pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

>    6. Re: Draft Spec for pcplantdb up on the permaculture wiki (Heide 
> Hermary)
> From: Heide Hermary <heidehermary@pacificcoast.net>
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Draft Spec for pcplantdb up on the permaculture 
> wiki
> Reply-To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> 
> Not being an expert at developing such complexes data bases, I'm
> nonetheless a frustrated user of them.
> 
> I think it would be useful at this point to decide how people are going
> to use the information / to what purpose.  I like the information you
> want to collect about plants, and I have previously posted my
> PlantDataBaseWishlist on the Wiki.

I was wondering who had posted that on the Wiki.
I agree with much of what you've posted, see detail thoughts below.
 
> The problem I see is that, in order to be most widely useful:
> 
>     * data entry should be in plain language, and by category.  Plants
>        / Nature defy one-word description.

For the most part yes. Textual descriptions can make searching harder
see the 
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/pcwiki/index.php/pagename=Soil%20Type
wiki page for the vast number of terms used to describe soil types.
Having a list of predefined soil types which can be accepted seems a
good
way to go, (this list could be easily extended).

>     * search should be by category,  with the facility to search text
>       within the database categories for specific information.

Yes.
 
> I know this is not what relational databases do at this point.

Yes they can, mysql has good search capabilities.

>  However
> the technology exists for key word searches / web searches, and the
> technology exists for relational data bases. Can the Wiki technology not
> be used to combine these two? I am quite aware that we are talking about
> something quite new, and something very huge.

I've a feeling it would be easier to make a web database work like a
wiki.
Rather than a wiki work like a web database.
 
> Michael and I have discussed this at great length, and that's what he
> will work on.  Neither of us has time to do this right now, even though
> this is most intriguing. So the best support I can give at the moment
> are just comments.

Comments are great.

        Rich


>From PlantDatabaseWishList by Heide

> The following is information I would find really useful for my work.
> 
>      Each of those fields should also have a large comment field attached, 
> as some of these issues simply arent' that black and white. I have no idea 
> how a
>      plain database will search those comments....

Defintely. Searching should not be a problem.

>      Many of these fields have more than one entry: i.e. flower colour
> 
>      BOTANICAL NAME (aka)(there are quite a few)

Yep 
>      COMMON NAME (aka)(there are usually tons of those)

Yep, need to have language and country for where the names come from.

>      FAMILY (helps for identification)

Yep, both botanical and common family names.

>      REGION OF REFERENCE (i.e. Southern Coastal British Columbia - this is 
> the region to which all of the information below is tied. Somebody from
>      another region would have to add information to reflect what the plant 
> is doing there. At some point it would help to know what the climate 
> conditions in
>      each region are like, but I don't know that we'll ever get down to 
> microclimate. Plants aren't that mechanical - native strains evolve, etc. 
> it becomes a
>      real nightmare to try to get this too mechanized)

Definitely want something along this line.
Not sure what word to use as the heading. I'd like "geographical
region".

                More later

                        Rich
ps Heide are you subscriber to pcplantdb, best place to post this 
eather than main permaculture list.

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