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General Discussion

Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points
Posted by Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points

Personal project: plotting timestamped .csv analog 4-20mA signals and printing the results

I'm fairly new to coding and have gone through a few courses here on HTML, CSS, and Python. What I'm looking to be able to do is build an web-based or desktop app that imports either .csv or .txt tab delimited data columns and plots them nicely on a line plot. Then I would like to take these plots and print them to a user-friendly readable report like a PDF or something.

I would also like to be able to build and maintain an editable database of current models with information pertaining to each model. Somewhat like a database address book only the information would pertain to performance data, serial number, year of manufacture, etc.

I'm just not so sure how to do this or what course track I should follow in order to develop the skills necessary to start building this. I'm also not sure how to distribute this. I don't necessarily need it to be accessible on the web remotely so a browser based local app or .exe would be suitable for this I would think. But I have no idea how to even get started on that.

Any guidance would be appreciated before I end up just going through every possible track with zero direction in hopes that I'll eventually pick up what I want to learn.

Thanks.

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points

If this task is your only goal, learning how to be a software developer might not be the most efficient approach to obtaining it.

For one thing, the popular spreadsheet program Excel can read .csv (or tabbed .txt) files and create attractive charts from the data. The result can then be exported to a PDF or printed directly.

Your "database" needs might also be met using a spreadsheet. Even a few requirements beyond what you mention here can be done with an integrated DBMS tool like Access through a menu-driven interface.

Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points
Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points

Steven Parker

Thanks for the input. I'm currently using excel for this, but wanted something more robust, with more customization, but most importantly... more efficient. The file size of my spreadsheet is growing too large and it has become sluggish with all of the things I have added to it. Hence the change of direction towards application development. Further, even with macros, there is still quite a lot about the excel format that I feel could be automated with code and cut down on user input to achieve the same result. I feel like excel is a compromise of the vision I have for what my end goal product should look like.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points

I understand. I guess my point was just that learning how to be a software developer might be a big time (and perhaps $) investment if your goal is only to create one program.

Also, most of the courses here are focused on web technologies, if you want to develop a desktop application you might need some additional information sources. But you might start with the Beginning SQL series, that's all fundamental Database information that would apply to desktop and web applications alike.