Software

We grew up in the days when, unless you could code, a computer was little more than a £700 deck of playing cards. If you are looking for someone to write Streamlit web apps written in the Python programming language, get in touch. Web apps have a number of significant advantages over other types of software. Here's a few freebies to give you an idea of what's possible: click on any of them to open the app in a new tab.

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A beep or multi-stage fitness test is a running test to measure your aerobic fitness. This app shows you how to set up and perform the test, plays the test audio and allows you to input your test result to find out fitness metrics, your VO2max and potential finishing time at a range of race distances. Used by fitness freaks, people applying for jobs in the armed forces and masochists.

The Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test is another shuttle running fitness test but one that is more relevant to team sports where you have short intense runs followed by recovery periods. Same idea as the beep test app. A nice demonstration of some of Streamlit's multimedia playback capabilities.

Running training pace calculator software screengrab

If you're into running, this app could change your life. How fast you should train depends on how fast you can run and what you are hoping to achieve. This app works it all out for you based on the lifetime's work of legendary running coach Jack Daniels. Behind the scenes, it's also a good demonstration of Streamlit's pre-built input widgets and abiltities to read and manipulate data tables.

Heart rate training zone software screengrab

Calculates your heart rate training zones for various training objectives, again based on the work of Jack Daniels. If you're into this sort of stuff, Jack's threshold zone is much narrower than the Karvonen method that most other online HR zone calculators use. It's also a nice demo of the interactivity of Streamlit apps: as you change the number input box or max HR slider, the other stuff updates on the fly.

Your gym weight training programme tells you to do 3 sets of 12 reps. But it doesn't tell you what weight to use. This app works that out for you, produces a table of how much weight to put on the bar and how many reps to do based on what you can do and what you want to achieve. Amazingly useful for gym goers.

Water resistivity conversion software screengrab

Multi-function app to calculate water resistivity (Rw) from salinity, salinity from Rw or to convert Rw at one temperature to equivalent Rw at a different temperature. Automates the tedious Schlumberger & Baker graphical log interpretation chart methods. If you find this useful, you're probably working for a very rich company so can afford to say thank you by buying us a coffee. You're welcome.

To use the Rw app above, you need your salinity in NaCl ppm equivalent. If your water analysis is multi-ion, convert it to NaCl equivalent with this app. Nice demo of Streamlit's ability to read and use lookup values from data tables saving you from having to construct ugly spreadsheets that no-one but you can understand.

Why choose web apps?

For relatively simple programs, web apps have a number of significant advantages over traditional methods of deploying software:

The user only needs a browser and internet connection to be able to access the app. No installing software or downloading from the Play Store. The app is accessible on any of your devices
From a software developer's point of view, you only have to create the app once: no packaging the software for each different operating system you want to support and needing to keep them constantly updated as the OS changes. This speeds up deployment, reducing development time and cost
Because most of the user interface design, formatting and input widgets are being handled by the app framework (Streamlit in this case), the developer only needs to write the code to make the app work, saving more development time
The apps are 'responsive'. This means that they will work properly and look and feel the same whatever screen size device your user accesses them on
The apps are fully interactive: as soon as your user changes an input on the screen the whole app updates. Like Javascript but quicker to write
The apps can be embedded in your existing website using a simple iframe. To your users, the app will just look like part of your website
The apps can be hosted in the cloud for free and made available to all. Or if you want to go closed source, with a bit of tech know-how you can deploy them locally or on an intranet if your webserver can run Python scripts
Although Streamlit handles the formatting automatically (and does a really nice job of making attractive apps out of the box), if you want to you can reformat fonts, colours and styles to suit your own existing branding with CSS overrides
Multi-page apps are possible allowing quite sophisticated interactions between different pages. You could write an entire website in Streamlit if you wanted to
If we haven't mentioned it already, Streamlit apps are really quick to write and deploy. Most of the examples shown here are only one or two hundred lines of code and can be designed, written and deployed from scratch in a couple of days

The examples on this website give you an idea of what's possible. If you have an idea for an app you need writing, get in touch. Or just use and enjoy them. We should make one note about privacy before you do though: at Elephant Stone we never set cookies or track you on the internet. Just be aware, the same can't be said of Streamlit, the framework that the apps are written in. Streamlit will set cookies and try and track your internet useage. There's nothing sinister in this: they just want to understand how their users interact with the apps. Just wanted to let you know.

Grubby little money begging bit: if you find the apps useful, you can always buy us a coffee to say thank you.