MadMath
v1.1.0
Important
THIS PROGRAM REQUIRES PYTHON 3
The most current version of Python can be downloaded here.
Important
PYTHON 3 REQUIRES TKINTER
Running 'pip install tk' from a command line or terminal AFTER installing Python should do the trick if tkinter did not come bundled in your version of Python.
Caution
Mad Math searches the included "data" directory for a file named MadMath.db, which is created when the program is launched and can't find the file (like the first time it's run). Make a shortcut/symlink to MadMath.pyw if you would like to launch the program from a different folder than where it is saved.
Do not move anything OUT of the MadMath folder. The folder itself can be moved, but not while the program is running.
Download and unzip MadMath.zip to the desired location then double click MadMath.pyw in the MadMath directory to launch.
When I was in 2nd grade, we started every math segment by completing a timed one-minute worksheet containing 20 equations in which we performed addition on two random single digit numbers. This was meant to be a warm up exercise, and at first most struggled to complete the entire sheet in time. My dad noticed this, decided it was unacceptable for me to take longer than a couple seconds to evaluate a simple equation, and began writing a program in Java. Within a couple weeks he had created the functional prototype of a digital addition program. He had me spend about an hour per day practicing on it, and within a few months I was able to sum any two single digit numbers in roughly two seconds. It was very slow going at the start, partly due to the number row being the only way to input numbers. The program would save the high score in a hidden text file, and I would compete with myself to push it as high as possible. At first I would average around 12 per minute, but every day the number slowly climbed. Around the time I was averaging mid 30 scores, we started doing similar worksheets in class with multiplication. Twenty minutes of modification, ten minutes of compilation later, and I was the proud owner of both addition and multiplication variants of the program. There were never subtraction or division variants. Possibly because we never had warm up sheets with those operations, potentially due to him entering a period of life bereft of free time, but I suspect it was because he moved on before figuring out how to serve the equations back properly as I had already learned math. Reversing and porting his logic from memory, extending the available operations, adding difficulty brackets via parameterized bounds, colors, sounds, and a full scoreboard database are my contributions to his idea.
My dad's programs didn't teach me math, nor were they designed to. They were created to provide me with an adequate environment to practice and track my progress while learning. This program works the same way. There is no attempt to teach the user how to perform math operations, however anybody who can perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division can use this program to hone their solution speed.
First off I'd like to announce my awareness of disregard for standard Python code formatting, it's the first thing I expect other devs to notice. My code convention, though non-standard, should be consistent. My functions are snake cased, variables camel cased, classes capital cased, and I prefix internal 'private' methods with an underscore. I dont 'privitize' variable names. They're used much more frequently, and the classes aren't currently generic enough to reuse without moderate refactoring. I enclose meaningful strings in 'single ticks' (like 'bold' or 'active') and display text or strings where the character order does not matter with "double quotes" (like sticky="ew").
Tested and working in Win10 and Manjaro, but sound currently only works with Windows. I'm working on finding a native way to send async sound through both Mac and Linux. A hard fast rule I'd like to stick to is not having dependencies outside of the standard modules, in order to increase accessibility. I could send sound with pygame or playsound, but then the user needs to install another module to use the program and I'd rather sacrifice sound for now.
It's not the most accurate. In a competitive setting, and depending on the system running it, the timer accuracy may be objectively unacceptable. I added a performance counter in Frames.py to quickly test the variance between the quiz's 'implied time to complete' and the 'actual time to complete'. Simply uncomment lines: 2, 168, 175, and 179 in classes/MadMath.py and run MadMath.pyw from a command line or terminal to view. The variance on my machine averages 60.3 - 60.4 seconds which is acceptable for a local scoreboard in my use case. This import also breaks my one import rule, but once a more accurate timer is incorporated its related code will be removed.
I'm proud to have been able to put this together myself, and to be releasing it as a free and open source project. Contrarily I do accept coffee donations, but even if I don't receive a cent I'll happily maintain and improve this program in perpetuity as time permits. It's like helping an old friend that once helped me. I just hope it might help you too.
CashApp: $CoffeePhreak
Fellow Brave users can also drop me BAT
My PB for addition/easy is 62 with 1 missed, set 12/25/2023
correct
incorrect
highscore
