[GLLUG] Programming Project

[Charles Ulrich]

2008/5/12 Steven Sayers <sjsayers93 at gmail.com>:
> I know I've been told between mostly Marshall and Rick that I need to plan
> out a project at the very highest level first, then figure out how it works
> after stating what it does [in non-technical terms]. After an extended
> period of programmers block syndrome (P.B.S. for short) I've come up with an
> idea(r). In drivers training we will be keeping a log, I don't want an
> application as an alternative for that, since this log must be turned into
> the State Department, but however I want to write an application for the
> similar recreational use. I'd like their to be many text-fields for items
> such as; the date, destination, how it went, interesting things that
> happened. In the future I'd like to possibly add the ability to add pictures
> to the specific driving event. Now I'll lightly reach the technical bits,
> but without covering much at all, Trying to avoid the inadvertent mental
> pride beating I'll get if I'm wrong. It'd have a GUI and functions to write
> to file, read from file, and render the information in the actual GUI .

Sounds like a pretty good candidate for a web-based app. Is this a
project that you're doing on your own or are you looking for GLLUG
input/help?

While you definitely want to plan as much as possible for a production
application, there is also something to be said for developing "toy"
programs via the trial-and-error method. The end result may not have
any practical value, but you'll have learned a lot about the language
and it's capabilities and limitations. As a casual programmer, my
style is somewhere in the middle. For my own personal projects, I get
a rough idea of what I want to do, throw together a prototype, and
then flesh it out into a more complete application.

While we're on the topic of programming, I have a general question for
any PHP coders out there... how do _you_ deal with input sanitation?
Is there a class or something that makes this straightforward or do
you really have to carefully scrutinize every variable and SQL query
because an automated process can never cover every contingency?

Charles