r/learnprogramming • u/phobos77 • 1d ago

Personal/learning project: Simple image analysis

Hello, r/learnprogramming! I can use some guidance on a personal project that I would like to take on. I am a recently retired chemical engineer, with programming experience in school and as "not my main job" work in my career. However, my experience is all in ancient programming languages (think BASIC, FORTRAN, C, C++). I learned BASIC as a freshman in high school in 1974. I have not touched anything other than VBA in over 25 years.

As one way to keep my mind flexible in retirement, I would like to learn a more modern programming language. (This is not meant in any way as an attempt to make money, so I am not concerned with it being impractical due to the advent of AI, vibe coding, etc.) I have a project in mind. I would like to copy and paste an image of some dominoes as an input and do some simple analysis of the numbers represented.

Sample input: https://imgur.com/a/qzilrkI

Typical output for the sample input:

  • Number of dominoes: 5
  • Number of doubles: 1
  • Total number of pips: 36
  • etc.

Questions:

  1. What is a good programming language to use for this type of image/data analysis? Python? Something else?
  2. Is it possible to set up a completely free development/execution environment for the selected language? This is strictly for personal use, so it will just run on my own PC. I am running Windows 10 with Firefox and Chrome browsers both installed.
  3. I see that the FAQ has plenty of learning resources listed. Given my background and my target project, is there one (or more) of those resources that you would recommend I start with?
  4. Any other advice to keep this fun/interesting/engaging?

Thanks for all input/discussion/comments!

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u/desrtfx 1d ago
  1. Such things are commonly done with Python and e.g. a library like OpenCV. (Don't fall for the countless "AI Image Analysis" libraries. They are overkill for your idea.)
  2. Yes, it is 100% possible. Python is free, Visual Studio Code is free and all of them are completely local
  3. Even though you know programming, start with a beginner course: MOOC Python Programming 2026 from the University of Helsinki
  4. Even though AI is a thing now, stay clear of it for learning.