Help a noob, increase kharma!

[xer0kill]

I am not a programmer. At all. I'm turning to you guys for help because I cannot seem to find an application that fits my needs. It's VERY simple and I know it would be a breeze for someone who knows anything at all.

Here's what I'm looking for: An application that I can have running in a corner of the screen. Basically it's got an adjustable number of different colored squares (I'm thinking three squares by three squares). Each square has a programmable text "title" on it as well as a numerical value. Left clicking on the square increases the value by 1, right clicking decreases the value by one. I'd also like a button I could press that would copy all the values to the clipboard in a list format with line breaks between each item (Variable1: value, Variable2: value, etc)

Any of you guys know of an existing application that can do this? I am thinking it could be done in python fairly easily. I looked at some beginner's tutorials but I'm too stupid/don't have the time right now to learn it all from the beginning (I'm a graphics guy). Anybody have some links that could tell me what I need to know to build something like this quickly? This application could end up saving me tons of time every day.

Thanks in advance!

[samjh]

Are you asking us to make one for you? ;)

I don't know of any existing program like that.

[pmasiar]

GUI apps are not trivial, but maybe you will find a volunteer. Better try to hang around and suggest this when someone will ask what to program.

EasyGUI is the simplest GUi for Python. Another option might be pygame.

BTW it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma not kharma :-)

[RIchard James13]

What on earth is that program for? That is not just a question of curiosity it is a question that might help someone give you a solution.

Such an application sounds very trivial for me to make, I'm wondering if there is any hard part to it?

[b1g4L]

Seems easy enough to do. What's the purpose of this program?

[xer0kill]

What on earth is that program for? That is not just a question of curiosity it is a question that might help someone give you a solution.

Such an application sounds very trivial for me to make, I'm wondering if there is any hard part to it?

The app would be for keeping track of what I accomplish while I'm working. My employer is now wanting me to give numbers for basically everything I do in a given day. For example, number of questions I answered, number of blogs I read, number of blogs I post, number of comments I post on other blogs. Right now, my method is not very efficient. The best way of doing things with the tools I have right now would seem to be to keep my spreadsheet open and "above all" on all desktops. It's still a pain cause every time I do some task I've got to click on the spreadsheet and type in a number. It really bogs me down, especially if I'm answering a question every minute or two.

If anyone has any alternative ideas to accomplish what I need, I'm all ears. I'm not looking to get anybody to do free work for me! If possible, I'm looking for the simplest solution, something that I could accomplish myself. The "click boxes" idea seems like the best for me right now: one simple click to show that I completed something (with the right click being in case I accidentally click on the wrong box and need to change it back).

Of course, if anybody is bored and wants to code something up to help get me started, I wouldn't object :D. I do want to learn python, but right now I'm working 40 hours a week as well as watching my kids 45-50 hours a week and I just don't have the time to set aside to start from the beginning. I often get ideas for productivity apps, and it would be nice to be able to actually work on them.

[pmasiar]

Simple shell program, can be run in a small window


actions = dict(a='answer', p='blog post', r='read')
counts = {}
prompt = ''.join( aa for aa in actions)

while 1:
print 'next action:'
for aa in actions:
print aa, actions[aa]
new = raw_input('enter one of ' + prompt + ': ')
if new not in actions:
print '************\nwrong action:', new, "\n************"
continue
try:
counts[new] += 1
except:
counts[new] = 1

print "activity so far:\n========="
for aa in counts:
print actions[aa], ":",counts[aa]

print "==========\n\nctrl-c for quit"



Enjoy!

[xer0kill]

Thanks pmasiar! I'll give that a shot this evening and let you know how it works for me.

[stevescripts]

Oh well, having a few minutes to kill, this pm - a really simple gui hack



#! /usr/bin/tclsh

package require Tk

foreach i {1 2 3} {
grid [label .$i -text 0 -width 5 -relief groove -bd 2] -row 0 -column [expr $i - 1]
}

foreach i {4 5 6} {
grid [label .$i -text 0 -width 5 -relief groove -bd 2] -row 1 -column [expr $i - 4]
}

foreach i {7 8 9} {
grid [label .$i -text 0 -width 5 -relief groove -bd 2] -row 2 -column [expr $i - 7]
}

wm title . Q

proc plust {widget} {
set res [$widget cget -text]
set res [expr {$res + 1}]
$widget configure -text $res
}

proc minust {widget} {
set res [$widget cget -text]
set res [expr {$res - 1}]
$widget configure -text $res
}

bind . <1> {plust %W}
bind . <3> {minust %W}



Left click to increment - right click to decrement ...

Seeing as how you are a graphics person ... if you will come up with 9 small images/and or bitmaps - I will add them to the widgets for you.

Come up with a list of the nine things you really want to track, and I will
add a menu to the app, and save things in a text file for you.

Nothing like a little diversion on a humpday sfternoon (wednesday, for any of you not familiar with that americanism ... ;) )

copy the script into a text editor - save it as q.tcl - chmod +x and play ...

Steve

[xer0kill]

Nice one Steve! Graphical even. Tcl, eh? I haven't ever heard of that, but it sounds like just the language for me to accomplish some of the simple ideas I have in a quick amount of time. Thanks man, I'll test that out tonight as well.

[stevescripts]

FWIW, tcl and tk are more widely in use than it may be suspected. Often hidden deeply under the covers.

Glad to be of a little help.

Steve

[Mr.Macdonald]

If Java is good ill make you a decent .jar you could run

[smartbei]

Here is a version in Python that supports everything I believe... Had some fun with this. Copying to the clipboard was probably the most difficult part.

You will need to install the packages python-tk (for the gui) and xsel (for the clipboard manipulation):


sudo aptitude install xsel python-tk


Save the attached file, and run:


chmod +x square.py

to make it executable.
And then you can run with "./square.py <width you want it> <height you want it>"

For a 3 rows by 4 columns app, run "./square.py 4 3"