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[Pythoncard-users] Decision Analysis , a Python script to be re-coded in PythonCard
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From: Ronald D S. <rd...@ea...> - 2001-09-03 19:26:03
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Well, my first Python script or applet was a simple weighted average type of program to help in making decisions that can be
analyzed by comparing various options for various criteria, weighted by importance for each criteria, and scored by calculating a
simple weighted average for each option and then comparing the scores for various options, with higher scores representing better
options.
This program is a commnad line Python program that runs OK in IDLE or Pythonwin.
My goal is to make it work with a gui user interface. My thinking is that this will be a good learning exercise for me in learning
PythonCard.
I have previosuly tried to code a gui version of this in Tkinter, but I became frustrated before I had a working version.
I think PythonCard is already up to the task of coding a version of my Decision Analysis. Am I right or is it too early for this?
I realize that I will need to start from scratch and re-code this completely, since the gui version is so much different; although I
welcome any comments to the contrary.
I am thinking of using sliders for data entry, although I could use other forms of data input, obviously.
If any one has any comments, or general suggetions before I get too far along on this project, please let me know.
Since I am a newbie and busy with a full time job, this task may take me awhile, so don't expect immediate results. But once I do
get it, maybe the results will be of use somehow. I doubt it would be usefull enough to include in the samples of PythonCard, but
anyway, here I go....it's all about learning at this point.
I caught on to Python easier than I expected, and I was pleased to be able to do this simple program. But learning gui event driven
programming has been hard for me (I suppose learning to really use classes, OOP, gui's and event driven programming all at once is
causing me confusion ;-)))). Anyway, I am determined to stick it out with PythonCard though.
Ron Stephens
#
# This is a decision analysis program that was my first real Python program, based on weighted
# averages of scores on several criteria for various questions that need to be decided.
# There is a general program for any kind of decision, allowing user input of options
# to be decided amongst and criteria to use for decisions; and then there are a few
# examples of specific options to be decided amongst with pre-coded "values' or scores
# for the various options for various criteria.
# It is my goal to code this program using PythonCard.
print "A General Decision Analysis Program."
print
print "Have You Ever Had to Make Up Your Mind?"
print
import sys
def get_number(prompt, lower=sys.maxint * -1, upper=sys.maxint):
""" get_number(prompt) -> float
This function prompts for a number. If the user enters bad input, such as
'cat' or '3l', it will prompt again.
Now checks for upper and lower bounds.
"""
res = None
while res is None:
try:
res = float(raw_input(prompt))
try:
assert lower <= res <= upper
except AssertionError:
print "Value must be between", lower, \
"and", upper
res = None
except ValueError: pass
return res
def get_list(heading, prompt):
print heading
print
print "(enter a blank line to end the list)"
ret = []
i = 1
while 1:
line = raw_input(prompt % i)
if not line:
break
ret.append(line)
i=i+1
print
return ret
def get_user_rankings(criteria):
# Next, get the user to rank his criteria. I use a system where higher
# is better, so that an undesirable characteristic can be given a negative
# weight.
#
# {} is a dictionary, it can be indexed by (nearly) any expression,
# and we will index it with the names of the criteria.
rankings = {}
print
print "Enter relative importance of criteria (higher is more important)"
print
for c in criteria:
rankings[c] = get_number("Criterion %s: " % c)
return rankings
def get_user_scores(options, criteria):
# Next, get the user to score each option on all the criteria.
# Scores are stored as a two-dimensional dictionary, like so:
# {'option1': {'criteria1': 100, 'criteria2': 10},
# 'option2': {'criteria1': 50, 'criteria2': 10}
# }
scores = {}
print
print "Enter score for each option on each criterion"
print
for o in options:
scores[o] = {}
print
print "Scores for option %s" % o
print
for c in criteria:
scores[o][c] = get_number("Criterion %s: " % c)
return scores
def calculate_results(options, scores, rankings):
# Calculate the resulting score for each option. This equation
# is different from Rod Stephen's original program, because I
# make more important criteria have higher rankings, and even let
# bad criteria have negative rankings.
# The "result" dictionary is indexed with the names of the options.
result = {}
# Criteria can be found automatically, doesn't need to be
# passed as an argument.
criteria = scores[options[0]].keys()
for o in options:
value = 0
for c in criteria:
# print o, c, rankings[c], scores[o][c]
value = value + rankings[c] * scores[o][c]
result[o] = value
return result
def ranked_list(results):
# Now, I want to take the dictionary result, and turn it into a ranked list
results = results.items() # A list of tuples (key, value)
results.sort(lambda x, y: -cmp(x[1], y[1]))
# Sort the list using the reverse of the
# "value" of the entry, so that higher
# values come first
return results
def generic_decision_analyzer(options, criteria):
pass
def decisionanalysis():
# This code is placed in the public domain
print
print "This is a general decision program, and you can define your choices and criteria."
print
print "When prompted, please enter the options or choices that you need to decide amongst."
print
print "Then, when prompted, enter the criteria for making this decision."
# First, ask the user to enter the lists
options = get_list("Enter your options:", "Option %d: ")
criteria = get_list("Now, enter your criteria:", "Criterion %d: ")
print "A program to help you make decisions."
rankings = get_user_rankings(criteria)
scores = get_user_scores(options, criteria)
results = ranked_list(calculate_results(options, scores, rankings))
print
print "Results, in order from highest to lowest score"
print
print "%5s\t%s" % ("Score", "Option")
# Take the pairs out of results in order, and print them out
for option, result in results:
print "%5s\t%s" % (result, option)
# Here's the scores used by the language-choice functions.
language_scores = {"Python": {"ease of learning":100,
"ease of use":100,
"speed of program execution":10,
"quality of available tools":70,
"popularity":50,
"power & expressiveness":100,
"cross platform?":100,
"cost":100},
"Perl": {"ease of learning":50,
"ease of use":60,
"speed of program execution":20,
"quality of available tools":50,
"popularity":85,
"power & expressiveness":70,
"cross platform?":100,
"cost":100},
"Ruby": { "ease of learning":50,
"ease of use":100,
"speed of program execution":20,
"quality of available tools":20,
"popularity":10,
"power & expressiveness":100,
"cross platform?":80,
"cost":100},
"Tcl": {"ease of learning":100,
"ease of use":100,
"speed of program execution":10,
"quality of available tools":50,
"popularity":40,
"power & expressiveness":10,
"cross platform?":100,
"cost":100},
"JavaScript": {"ease of learning":70,
"ease of use":75,
"speed of program execution":10,
"quality of available tools":50,
"popularity":100,
"power & expressiveness":40,
"cross platform?":50,
"cost":100},
"Visual Basic": {"ease of learning":50,
"ease of use":100,
"speed of program execution":20,
"quality of available tools":100,
"popularity":100,
"power & expressiveness":50,
"cross platform?":1,
"cost":1},
"Java": {"ease of learning":15,
"ease of use":50,
"speed of program execution":50,
"quality of available tools":100,
"popularity":90,
"power & expressiveness":100,
"cross platform?":100,
"cost":100},
"C++": {"ease of learning":10,
"ease of use":25,
"speed of program execution":90,
"quality of available tools":90,
"popularity":80,
"power & expressiveness":100,
"cross platform?":90,
"cost":100},
"C": {"ease of learning":15,
"ease of use":20,
"speed of program execution":100,
"quality of available tools":80,
"popularity":80,
"power & expressiveness":80,
"cross platform?":110,
"cost":100},
"Lisp": {"ease of learning":40,
"ease of use":50,
"speed of program execution":80,
"quality of available tools":60,
"popularity":25,
"power & expressiveness":110,
"cross platform?":80,
"cost":90},
"Delphi": {"ease of learning":50,
"ease of use":110,
"speed of program execution":85,
"quality of available tools":100,
"popularity":30,
"power & expressiveness":100,
"cross platform?":80,
"cost":10}
}
def ProgramLanguageFinal():
print "This is a program to help give you an idea which programming languages you should consider learning."
print "While there are any number of languages you might consider, this program considers only 11 of the most popluar ones."
print
print "The program will ask you to input a ranking or weighting for a number of criteria that may be of importance"
print "in choosing your next programming language."
# First look up the criteria listed in the scores.
# To do that, we need a language name, which can also
# be looked up from the scores.
languages = language_scores.keys()
some_language = languages[0]
criteria = language_scores[some_language].keys()
rankings = get_user_rankings(criteria)
results = ranked_list(calculate_results(languages, language_scores, rankings))
# Take the pairs out of results in order, and print them out
for option, result in results:
print "%5s\t%s" % (result, option)
def ProgramLanguageScript():
print
print "This is a program to help you choose a scripting language."
print
print "You will be asked to rank some important criteria as to their relative importance to you."
print "These criteria are 'ease of learning', 'ease of use', 'speed of program execution'"
"'quality of available tools', 'popularity', and 'power & expressiveness'"
print
print "Please rank each of the criteria with a number from 1 to 100 when prompted."
print
print "100 means of highest relative importance, 1 means of least importance."
# This time we want a subset of languages, so I'm going to specify them.
options = ["Python", "Perl", "Ruby", "Tcl", "JavaScript", "Visual Basic"]
criteria = language_scores[options[0]].keys()
rankings = get_user_rankings(criteria)
results = ranked_list(calculate_results(options, language_scores, rankings))
# Take the pairs out of results in order, and print them out
for option, result in results:
print "%5s %s" % (result, option)
def Basketball():
print "This is a program to help you decide which team will win a basketball game"
print
print "When prompted, enter a number ranking each team on the prompted team skill"
print "on a scale from 1 to 100, with 1 being terrible and 100 being the best imaginable"
print
team_one = raw_input ("What is the name of team one: ")
team_two = raw_input ("What is the name of team two: ")
teams = (team_one, team_two)
rankings = {"speed":100, "size":66, "jumping_ability":50, "defense":60, "shooting":75, "ballhandling":50, "rebounding":50}
criteria = rankings.keys()
scores = {team_one: {},
team_two: {}}
for c in criteria:
for team in (team_one, team_two):
scores[team][c] = get_number("rank the team %s of %s on a scale of 1 to 100: " % (c, team), 1, 100)
results = calculate_results(teams, scores, rankings)
for team in teams:
print "%s has a power ranking of %d" % (team, results[team])
# Now, who won?
ranked_results = ranked_list(results)
# Compare the scores.
if ranked_results[0][1] == ranked_results[1][1]:
print "the two teams are a toss-up!!!"
else:
print "%s wins!!" % ranked_results[0][0]
def YesNo():
print "Program to help you make a Yes or No decision."
options = ["Yes", "No"]
criteria = get_list("Enter your criteria ...", "Criterion %d: ")
rankings = get_user_rankings(criteria)
scores = get_user_scores(options, criteria )
print `scores`
results = ranked_list(calculate_results(options, scores, rankings))
print
print "The results are"
print
print "%5s %s" % ("Score", "Option")
for option, result in results:
print "%5s %s" % (result, option)
if results[0] > results[1]:
print "You should decide Yes!!!"
else:
print
print "You should decide No!!!"
print
###### MAIN LOOP ############
while 1: # loop forever
print "Please enter the number for the type of decision you wish to analayze:"
print "1. General Decision Analysis, you choose the options, criteria, etc."
print "2. Help in Choosing Programming Language amongst 11 popular languages"
print "3. Help in choosing scripting programming language amongst 6 scripting languages"
print "4. Which Basketball Team will win the Game???"
print "5. Questions with Yes or No type answers"
choice = get_number("Please type in the number of the type of decision-program you wish to run from above and hit enter:", 1, 5)
if choice ==1:
decisionanalysis()
elif choice ==2:
ProgramLanguageFinal()
elif choice ==3:
ProgramLanguageScript()
elif choice ==4:
Basketball()
elif choice ==5:
YesNo()
elif choice =="quit":
break # exit from infinite loop
else:
print "Invalid operation"
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