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#1 2005-01-18 04:14:10

ruwach
Member
Registered: 2004-06-14
Posts: 143

where do i start?

where do i start ?

ok, here is what i want to do.
i need to build a database application.
i also need this program to get information from a serial connection (RS 232)
the info that comes in is going to be from a pic chip.

i will be gathering info from this module connected to the computer by RS 232, data will be comming in every minute or so. and the program will be to manipulate this data as it comes in.

so, where do i start ? there are no current apps that do this kind of thing . i am the only employee of the company i work for. but i am going to develop this. there isnt a major rush on the project and it gives me the excuse to learn to write programs. So what i need to know is.......

where does a total newbie ( only some BASIC experience )
go to learn simple to complex programming, manipulating a database, and especially getting data from a device connected to a serial port. ?

i have looked at python
C++ (looks intimidating) but i have QT designer (may make it easier ?)
Glade (can it work with python ? )
after i load IDLE, how do i get the tk or tkinter module to load ?

i dunno - you guys with some experience, gimme a leg up, point me in the easiest dirrection to start out with..that will not take me two years to be proficient with.

thanks

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#2 2005-01-18 04:25:57

sarah31
Member
From: Middle of Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 2,975
Website

Re: where do i start?

Geez that sounds like a task. I doubt you can become quicky proficient in any language fast enough. I would think learning some C and C++ would be helpful since you will likely need to interpret some other programming in order to do yours and both languages ar every common. Knowledge of BASH or some other scripting language would be a benefit.


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#3 2005-01-18 04:43:57

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
Website

Re: where do i start?

oi vay... that's some work for non-programmer types.

personally it's been a while since I've touched a serial port... it's not hard, but may be difficult to understand if you're not a developer... the end result would be you copying some code chunks from the 'net that just work and you have no clue how...

python should do it (pyserial module), but like I said, I haven't touched a serial port in some time.... last time had something to do with line printers...

I believe (and someone can correct me on this) that there is an easier way to do this... being that the serial port will have a device node, you should be able to "pull" data from it with a bash script, assuming you are recieving structured data....

that is:

# !/bin/bash
while true
do
  read LINE < /dev/tty0S
  echo $LINE
done

assuming input is newline separated and on "COM1"....

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#4 2005-01-18 04:58:19

ruwach
Member
Registered: 2004-06-14
Posts: 143

Re: where do i start?

Hey, this is great !
i dont mind taking some time (6 mos to a year) to learn this stuff. it will take us that long to get this far along in our project. i want to be ready when the time comes. and i want to delve into programming and from what i have researched, python seems to be what i am looking for.
pasting code does not bother me at all  big_smile
i still dont know anything about how to get tkinter or tk.
i am learning this as i go.
so far i have mastered simple addition and printing some strings.
big newbie here, but i have used the basic compiler that talks to the pic chip pretty extensivly.
just really wanted some dirrectional pointers.
thanks guys
[/quote]

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#5 2005-01-26 12:25:43

rasat
Forum Fellow
From: Finland, working in Romania
Registered: 2002-12-27
Posts: 2,293
Website

Re: where do i start?

This thread made me interested to include a serial port/device detect in hwd. I found a similar thread on linuxquestions.org.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … did=188998

Its good to have the setserial package:
# pacman -S setserial


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