Begun reef organizer program

[kwirky]

help that can be provided by those that don't nessesarily program:

• give links to their favorite online calculators, so we can build a list of the most popular calculators to add first
• find formulas for various calculations, such as calcium additives, water weight, aquarium glass thickness for construction, etc etc.
• provide links to other software they like, and also give feedback on what they think would improve that software they've found

THE PROGRAM'S PROTECTED BY THE GNU LICENSE, INCLUDED INSIDE THE RAR. ANY REDISTRIBUTION OF CODE, WHETHER ALTERED OR NOT, MUST FOLLOW AND INCLUDE THE GNU LICENSE.

here's a link to a rar file of the work so far: http://www.kwirky88.com/stuff/aquari...nt07-03-09.rar I'm working on the Task and Time classes, so please don't touch them. if you have suggestions for those classes, post 'em on here.

once there's a noticable ammount of work done, I'll submit it to source forge for source management. It will make it a lot easier to collaborate on.

As for program design, here are some of the requirements so far. feel free to suggest changes or add to it if you'd like:

• use classes
• use the get and set keyword functions for your public variables. Look at Time.cs for a short example of how it works. Great feature of c# that lets you encapsulate your variables, yet still allow programs to make controlled changes.
• encapsulate (make private/protected) functions and variables that are not nessesary for other functions to use.
• once a function is prototyped (ie: public int returnInteger(int passedInteger)), on the line above the function, type a triple slash "///", and it will automatically fill in a template for comment information. this comment information allows C# express edition to display information in the IDE interface as the function is being used. (again, look throughout the existing code for examples). It'll give the same "tips" for our functions/classes that .net displays for their own functions/classes.

as for what needs to be done, and that can be worked on independantly, is a general log class and then classes that use it to record things such as when fish are added, when liverock's added, when various corals are added, etc. Have a look at the TimeSpan and DateTime classes built into the .net framework (in the msdn library)

Saving of all the information will eventually be simple with XML serialization, built into .net; lets you save the exact state of a class as an XML file, and then you can later set the state of a class from a serialized XML file from a previous save.

so just code it to work so that it works with information for now, and saving the information can be done later.

also having various calculators would be nifty. tank volume, chemistry calculators, etc.

Oh yah and a tip on the IDE's help system:
anything you have typed into your code, if it's part of the .net framework (ie: int, struct, DateTime, XmlSerializer), you can hilight it, and then press F1, and it'll pull up the help on that class/method/property. the documentation is VERY good. need an internet connection for it to work.