[Bell Historians] Historical lists of peals / founders

[LOVE, Dickon]

>Re dealing with approximate weights:

MPAW:
A way to overcome this, and still allow the weights to be listed in order,
is to split the cwt qrs lbs into 3 integer fields and add a 4th field set to
1 or 0 to identify whether the weight is approximate or not. This is how
the Rings of 12 database is set out anyhow. Dates are a little harder to
classify, especially if a range is required, however applying the same logic
an "approximate" flag field could be used as above. With all these cases
the use does not become apparent until the data is displayed through an
interface, such as a web page, etc., which translates all these codes into
meaningful information, though this sort of database structure is quite easy
to maintain by hand.

Me:
I split cwt qtrs lbs into separate fields. This is the only way that you can
perform meaningful calculations on the weights. Also agree that an
"approximate" flag is a good way of dealing with approximate weights. The
only reason I don't is so that I can include phrases like "14¼ cwt approx."
rather than "14-2-0 approx" with too much additional programming. Likewise
the weight "8-1-23½" (weight of Bekesbourne tenor).

>Re recording pre-retuning weights, etc

MPAW:
With a relational database this is easy to accomodate by entering a new
record and linking this to a previous one.

Me:
Agreed that a relational database would do this, and since this would be a
relational database anyway (relating bells to towers for starters) this
isn't a problem. I personally use additional fields for one additional
entry, but to do the job properly I would go relational.

>Re my comments:
I have been building up my database over the past 8 years (longer if you
include paper records) and so have given such things quite a bit of thought.
When I have a moment, I would be happy to publish my table definition for
bells on this list if people are interested.

MPAW:
Likewise - no one has a monopoly on good ideas and it might be sensible to
pool ideas on structure and storage format. It would then be possible to
create a generic display medium, or at least one that doesn't require much
alteration to work. There are also huge benefits to standardising the
format of data collection.

Me:
Wasn't suggesting for one minute that I or anyone had a monopoly! Just
offering to pool ideas.
Will forward my design later.

DrL



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