[Novalug] Diabetes Software chance
Ross Patterson
RossPatterson@Comcast.Net
Thu Jul 26 23:41:23 EDT 2007
At 01:31 7/23/2007, Peter Larsen wrote:
>I'm sometimes amazed on how a discussion skips the requirements and
>design phases and jumps right into implementation.
Well, actually, you asked for suggestions about "what to hold the
data in", and you got some answers. I've yet to find a system for
tabular data that couldn't be convinced to accept and understand CSV,
and I doubt I ever will. To me, the long-term viability of the data
seems important.
>Both methods are pretty outdated and from the
>needs I've given here before, not good enough.
If you prefer a database-like programming interface, MySQL can read
CSV files like any other database.
>With XML you simply click on your XSD and presto, you have code
>classes that represents the
>whole structure.
Yup, sometimes that's true.
> > Although working from CSV, something like OpenOffice Calc or GNUPlot
> > will do wonders for you.
>
>How is anyone that's not semi familar with spreadsheets going to be able
>to use tools like that? You have to setup filters etc. to make anything
>semi automatic, and how would you deal with new data when it comes in?
>I'm interested, because reinventing the wheel isn't what I want to do.
I wouldn't recommend a spreadsheet for a non-geek. But GNUPlot is a
really great tool for generating graphs, and can be easily invoked
from inside another program. If you're running on a Linux desktop,
it can write directly to an X-window, or it can create image files
that you can embed in HTML easily. In short, if you don't have a
favorite free POJO charting package, GNUPlot is a nice POU (plain old
Unix :-) ) alternative.
>Btw. XML can be read into OpenOffice too.
Yup. I tend to think of XML data structures as obfuscated CSV, but
that's largely because I see XML containing tabular data. I know XML
will save the world (hey, I bought Goldfarb's SGML book 15 years
ago!), but most of the folks who tout it as a "self describing data
format" haven't tried to use it for that over the long term. But I
digress ... ;-)
>Interesting. Do you have any experience with the meter data-stream data?
A bit. My son has been diabetic for 24 years and has attempted this
before, for PalmOS. He wired up some cables a couple of times to
connect a couple of meters to the Palm serial interface, and it sort
of worked. He lost interest in the project a couple of times and
nothing much came of the experiments.
>I would have guessed it was binary, and not ASCII. Not that I've seen it
>before; it would certainly make some aspects a little easier compared to
>a binary stream. But since the meter talks serial, and most likely 9600
>bps, binary would be faster.
You may be surprised at how compact the data can be. A single test
can require only about 25 characters in ASCII, even at 9600 baud
that's almost 40 tests transmitted per second.
> But if the same people that design the
>software for windows designed the interface, I wouldn't be surprised
>.... I wouldn't be surprised at all.
:-)
Ross
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