What is Failproof Quotes?

Failproof Quotes is a simple text-based Console Application written in C#. This program serves as a main proof of concept for text-based menu systems and text-to-speech applications. It allows the user to hear several pre-defined inspirational quotes, read to them in the gender of the person who said the quote. In addition, it allows the user to enter their own quotes and hear those as well.

Main Features

Failproof Quotes consists of the following features:

• Storage of inspirational quotes. 14 pre-entered ones by various famous individuals.
• Ability to display a quote at random, or pick a specific quote you want to display.
• Hear the quote read to you while it is being displayed.
• Add or remove quotes from the list of available ones.

Why Failproof Quotes?

Failproof Quotes was made for the Computer Science and Information Systems course 2410 (Advanced Programming) at Salt Lake Community College. It was made for the assignment titled "A03 Quote", where the purpose was to show we could use the various built-in methods within C# to manipulate the Console, as well as use the class SpeechSynthesizer to make the computer "speak" the quotes.

In this day and age, I feel it is important to have as much positivity and inspiration in our lives as we can. While this may be a simple program with limited uses and real-life applications, it was not really designed to be something serious or useful per se, it was more meant to be a proof of concept. But I knew I wanted it to be something that would hopefully bring a little light into one's day, perhaps even a small smile, even for how simple it may be. So the inspirational quotes that I found on the interwebs I hope will accomplish that, and leave you better than you were before you opened it.

Demonstration Video

This video was submitted with the project for the assignment, which gives a brief overview of the code behind it, as well as the program itself.

Using the Program

Failproof Quotes is a purely text-based application. This means that there is no "pointing and clicking", you will interact with the program entirely with your keyboard by typing in what you want to do.

So, when you first launch the application, you will be presented with a menu, offering you a choice of 1 through 6. Type the number corresponding to the option you would like and press Enter. The program will then provide additional instructions for next steps, which you may follow using the same proces (i.e. typing in what is requested and pressing Enter), or it will process your request - depending on what option you selected of course.

Helpful Tips

• Because this is a console application, when it opens the Command Prompt window, you might find that the text is a bit small for your liking. We personally like to use the program with larger font sizes and recommend that you consider changing your console font size, too. To do this, you can take the following steps (we've also included a screenshot below):

  1. Open Failproof Quotes.
  2. Right click on the top left of the command prompt screen to get the drop-down menu. At the very bottom of the list you should see a link that says "Properties". Click that.
  3. It should bring up a dialog with a few tabs at the top: Options, Font, Layout, and Colors. Navigate to the "Font" tab.
  4. From there, the first option you should see will be labeled "Size". When using Failproof Quotes, we usually go with font size 20 or 24. Note that this setting would only be for while using Failproof Quotes. When you load up Command Prompt normally, this setting should not affect your default setting.
  5. Click "OK" in the bottom right corner. Your text should now be larger and your console window should resize as well.

Download

Before downloading, it is recommended you review the How To Use tab, which explains how to use Failproof Quotes. System Requirements and Installation Instructions can be found below.

System Requirements

In order to use Failproof Quotes, you will need the following system specifications.

• Computer: Anything not a dinosaur
• Operating System: Windows 7 or newer
• Storage Space: At least 1 MB of free space (seriously, this is a small game)
• Other: Java 8 Runtime Environment or greater

Installation Instructions

Take the following steps to install Failproof Quotes on your computer:

1. Download and install the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 if you don't already have it.
2. Download the Failproof Quotes ZIP file
3. Extract it to the location of your choice on your hard drive
4. That's it. Now run the "Quotes.exe" executable file to run Failproof Quotes!