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Idea for a GUI Written in Java to Interface with the Algorithm Source Code

Date created: 17/07/13.

I had an idea for a nice way to run my algorithm once it is finished. Basically, I want to try to write a GUI in Java which can open the Vector Pascal program and pass it information, such as path names for images to be loaded and then matched.

The GUI would be reasonably simple, as far as my plans go now. It would have one window, a menu bar at the top with options such as to exit, run, etc. There would be some information in the GUI about what the program does, a way to select the two images to be compared, a way to run the program, and a bunch of other things that will come together once I start developing the GUI.

I'll start by writing a version just to run on Linux (specifically my distro), and I'll need to consider how I'll work selecting which terminal to open (xterm, gnome-terminal, konsole, etc), either using grep to find the path, or getting the user to select which terminal they use on their system (which seems reasonable on Linux since users would usually know a bit about what's going). I'll then go onto write the program so that the user chooses which OS they use (Linux or Windows, and maybe even Mac OS!), which could be done through some nifty JOptionPanes, and then the code will select how to proceed as appropriate.

It would be nice to hide everything from the user; however, so far I know that a terminal can be opened and commands can be sent to it, so if the terminal needs to be visible then I can deal with that. If I can get it all running in the background then that would be marvelous.

I also will need to find a way to get information from the GUI, such as path to images to be matched, and then pass those paths to the Vector Pascal program so that it can use those images in matching. I'm sure there will be a way to construct a string that runs the VP code with parameters, just like can be done with most programming languages, but anyway I'll find that out in time.

The important thing about this idea is that it's far from the focus of my project, so I shouldn't spend a huge amount of time on it. I need to get the main stuff done, and then write this in the spare time. It will, however, help my Java skills which will help get me a job probably, so it's a good thing to be working on.

So what, in short, should the GUI do:

  • It should have a way for the user to select two images to be matched (and any issues handled, like checking if the file extension is appropriate, maybe keep it to whatever extension is used in the pictures I've been given by Cockshott.

  • It should find out and store the absolute paths of the image files selected.

  • It should use these paths to create a bash script (for Linux which is the first step) which will then pass the paths as parameters to the VP algorithm.

  • The VP algorithm should obviously be able to accept these paths as parameters and use them in order to load the correct images.

  • The GUI should be able to read the input stream from the VP algorithm, such as informative output written by the algorithm and data such as time taken to complete the algorithy, and display this in the GUI via a JTextArea, or similar.

  • The whole program should be packaged in such a way that it can be compiled as an application and run in a standalone fashion.