/MultiTimer

A timer under Android, which allows to program a sequence of Timers, Chronometer, Bell, and Pauses

MultiTimer

Introduction

When doing a presentation for a course, it is useful to have a timer showing the time left. There are several timer applications in the Android Market, but quite few which allow a full screen timer. This seems like a good candidate of a first application for students to learn how to program for Android: it is simple and they can test and evaluate themselves the result.

Features

  • A user program the multi-timer using the following vocabulary and grammar:
    [ ] C
    Chronometer
    [ ] T(X)
    Timer for X minutes
    [ ] T(X:Y)
    Timer for X minutes and Y seconds
    [ ] B
    play Bell sound
    [ ] P
    wait for pression on the screen
    [ ] (P)^N
    repeat program P N times
    [ ] (P)^*
    repeat program P until interrupted by button PAUSE, or RESET
    [ ] (P+P’P”…)
    execute all programs in parallel, stopping as soon as one of them terminates

Examples of Usage

Student presenting

  • Student Bob is presenting his project:
  • Each student is alloted
    • 1 mn of preparation
    • 5 mns of presentation
    • 4mns of questions
  • He is programming his multi-timer with the following program: 
    T(1)BT(5)(C+P+T(4))

Professor evaluating several presentations

  • Professor Alice is evaluating the presentations of 6 students.
  • Each student is alloted
    • 1 mn of preparation
    • 5 mns of presentation
    • 4mns of questions
  • Professor Alice program her multi-timer with the following program: 
    (T(1)T(5)B(C+P+T(4))B)^6

Milestones

  1. [ ] Initial Setup
    1. [ ] PROGRAM a simple application showing the text text (“Hello World by $AUTHOR”)
    2. [ ] COMPILE
    3. [ ] COPY to a mobile device
  2. [ ] Test the interface
    1. [ ] PRINT “Hello World” and “by $AUTHOR” in distinct colors
    2. [ ] DETECT pressure on “by $AUTHOR”
    3. [ ] PLAY sound on an event (back button)
  3. [ ] Simplistic Chronometer:
    • [ ] Modify the application to display time since the application was launched, in full screen.
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  4. [ ] Buttons:
    • [ ] ADD a button which starts the chronometer
    • [ ] ADD a button which pauses the chronometer
    • [ ] ADD a button which resets the chronometer
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  5. [ ] Simple Timer + Chronometer:
    • [ ] ADD a field to enter text
    • [ ] PROGRAM filter to accept only numbers (of seconds)
    • [ ] PROGRAM TIMER followed by Chronometer
    • [ ] PROGRAM Sound at end of timer before starting chronometer
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  6. [ ] Full Screen activity
    • [ ] ADD an activity to the application, where the time (timer or chronometer is shown full screen)
    • [ ] ADD BUTTON to go Full Screen
    • [ ] DETECT pressure of back button to go back to the main screen, without stopping the time running.
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  7. [ ] Simple Parser
    [ ] C
    Chronometer
    [ ] T(X)
    Timer for X minutes
    [ ] T(X:Y)
    Timer for X minutes and Y seconds
    [ ] B
    play Bell sound
    [ ] P
    wait for pression on the screen
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  8. [ ] Complex Display
    • [ ] REPROGRAM both full screen and menu display to be able to show up to 3 running times at once
    [ ] (P)^N
    repeat program P N times
    [ ] (P)^*
    repeat program P until interrupted by button PAUSE, or RESET
    [ ] (P+P’P”…)
    execute all programs in parallel, stopping as soon as one of them terminates
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  9. [ ] Memory of previous programs
    • [ ] DISPLAY last 2 programs used
    • [ ] CREATE additional activity displaying the list of all programs used, ordered by time since last usage.
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  10. [ ] Frequency Memory of previous programs
    • [ ] DISPLAY 2 programs most frequently used since instalation of the application (!! Requires memory)
    • [ ] CREATE additional activity displaying the list of all programs used, ordered by frequency of usage.
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE
  11. [ ] Clever memory of previous programs
    • [ ] DISPLAY 3 most interesting programs, as measured by fisheye order combination of frequency and time since last usage.
    • [ ] CREATE additional activity displaying 10 top programs by this order
    • [ ] REFACTOR CODE