Thursday, March 6, 2008

Visual Express + MController = Pure Awesome

Since I moved to Mexico, I've started doing a lot of programming. Mostly for custom machines of my own design.
My new bestest friend is the microsoft Visual Studio Express Edition package. It's a group of free programs that will allow you to write your own software. FREE! Also any programs you make are your own, no royalties or licensing fees. Pretty suite...

This is a screenshot of the design interface for my Harness Machine

http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/ they even let you burn your own CD. FREE!

*Crescent Wrench Not Included

You can either download Visual Basic .Net, which is great for just learning, or you can get C++ or C#. Most of the programs I write are in C#. This started because for my interfaces, I use the makingthings microcontroller
More on this later http://www.makingthings.com/

this allows you to plug in a microcontroller into your computer and have it move stuff around. The "MC" make controller, has libraries that work in C#, so this means you can talk to it from your own programs. Anyway, I've really come a long way in my programming skills since i started using the Express Editions. If you've ever thought about learning how to make a basic windows program, you should download a copy and play around with it, it's actually quite fun! Did I mention FREE?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

All the wires, technical lingo and thing-a-ma-jigs make you look and sound very smart, but then again, you are VERY smart!! I'm definately impressed. I don't think I'll take on another project right now, but it might really be interesting learning. I bought quickbooks and I'm learning that. That may even be more than my brain can handle!
I love you.. MOM