CO2402 – Advanced C++
Assignment 1


Testing

The first problem I encountered was on the FormPaint function. Indeed when another window overlaps my application then the position of the planets, etc. is not saved. So I used the examples of the website http://www.tonynicol.net to understand how to fix the bug and now when I am in this situation the planets are drawn again (I check the planets that are Enabled()) in their last coordinates and the originals are greyed out.
There is also a problem with the fact that we have got several screens. So when FormPaint is called I use Boolean variables to know if the picture must appear or not.

I had a bug when the game was finished and that a new game had to start because the objects must be deleted and rebuilt correctly. Now I delete the objects when the game has just finished and I build the new objects in the main screen.

We must have random transition for screens. For that I searched documentations about random functions. Finally I found the good way to use a random function with initialisation and good parameters (srand() initialized by the time, and after I have the rand() function).

Critical review

It was very difficult to make this project because I have never used Borland C++ before. In France I always program C++ without multimedia and we always program under Unix with emacs or another text editor. So I have needed time to understand how Borland works exactly. Therefore this project has been very time consuming. Finally I have just had the time to make the part up to 54%.
I am not a very good graphic designer and I am disappointed by my screens.
With this assignment I have learnt a lot of things including the utilisation of Borland C++ (and with that the files associated and how work the projects). I learnt how to use the form and how to have an interaction with a simple BMP picture, as well as all the functions/events linked to the mouse or keyboard.

I read several times some parts of the assignment to understand correctly what was asked. I have tried to do the maximum.

It is difficult to generate a mark because I don’t know how it works in England (for the moment I haven’t got any marks). However if I look at each point described to have up to 54%:
·	I made all the requests.
·	If I have understood I should record sounds to provide a feedback to the user. I guess that it means I must record the planets’ names with a microphone. However I don’t have microphone and I have got a very bad accent, so I just use .wav sound found in Windows or in your examples and a message box is used as a feedback.
·	Two modes are provided to the player. One is a normal mode with no restriction in the order of the planets and no help; and the second one is a help mode with obligations.
·	Ok.
·	I have got three hotspot files (play.hsp for the main screen, planets.hsp for the planets and orbits.hsp for the orbits).
·	Ok.
·	The interactive help is activated after two errors when someone fails in the choice of the orbit.

So I evaluate my mark at 45%.

Comment: apparently with some mice the automatic move of the cursor can be quite ghastly.