1. Newbie needs help
- Posted by Ky Sep 09, 2008
- 1128 views
Hello, guys and girls!
I'm a newbie here, I started learning Euphoria recently and it seems easier than other languages, though i've never been much into programming.
The thing is that I'm in the last year of secondary school and we have to do sort of a research work in teams. Concretely, the subject we got is malaria, the tropical disease. My teammates want to set up an exhibition with photos, videos and such but I told them that it was boring :) and I'd think about something else. You know, at the moment the areas affected by malaria are Africa, part of Asia and South America . But since i'm in Europe, I asked whether anyone would be interested in some photos from countries we've never been to.
So, instead my idea is to create a application that predicts the affected areas by the disease in the case that it arrived to Europa. The program would read a image (coloured map) and a array of data, then output another image file(prediction map).
I'd like to ask you if this is possible using Euphoria. I'm a newbie and I'm frankly lost, I don't know where to begin and hope you can enlighten me :). We've got a little more than a month's time for doing the work.
I'm not asking you to do my homework, just to help me if possible. I mean, if it's too difficult, it's no problem. I just want to add that I've some experience with DOS programming in Euphoria, I created a XOR file encryptor not long ago.
2. Re: Newbie needs help
- Posted by SDPringle Sep 09, 2008
- 1148 views
For you to do a problem like this you have to think about vectors of transmission, physical geography for the mosquito vectors to travel may be a factor but the travel rate between one region to another might be the an important vector as well. The humans could be seen as a vector to those poor unsuspecting mosquitos. ;) You will need several maps including maps of where mosquitos already exist to transfer from human to mosquito to human, maps of transportation networks that detail how often people travel along roads, rails and airplane flight paths. Your bottle neck will not be writing your program but it will be getting all of that data together.
On the other hand, I actually think your class mates are on the right track, computers are not so much of a wow factor anymore and you are doing a biology project on Malaria not a computer science project. Put up a big poster of the life cycle of malaria and the mosquito and how they interact with human beings. A simple 1 euro poster paper will dwarf any monitor. Then you can make several of these posters with details. Make a list of symptoms and treatment and how is it transmitted (mosquitos) You could also explore the category of Malaria, what kind of pathogen is it? What others are similiar to Malaria? How did Malaria evolve? What did Malaria do before Mosquitos?
Shawn Pringle
3. Re: Newbie needs help
- Posted by ChrisB (moderator) Sep 09, 2008
- 1111 views
I think this is a good idea for a school project, modeling disease transmission, changing factors on the fly but you've got a steep learning curve ahead of you, as well as adding in a huge amount of data to include the various factors (geography, temperature, humidity, wind, climate, terrain, vegetation, water conditions, rainfall, human population, animal population, mosquito species - to name just a few).
Trying to model a scanned map would probably be a nightmare. Programmatically design your map (in the program), and set various options on various regions.
Have several map views (for the same map) each view showing a different modelled factor - eg hight, forestation etc.
A good example to start with would be L and D by Quark - available on the archives.
Good luck with your huge project
Chris
4. Re: Newbie needs help
- Posted by Ky Sep 09, 2008
- 1154 views
Thanks for the quick replies. I realize it's a huge project now after reading your posts. As you said, there're a lot of factors to be taken into account. Besides, the situation is very different in Africa, many people live in the countryside and in little cottages unlike in Europe.
@Chris: Thanks for the link, i've already downloaded the code and will study it, but as you and Shawn said it'd be too difficult for someone like me who has little experience in programming, especially when I still have to gather and put all the data together. :)
@Shawn: I just thought that for once, i could do something different, more original, but yeah, I'll probably end up setting up the exhibition. It's handy and much easier for a biology project. Besides, i'm the only one of the team who knows a little bit of programming, so the rest would end up doing nothing. :)
Anyway, I found this forum very interesting and would like to keep on learning Euphoria. I've read the refman.htm file that comes with the package. What's next?
Just out of curiosity, how many programmers are you here working on Euphoria? And do you have a banner or something? I've got a blog (http://www.technophilia.uni.cc) and could promote Euphoria a bit. :)
5. Re: Newbie needs help
- Posted by AlanO Sep 11, 2008
- 1097 views
How about the game of "life"? This draws pictures of life forms spreading over a screen. Of course, the rules for the life forms would need to change, to be like mosquitos.
6. Re: Newbie needs help
- Posted by ryanj Sep 11, 2008
- 1148 views
Anyway, I found this forum very interesting and would like to keep on learning Euphoria. I've read the refman.htm file that comes with the package. What's next?
Welcome to Euphoria! You might want to join the Euphoria chatroom on freenode.net. Several of the developers are there daily. You can get quick answers and useful information there. I've learned alot by hanging out there. We even work on projects together sometimes. That's how this new wiki and forum got created.
Just out of curiosity, how many programmers are you here working on Euphoria? And do you have a banner or something? I've got a blog (http://www.technophilia.uni.cc) and could promote Euphoria a bit. :)
It looks like there are 14 developers listed. Although some don't actually edit the source. 
