GuinnessGuy74

I am looking for advice on a language. Before you think this is a general noob question, let me finish. I am not looking for advice on "which" language to learn. Just general capabilities......

I have finished building a AD-AHRS. An Air/Data- Altitude Heading Reference System, which is a device used to measure changes in Altitude and heading by using accelerometers, gyros, and interfaced GPS.

I am looking to learn a language which can implement this into a Graphical Display (HUD), by interfacing with the hardware and outputing the graphics to a screen. The Graphics can be very very simple or more advanced using OpenGL (3D terrain mapping, etc).

I am in no rush here so I am not looking at learning a language in 1 month to implement my design. I have been looking at Python and it seems like a very simple language to learn.

I am just wondering about the abilities of the language and whether or not Python would be a good fit for this or not. I only mention my project because after reading a hundred forums, everyone always asks about which language to learn. Afterwhich most everybody replies "it depend on what you want to do...."

Would I be better with a compiled language or will an interpreted language be fine. Again, this isn't a very advanced display, just simple dipslays on the screen showing the data output from the AD-AHRS.

I appreciate all of your input. Thanks for the help!

Jim

MBirchmeier

The main graphical libraries I've tried to use with Python were WxWidgets. I tried using them and got rather frustrated, and decided to go with a different interface, but perhaps you'll have better luck with them. That's about all I can offer on that subject.

-MBirchmeier

Cerulean

Depends on how the hardware is being interfaced with. Not sure if Python would be low-level enough to be considered a good choice for hooking up to hardware (without an extension in C/C++, that is).

GuinnessGuy74

Thanks for the advice. I have no idea about Hardware-Software interfacing, therefore I would have to use what ever the language supported. From the sound of your reply, it looks like maybe I should stick to a language like C or C++. Although they dont appear to be as easy to learn as Python, I am not, as I said before, in any kind of rush. This is purely a hobby project so I can take the time to learn what I need.

Any more advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks a ton....

Jim

Arevos

I think some more information about the hardware would be needed before any useful advice could be given. Ideally, it would be nice to know:

1. What system is the AD-AHRS interfacing with (a desktop PC? A handheld? Some custom system?)
2. What the operating system is (Linux? Unix? Windows? Something else?)
3. By what method the AD-AHRS is interfacing with the system (USB? Serial? Morse Code?).

GuinnessGuy74

Great point Arevos.....thanks for the reply.

I will using a miniture form PC to interface (to keep it small enough). Most likely a Linux OS (most likely on a flash drive or Disk-OnChip) to eliminate overhead and for fast performance (i.e. bootup). I was thinking about using PC 104 for the interface, but Ethernet is a possiblity. There are a number of data aquisition boards out there, so I am really open as to how I interface.


Thanks again, and if you need any more info please let me know!

Jim

Arevos

It seems to me that the majority of your programming work is going to be developing the interface between the AD-AHRS and your system, and this would indicate that most of the work would be fairly low-level. It seems as if you'd be better off with C or C++.

There's always the possibility of splitting the workload between Python and C, with Python handling the higher level control structure and C handling the low level interfaces. Tools like SWiG make it rather simple to integrate the two languages.

That all said, there's no point in using a circular saw just because you have one lying around. Python may not be suited for any part of this project.

I suggest researching what open source libraries are available to communicate over PC 104, and in what languages they are in. The tools that you require will likely shape what language you will end up using. Start by building up a general interface to the AD-AHRS and once that is done, evaluate your options for displaying the data the AD-AHRS returns.

Both Python and C/C++ have plenty of graphics libraries, so you shouldn't want for tools on that end, at least.

Silvanus

In addition to what Arevos said, it sounds like you have something of a space/memory constraint. The higher level your language choice, the more will be used.

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