pcplantdb

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Chad Knepp wrote:

> Ok, I think I have a proposal.
>
> One of the big difficult questions for me re: relationships has been
> how do we refer to elements that do not exist in the database yet, but
> that we hope to have at some point.  My answer: we don't.  How about
> at this point we only allow relationships between elements that exist;
> in our case, plants.  This will limit the effectiveness, but it is
> doable and could support GBI display.
>
> A rough table implementation:
>
> Object   |   Relationship   |   Object   |   Notes
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Plant A      Wind break         Plant B      Withstands extreme oceanic...
> Plant B      Trap crop          Plant A      Rabbits love Plant B
> Plant C      Inhibits growth    Plant B      Secretes allelopathic hormone
>
>
> A GBI display for Plant B would show a positive relationship path to
> Plant A and a negative path tho Plant C.
>
> I still don't really grok the relationship part of the equation, but I
> think if we allow an 'open vocabulary' it might sort itself out.  I'm
> also proposing that relationships be unowned and unmoderated (for
> now).
>
> Whadyathink?
>
>  
EASE  -  element attribute sorting engine

create a dynamic attribute acronym set in association with the data set

as above,

Wind break    WB
Trap crop   TC
Alleleopathic   ALLE
Wind Resistant & Strong Rooted    WRSR
Companion  C
Nitrogen Fixer  NF
Calciphobe  CP
Calcium feeder   CF
Acid loving  AL
pH    pH<numerical value>
Salt tolerant  ST
Water loving (river birch, willow, daylilly) WL
Water tolerant [stands poor drainage] WT
Water intolerant [needs well drained soil]  WI 
Drought tolerant  DT
Drought intolerant  DI
Xeriscape plant  XP
Food  FOOD
Forage FOR
Fiber  FIB
Medicinal  MED
Poisonous  to humans PH
Poisonous to animals  PA
Requires symbiotic relationship  (legumes with N2-fixing bacteria; most 
trees with mycorhizae [Loblolly pine requires soil borne iron-mining 
mycorhizae])   RSR
Aquatic plant  AP
Livestock  L
Fish  F

All these fit into a heirarchhy with connections above and below

A search for possible relationships could start with a search on a list 
of  plants, animals or microorganisms - data an acrnyms for each would 
be displayed in a table
for viewing, comparison and synthesis  -  each element in the table 
would be hotlinked to its source data - similarly, searches for acronyms 
(individual or mixed)
would produce lists of  plants, animals or microorganisms displayed in a 
table.

LL