pcplantdb

[Kieren Diment <kd21@uow.edu.au>]

On Sat, Oct 04, 2003 at 06:00:34PM +1000, kd wrote:
Hi all,

I've just subscribed to this group, and hope to be able to contribute
to this project (courtesy of post to pfaf).  I am a perpetual student
with a background in Biology and social science, and have been paid to
program databases on small sized databases containing specialised
information.  I have done a reasonable amount work on MS Access, and
some web based stuff.  My prefered computing environment is on
Debian/GNU Linux, but have to use windows occasionaly.  I prefer to
program in perl, and would be grateful if nobody made me program in
VBA ever again, although I'll do it if I have to.  I wouldn't mind
learning Python if nescessary, and here good things about the
WxWindows toolkit, but don't have the faintest idea how to use it.

I've done some work putting together a list of rainforest plants in my
locality, which I am trying to develop as a starting point in the
development of a "biodiversity information system".  This work isn't
terribly far advanced, but I have some plans to make improvements to
the information I have before I have another go at it.

Some thoughts I have are as follows (really just notes).  I think that
there is quite a lot of overlap between the project and what I've been
thinking about.

Function of the database:
  Essentially any database of this kind has two roles.  One as a data
storage repository, and one as a data entry system.  The data itself
is kind of independent of this, so essentially what we would be
building would be an interface for inputing and retrieving information
about plants.  As far as I can see, the open source part of this
project is the way that the data is handeled from storage to user, and
not the data itself.  Data sources should be available free or for a
charge, or developed in house.  The open source part of the project is
the data engine, and a decision would have to be made about whether
restrictions should be placed on what people can do with code based on
the source code (ie can it be redistributed closed source).

Users:
  I think that this kind of biodiversity information resource has the
potential to be useful to a wide range of people from property
developers to horticulturists to agriculturalists to gardeners.  I
don't know whether eco-prospectors (people who find interesting
chemicals in the jungle) use this kind of resource, but if I was one,
I'd probably be interested in this kind of project.

Platform:
  Platform independent.  Client server and standalone implementations.
Browsing and simple data entry could be provided by a web browser
based interface.  Offline browsing could be provided by a "save search
results as zip file" kind of option.  However, this solution is not
great for more hardcore data entry stuff, for which you need a more
dynamic kind of user interface than a web browser can easily supply.
I tend to think of MS Access here, and really want to learn how to
program user interfaces so as to get away from this monstrosity.
Ultimately I think that the product should run on handheld pcs


Database Enginge:
  MySQL is the obvious choice here for client/server
applications, although in some sense postgresql is better for some
situations, but doesn't run on windows without cygwin (although a
distribution pack including the relevant bits of cygwin could be
provided).  For many purposes installing mysql would be overkill.  For
standalone applications, SQLite is a good lightweight alternative
which supports transactions and interacting with the database in SQL.

Anyway, what kinds of contributions are required for this project at
the moment?

Kieren