Scientific Background: Click here to get forwarded to ACM research article
Based on the idea of consulting some aspects of positive psychology to ensure my good performance in the upcoming study period, I developed this little playful program based on the “cowsay” Python library and ultimately on affirmations and the findings of a study on the valueable effects of positive psychology for studying computer science (see link for the scientific background).
The program simulates the functioning of a snack vending machine, at the beginning you are asked to select a number between 1 and 20 - afterwards you have to "pay" the total price of 1.20 € or ingame 120 cents in coins. To pay the price, you are asked to enter a common European coin format (the gradations are: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 or 200, which corresponds to coins worth the corresponding amount of cents). But don't worry, you don't really have to pay money to play the minigame - you just have to type in the numbers in format of the gradations with your keyboard into the terminal to get your chosen affirmation.
Once you have paid the price for the affirmation, the affirmation selected at the beginning is displayed in the form of an ASCII artwork - based on the “cowsay” Python library. The project was just a small coding project of mine - but I am personally fascinated by the algorithmic approach of vending machines in general and I was very proud when I had programmed my first own automat.
Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference!