Program-writing help?

[lollipop]

Can anyone help me with this?

Here is what I want to do:
For Xmas for my grandad, I want to make him a calendar for next year that can be viewed on the computer (he's not your typical grandad) made out of animations.

This I can do:
I can make the animations for each month using something really simple like Stick Figure Animator (freeware yay!) which won't take that long. But what I want to be able to do is this:

I want to be able to have the program pop up in a window (preferably on startup) and look up the appropriate .gif file for the month, based on today's date, and then display it in the window.

I'm fairly sure that if you know the right language, it's not too difficult. But I only know basics like HTML and Raggy can do C/C++ but says you need a more modern programming language than that. Can someone help me?

[Goblin King]

I really think you're on the wrong forum.
Powerpoint (built into MS Office) is often very good for slideshows. For animation programs I may have links to a few in a thread in the Art Gallery (animations, gifs)

You can run a program automatically on start-up by putting it in the start up folder. THe size of the window might be tricky but do-able. Office and many programs have a "date-stamp" code which will display the date and time. Sounds like you need a crash course in Visual Basic to associate times with individual pictures.

There could be a way of doing it in HTML as a web page which lives on the computer but most of the old calendar/time scripts I used to use are now rejected by modern versions of IE and Firefox.
Sounds stupendously complicated (or very simple, if you're a programmer). You might be better off having a good look at how to customize the desktop in XP or run slideshows in the screensaver. At least then it's easy to turn them on and off as well.

I suspect Raggy has already tried to answer the question.

[Goblin King]

Maybe the answer lies in using the Access database programme in MS Office - there might be a way of associating dates with graphics and presenting them in a little window.

Also have a good look at existing templates.

On the web do a search on "Thought for the day" - there might be a script you can steal.

[lollipop]

You can run a program automatically on start-up by putting it in the start up folder.
Not by remote access you can't. If I manage to do this, it will either be posted on floppy (hopefully) or CD, or it will be e-mailed as a .zip.

This www.weberdev.com/get_example-4436.html seems to have some helpful stuff, although the problem with "quote of the day" etc is that it pulls up the references at random, not the specific one for, say, 12th June.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but do I need a program to write a program? If so, what?

Raggy said
a) it could be done
b) it would be very simple to do
c) he wouldn't be able to do it.

Basically because he only knows C/C++ and they are "too old" and I need a modern language. PHP seems like it would work.

Hmmmmmm...

[lollipop]

I have the animation software, several different programs of it.
I tried in Excel, worked out as far as getting it to display the date, then work out the month as a numerical value, and then I realised that Excel doesn't let .gifs move.

[lollipop]

And I did learn Basic once. A long time ago.

[Goblin King]

lollipop said:

and then I realised that Excel doesn't let .gifs move.

That surprises me, I thought that there was a sort of presentation mode. You might be able to import the excel stuff into Powerpoint. Like I said, this is pretty sophisticated stuff.

So how did you get the dates and pictures to match up in Excel?

[lollipop]

You can't assign a picture to a specific cell

My ma pointed out that he'd probably be just as happy having all the files and clicking on them for the right month, so I gave up on the programming.

I decided that since it's getting pretty damn near Christmas, I would save January to floppy and post that to him. Then I can get on with the other 11 months when I have more time. And it just looks like I decided to do them one at a time.

[Goblin King]

That sounds like a really good idea. You've also just given me an idea for a file management exercise at the computer project.

[lollipop]

Yay! What is it? Or would I not understand?

[Goblin King]

Erm, forgotten, it was something like what you was talkin about, but brain has broken ...