Notes on codes, projects and everything
Tarot Reading Application
-
Tarot Reading Application
Introduction
We were asked to develop a program that demonstrate Artificial Intelligence and apply what we had learned in class into the program. Then we came out with an idea to develop a program that is able to do tarot reading. At first the program did not have a GUI and is operated through Swi-Prolog interpreter but in the end we included a GUI-frontend for the program using XPCE.
First the program will require 3 random numbers from the user, then a random number will be generated as the seed. Then the card will be “shuffled” (in fact, we did some calculations to the user provided random numbers) and then determine the orientation of the card (normal and reversed). Then, we use the computed number to pick a tarot card and get the reading based on the orientation.
Technical Information
Shuffling the Cards
To shuffle the cards, we use a random number and place the random number into the formula such that $$c=x^y\text{ mod }23$$ where c is the corresponding card number, x is the user provided number and y is the system generated random number. Then the orientation of the card is determine by calculating the mod 2 of the random number.
Search Strategy
To implement simple search strategy, we used a hash function to divide the total of 22 major arcana cards into 5 groups. Each group will have one individual database file storing the card characteristics and reading. Then, depending on the calculated number, the system will choose to query which database file to decrease the inclusion of database files. We may not be able to observe the performance enhancement as we only have 5 database files but it should be more obvious for system with more database files.
GUI-Frontend
I am the developer for the GUI front-end. At first we planned to write the GUI using other languages/platforms but because of the time constraint we decided to give up on GUI front-end. However, I managed to pick up basic XPCE GUI construction just in time and made a GUI for the program. However, the GUI is not very friendly and is not able to display images. Because XPCE is a multi-platform supported toolkit therefore the appearance of the GUI is consistent in various supported operating system.
Screenshots
-
Reading Input
The program is reading input through prolog interpreter.
-
Display Result
The program displays the result after computing the input.
-
Reading Input
The program is reading input through GUI
-
Display Result
The program displays the result through the GUI
Credits
- GUI by Me
- Core logic by Regina
- Database entry by Janet and Janice, modified by Regina
Random Posts
-
Random Data Generator and Reader
Another day, another programming assessment test. This time I was asked to generate some random data, then examine them to get their data type. Practically it is not a very difficult thing to do and I could probably complete it in fewer lines. I am pretty sure there are better ways to do this, as usual though.
-
Spiraling Number
Back then in college, we were given a lot of programming practices. These questions usually shows a desired output format, and we were required to write a program to print out the exact thing. Usually it involves printing a matrix of numbers, or symbols etc. For these problems, usually a loop structure or two should solve the problem.
-
What’s so difficult about HTML?
I am not going to waste time telling stories that inspire this post, as most people would have already heard something similar constantly. This is not a mythbuster kinda post, so don’t expect a scientific proof to the answer of the question. Instead, through this post, I hope to break the impression that claims composing a HTML document is difficult.
-
Visualization of my profile, in (not quite) RDF way
After a miserable trip back to academic world, I finally re-gained the courage to get back to job-market. For the time spent in university, I spent quite some time reading about Semantic Web and RDF. Then I thought, I should have published more in this format in future. However, that didn’t really happen, mostly because I am too lazy.
-
Estimating the value of pi with a line of Python
I came across a video on Youtube on Pi day. Coincidently it was about estimating the value of Pi produced by Matt Parker aka standupmaths. While I am not quite interested in knowing the best way to estimate Pi, I am quite interested in the algorithm he showed in the video however. Specifically, I am interested to find out how easy it is to implement in Python.
