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Old 07-11-2007, 04:33 AM   #10
Exxar
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Default Re: [Space] System Generator

I'd do it in html, javascript and xml (if required). Absolutely no worries about cross-platform compatibility - you just open it up in your browser.

Create the input form in html, where the user enters all the relevant data, and hits the Calculate! button. You could even enter only partial data, in which case after hitting Calculate! the program detects which input fields were left blank, fills them in randomly, and does the calcs. The output comes out in plain text, html or xml, depending on the user's choice.

Batch mode. Not hard to do, it's standard string processing. The user gives input in plain-text form (since it's the fastest to write up), with the list of all required data in a specified format (pipe delimited, tab delimited, whatever), and the program reads it and processes it in the same way as for a single system. Creates output in plain text, xml, single-page html or cross-linked multi-page html.

Since this thing is an automotion of a tedious task, you have to go for maximum funcitonality. It's a bit more work then just writing a simple script for single system generation with all the parameters supplied. The program should detect what is missing, and give the user a multitude of options for control over output format and other stuff, etc etc.
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