pcplantdb

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

Chad Knepp wrote:


> results.  I think that our hacking together bits does have and will
> have more real-world usefulness as we continue.

Wonderful!

>  > Alternatively, Perl with Templates wouldn't be difficult.  However,
>  > Mediawiki has been implemented effectively which is PHP.  If we aim
>  > to extend Mediawiki, much of the interface is complete with simply
>  > adding markup features (programmer can choose Python, Perl, C or
>  > Assembly, if they want).  This also makes it possible to divide and
>  > conquer by assigning features/markups and taking measure on which
>  > programmers are more reliable for providing completed features.
>  > Where the markup language of a wiki isn't always accessible to a
>  > computer novice, a separate data entry path can assist with data
>  > entry (popup page?  Firefox extension?).

It is fascinating to know that Mediawiki can be extended in these ways.

> The current software running on dev is implemented in the classic
> client/server split.  This decision was made in order to create
> opportunity for multiple clients to access the same dataset.  Since
> the server implements XML-RPC access of all of it's methods, anyone
> anywhere can write a client in any language you mentioned and access
> the dataset.

Wonderful again.

> I'll reiterate that I think the possibility of software being able to
> both contain/understand all the possible relationships between species
> and extrapolate a unique and workable guild of many species starting
> with one or more species is an extremely difficult task... namely the
> contain/understand part because a tremendous amount of data gathering
> and entry will need to happen first in order to capture these
> relationships.
>
> The reason that I was not listed in the original proposal is that I
> did not agree that a 'guild building' tool should be our primary
> focus.  That said I think that much of the framework for gathering
> this data is in place, and as it is today PIW is EXTREMELY useful for
> figuring out what plants might work well with others, esp. if you use
> the advanced search and a bit of thought.  4 years ago I thought that
> the PFAF database was great for this...

I agree that PIW should be a relationships discovery tool with a guild 
building feature tacked on.
However there should be ways for people to record known guilds and append new 
information to these records;
a wiki add-on would be OK for this temporarily but ultimately it should be an 
integral part of PIW,
or 'click here' to see a display of known guilds or 'click on this plant 
name' to see if it belongs
to a known guild or further 'click here to add this plant to a new guild'; 
then you get into peer review of data
and user ratings.

>  > I will have to defer to other programmers on the list to guide me as to 
>  > whether this project is worthwhile or not, I certainly hope so!

> I think it highly worthwhile, that it is useful now, and I also think
> people are mostly just upset that nothing is happening and are
> forgetting the significance of what we have done already (or haven't
> actually looked at it).

It is one of the most worthwhile web projects in existence - on par with 
Google, in many ways.

> Onward:
>
> It seems like both my absence and my reluctance to participate in the
> near future has really upset folks.  Ok, I can rethink this; esp. on
> hearing the cry of 'start over' which pains me to think about.  I was
> initially going to propose offering a day a week to correspond and do
> some billable work but I'm not sure I can make it every week.  I can
> offer 4 days a month.  Would this satisfy folks?  If not I'm willing

As far as I am concerned 4 days a month is fine, even one. Spend the time
you can comfortably allow for this project no matter how little, just keep 
PIW moving ....
onward .... even if at a snails pace but geep it going.

> to give up being lead developer if someone else steps forward that the
> group approves of.

Your plans and vision for PIW are cutting edge and world class. It does not 
take a programmer to recognize that.
You are the only one who should lead this project. Others may play major 
roles but you should have complete control
over the programming aspects of PIW.

I agree with everything you have said and fully support your leadership of 
PIW development.

But don't stray from your work on your permaculture homestead; that comes 
first.

Cheers,

Lawrence