pcplantdb

[Bear Kaufmann <bear@ursine-design.com>]

> This is not a response to a synthesis.
> :-)
>
> Congrats on getting a decent browser!
> Please keep the 'ol IE/Mac browser around, as you may catch some
> interesting bugs with it (browser compatibility testing).
> Whenever Bear tweaks the web code, give it a once-over for appearance,
> styles, layout, etc. with that IE/Mac browser and see if it chokes on
> anything.
Yeah, good idea to keep me on my feet.

> Meanwhile...
> I am wondering if anyone else is wondering what happened to some of the
> IMO most fundamental PERMACULTURE-CENTRIC aspects of PIW.
>
> I am thinking at the moment of 'inputs' and 'outputs', e.g. what a 
> plant
> needs and what it provides.
>
> Besides being most basic and useful for PC design purposes, this also
> provides information that can be 'mined', correlated, etc. to determine
> potential relationships.
>
> As far as what I thought we were up to with this phase one of the 
> project,
> I thought the idea was to create a PERMACULTURE-CENTRIC plant database,
> and IMO that means at the very least we must be able to search for,
> return, add and edit PC-centric info such as 'inputs' and 'outputs'.
>
> Since afaik info of this nature doesn't much exist as such in our 
> startup
> (PFAF) dataset, let's not forget to include it in the DB just because 
> it's
> not in our startup data.  Let's consider what else of a PC-centric 
> nature
> also doesn't exist in our startup data and include that also.
>
> In other words, I'm concerned that with so much initial data of a 
> certain
> meta-type, we are missing and/or forgetting to think about and 
> implement
> more PC-centric aspects that are not present in PFAF data or
> functionality.
>
> There is some info on 'inputs' and 'outputs' in PFAF data.  However IMO
> it's not easily recognizable as such, and I assume therefore not 
> readily
> searchable as such.
>
> For example, how would I get a concise result set of plants that 
> provide
> fodder of a particular type, and/or for a particular animal?
>
> How would I get a concise result set of plants that thrive in acidic
> tropical soil conditions (considering this as an 'input')??
Good points John. Note also that were still working on a reasonable 
HTML front end for this, it'd be nice to get on to the rich client, but 
I think we still have a ways to make this good and functional.
So, on that note, and considering what is in the DB as it stands take a 
look at Chad's advanced search @ 
http://dev.permaculture.info/advanced.html
As a starting point, could we regroup these, or most of these into 
inputs-outputs?
As I see it:
Inputs:
Hardiness
Suitable Locations
Tolerates
Prefers

Outputs:
Fast growing Slow growing Fixes nitrogen Scented flowers Provides food 
for wildlife
Uses

I'm not sure where or if Habit can go some where. Though the Habit -> 
of -> Tree ->  supports -> Vines, so we might be able to reinterpret 
some habits to those ends.

Looking at Suitable Locations...
It seems like we might want to set this up to go 2 ways.
Right now, there are values for the input side. For example plants that 
grow in heavy shade.
But this is also an output, some trees produce heavy shade. So if a 
user adds a tree that outputs heavy shade, one of the searches for 
plants would be those that need heavy shade.
How to represent this, especially in an HTML client is an interesting 
challenge. The user would want to find plants that handle heavy shade, 
but only Under the Tree. Some search values apply to the whole guild's 
environment (hardiness, unless we figure for the potential to create 
micro-climates), some only to a subsection heavy shade under tree, high 
pH under Pine Tree, etc.

I think as a start we can try to re-factor the advanced search into the 
inputs-outputs model.
Cheers,
Bear