you get the login info right, and you’d need to define what ScrollingText() does, and how. “—–” is meant to stand for basic indentation.

In any case, whatever language you choose, welcome to the marvelous and exciting world of programming!

HELLO WORLD

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wingdingkill offline Verified User (9 months, 2 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 2 weeks ago (11 hours, 18 minutes after post)

Hey! That’s awesome you guys! Thanks a lot. I just downloaded Visual Basic last night, and am learning how to use it. I also have a program called ‘Scratch’, its kinda cartoony and kiddy but it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun. I will indeed try Python, too. I’m not too sure what to do as far as using batch files go, so I’ll probably pass on that method.

I’m really only needing it to look like some old DOS program…black background with green text…and a bunch of these periods after i ‘initiate programs’………………………………………………….

thanks again everyone!

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Zone offline Verified User (11 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 3 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 2 weeks ago (1 day, 2 hours after post)

You can use Batch Files (they normally just run in the cmd window), but they’re pretty annoying.

Don’t use python; it’s, almost literally, crap. The difference is that it is virtual.

Also don’t use VB 2008, use 2005. It’s more reliable and there are more tutorials and things for it.

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