Looking for feedback on my Java programs

[Snowbooks1419]

Hello! I created some programs in Java, and I'm looking for some advice on how to make them better. Here are links to 2 of the videos:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJnMkVgeLsY&list=UUvgr7MW2UUK1X8IDcONiHEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKj4VQPAW_U&list=UUvgr7MW2UUK1X8IDcONiHEg

 

Let me know if you want the link to download them.

 

I would really appreciate any feedback on the videos of the 2 programs! Thanks!

[roosevelt]

Hi,

I looked at both of your programs. And they were quite good in terms of what they are designed to do. Since you are using the Swing framework, I feel that if you utilize more of the GUI features, it will make all your applications rock. For instance, when you click on an application, the program prompts the user for inputs and gives a result. It might be better to display a JFrame window with inputs for all the required fields for a particular calculation and provide a button to calculate the results.

The UI itself looks good, I really liked the Cyan background. However, in Swing you can tell the library to match the UI of the user's computer. So, for instance the theme is probably Nimbus and it will look the same on Mac, Windows and Linux. But if you want your applications to have more Windows feel on Windows, OS X feel on the Mac and so on, then look into the native UI for Swing. It takes only a single line of code really.

Overall, really liked your apps, keep it up

[SirFaizdat]

I have been following both of your programs for a while, and they are very useful for solving common tasks that most built-in programs neglect, such as solving quadratic equations and calculating miles per gallon. I also think Gold Stars Talk is a nice touch, however I think it could use some more functionality. The UI is good for Swing, and hopefully the transition to the custom OpenGL rendering engine that I'm making will make it look a lot better

 

Overall, I am very impressed.

[Snowbooks1419]

Thank you both for your feedback! I really appreciate it. Improving the UI of inputs is definitely something I've been working on. For some of the input fields, I've made a JFrame with different fields for inputs -- like what you said. You can see what I've done at around the 0:30 mark of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R52QQZjEj-o

 

Gold Stars Talk, which SirFaizdat mentioned, is also something that I've been hard at work on. I've been designing a new interface for it, which will hopefully be complete in the next version of Gold Stars. I don't have a video on YouTube of it yet, but I'm trying to make it look a little like a messaging interface -- except that instead of talking to another person, you're having a conversation with the computer!

 

Once again, thank you both for your feedback!

[Snowbooks1419]

  On 06/03/2015 at 17:09, Snowbooks1419 said:

Thank you both for your feedback! I really appreciate it. Improving the UI of inputs is definitely something I've been working on. For some of the input fields, I've made a JFrame with different fields for inputs -- like what you said. You can see what I've done at around the 0:30 mark of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R52QQZjEj-o

 

Gold Stars Talk, which SirFaizdat mentioned, is also something that I've been hard at work on. I've been designing a new interface for it, which will hopefully be complete in the next version of Gold Stars. I don't have a video on YouTube of it yet, but I'm trying to make it look a little like a messaging interface -- except that instead of talking to another person, you're having a conversation with the computer!

 

Once again, thank you both for your feedback!

Well, the update with the new interface for Gold Stars Talk is finally complete! You can see it from around 0:08 to 0:31 in this video, if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJFJOawZ4b4

[Ryster]

Several kittens died while I was reading this thread :'(

 

Only teasing...

[Snowbooks1419]

If anyone's still interested: I completed a new version, Version 5.1, of one of the programs (Cyan Sky). I implemented your suggestion of using one JFrame with multiple input boxes in this program (I had shown it to you in the other program in my post from March 6). You can see it from 0:27 to 0:37 here, if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUCAuYeEM1U

 

However, I did come across one small problem. I made the 750x375 JFrame with input boxes for the Quadratic Equation Solver. That had 3 inputs, so it was easy to lay out the boxes in that JFrame. However, I wasn't sure how to do it for something that had less than 3 input boxes. If there were, say, only 2 input fields, then the input fields might look very spaced out on a JFrame of the same size. (I'm trying to make a uniform size for all the JFrames, in order to make the program look more unified.) Does anyone have any suggestions?