Day 11

This is the Day 11 page for computer programming course 101, an introduction to computer programming. On Day 11 we start writing a first complete visual application.

Below are the topics and course materials we are learning today.

A Complete Visual Application

Today we begin writing our first visual application. The first application we will create will be a cross platform visual text editing program. We'll call this application Textpad.

The first step you should always take when starting to create an application is to write down a set of requirements. These requirements will serve as both a guide and a checklist to complete as we work towards our goal of completing the application.

Here are the list of requirements for our Textpad application.
  • Create a visual program with a text editor to fill the window.
  • Add a menu structure along the top of the window.
  • Add a status bar and use it to display the current row and column.
  • Add command to load text from a file and save text to a file.
  • Add the name of the current file to the caption and offer both "Save" and "Save As" commands.
  • Add a recent documents list.
  • Add copy, cut, paste, delete, select all, and undo commands.
  • Add a functional font dialog to change the font in the text editor.
  • Add a functional find text dialog.
  • Add a functional replace text dialog.
  • Add a print command to send the text to a printer.
  • Add a command to toggle word wrapping.
  • Add an exit command and prompts to save the current file if it has been modified.
  • Add hotkey accelerators for all commands.
  • Add an about dialog with your name and a hyperlink to check for news or updates.
  • Add an application icon.

Homework

Homework for day 11 is to work on completing requirements of the TextPad application.

See also