expagog

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WHAT IS IT?

I don't really know myself. Sometimes it's easier to do something than to tell you what it is and what it's for.

The name expagog may be interpreted in different ways, but there is certainly a pedagogical component in it.

Ah, pedagogy! How boring it is, Sasha, give us something more interesting!

And here is an interesting thing for pedagogy - experiment and adventure in the expagog style.

Well, the passion for adventure is adventurism, Sasha! The whole world is affected by this today, and a few uncles in particular.

And here you have a bridle for adventures - expagog. To reduce the letters and pathos, we will shorten this name to EG.

Adventures are different. For example, Christians are currently in Lent (March 2025) and EG is perfect for the adventure called fasting. The whole point of EG is that this pedagogy should not be lean nor boring, but interesting, although not without a strictness as pedagogy assumes.

It's adventure with sense - that's what EG is. I've finally found a passable definition for this program.

Due to some implementation details which is discussed below, EG is aimed at good - good enterprises and adventures. Besides, evil is interesting only in theory, but in practice it is contrary to human nature, and if you look at evil closely, it will turn out to be sheer tediousness and depressing stupidity. The devil is primarily stupid and interesting only to fools with his stupid "details".

Aren't you mocking, Sasha? Will you be giving us sermons soon? It smacks of a sect.

Yes, there is a possibility of turning this simple expagog program into some kind of sectarianism. However, believe me, this was not built into EG initially, it is not there now and, hopefully, it will never be.

If we really get off the ground, then EG is not a new religion, but rather a tool for maintaining one's religiosity, in the way every thinking person understands it. Christians understand it in their own way, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews etc. - in their own way, but at the root of every religion lies the basic do not offend anyone, do not act dishonestly.

Technically, EG is similar to a school teacher. And as we all remember, we had different teachers. It was interesting with some, not so much with others, and with others, whatever lesson, it was an adventure for brains. And this is despite the fact that no one canceled the marks for the lessons learned. Didn't you learn it? Sit down, poor!

But even not very skilled teachers, by virtue of their profession, force us to do good. EG can be used in a similar way - sometimes skillfully, sometimes not so much, but always in the direction of good. And no sectarianism! What kind of sectarianism is there at school?

Thus, EG makes life not only interesting, but also

This means that one avoids bad deeds and stupid behavior, whereas good deeds definitely await one thanks to the motives and encouragement from EG.

However, get to the point.

TERMS

Week - starts on Monday and ends on Sunday.

Topic - an activity type of experiment / adventure, for example: NO_smoking, ECO_quest, Feat (spaces in the names of topics are excluded).

Calculated topic is calculated with the formula, for example: Dist / Time.

Switchable topic - in this topic, information is not entered from the keyboard, but switches from the ? icon to the yes / lamp / no icons, according to the traffic light principle (green / yellow / red).

Format - sets the type of topic values; possible formats: number (99.9), time (time), switch (chk), calculated (calc), text (xxx).

EG (the last topic in the list) is a user's overall estimate for the day he/she have lived.

AggrEG is an aggregate estimate calculated by a user-defined formula, setting the weight of topics; the weight can be negative (e.g. for topics like "cigarettes"); AggrEG reflects the overall quality of a day / week / month / year.

Cell is located at the intersection of the subject row with the week day column.

Cell value - for topics such as numbers and time, these are their values; for the switch, these are 2 (yes), 1 (lamp), 0 (?) or -1 (no); for text, it is always 1 plus the number of initial + minus the number of - (for example, value of ++ wow! is 3); value sums less than zero are reset to 0 (there is no negative sum in EG).

Schedule is set in the form of question marks (?) in the cells of the table; these are the points of your adventures desirable to fulfill, for example, a point of Feat on Wednesdays; the value of ? is 0, so it spoils the statistics if the cell experiment has not been fulfilled.

Chart has two types: a histogram and a graph.

Cumulative chart is a chart, each point of which is obtained by summing the values of the previous period; the last value is the sum of all values.

Tag is a keyword that marks a cell; tags are available through the context menu of cells; marks can be searched with Find tool.

Cell comment is arbitrary notes on the current cell, under the table; it can contain tags and be searched with Find tool.

Weekly is arbitrary notes on the current week, under the diagram.

Statistics - summary data on the current database; contains two sections of data - Current week and plan for the next and Previous, current and subsequent weeks.

Cells / Cells0 - in statistics, they mean the total number of non-empty cells and the number of non-empty cells with a value of 0.

Report is an html file that contains data from the current database, including statistics; it can be used for external use.

Sticker is a short note that can be useful when working with EG - estimate criteria, value equivalents, ideas for experiments etc.; stickers can be colored and placed anywhere on the screen; open stickers are present in the report.

GENERAL USAGE PROCEDURE

For a quick installation of EG, just run an installer of expagog. Then run expagog's desktop shortcut.

Also, when you have Tcl/Tk deployed on your machine and like to install and run EG from its source, you need only to unpack expagog's source to a directory and run it with tclsh src/EG.tcl command.

Thus, in this case the installation of EG is straightforward as well:

In Linux, you can run tclsh instead of wish.

Generally, EG is run this way:

wish ~/PG/expagog/src/EG.tcl ?egd-path? ?rc-directory?

where:

When you start EG for the first time, a table with the default topics opens. You will most likely want to replace them with your own topics and possibly change other program settings.

To change the settings, click the menu button (hamburger) and select Preferences.

Then, in the Topics tab, replace the default topics with your own. Topic formats can also be changed. To delete a topic, it is enough to clear its name.

Note that the Speed topic is a calculated topic, it is a speed, i.e. Dist/Time (Time is the time spent on Dist distance), and can serve as an equivalent of the speed of anything, as well as a sample for entering calculated topics.

In case of difficulties, use the Help button for a hint. This button is present in all EG dialogs.

After changing the settings, save them by clicking the Save button. A new table with your topics will open.

All that remains now is to set a schedule of topics for the week. The schedule is set in the table by specifying question marks (?) in the appropriate cells, by topic and week day, as it suits you.

Probably, at first you should not overload the schedule too much with ? signs, and 5-6 topics are quite enough.

Now that the initial setup is completed, the actual use of expagog program may start.

And it boils down to the fact that at the end of day you just enter data instead of ?, i.e. time spent (distance, etc.) or icons of switchable topics.

Pay special attention to the topic EG - this is a general estimate of the day you have lived. Define a scale for EG once and for all, for example, 5, 10 or 100 point scale. You can put the evaluation criteria in a sticker, leaving it open in a screen position convenient for you.

An example of such a scale:

- 0 : a dull day, no experiment, no good deed, everything is bad
- 1 : empty, nominal attempt to experiment
- 2 : an unsuccessful attempt to experiment, although not empty
- 3 : an almost satisfactory attempt
- 4 : satisfactory, quite acceptable attempt
- 5 : standard successful experimentation
- 6 : good experimentation, "above average"
- 7 : very good experimentation (flaws are negligible)
- 8 : almost perfect experimentation
- 9 : I am a real experimenter, at that being modest and in harmony with people

You can comment on any cell, in the text box below the table. You can also mark cells with colors and tags by selecting them from the cell context menu.

Basically, that's it. Then, at the end of week / month / year you will only have to analyze the data with charts and statistics. They will tell you what has succeeded, what has not been very successful, where failures have occurred, what can be fixed, accelerated or slowed down.

To reflect for 5 minutes at the end of the day on what was successful and what was not - isn't it great?

The value of your data will increase along with the data volume.

SEARCH

To open the search dialogue, you can click Find icon on the toolbar, select Find from the menu, or press Ctrl+F.

The search can be performed for text comments of cells and for text topics (if they are set in the settings).

Enter the desired value in the search entry and click OK button. A list of found text matches will be displayed.

If you need to search by a list of tags (i.e. just word by word), turn on the As tags switch.

The Match case mode allows you to search for case-sensitive text.

Click on any row in the list of matches found, and you will be redirected to the corresponding cell in the table.

The Find dialogue does not need to be closed after opening, it does not affect the operation in the main EG window. The Find dialogue's geometry and options are saved until the next session.

CHARTS

At the start of EG, a histogram for the AggrEG is displayed, its formula is located above the chart. The formula can be corrected at any time, the change being confirmed with Enter key. You can specify topic names in the formula, for example: Dist/Time.

To select another chart topic, click the drop-down list in the chart toolbar. In this list, you can select individual histogram topics or selected topics. After marking the selected topics in Polygons list, charts are created for them when selecting Polygon.

The Totals means the sum of all the values of all topics, regardless of their weight expressed in the AggrEG formula. Thus, Totals reflects your general activity in expagog.

The weeks switch allows you to create charts by weeks and days. After clicking a week or a day, the corresponding table is displayed.

The cumulate switch allows you to get cumulative charts in which you can see cumulative sums, the latter will be the total sum.

To update the current chart (when the data changes), you can click the Redraw button in the chart tools or press F5 key. You can scroll the diagram left and right with the arrow buttons.

STATISTICS

To get statistical information about the current database, click Statistics button on the toolbar, select Statistics from the menu or press F6 key.

The database statistics consists of two sections:

The date range for the current weeks column is set in the report header. The data of this column is collected from the 1st date to the 2nd date (excluding it).

A data value in the report is marked in color if it has changed by more than 2% relative to the previous period.

The Cells is the total number of non-empty cells in the schedule. The Cells0 is the total number of non-empty cells with value of 0.

The average values are obtained with dividing the sums by Cells.

The Report button allows to save the statictics to html file.

The Statistics dialogue's geometry and options are saved until the next session.

REPORT

To get a report on the current database, select Report in the menu or press F7 key.

The Report dialogue with the report settings will open.

Main settings:

Preferences of the report heading:

If you do not plan to use the report somewhere on some website, you can leave the html settings unchanged.

Otherwise, you can change the html settings as follows:

To create the report, click the Report button.

CUSTOMIZATION

To change the settings of the current database, choose Preferences in the menu.

As for data contents, the main settings are a list of tags and a list of topics.

The tags can be set in the first tab of the settings. You can define three colors for highlighting cells with color and tagging cells with Red, Yellow, and Green tags.

In the text box of the tags, you can enter them as a list of keywords. The tags will be available in the table from the cell context menu.

The list of topics is in the second tab of the settings. Each topic has:

Data types:

The calculated type (calc) is set as:

 calc:format:formula

where format is the format of the number obtained as a result of the calculation, formula is the calculation formula that includes the names of topics, for example:

 calc:99.9:Dist/Time

Topics can be shuffled in the list with the arrow buttons.

You can enter new topics in the empty lines.

You can also rename existing topics. It is advisable to give short names to the topics. The name length's limit is 16. Spaces in the names are excluded.

You can delete a topic by simply clearing its name. It is important to remember that the data entries of the deleted topic are not removed from the database, the topic simply becomes invisible. You can restore its visibility by adding it to the list of topics again.

In Topics tab, you can also enter the formula for the "aggregate EG estimate" - AggrEG. By default, it is equal to the value of the topic "EG", but in principle, the formula can either increase or decrease the weight of individual topics. If the values of topic have a negative meaning (for example, Cigarettes_smoked), then it should be negative in the AggrEG formula, for example:

 EG * 10 + Lives_saved * 100 - Cigarettes_smoked * 5

The AggrEG formula can include both names and topic numbers as $N, for example:

 EG*10 + $1*100 - $9*5

If some appearance options (theme, colors, fonts, zoom) are changed, the Test button might help to see them in work. After testing, close the tested instance of EG.

SAVING DATA

To save your data, always close EG after entering the data.

To create an archived copy of the current database, choose Backup in the menu.

After that, you will be prompted to specify the file name of the archived copy. Specify any one.

Copies of the archive will be also created by day of the week, so if necessary, you can always restore data from the archives of the previous 6 days.

You can also set the auto-save mode for an archived copy at exiting EG.

Consider also the following:

  1. If your data is stored on a USB flash drive (like mine, for example), then it's best to archive it to another medium, and vice versa. Then, if you lose one medium, you will at least have an archive on the other.

  2. To save data while working with EG, press Save button in the EG toolbar, or select Save from the menu, or press Ctrl+S.

  3. After entering a value of a cell, confirm it with Enter key.

And again: always close EG after entering the data! The big red button at the top right corner will help you.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

Question:

Why are there no password nor data encryption options?

Answer:

The expagog program is about good experiments and adventures, and they have not to be hidden, as Christ commanded us (Matthew 5:15-16).

Moreover, the openness of the EG database will scare away those wanting to use this program not for good, but for evil.

Question:

Why a home-made database format? Why not SQLite? Why not JSON?

Answer:

About SQLite. See the answer above.

About JSON. The data in EG is stored as Tcl dictionary. For greater survivability, the key-value pairs are stored line by line.

I don't see much difference between the JavaScript json format and the Tcl dictionary format. The expagog program has been written in Tcl, by the way.

Exporting EG data to .json file can be implemented if desired, by the questioner. It's an easy exercise in Tcl language and an easy adventure in EG style.

Question:

Why is the program not localized in my language X?

Answer:

Knowing a few English words hasn't hurt anyone yet.

EG is just a form, not a content. The content can be in any X language provided by UTF-8.

Question:

Why does the EG table start on January 1? Is it possible to start, say, on September 1?

Answer:

Yes, it is possible. The appropriate setting is Preferences' Week range.

Week range's first date is included in data and Week range's second date is excluded from data which is shown as [Date1 - Date2).

To select Date1 or Date2, just click its field and choose a date from the calendar.

Date2 cannot be greater than Date1 + 53 weeks which means maximum Week range is one year.

Nothing prevents you from splitting the year into periods, e.g. 1st semester, 2nd semester, summer etc., and creating separate data files for this purpose.

The Merge menu item can be used to merge those separate data files into one file.

WHAT ELSE

John Steinbeck ("The Leader of the People"):

"In boats I might, sir."

"No place to go, Jody. Every place is taken. But that's not the worst - no, not the worst. Westering has died out of the people. Westering isn't a hunger any more. It's all done. Your father is right. It is finished."

Anton Chekhov ("Gooseberries"):

Every happy man should have someone with a little hammer at his door to knock and remind him that there are unhappy people, and that, however happy he may be, life will sooner or later show its claws, and some misfortune will befall him — illness, poverty, loss, and then no one will see or hear him, just as he now neither sees nor hears others. But there is no man with a hammer, and the happy go on living, just a little fluttered with the petty cares of every day, like an aspen-tree in the wind — and everything is all right.

Grigoriy Gorin (The Very Same Munchhausen):

Ramkopf (reads): “From eight to ten is A FEAT"!

The Mayor: What does it mean?

The Baroness: This means that he has a feat planned from eight to ten in the morning... What would you say about a man who goes to a feat every day, just for service?!

EG might become kind of someone with a little hammer to call one to westering, to eastering, to feat... whatever one prefers.

LINKS

Installers:

Sources:

Demo video:

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