The DailyWord Jumps ship… again
Aug 1st, 2005 by Brian A. Thomas
My, The DailyWord program has jumped ship again. This time from Visual Basic .Net to C# and the .Net 2.0 platform. My enjoyment of learning C# grows and I think it is the best language to move The DailyWord to. As you may have noticed I have changed the name from “The Daily Word” to “The DailyWord.” More a style choice then anything else.
Design work continues in my head, and I should really document it on paper so I have a clear design goal to move to that isn’t just in my head. Here are a few things that I’ll share right now:
- Everything moves to a database.
The original VB 6.0 version had the verses and everything hard coded. This was done for time reasons only however, and had I more time to actually learn how to read and write to a database, I would have done it that way. Odds are this will be built on ADO.Net. I am working out table designs in my head now, and there are quite a few tables in use. One table will be for users and their preferences (originally this was going to be in an .ini file). One table for each Bible reading format. One table that links to the reading formats and is the master list of the formats available. I may need to make more, unfortunately, good and proper database design wasn’t one of the things they taught us in school. The database classes at school were for Access, not general database design, or SQL which would have been better, but I digress. - Massive improvements to the user interface.
The original interface, while minimally functional, was the result of time constraints, and the limits of VB 6.0. Thanks to the improvements that Microsoft has made to Visual Studio since then, the user interface can be made better, that and fact I don’t have just a month to finish it… - A “registered version” will be made available.
While the program will still be free to use and be fully functional. Additional features can be had by making a donation to help support the program’s further development. For example the registered version may include the ability to edit the database yourself, adding your own reading schedule. - Develop program to become a portfolio piece.
This is the ultimate goal. To design, develop and build a program that stands as a portfolio piece.
These are just a few of the things I am toying around with at the moment.
