In my previous post, I talked about the main requirement for the last semester in the program which is to create a web project using any framework. Among the many PHP frameworks, I chose CodeIgniter (CI) for some reasons that were already mentioned before. The project that I am willing to build is to create a web application to manipulate the main statics formulas:
- The mean (average)
- The standard deviation
- The variance
- The mode
- The median
The user can enter some values and choose any formula from the above list and the app will give the result based on the rules of each formula that have been chosen by the user. This is just a general idea and I am not sure how far I can go with this project in a short time with other assignments and required documentations. Anyhow, I will try my best to create something good, and whatever features I finish in this project will definitely sharpen my skills in PHP and enhance my knowledge in using CI framework.
I was in my second year at the university, the last semester also in 1996 when I come up with an idea to create that project. We had a course for math and statics, and as a student I liked to combine what I learned in that statics classes with my programming skills to create the application. At that time, there were no subjects called web application, PHP, or ASP, I had to create it using C language on MS-DOS platform. I couldn’t imagine that one day after all these several years, I will create a similar project and implement the same idea again here in Canada!
I haven’t started coding the formulas yet, I just prepared the wireframes, resources, Photoshop mock-up, database tables, and the front-end responsive layout. I am still working on learning CodeIgniter itself, I feel that I am in need to have a fully understanding of all the details and the functionality of this framework before start digging deep into implementing my code.
Understanding clearly the rules, tools, or the language we are going to use is very necessary and it can save us some headache down the road, that’s why I like Abraham Lincoln’s quote:
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”