Cantr Tic Timer

[Cdls]

I am new to programming and thought a good way to practice would be to create something that I would actually use :lol: :lol:


Anyways, made a Cantr Tic Timer that will basically countdown the time until the next tic for land travel, sea travel and projects. It will also display the actual time of the next tic. Right now, it is in its early stages and doesn't have a lot of options, but it does do what it was designed to do. If anyone is interested in it, follow the link below:

http://www.smeikle.com/cantr/setupv0.4.exe


For more info:
http://smeikle.com/forum/index.php?topic=2.0

[EchoMan]

"The site you are looking for has not been published. "

And it has already been done: http://joo.freehostia.com/cantr/ticks/

But I'm sure it was fun and you learned something.

[returner]

Also, the problem with running a program rather than an online one like joo's, is that when Cantr freezes or resets or is down, all the numbers are incorrect (as they are now).

But nice work!

[Cdls]

The link has been fixed, not sure what had happened there, my apologies.

Returner,
The same problem exists with Joo's, that is one of the reasons I created one myself, so I can make the adjustments to fix it. Right now, Joo's is running one hour behind the actual tic times.

And it has already been done: http://joo.freehostia.com/cantr/ticks/

But I'm sure it was fun and you learned something. :)

Yes, it has been done before, but where would we be if people followed the ideology "its been done before, so lets not bother"? We would not have the things we have today, people would not consider improvements because "it has been done before". And in any case, it wasn't really even about replacing the one Joo made, as I said, I am getting into programming and wanted to make something like this, so I did. And you are right, it was a fun and knowledgeable experience, and it is not done yet. Besides, I am not yet done with it, I will be adding an alarm function (toggled off by default) for when tics are about to hit. *shrugs* As I said, just something to learn the basics.

[mikki]

Well regardless what others say... I like yours but maybe I'm a little partial

[Genevieve]

I love it!

[mojomuppet]

I could never get Joo's to work.. I heart you for this one

[EchoMan]

I could never get Joo's to work.. I heart you for this one

Ehhh... you couldn't get a web page to work? How did it go wrong exactly?

[Cdls]

Her location blocks access to the web server I would imagine....

[Cdls]

To anyone interested, I will be uploading a version which will set off an alarm at a user specified tic time within the next couple days :)

[KAOS]

good idea

i still like the webpage timer better - but this maybe will change as soon as your program is developed further, who knows.
by the way.. why is your timer's standard time set on pst? cantr is international and i don't think pst is the best international reference parameter. *g* i know my time difference to utc, but i had to look up the difference to pst (and i'm sure many people i know wouldn't even guess what "pst" means^^).

[EchoMan]

Maybe an idea for a future version is to look up the users local time setting and use that as a base for calculations?

[Cdls]

The reason it is set on PST (as of now) is because I developed this primarily for me (living in PST) and as others became interested I realized "Oh damn, time zones will screw with the tic times" and had to adjust for that. The simplest method at the time was to just ask the users the difference in relation to my timezone and recalculate the tic timings.

Echoman, I have actually been screwin around with that idea. One of the bigger hurdles is that I am using a beginning programmers language (Phrogram) and it has limitations on what it can do, as well as functions it can complete. For example, it has no real "minimize" option, I had to find a go around with that (basically just set the screensize to 0,0 and have the user push it off to the background) but considering its user friendliness to beginners, it has been a great help.


As I said, I am a total newb at all this, but learning fairly quick. All of your suggestions and comments are highly appreciated, thanks :)

[joo]

I see no problem with giving people a choice between a web-based and desktop-based interface. I will continue to maintain mine, when I am made aware of problems, for those who prefer it.

I assume the server is running on a machine which adjusts its local time for daylight savings, which would explain why my timings are now incorrect.

Cdls, you might find it useful to know that the tick timings are independent from the timing system within Cantr; they just run on a shedule based on real-life time. And, if I am correct, they also depend on the time of year: as far as I can see, the server is running with an offset of 1 hour during British Summer Time.

[Cdls]

Thanks for confirming that Joo, seeing the way how yours counted down, as well as the fact that tics never seem static within the Cantr world, had me thinking that, but wasn't quite sure.


The biggest hurdle I am having is the programming language I am using is very basic, which is great for a newb like me, but annoying when it comes to certain features not being able to be implemented as they are not supported.

Anyways, once I get proficient in this, I will be updating it in a real language.