More questions ...
Anders Thulin
I've been experimenting a bit with an bibliography of Swedish chess
periodicals for some time. Recently I've been thinking over the problem
of useability of this kind of material -- which actually extends to
other kinds of bibliographies, and repositories.
At present the material is in 'printed' form -- that is, it's
intended for printout. But this is a rather rigid format, and does not
allow for any 'user defined' manipulations. And it makes it rather
difficult for other interested parties to change, update or extend the
material.
So, here's the question: what would 'the best' format to publish this
kind of material in? The question is not restricted only to
bibliography: any area of chess history that makes it desirable to
create registers and databases is involved.
Some general database format? dBase? Paradox?
This would make it very easy to sort and search a database after
different criteria, but it's not very user friendly.
Very rigid -- for proper labelling of data, *many* columns
may be required. And some information (diagrams, crosstables)
may need special handling.
A specialized database application using the same formats?
May be more user friendly. Special formats will be 'hidden'
to ordinary users.
A spreadsheet format?
I have very little exposure to spreadsheets, so I can't say what
they offer, except that some people seem to do everything with
them ... :-)
A word processor format?
Searching, and editing is easy. Some material (such as crosstables)
and diagrams may not travel well -- restrictions in table support
and lack of diagram typefaces.
A reading format ... like Acrobat.
Good for reading, and just possibly cut and paste as long as the
material isn't very complex. Searching is possible, and it is
possible to add comments, and also to extend, but only if you have
the appropriate tools.
Any ideas or insights?
--
Anders Thulin a...@algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Mark Weeks
Anders Thulin <a...@algonet.se> wrote:
> So, here's the question: what would 'the best' format to publish this
> kind of material in? The question is not restricted only to
> bibliography: any area of chess history that makes it desirable to
> create registers and databases is involved.
Why not an HTML page? Everyone has a browser & anyone else who wants to work
with the data can either scrape the screen or download the HTML source file.
After simple manipulation, the data can then be loaded into any of the other
tools that you mention.
IMHO, the main problem is getting material in digital format. After that's
been accomplished & it's stored in a neutral format, it can be transformed
using whatever software does the next job best.
I know I'm oversimplifying somewhat, but it's not complicated. - Kind
regards, Mark