help I wanna be a programmer - Page 4 - Horse Racing Forum - PaceAdvantage.Com

Brian Flewwelling · 10-27-2005, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kid4rilla

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.

It is about having fun programming!!!

Quote:

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.

By the time you have exhausted VB from Access, .NET will be replaced by something else.

kid4rilla · 10-27-2005, 01:41 PM

It is fun, and rewarding, but certainly the end goal is returning to the window post race. I've been programming my handicapping methods for 2 years now and wouldn't give up my new methodology, but I don't have the feel I used to when I pencil/papered it. These 2 years have been my first overall losing ones.

Jeff P · 10-28-2005, 03:28 AM

posted by kid4rilla-

Quote:

It is fun, and rewarding, but certainly the end goal is returning to the window post race. I've been programming my handicapping methods for 2 years now and wouldn't give up my new methodology, but I don't have the feel I used to when I pencil/papered it. These 2 years have been my first overall losing ones.

I take it then that when you used pencil and paper in the past you had the ability to dissect traditional past performances and in doing so go through a consistent process that enabled you to identify and make profitable wagers. Question: Is that process something that is reproduceable? Not to state the obvious, but... If in fact that "feel" you speak of is something that you can repeatedly do with pencil and paper, then it can definitely be programmed. The trick is to be able to have the computer isolate the same set of variables for you that you used to look at while holding a pencil. If you can do that, there's no reason in the world you can't get that same "feel" before you head to the windows.

-jp

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10-28-2005, 01:54 PM

Race handicapping is all about databases, data, and pattern recognition.

I would suggest you go the database route.. Access, MySQL, Foxpro, whatever you want. It will take some time to learn database theory and practice, but it is worth it.

It is easy to start with a spreadsheet initially, but this will not give the lookup power that a database has.

CAJ

captvancouver · 10-28-2005, 04:13 PM

Hey Jeff, Brian, Kid4rilla and others, thanks for the input.

I ll PM you in a little while Brian, when I have a clearer direction.if that is O.K.

Jeff,I have thought about that concept of losing the feel..I agree with you..to me the program should just be about getting more info, so better informed decisions can be made. I think I have a theory on horseracing I can build on, I love the logic behind it, and am keenly interested in the receptivity of the track as a major factor…just betting the last half of the race card(No maidens, or Turfs), with a keen eye on the right profile
of the horse . I like building on theorys , and eventually coming up with my own brand. To me that is creative, but I need lots of info to do it.It was a little mind numbing for me to add up columns of figures, I enjoyed doing it but it is self limiting,but I learned what I needed to learn in doing it, and would be a waste of time to continue just adding.

Also I note the comments in this thread and other parts of the forum regarding the dependency and reliability of microsofts future intentions.

This puts me in a unique situation. I tend to have an aversion to microsoft anyway…I ll start my tutorials in a week or 2. I would like to get away from VB and VB.Net, and don t want to close any doors as far as expansion of capabilities of any programs in the future(For discussions sake,say, a year or 2 down the road.) I have the material for qbasic…but do all roads from there lead to microsoft. What about if I went the Java or Python route? The handling of data bases is obviously very important and Access does this. I am not concerned about selling any programs.

Qbasic looks quite easy to me(I took Fortran about 30 years ago, and amazingly, I remember more than I thought I would..loops etc.) Does ACCESS + QBASIC = FUTURE DATA AND PROGRAM ADAPTIBILITY/FLEXIBILITY?Can I use qbasic to learn what I need to know about Visual Basic in the Access program, along with a little intuit, and code snipping, and common sense? It seems it would. Or am I missing the point here.

Thanks again.

Keith

Jeff P · 10-28-2005, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Qbasic looks quite easy to me(I took Fortran about 30 years ago, and amazingly, I remember more than I thought I would..loops etc.) Does ACCESS + QBASIC = FUTURE DATA AND PROGRAM ADAPTIBILITY/FLEXIBILITY?Can I use qbasic to learn what I need to know about Visual Basic in the Access program, along with a little intuit, and code snipping, and common sense? It seems it would. Or am I missing the point here.

QBasic and Visual Basic are different enough that you will need to learn quite a bit before you can make a smooth transition. Many concepts and commands that existed in QBasic are supported in Visual Basic. And many are not. Also, there are noteable syntax differences between the two. If you are going to work with databases like Access I would skip QBasic altogether. Microsoft Access internally supports something called VBA code which is actually very similar (with a few minor exceptions) to Visual Basic 6 code. Using VBA code (or VB6 code) you can easily use the strategy of establishing a connection to a database and instantiating an ADO Recordset Object. After doing this, you can use simple SQL (sequence query language) statements to read records from or write records to tables in your Access database. IMHO, QBasic was never really meant to be an object oriented programming language (I know... there are a lot of developers out there who would say the same thing about Visual Basic - LOL.) My recommendation, if you are going to work with databases, would be to go with something a little more contemporary than QBasic.

-jp
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DJofSD · 10-28-2005, 04:54 PM

Quote:

QBasic was never really meant to be an object oriented programming language (I know... there are a lot of developers out there who would say the same thing about Visual Basic - LOL.)

Jeff,

Has MS taken VB6 to the point where it is a true OOP? Does it do inheritance, polymorphism, etc.? (I guess I haven't been keeping up.)

DJofSD

Jeff P · 10-28-2005, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Has MS taken VB6 to the point where it is a true OOP? Does it do inheritance, polymorphism, etc.? (I guess I haven't been keeping up.)

DJ,

In a word: Yes. While true inheritance isn't built right in, a developer who wants to can do a work-around using some creative code that for all intents and purposes really does accomplish the task. Polymorhpism, IMHO, is something that is built into the platform.

-jp

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