Subject: Re: Merging AstroWeb and CERN VL/LaPlata

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 95 15:47:21 +0100

I'll volunteer for software and educational.  Let me know where the files
are.  Prefer HTML.

Fionn

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From: [email-masked] (Hans-Martin Adorf)
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 16:25:48 +0100

Ok. I take no 7, publications.html

Hans-Martin

>In order to share the effort of adding new URLs, I have divided the HTML
>files in VL/LaPlata into 8 groups having about the same amount of URLs to
>be added. A volunteer should take care of each group (there are already 3
>names assigned).
>
>Group  Resp.   Filename in VL/LaPlata
>----- -------- -------------------------------------
>  1   D.Egret  databases.html
>      D.Egret  libraries.html
>
>  2   D.Wells  observatories.html
>               (sects. Radio and Optical)
>
>  3            observatories.html
>               (sects. Space, Solar, Cosmic,
>                Gamma rays and Neutrinos and
>                Other indexes)
>
>  4   D.Ponz   departments-and-groups-america.html
>               departments-and-groups-asia.html
>               departments-and-groups-australia.html
>               departments-and-groups-canada.html
>               departments-and-groups-europe.html
>               departments-and-groups-usa.html
>               nasa.html
>
>  5            mailinglists.html
>               miscellaneous.html
>               newsgroups.html
>
>  6            other-lists.html
>
>  7            publications.html
>
>  8            software.html
>               educational.html
>------------------------------------------------------
>
>- Pointers to the master version of these source pages are in
>      http://www.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/~spaoli/astro-old.html
>  each of the 'filenames' above can be found as
>      http://www.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/~spaoli/<filename>
>
>- Valid categories are the ones currently defined in AstroWeb and the
>  two new proposed categories: Education and History.
>
>- On the format, Don Wells writes
> > Use either the HTML or the TCL format.  HTML is easier to view, TCL is
> > easier to add to the database.
>
>  If Bob has nothing against, I would prefer HTML with the same layout as in
>  file newmaster.html.
>  Otherwise, Bob, please let us know the proposed TCL format.
>
>- We should start the addition of new URLs in about a week, once Sergio has
>  finished the revision of his pages. He will tell us when the files are ready.
>  In the mean time we should decide the format and the assignment of the
>  different groups.
>
>  Any comments?
>
>Daniel Ponz

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From: [email-masked] (anton koekemoer)
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 09:26:18 +1000

My most useful contribution will probably be in the area of astronomy
departments and telescopes, so I'm happy to volunteer for that.

However it's worth noting that currently there are two different ways of
handling departments and telescopes; the first (set up by Don) consists of
separating departments ('research areas') into radio/optical etc and keeping
telescopes entirely alphabetical; the second method (implemented when I set up
my list) is to list departments alphabetically by country and only separate
the actual telescope sites into radio/optical/etc.

Daniel (Ponz), I'm not sure which of these two categorizations the La Plata
list is currently closer to. ?. It seems to me that originally it was based on
the second; in any case I certainly wouldn't mind sharing the maintenance load
for the 'departments' category. It will probably be worth discussing the load
distribution for the 'observatories' (is this the same category as
'telescopes'???) and 'department' categories further between yourself, Don
and myself. I suspect we could share these euqally.

                                                 cheers,
                                                  - anton.

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From: Jose Daniel Ponz VILSPA/VCS <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 13:35:20 +0200 (CET)

Anton writes

> ... I'm not sure which of these two categorizations the La Plata
> list is currently closer to. ?. 

Sergio uses the second approach: he lists departments by country and separates
telescope sites into radio, optical, and so on. However, this is not the
issue: this (or other) scheme can be implemented in the local version of 
dtsplit  procedure, as long as keywords are properly associated to URLs.

> ... It will probably be worth discussing the load
>and myself. I suspect we could share these equally.

Observatories include URLs ranging from main facilities, like La Silla, 
to concrete telescopes, like Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) in La Palma.
We could share the load in the files observatories.html and 
departments-and-groups-*.html, as follows:
(Don)       observatories.html (section Radio)
            departments-and-groups-usa.html              
            departments-and-groups-canada.html              
            nasa.html 

(Anton)     observatories.html (section Optical)
            departments-and-groups-asia.html      
            departments-and-groups-australia.html        

(Daniel.P.) observatories.html (other sections)
            departments-and-groups-europe.html           
            departments-and-groups-(latin-)america.html 

If we agree on this distribution, we have only group 6 (other-lists.html)
that could be assigned to Andre Heck, so that Bob could review all the 
additions...

Daniel Ponz

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From: [email-masked] (anton koekemoer)
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 09:16:52 +1000

Daniel P. writes:

> ...

That's fine with me.

Re: formats, here's my 2-cents worth. What is the actual proposed strategy
here? - ie do we edit the above files, then at a single point in time merge
them together into a single database? Or will we just individually add entries
directly into the main database?

If we are to edit the above files, then my personal preference for manually
editing database entries is to use the "AstrowebEdit"-format, which is
substantially easier to use (and check for errors) than either the raw tcl or
html formats. However, I suspect this to be a matter of personal preference,
and probably a useful thing would be if Bob could give us a self-contained
script which one could run on a local machine to translate an HTML database
file -> AstrowebEdit format, for those of us who prefer this format. Maybe
also a script to do the reverse would be useful.

                                                        cheers,
                                                         - anton.

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From: Jose Daniel Ponz VILSPA/VCS <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 17:46:40 +0200 (CET)

Anton writes

> ... do we edit the above files, then at a single point in time merge

The first approach , i.e., manual editing of the files, is probably better.

>editing database entries is to use the "AstrowebEdit"-format, ...

I agree, but (Bob) we need a tool to convert "AstrowebEdit"-format into HTML.

Now a question. There are two fields in AstroWeb, that are not available 
in VL/LaPlata, namely 'owner' and 'description'. Do you have suggestions on 
how to handle these fields? Can these fields be left empty for (some) 
entries in "AstroWebEdit"-format?

Daniel P.