Thread: Shall I solve this with HTML, C, or an app?

I want several radio text boxes, one of which looks like a slider, and in the background will be a full screen jpeg associated with the current combination of discreet states of the various text boxes. As the user drags the "slider" the jpeg changes, based on the current states of the slider and the radio buttons. I'm a beginner at this again and so I hope I've used these words in a way that will help you answer.

So my question is: is this something that should be done with html and a website, with a standalone written with code from scratch, or an app or template-based website builder that could do these things?

Thanks in advance.

The application is for a genealogical migration timeline visualizer that can be set to large/small scale geographic location (region/state/county), a long/short period of time, so that the user could see a full screen map of the families (in their current state of growth), in a specific place at a specific time.

This sounds like something that can be done with JavaScript.

You should consider Observable.js.

OK thanks. Since I have a rudimentary understanding of programming, I shall take it upon myself this summer to learn enough javascript to tackle this. I think it is a very simple programming problem: just use radio button states to determine which pic gets displayed. There will be no user input--I will create each picture file associated for every possible combination state of buttons, and so all the javascript does is just throw up the correct picture. I don't know enough to understand how Observable could be used, but perhaps eventually I will. Thanks again!

Originally Posted by RandallM

Since I have a rudimentary understanding of programming, I shall take it upon myself this summer to learn enough javascript to tackle this.

C is a good language to understand the basics of programming -- variables, looping, function -- found in higher-level languages, while introducing you to lower-level concepts -- memory management, pointers, working with a compiler -- that's found not just in C but Rust, C++ and Go.

Tackling C first will make learning JavaScript a breeze because it's based on C.