logweek6

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Learning Log
A Research Project On
Towards An Autonomous Bibliography Building Agent
By Indrashah Isa

Week Six
(10th August 1998 - 16th August 1998)
(Post Mini-Project Week)

Daily Task / Assignment

*Day*	*Date*	*Task / Assignment*
Monday	10/8/98	Post National Day, Public Holiday.
Tuesday	11/8/98	Subscribe to Visual Basic Beginners Mailing list at ElSoft. Read publicly available VB mailing discussion list at ElSoft VISBAS-BEGINNERS Archives, on 'Books On-line', 'Error Messages', HELP- Simple Application' and 'File Access'. Development of WebValidator (after analyzing carefully the VB module on Fileshow example given by Tralvex), create a temp file to house the fetched URL for http selection and validation.
Wednesday	12/8/98	Development of WebValidator, create the validating portion of the program. First store the selected links sequentially as a string with unique numerals attached to each of them in the 'immediate' box, then validate the stored links one by one. Validation actions are performed sequentially one after another from number 1 to the end. Redesigned some of the data boxes on the project form known as 'VALIDATOR', to make it look more user-friendly. Maintenance of project page and 'Web Documentation Face-Lift'. Organize the data in the main project page more vividly, so it is easy for visitors to understand the overall connection of the different portions of the project web documentation. Search for books on-line on the Internet that pertains to Fundamentals of Visual Basic 5.0. Read the on-line books at Developer.Com on Visual basic 5.0 programming. Debugging the WebValidator. There are some bugs in this program, some examples includes failure to validate links that are made from image files (e.g. links made on all gifs, jpeg) and collating and displaying of 'bad links' onto a list box.
Thursday	13/8/98	Maintenance of project page and 'Web Documentation Face-Lift'. Organise some links in a tabular form to enhance organization and appearance. Create graphical titles for each header title (e.g. appendixpage, project schedule, etc.) and act link it to a particular project page. Development of WebValidator, debugging the program and manage to solve one of the bug. Manage to display the validated URL sequentially one-by-one onto a list-box and display it on the application form (VALIDATOR). Manage to write a source code that can validate links made on image files like 'gifs' and 'jpeg'. Confirmation the completion of mini-project 'WebValidator', but of course as this is the first version of the program, there are still some bugs in it. Read on-line books on Internet Programming with Visual Basic at Developer.Com. Apply some knowledge learnt from the on-line tutorials onto the mini-project. Sending some question to the discussion list on the Internet on some errors encountered when creating the mini-project (e.g. How to list down the bad and good URLs on separate list-box?).
Friday	14/8/98	Review of mini-project, try to list down its advantages and disadvantages of the 'Webvalidator' program. Try to enhance the function of the program, for example the command button that clears written data in the list-boxes upon clicking. Clearing of data in those list-boxes means clearing both the display list-boxes and also the data in the temp file. Planning of Project ABBA. Draw out the procedure onto a paper and provide explanations on how the program function. Selection of the various VB5 tools intended to be used in the project. Searh the Internet for resources and information to be used for project ABBA. An example would be information on how a software detect strings like titles and authors, understand its concepts.
Saturday	15/8/98	Company off
Sunday	16/8/98	Company off

Weekly Summary of Task / Assignment

The sixth week of my attachment week is known as ‘Post Mini-Project Week’. This week deals with enhancing the mini-project known as WebValidator and doing some pre-preparation work to the main project of this attachment known as Project ABBA. Enhancing the mini-project includes mainly debugging the created program to enhance its functions, thus minimising its faults, aimed at achieving user-friendliness and maximum functionality.

Maintenance of project web page known as ‘Web Documentation Face-Lift’.
The intention of redesigning my project web documentation is to make it more user-friendly and organised. Since my existing web documentation is very scattered and the mainpage is long and boring, I make the mainpage as the index or content page and create links to other pages. I organise some links in a tabular form to enhance organisation and appearance. I also create graphical titles for each header title (e.g. appendixpage, project schedule, etc.) and add links to it, pointing to a particular project page so that web navigation is enhanced and information is more organised. The main project page is the key concern here as that page is the so called index page to my project and all the crux of the project are found in that page, so in my opinion, good organisation is really needed in that page.

Debugging the completed WebValidator program.
Debugging the program includes mainly analysing its faults and come out with solutions to solve those faults. Most faults lie in the source codes of the program and sometimes I do not really understand some source codes required to be included into the program. But after some self-reading done on a few Visual Basic textbooks borrowed from various libraries in Singapore, and after some discussions with my attachment partner, I manage to solve some of the bugs myself. I also sent emails to a discussion list on the Internet, posing questions to the problems I faced when debugging the program. I also visited some Visual Basic Help sites on the Internet and read the tips on debugging programs and understanding error messages. Now I also understand better, pertaining to how the source codes function in the program. I also redesign the user-interface of my program to suit the functions of the program and also in order to solve some bugs (e.g. change the normal text-box to rich text-box to carry huge chunk of data). I will keep looking for VB textbooks to obtain more knowledge on the usage of the software so that I can utilise it fully. I am quite happy to announce the completion of my first program (WebValidator) using Visual Basic 5.0.

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