Display on the screen the menu choices that are available for a meal together with calorific value and cost.

Question:

A local restaurant owner would like to lower her costs and so has decided to dispense with some of her waiting staff and is going to trial a new system whereby the customer chooses and enters his/her own menu selections on a tablet computer. Each customer would be given a tablet on entry and asked to enter their menu selections at the table. Before she invests in the technology the owner would like to see a prototype software system in use. She is happy that the prototype will run on a standard desktop PC. The prototype menu selector should provide the means for a customer to select a one-, two- or three-course meal. Once a customer has made a selection the system should provide information about a meal in the form of its calorific value and its cost.

There should be three courses to choose from that would be:

Starter: for example, tomato soup might have a calorific value of 268 calories and cost 3.50

Main: for example, steak and chips might have a calorific value of 600 calories and cost 7.95

Dessert: for example, blueberry pie might have a calorific value of 360 calories and cost 4.70.

You have been asked to develop the prototype system for the restaurant owner. Your prototype should run on a standard desktop PC. For this piece of work you will not be marked on the accuracy of the calorific value or the cost but the totals must be calculated correctly. Your program must have a graphical user interface and use Object Oriented principles, so for example the user interface classes must be separate from the other classes.

To obtain a pass your program should:
. Provide a basic set of choices that includes four starters, six main courses, and four desserts.

. Display on the screen the menu choices that are available for a meal together with calorific value and cost.

. Enable two customers (at the same table) to select a one-, two- or three-course meal from the selection available and enter the table number and number of diners so that the meal can be served successfully, and provide a means to simulate sending the information to the kitchen (a simple submit button will do) and clear the screen ready for the next customer.

. Display on the screen the total order including table number and description of each course together with the total number of calories and cost for the whole meal that the customer has selected.

. Enable a meal to be paid for in cash, and print to the screen a `receipt` for the customer that shows the payment and the details of the meal.

To gain a higher mark you will need to implement some extensions to the menu planner. Some suggestions might be:

. Allow an arbitrary number of diners (at the same table) to select a meal.

. Extend the menu selector by including further courses such as a drinks or fish course.

. Display the menu choices as pictures as well as text

. Enable a customer to choose any combination they wish from the choices available. For instance, a user might want two starters and a dessert.

. Provide a facility to allow the owner to add, with ease, more choices to the basic set of four starters, six mains, and four desserts.

. Allow a customer to select a lucky-dip meal whereby the computer selects the three courses at random from the selection available.