Thread: Want to Develop My Own Frontend ... Where do I start?

I write software for a living and have thought a bit about writing my own front end. Unfortunately my agreements with my employer prevent me from doing so. But I there's nothing stopping me from talking with people who are writing their own front ends. So, here's my two cents:

I'm a big fan of C#. The language itself is straightforward (obviously descendant of C++, and a close cousin of java) and the libraries and tools help you get a lot done in a relatively little time. You probably have access to Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (I think "Professional Edition" is the one you want, but I haven't looked at the menu lately), which has really nice editing and debugging tools.

Get a book on the language if you need to, there are many.

Also consider getting a book on "test-driven development." It might sound like more work up-front, but it pays off, and it's fun.

Make a list of features you want, and sort it by priority. Like:

Home screen (gotta have one )
MP3 player
GPS
Phone
Anything else?

Draw a "storyboard" for your user interface - what screens lead to what screens, what appears on each screen, etc.

It's probably going to add up to more work than you really want to do, so figure out what parts you really want to write, and what parts you should just re-use, so that you can focus your time/energy on the stuff you want to write. For the stuff you don't want to write, there's probably stuff out there that you can re-use.

Originally Posted by NSFW

I write software for a living and have thought a bit about writing my own front end. Unfortunately my agreements with my employer prevent me from doing so. But I there's nothing stopping me from talking with people who are writing their own front ends. So, here's my two cents:

I'm a big fan of C#. The language itself is straightforward (obviously descendant of C++, and a close cousin of java) and the libraries and tools help you get a lot done in a relatively little time. You probably have access to Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (I think "Professional Edition" is the one you want, but I haven't looked at the menu lately), which has really nice editing and debugging tools.

Get a book on the language if you need to, there are many.

Also consider getting a book on "test-driven development." It might sound like more work up-front, but it pays off, and it's fun.

Make a list of features you want, and sort it by priority. Like:

Home screen (gotta have one )
MP3 player
GPS
Phone
Anything else?

Draw a "storyboard" for your user interface - what screens lead to what screens, what appears on each screen, etc.

It's probably going to add up to more work than you really want to do, so figure out what parts you really want to write, and what parts you should just re-use, so that you can focus your time/energy on the stuff you want to write. For the stuff you don't want to write, there's probably stuff out there that you can re-use.

Thanks for the input, I do in fact have visual studio 2008 and I will begin work on this in C# if that seems to be the best programming language for a car environment. I will indeed pick up a book on C# as well "test-Driven Development" are there any authors you would reccomend??

I do not mind the work that will stem from this ... fact is I spend about 22 hours a day at a computer anyways most of the time so Working one from the ground up truly will not bother me, although this will be my first development proiject from the ground up, most of the things I develop are middleware for sharepoint based database operations, etc.


Ill try to pick up a few books in the days to come and begin building the story board, etc.

Thanks for the input and anyone else please feel free to chime in with author suggestions or just what you'd like to see in a new front end


idd be happy to keep this open source if anyone else is interested in helping with the development, but seeing as this will be my first project from the ground up i can only assume it will be a bit sloppy ...

Thanks again for the reply and I look forward to more

Zach

I'm guessing that he wants to write a front end just for the experience - learning a new language, learning to create UI, learning what's available in Windows for software development generally. Not because he couldn't get what he wants from another FE.

I'm sorry but I can't recommend any books. I learned C# shortly after it was released, so there were no books, and learned TDD in some classes I took. However, O'Reilly tends to produce good books so if they have anything it's probably worth getting. You can probably learn a fair amount about TDD online, too.

that is correct sir

and fait enough on the books .... I do have a book on visual basic ... step by step visual basic 2008 ... Ill read through it again, I know my way around it fairly well but I wouldnt call myself proficient by any means

Zach

Thanks for the kind words .... and yes I do love to code and to program and to develop ... and just the thought of being able to sit in my car and look at my carputer and say I built that whole system from the ground up with no outside coding is enough drive for me to do it

who knows maybe this will inspire others .... I certainly hope some other developers take interest. from what I have learned so far C# should be a good code for a FE Source and I think we as a community could really use a new frontend to take to and kind of have fun with. With Guino very busy lately why not turn our attention towards a new fresh idea right??

Zach