[Coco] Delphi Archive lists, etc.

[Joel Ewy]

Stephen H. Fischer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 9:06 PM
> Subject: [Coco] Delphi Archive lists, etc.
>   
> ...
>> I see my pix2tga and vef2tga utilities for the CoCo (the source for
>> which I have dug up), but I see no mention of my cliplib-enabled
>> jpegshow for the MM/1. In fact, I don't see a listing for any version
>> of jpegshow except 2.0. Kotanski's version 3.0 was around by the time I
>> made my list though, so this (and maybe my modified
>> version) might have
>> been put up elsewhere, and not on Delphi at all.
>>     
> OK, I will not look at my Delphi files. I will check CIS.
>   
Well, I never had access to Compuserve, so it wouldn't be there unless
somebody else put it there.  Maybe it was one of the FTP sites that was
around at the time.  Thanks for looking though.
>> I've put these files on the wiki at coco25.com in the hopes that they
>> will be of interest to others, for the purpose of research, nostalgia,
>> or whatever. But I put them on the wiki so that they can be edited and
>> added to as necessary
>>     
>
> Not a good plan, that would mean manual editing and forgo many methods of
> comparing, checking and merging that can be done much better with
> tools.
>
>   
Yeah, it would mean manual editing, but shouldn't also preclude
automation.  No reason you can't load up those text files into a Perl
program, grep them, or suck them into a database.  I was just thinking
of some way people could collaborate gradually, over time. 
>> (e.g., I didn't get anything out of the RS-DOS
>> sections, maybe someone can fill that in...) and also annotated with
>> information about which of these files exist on RTSI.com. Perhaps those
>> of us who have some of these files from Delphi, or Compuserve, or lucy,
>> (or wuarchive?) might see whether we can preserve them on RTSI.com
>> before they flake off our disks with the oxide.
>>
>> JCE
>>     
>
> RTSI has outlived its usefulness a long time ago IMHO.
>
> With many thanks to our RTSI host, but we need a Web Master to accept the
> need to host our files on another site that we can reorganize, enhance and
> make the file set really useful for all that are interested.
>
> The Web Master must be willing to accept the files explicitly, not just
> ignore that some files have been uploaded that might be questionable.
>
> I thought about reorganizing the RTSI files but I did not because I would
> have to be honest and tell the Web Master what really was on his site.
>
> I am, and have been willing for quite some time, to do the database work
> involved and generate the HTML pages for the new CoCo file site
> automatically.
>
> See http://www.thedbcommunity.com/ for the latest version of a site that was
> generated (in the past for sure, I have not checked lately) using this
> method. It is the home page for the database program that I would use.
>
> I will NOT look into files to see what they are but will incorporate others
> work into the database used to generate the site.
>
> File comparison can be done by comparing CRC32 values and scripts to
> reorganize the files generated by the database program programming which I
> would do.
>
> Dividing the work up would make this possible but I continue to have
> questions about if it is worth the effort. I.E., would it be used?
>
> Stephen H. Fischer
>   
I think your idea would undoubtedly result in a better final result, but
your own concerns about how much work it would take to set up and
maintain, and whether it would be worth the effort, are exactly why I
just put up a list of files on an already established wiki.  I may go
through some disks tonight and update the wiki a little because it's
easy to do and will help me personally to know what I have and whether
it's something that's currently still available to others on the
Internet.  If a better organized, semi-automated effort gets going in
the future, there's no reason it can't snarf up the wiki pages into its
database in one swift motion.
I think something along the lines of Aminet for the CoCo/OS-9 would be
really nice.  If there's anything I can contribute to a real effort in
that direction, let me know.  In the meanwhile, I'll just stick some
stuff up on coco25.com and call it a baby step in the right direction.

JCE