Author: David Mitchell
Date: 19:00:52 09/01/05
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On September 01, 2005 at 19:57:26, Uri Blass wrote: >On September 01, 2005 at 16:50:38, David Mitchell wrote: > >Note that I am one of the members of the Israeli >chess rating committee(the committe is not only about rating but rating is one >of the subjects that they deal with it). >Members are all volunteers and we do not get money for it but it is important >for me to have a better rating system and it is clear that without a new >program it will not be easy to make changes in the rating system. > >I also have part of the data because GM Ram Sofer(the person who is resposible >for using the software that they have in the last months) sent me some access >files. > >Personally I know almost nothing about access so I simply translated the >columns to text files by copy and paste and wrote some program in C to >calculate statistics about the text files. > >I think that it is even better if the Israeli chess organization get rid of all >the access and simply save the results in text files and use some C program to >read text files and analyze them. > Trust me, Uri. You don't want to do that. You need a spreadsheet or a database program, or both. Too many benefits to list them all, but having different people work in diverse locations, with "some C program", is not what you want. Use Excel for a day, and you'll never want to go back to anything like this. You should be able to pick up an older (but perfectly good), version of Excel, by some company that has decided to upgrade to the latest version. Should be able to get it for very little money. >In that case if there is a mistake people only need to edit the text files. Oh yeah, there will be mistakes, count on it! > > >Note that I already have a program to analyze text files but the format of my >text file today is not good for editing because of the way that I copied the >data. There you go! No "homegrown" program will have half the features you will really want, or be half as easy to train others to use. > >I copied the data from the access file by copy and paste so I copied long >columns that is clearly easier than copying small lines that have only details >about a single game. > You should just use the Export data function. You can export your data in several formats, including ascii (text). >Note that copying the columns to text files was slow and for some reason that I >do not understand copying 54,326 numbers from access to text file takes some >minutes(54,326 that is the number of games in 2002 is only one example). > >I did not try to copy full tables that may have 15 columns because I did not >like to wait more than an hour to copy all the table. Right, you need to learn about exporting data using Excel, not copy & paste. > >Note that I do not understand why copying a simple text file of 54,326 numbers >by copy and paste take long time when I copy it from access file to text file >when the same problem does not exist if I copy text file to another text file. > >Uri The program isn't streamlined to be used in the way that you're trying to use it. It's like rolling a square wheel, down the road. You can do it, but it's a pain. Put an old version of Excel in front of your chess committee, and show them it's features (or better yet, have someone who knows the software, show them), and you and the committee will NEVER want to use "home grown" software again. I've written specialty software for business, and sometimes it's necessary, but anytime you can use off the shelf, first rate software, DO THAT! You will be SO glad you did. Dave
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