help I wanna be a programmer - Page 3 - Horse Racing Forum - PaceAdvantage.Com

captvancouver · 10-16-2005, 10:31 PM

Good grief. I made the original post on this thread, went camping for the weekend, came back, and found this treasure of valuable information. What a terrific discussion board.

I am going to mull it over. But SKJ made a suggestion that intrigued me. He suggested using ACCESS plus macros. Couldn t I just use Tom s suggestion made in another thread of taking the Bris file, reducing
Excel to ½ a page , and then copying and pasting it into excel. Then maybe there is a macro in excel that can add the two columns for me. That’s all I need at this point ..to add two columns. Am I on the right track here? I will copy this reply to SKJ.

Thanks again for all the great info.

Keith

captvancouver · 10-16-2005, 10:33 PM

Actually, I meant ACCESS and not excel, at this stage I don t know the difference.

Tom · 10-16-2005, 11:33 PM

DJ...thanks for your suggestions.

I am starting with Basic for now.

DJofSD · 10-16-2005, 11:45 PM

Enjoy the journey!

Once you've got some level of confidence, look at the tool set for ACCESS and EXCEL along with WORD. I believe they all support VBA which will look very familar.

DJofSD

sjk · 10-17-2005, 06:49 AM

In Access adding two columns would be simple as I imagine it would be in any of the environments mentioned. The biggest challenges would be finding a data source which you could easily import into your program and formatting the output to the way you want it to look.

captvancouver · 10-17-2005, 08:51 PM

SJK ...Thanks

I got books about access and excel from the library today and it looks very straigforward and do-able. Someone on the link..Tom , I think, explained a way of downloading the Bris data file into Excel..so I will tinker for a few days.Later, in a few weeks ,I will probably start learning BASIC..looks like fun..I did take a fortran course about 30 years ago...it was pretty tedious..but I hear basic is a lot easier. For now access should do the job and save me a lot of time. Later I will learn to write a program that will incorporate form calculations/determinations and maybe class too.

Thanks again to everyone

Capt Vancouver

BIG49010 · 10-18-2005, 08:06 PM

I have used (PAL by Paradox for dos) and made some great scripts, and it has worked for years. I have often wondered what program might be best to replace it with? Any comments?

Brian Flewwelling · 10-18-2005, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captvancouver

SJK ...Thanks

I got books about access and excel from the library today and it looks very straigforward and do-able. Someone on the link..Tom , I think, explained a way of downloading the Bris data file into Excel..so I will tinker for a few days.Later, in a few weeks ,I will probably start learning BASIC..looks like fun..I did take a fortran course about 30 years ago...it was pretty tedious..but I hear basic is a lot easier. For now access should do the job and save me a lot of time. Later I will learn to write a program that will incorporate form calculations/determinations and maybe class too.

Thanks again to everyone

Capt Vancouver

It is my opinion you are going in the right direction. You can import the BRIS 'drf' files into Access in a single step. Actually use the multi files and import them in 3 single steps

Once you have the data in Access, you can play with it with Queries and add touches with Visual Basic which is built in, and very similar to, but easier than, VB6.

I strongly suggest you ignore the stuff about earlier forms of Basic. There is a conceptual jump from your old Fortran and those earlier basics that will cause you more problems than if you start with the newer VB to begin with. (the problem came to me from the psuedo object orientation of VB)

As mentioned the road is likely a lot longer than you expect it to be, but if you are as interested in learning as you suggest, you will be having lots fun and not losing money on the races!

captvancouver · 10-19-2005, 04:27 AM

I already have imported the bris multi files..by changing the .drf to .txt, so access would recognize it. It came out as a lot of gobbly gook.with about 58 vertical fields and only a few columns..but hey..I just got started.I 'll follow your advise re querys etc.
I m too impatient, so I am going to give myself a little time, whilst I take a tutorial on access on the net(http://www.functionx.com/access).
Its all greek to me , but I hope in a week or two it is second nature.
To me, handicapping a race is like reading an Agatha Christy(SP?)murder mystery, I just want a program to do the grunt work(some additions and and other math, and make a final report that I can use to fill in the "art" of racing...the other aspects like class and form only take a few minutes, and I don t want to become divorced from what is happening in the ppp by overprogramming it with basic..there are too many variables in that aspect(form and class) and I think it becomes more of an art than a science... (for instance,when is a dropper just up for sale and when is he a serious threat ?)It is a lot of fun, and I am seeing reasons why some horses win and others lose..I used to think it was "fixed" or something when an underclassed ,low spd horse did well..but feel that I am getting a lot better understanding of it and no longer feel that way.

Thanks again for the input,Brian.

Capt Vancouver

highnote · 10-23-2005, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

DJ...thanks for your suggestions.

I am starting with Basic for now.

How's it coming along?

captvancouver · 10-26-2005, 04:29 PM

I have decided to learn ACCESS first and am using SAM'S LEARNING ACCESS IN 24 HOURS( A great stand alone tutorial in my view). It is going good, but once I have mastered that (perhaps in 3 weeks or so?)I will still need to learn some Visual Basic, which is beyond the scope of SAMS. I have the visual basic program (I bought it at the flea market)but the MSDN cd1 that goes with it is unfortunately missing(wrong cd),and that cd provides the samples,and are needed for most tutorials. I would need the MSDN to do SAM'S "MASTER V.B. IN 21 DAYS". But I can cross that bridge when I get to it..there may be tutorials on the net that don t need MSDN, and provide their own samples.
Meanwhile, I am prepared to be patient, and enjoy learning the material.Actually, I think with exposure and repitition, most people of average intelligence can learn most things..just doing it bit by bit.And I have lots of time.
Thanks again for everyones help.

Keith

Jeff P · 10-26-2005, 05:10 PM

Keith,

You wrote:

Quote:

there may be tutorials on the net

A google search for just about any topic in Visual Basic 6 (or any other programming language for that matter) will turn up all kinds of pages with code samples illustrating ways that others have gotten things done. For example, a Google search for the phrase "vb6 import bris file" turns up a page right here on PA where a code sample was posted.

-jp

.

captvancouver · 10-26-2005, 07:27 PM

I'll follow it up. Incidently, my friend has a msdn cd , and since I have the vb6 program, I can probably head in the direction inthe future. I like the idea of a learning program you first used, but can only find 2 copies on ebay...since I live in Canada, I don t always get the delivery in a timely fashion...all sorts of border checks now on both sides of the border.

Thanks again

Keith

Brian Flewwelling · 10-27-2005, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captvancouver

I'll follow it up. Incidently, my friend has a msdn cd , and since I have the vb6 program, ...
Thanks again

Keith

I hear you about timely delivery.

But I need to point out that the basic built in to Access 2K and later is VB6. you just create forms and set to work on the background code. like create a button to say 'hello', to run a query you have created, etc.

I used VB in Access for several years, then switched to the VB6 so i could create a standalone program. It was a major interuption, but need for stand alone made it necessary. If you do not have that requirement i can't see where you would need to go beyond Access and it's VB.

Brian

ps feel free to PM me if you want to chat about your progress. i would be glad to spend some time with you.

kid4rilla · 10-27-2005, 12:42 PM

I saw earlier in this thread someone mention that they made more $$ when they manually handicapped the races as opposed to the programming route. The same thing happened here. Nothing like the "feel" for races that you get when you pencil/paper many in a row at the same track.

Before you get into learning VB6, I would suggest you go right into VB.Net or C#. You'll be able to accomplish everything you want with VB6, but Microsoft will stop supporting VB6 in the near future, and since you have no VB6 experience to unlearn, you might as well begin with VB.Net. You can probably pick up the standard version of Visual Studio .Net for cheap somewhere.