Program Ideas Needed

ok, i need some advice. i am a sophomore computer science major. i took my first c++ class last year, my second last semester, and i was taking data structures this semester. i missed the first week of class, and my last class didn't teach me everything i should have known for this data structures class. so i dropped it and i will retake it next semester. i would like to do a large project on my own making use of linked lists, dynamic memory, stacks, queues, and whatever else may be good.

i need some ideas for a large program that involve this. any suggestions??

What about a cash register program that uses a database to determine prices and quantities? If the last item is bought the register will flag it as empty so that more can be ordered, the actual data is saved as data files. You can add any number of functions to this if you consider it to be a terminal that accesses data files from a storage bank and does all of the processing of those data files on its own.

This can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, just add features to make it harder or remove features to make it easier, such as adding a clock that will determine if the register is turned on after hours or a security system that requires a user ID and password, and manager functions that can reconfigure the register to do different things. The possibilities are endless :)

-Prelude

wow, good idea. i guess if i was really ambitious, i could simulate a day of buisness, and random int generators could determine how many "items" would be "bought" each day, and i would gain that much "money" for my store, then i would have to "purchase" more items to restock. sounds very good. how do i go about passwords for that? i have never done that before.

Passwords can be as simple as saving a user id and password to a file and checking that file for equality with user input. You can encrypt the data so that no one can read the file, but it would just be easier to use a binary file instead since the authorized user should be able to set their own id and password. The most difficult part of a password program is writing out the masking characters so that onlookers of your user can't see what the password is. For example, the user enters foobar as the password but ****** actually gets printed to the screen. Since that isn't difficult you can imagine that a password feature is easily implemented and adds a very nice touch to the program.

-Prelude

That definately is a really good idea Prelude. I never even thought or heard of that before but it seems really good. Thanx. That might be my next project if I feel like it.

also, i think "data structures and algorithms" is a good read for you in prep, and if you don't read it just for the class you may as well do it for your own knowledge anyway. oh, and check out my demonstrations, maybe you'd get inspiration. :) there all over the general discussions board, use this boards nifty search feature to search for posts under my name. [okay, that was a bit selfish, but nonetheless, the more you know the better you are about programming]

hth... :)

is "data structures and algorithms" a book? because the book for the data structures class i am dropping is called "data structures and algorithm analysis" i will be studying it before i take the class again.

yep, i think it's distributed by deitel and deitel, right? and also maybe if you already got a textbook for the class, that'd be your best resource.

But would you use Poisson or Gaussian distribution for the sales and customers? ;)

gaussian of course... but that type of blurring is computationally expensive and is impractical in real-time, isn't it? :)