News from the SCD Community

Anselm Lingnau

has now rolled out the first version of collection support for the database. Look for the »Collections« link in the navigation box.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 29 August 2013 10:07 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:53)

SCDDB Collections Q&A

I wrote this in January 2013 to introduce the idea of collections on the SCDDB “dancedata-friends” mailing list. Since I’ve been working on collections recently, it seems like a good idea to give the article a more prominent place.

Q. What are “collections” and what are they good for?

A. The idea is that you tell the database what stuff you have, and the database then lets you restrict its operation to deal only with that stuff.

Read more …

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 26 August 2013 16:00 (last edited on 17 April 2023 1:39)

Anselm Lingnau

has added Charles Upton's MiniCribs to the database (this project had been on the back-burner for a very long time).

Now working on letting people set up their own preferences as to which sources for cribs or diagrams they want and in which order. The back-end support for this works already; all that is needed is a convenient way for people to edit their preference lists. The current approach is to add a »Database« tab to users' profiles – this may have the side benefit that more people might discover the social-networking features of the site.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 22 August 2013 13:18 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:53)

Anselm Lingnau

fixed a few small problems with the diagram sheet feature made available yesterday.

• The first problem involved dances without diagrams whose titles include special characters like »&«. These require special treatment to prevent LaTeX (the software that creates the diagram sheets) from choking on them. While I thought of doing this for the dance source, I neglected to do the same for the dance title, and this bit somebody trying to generate a diagram sheet for The Flying Ghillies Collection Vol 2, which contains a dance called Sylvander & Clarinda.

• The second problem surfaced when somebody tried to make a booklet containing just one diagram. The »imposition« process (that places the various booklet pages on the A4 sheet, properly rotated) needs to know how many pages it has to deal with, and we get that information from the log file that LaTeX writes when it creates the actual booklet pages, by looking for the line that says »Output written on … (X pages, Y bytes)« and isolating the page count. Turns out that my code was looking for the »pages« keyword, and TeX, being fastidious about that sort of thing, writes »1 page« if the output consists of only one page, so the page count couldn't be determined in this case.

Both of these issues should now be fixed. Thank you for your indulgence!

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 17 August 2013 14:02 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:53)

Anselm Lingnau

Due to popular demand, I added a cool feature to the Strathspey SCD database: diagram sheets!

If you go to a dance list's »Diagrams« tab, there is now a little form that lets you select either »Two-column sheet« or »8-page booklet«. The former is the standard portrait diagram sheet which is popular, e.g., in Germany, while the latter is a nifty format which with a little folding and one (clearly indicated) cut lets you prepare a sporran-size »booklet« which is easier to handle than a full A4-size sheet. (See here, for example, for assembly instructions.)

In both formats, the dances are numbered for clarity and dances without diagrams are indicated so you won't get confused. Also, if a dance list does not fit on one page it spills over onto additional ones, so with the »booklet« format you get a multi-volume document (!). I tested this with the RSCDS Core Repertoire lists and it is way cool.

Try it and tell me if you like it!

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 16 August 2013 14:17 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:54)

Anselm Lingnau

just sent off an updated edition of the RSCDS Dance Index to Coates Crescent to be added to the Society's web site.

This covers everything up to the new Book 47 and only took five minutes or so to generate from the Strathspey SCD Database (given that Book 47 had been added to the database some time ago). The lion's share of that time went into rewriting the Preface.

You will hopefully be able to download this from the RSCDS web site very soon.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 12 August 2013 17:53 (last edited on 12 August 2013 17:53)

Anselm Lingnau

fixed some issues to do with adopting publications in the database.

Why don't you adopt a publication and help us keep the SCD database complete and up-to-date?

If you have suggestions for the adoption wishlist then please let us know.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 9 August 2013 9:51 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:54)

Anselm Lingnau

just added more extensive documentation on dance video quality levels to the SCD database. (This update is dedicated to Chris Ronald.)

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 8 August 2013 19:47 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:54)

Keith Rose

Here is my first attempt at creating a website on my.strathspey. I have uploaded a list of all the symbols which I am currently using for diagrams.

This is available at: https://my.strathspey.org/u/keithrose/

· Posted by Keith Rose · 1 August 2013 14:34 (last edited on 4 October 2022 0:43)

Anselm Lingnau

is relieved that the big update seems to have gone more-or-less OK! I'm looking forward to (hopefully) many people using the new features. Next: Check for any leftover booboos and then post an announcement to Strathspey.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 29 July 2013 12:15