Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 22:27:16 09/02/05
Go up one level in this thread
On September 02, 2005 at 21:55:59, Uri Blass wrote: >On September 02, 2005 at 21:30:08, Dann Corbit wrote: > >>On September 02, 2005 at 21:03:08, Uri Blass wrote: >> >>>On September 02, 2005 at 19:35:21, Dann Corbit wrote: >>> >>>>On September 02, 2005 at 13:29:11, Uri Blass wrote: >>>> >>>>>On September 01, 2005 at 22:00:52, David Mitchell wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>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). >>>>> >>>>>Thanks for your advice >>>>> >>>>>Note that only now I am near a computer that can read the access files because >>>>>access is not installed in other computers but using the export data function is >>>>>very good idea. >>>>> >>>>>It is a different format but I get all the table as a text in few seconds >>>>>instead of getting it in few hours. >>>>> >>>>>If I understand correctly you say that using Excel is better than using access. >>>>>I did not know that it is so easy to translate access files to excel files. >>>> >>>>Export from Access. It will take you two minutes. >>> >>>I already found it and translated the data both to text files and to excel files >>>and sent the data to myself by gmail so I can read it from every computer. >>> >>>> >>>>I do not think Excel will be easier than Access. >>>> >>>>Leaving the data in MS Access will be better because you can apply rules to a >>>>database and you cannot apply rules to a spreadsheet. >>>> >>>>I have seen multi-million dollar disasters caused by using spreadsheets where a >>>>database should have been used. >>> >>>What was the problem? >> >>The project was called "Budget Workbench". >> >>The idea was that people all over the world would fill up spreadsheets with data >>and then the spreadsheets would be used to put data into a database. Of course, >>once I understood what they were trying to do, I knew that the project was >>hopelessly doomed. >> >>You cannot have thousands and thousands of freeform spreadsheets collected and >>expect that the integrity of the data contained in the spreadsheets is perfect. >>It is obviously going to fail. >> >>Now, with a database, you will have the same kinds of problems but they are self >>correcting. >> >>Suppose, for instance, that I have a database of chess players. One of the >>chess players is named Uri Blass. >> >>I want to enter some new game results for Uri Blass and so I try to add a record >>but spell the name incorrectly as 'Uri Balss.' The data entry form can have a >>trigger on it or a relation on it or a rule on it to recognize the problem and >>throw an error. Well, if there are 10,000 typing mistakes, we still get 10,000 >>errors thrown, just like in the spreadsheet model, so where is the improvement? >>The improvement is that the errors are reported to the users as they make the >>errors and then can correct it on the spot. > > >This type of problem is in the israeli chess organization. > >In the discussion in the israeli forum >Ram Sofer claimed that for every player it is possible to find out what are his >results since 1998. > >Oded Ross replied that only if the player is not written in the israeli chess >organization in 2 or 3 names and there are examples that it is the case. A good way to solve these problems in the English language is: 1. Parse the name into words if not already done 2. Run soundex on the words and sort on all permutations for side-by-side comparison. Probably, the Hebrew soundex is a bit different since the letters have different meanings
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