CS 230 Spring 2007

Assignment 5 – Looping (Paparazzi Invasion Silly Simulation Game)

100 points

Assigned: 02/21/2007

Due: 02/28/2007 at the start of class

Pre-Lab (Do Before Lab):  Bring materials – a way to save a copy for you and a copy to turn in. Plan out tasks, objects, and events needed for program. If you didn’t get an A on the midterm, write pseudocode for the main button (and even if you did get an A, it’s probably worthwhile).

Main Assignment:

You are creating an extremely simplified simulation “game” (I use quotes because it is so simplified).  Write a program that simulates the invasion by paparazzi with no defense against them. Get from the user the starting number of paparazzi, difficulty level (1-10), and the number of months to simulate. Display in a RichTextBox (see below) for each month elapsed, the number of months elapsed to that point and the number of paparazzi that have invaded. After the given number of months, display in labels or read-only textboxes the final number of paparazzi. NOTE – this task MUST be done with a loop – I need to see the month by month results in the text box – and in order to see that, you cannot do a single one-time calculation. 

· Provide capabilities to simulate, clear (the inputs and outputs) to start again, and to exit.

Hand in:

• Floppy disk  or CD-R with an entire folder containing all files related to the project. Please set the name of the project to something other than the default name (WindowsApplication1, …). It is helpful if you use a name that identifies you as well as the assignment (e.g. yourlastname assignment 5). Use Windows to copy the whole folder, instead of trying to “Save As”.
• Print out of your code.  

Task Details:

· The number of new paparazzi invading each month is equal to 10 times the difficulty level (e.g. with a difficulty level of 7, 70 new pararazzi would invade each month.

· Sorry, in this simplified game, there is no way to get rid of paparazzi.

•  Define numbers (especially those that could change sometime in the futures) as named constants
• The number of paparazzi and the difficulty level are always whole numbers
• We’re no longer going to assume that the clerk enters valid and reasonable values.  Ensure that the starting number of paparazzi, difficulty level, and number of months are numeric (and whole numbers for that matter), and that the starting number of paparazzi is positive, the difficulty level is 1-10, and the number of months is between 2 and 1000.  Don’t try to calculate anything if bad data has been entered (display a message).
• To add items to the rich text box, use richtextboxname.AppendText( a string ). You can build a string out of pieces using “concatenation” . E.g.  “Month: “ & month.toString() & ControlChars.NewLine

(The ControlChars.NewLine moves the next info after to a new line). To clear the contents of a list box, use richtextboxname.Clear()

• MAKE SURE YOUR PROGRAM WORKS! (i.e. gets the correct answers).  It doesn’t have to just run, it needs to run correctly!  It should run on any inputs (We are now branching – so the program must be tested on more inputs to ensure that all paths through the program code work!). For instance, does your program still do the right thing no matter how many of the inputs are invalid?   

Miscellaneous

• You must turn on Option Explicit and Option Strict.
• Put YOUR NAME, e-mail address, date, and purpose of the program in comments at the beginning of the program. The purpose should be what the program is supposed to do, not the learning goals. Comments are indicated with a single quote (everything after the single quote is only for humans)
• You MUST include comments that explain your program in order to get full credit.
• Remember to use meaningful variable names, and indent to show the structure of the program (VB usually does this correctly).
• Name all textboxes and buttons and the rich text box meaningfully, and use conventions for starting their names.
• Make textboxes that user should never enter a value in (results / outputs) “Read Only”
• Put your name on the form as a Label or as part of the form title.
• Try to use good user interface design. Make clear what user needs to do and what the answers mean. Make error messages as clear and helpful as possible!