This is a program, a friend of mine made freshman year. It allows you to type in courses and will generate a list of every schedule combination its color coded too (for example orange meant there was some kind of restriction) It is written in python, so that requires a number of things to be installed for windows users, I included them. That way you don't have to find them on the net somewhere.




http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jwpearce/schedulemaker.zip

11/13/2007 9:23:10 AM

so does the program get the times for the classes from registration and records or is that something you have to put in?

11/13/2007 9:36:26 AM

Yes, it grabs the course information from the Open Section Inquiry database.
All you do is type in the course you wish to take the upcoming semester and it generates every possible schedule combination.

Though it is possible to get like 10,000 combinations. So if you like a certain time, just add that section number and it will decrease the number of schedules.

If you know the courses you want to take, then there is no need to even open registration and records.

11/13/2007 10:30:27 AM

thanks dagreenone

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 11:01 AM. Reason : .]

11/13/2007 10:58:23 AM

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 11:23 AM. Reason : oops]

11/13/2007 11:22:54 AM

nevermind, figured out my problem

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 12:11 PM. Reason : i'm mildly retarded]

11/13/2007 11:55:51 AM

i get an error msg saying that it can't find glib (i already had gtk installed), wtf, suggestions?

11/13/2007 2:02:20 PM

Did you install in this order:
Python
GTK
PyGTK
pyCairo

ndmetcal was having a problem but it sounds like he got it worked out. I'm waiting to hear what he had to do. The main problem is that windows is really really picky.

If you've got it working, post in here to let me know. As well as XP or vista

11/13/2007 2:11:01 PM

the link you posted is messed up

try this one:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jwpearce/schedulemaker.zip

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 2:16 PM. Reason : .]

11/13/2007 2:16:43 PM

i had to copy glib into the python directory for it to work

11/13/2007 2:34:47 PM

haha, didn't turn out to be so helpful for me--there were four combinations, the only difference being which pe section i was in

11/13/2007 2:44:24 PM

its fun to play around with though

11/13/2007 3:19:00 PM

yeah, it would've been nice back when i actually got to choose my courses

11/13/2007 3:46:58 PM

I'm going to take it down while Andrew updates it, I'll reupload it later. As well as look into the windows situation.

11/13/2007 7:22:51 PM

^ even when it "doesn't work" on windows, it's an easy fix, just search for these 3 dll's (gliblib-2.0-0.dll, iconv.dll, & itnl.dll) and save them into your schedule maker folder, then move the glib.dll into the python24 folder & it works


[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 8:02 PM. Reason : i can't type]

11/13/2007 8:01:56 PM

well he wants to fix the semester changes, that way you don't have to change the line of code to use the program for the fall and the spring.

11/13/2007 8:43:06 PM

I am in NTR301 as we speak

11/13/2007 9:09:49 PM

i installed all the things...dont know how to make them run...if next semester wasnt my last semester i'd try to figure it out :/

11/13/2007 10:00:23 PM

Or you could just use the online schedule planner:

http://www.wolftech.ncsu.edu/tracster/

Or xtracs, if you use Linux.

11/13/2007 10:37:22 PM

^both [fail]

11/13/2007 10:40:25 PM

What're you talking about? They work just fine.

11/13/2007 10:40:47 PM

^honestly i was wondering why the person that made the program didnt just use that

only thing that i thought made this program sound neat was that it had the ability to make every schedule that was possible

11/13/2007 10:43:06 PM

You don't get the premise. You are adding the courses one at a time for those, the one I posted you add all the courses you want to take all at once and it shows all the combinations they can fit together.

11/13/2007 10:44:56 PM

oops...not to me

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 11:14 PM. Reason : .]

11/13/2007 10:49:19 PM

^yeah, that's what I was going to say

there shouldn't be that many combinations of courses when you have specific course needs

it's rare to have such a freeform major where there are no required courses in a certain order

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 10:53 PM. Reason : while your tool is neat and all, it's not really necessary]

11/13/2007 10:53:02 PM

DNL, you posted at the exact time I did, I know you get it, StillFuchsia is the one that doesn't.
maybe not for "Chemical Engineering", but for my major and most everyone else it is very useful. A lot of my courses are still offered in multiple times.

If you only have one or two times then that webtool that was posted is even more lame, because what would be the point in looking at a schedule if you are going to have only 1.

11/13/2007 11:04:38 PM

You conveniently forget that I'm an English major as well: scheduling is just as important to me as it is to any other student, and there are significantly more English course sections I could take around the one or two required courses I have in Engineering every semester. And I really don't think "everyone else" has a completely freeform major: most upper-level courses don't have too many sections.

Maybe it'd help more if you were a freshman or sophomore since you'd be taking those bulkier lower-level classes with lots of sections, as dnl suggested.

The webtool allows you to add time blocks for work or other schedule planning that may not be just coursework. I don't really use it except for making a schedule with other parts aside from courses. I usually just write down all the courses I'm thinking about taking and look at what times will work and which won't: it doesn't require a big program.

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 11:50 PM. Reason : .]

11/13/2007 11:33:19 PM

no, no, its not for multiple course, multiple sections. You sound totally confused.

I'll post the newest version tomorrow, so you can see what I'm talking about. Since I fail with words apparently.

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 11:54 PM. Reason : V you still don't get it.]

11/13/2007 11:39:16 PM

There still aren't that many sections of upper-level courses in any major. I'm not confused.

Writing down the times of course sections and comparing them still shouldn't be that daunting of a task. Unless you've avoided taking something like ENG 101, which has a million sections. But then you shouldn't be so worried about when that course is, since it's more flexible than some of your other courses.

[Edited on November 13, 2007 at 11:45 PM. Reason : .]

11/13/2007 11:43:04 PM

To clarify, since there seems to be some confusion: You enter all the courses you wish to take, just the course numbers (no sections), and it enumerates all possible combinations of sections of all the courses, and returns all possible schedules you can have. A normally daunting task for one who has many sections of several of the courses.

Since I wrote this program 2 years ago, its use has dwindled. Most of my classes only have one section available also, so my program will often return only one or just a few combinations. Why use it then? I'm not forcing you to, if you have a system that works, by all means don't stress yourself trying to learn something else.

I find it useful, still today, to quickly enter in a potential set of classes I might want to take, and immediately see the schedule or schedules I'd have to pick from. Maybe I don't like one, quickly swap it out and see a new schedule or combination of schedules.

I haven't tried many of the other tools out there, but I have seen the one linked above as well as xtracs, and they don't do the same thing. They just let you pick the class and sections you're thinking of and see visually what the schedule looks like. My program does that as well as showing you every possible section combination.

Hope this clears some things up! You can find the most recent version here: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~ambrown4/scheduler.zip

[Edited on November 14, 2007 at 12:08 AM. Reason : typos]

11/14/2007 12:06:46 AM

^ i was able to enter section numbers with no problems

11/14/2007 12:30:58 AM

if you'd like

i can package this into an installshield installer while i'm at work tomorrow

that will install python/gtk/other stuff automatically

11/14/2007 12:47:10 AM

can you put an easy 1, 2, 3 type list of exactly how to open it and use it?

i clicked a bunch of files but i never got it to open how it looked in the screenshots

11/14/2007 12:51:51 AM

i <3 xtracs. I planned out my spring semester with blocked times for work and stuff the day courses were posted.

11/14/2007 1:12:39 AM

you earn a gold star today!

11/14/2007 1:18:33 AM

what worked for me:

1) installed python, pycairo, and pygtk (i already had gtk installed)
2) copied all the scheduler files into the python directory
3) downloaded glib from http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/glib/2.14/glib-2.14.2.zip and copied each file (not the directories) into the python folder
4) ran schedulemaker.py

11/14/2007 2:53:15 AM

^check out this newer version.

11/14/2007 8:05:46 AM

^ what's changed in this newer version?

11/14/2007 8:35:50 AM

^^^mine says it cant find libglib2.0.0.2.dll or something

[Edited on November 14, 2007 at 12:55 PM. Reason : .]

11/14/2007 12:55:39 PM

^ ndmetcal ran into the same issue, just google search that exact .dll and download it.

Quote :

"just search for these 3 dll's (gliblib-2.0-0.dll, iconv.dll, & itnl.dll) and save them into your schedule maker folder, then move the glib.dll into the python24 folder & it works"

For everyone that downloaded it yesterday the newer version is up and is more public oriented (better instructions) and the ability to change semesters, otherwise you are going to have to edit the code each semester. When you download it just delete all the python files and .txt files and replace it with the new ones. If you got it working before you won't have to reinstall those runtime enviornments, just replace the existing python files and thats it.

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~ambrown4/scheduler.zip

11/14/2007 2:20:34 PM

In the newer version I just added a box so you can choose which semester to plan, and an about box with a bit of info. The old one will work fine, but it's hardwired for spring courses, you'd have to edit one of the files to change it to fall.

I use linux, so I can't help too much with getting it to work under windows, but it should work with the proper dependency libraries as python is a platform independent language. dagreenone has had success and seems to be experienced with that, and I've included in the README a list of what I believe is required. I'd recommend using one of the campus linux machines though, since I know it works with those. I know I'd hate to have to install a bunch of stuff just for this.

Evan, if you want to see if you can package it all together, that'd be cool. Would that include my program itself, or just the prereq libraries for GTK and python?

11/14/2007 2:56:00 PM

so i moved some dlls to my python24 folder and when i clicked schedulemaker it came up with 2 things

first this one

pango-error **: file shape.c: line 75 (pango_shape): assertion failed: (glyphs->num_glyphs >0) aborting...

after clicking ok it came up with this one

runtime error!

Program: c:/python24/python24/python.exe

11/14/2007 4:14:07 PM

hmm...first off did you install these things first in this order?

http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.3/python-2.4.3.msi
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-win/gtk%2B-2.8.9-setup-1.zip?download
http://www.pcpm.ucl.ac.be/~gustin/win32_ports/binaries/pygtk-2.8.5-1.win32-py2.4.exe
http://www.pcpm.ucl.ac.be/~gustin/win32_ports/binaries/pycairo-1.0.2-1.win32-py2.4.exe

11/14/2007 5:48:26 PM

gg, andrew. this looks awesome. too bad next semester is my last and is already set

but that's some badass shit right there. I def. could've used this from the start.

11/26/2007 7:52:26 AM

vpython is a bitch.

11/26/2007 1:55:11 PM