Milieux Sector Data

[robject]

In a related thread, people are talking about UWP data being generated across relevant milieux.

So let's talk about storing this data.

When I think about the problem, I gravitate away from the .SEC files, and start thinking in XML. However, my XML thoughts are tempered by one thing: spreadsheets.

And so I'm thinking of two complementary ways to represent UWPs from different milieux.

The first way is to simply store any number of UWPs, indexed by milieux, along a row of data in an Excel spreadsheet. This is the primary data line.

The second way is to have a separate line, for data which varies significantly from the primary data line -- for instance, when the world name changes, or a base code changes, or the star goes nova.

The reason I think about a spreadsheet is because it's a good compromise between unstructured and structured data. Modern spreadsheet programs can also map columns XML -- which solves the data communications problem.

For an extremely incomplete example, here's what I'm thinking of. Here's Corridor Sector, with only one world detailed. I "invented" a case where two later milieux have altered base data, which requires a second row for the one system. But most of the milieux which affect Corridor differ only in UWP if at all.

http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/survey/Corridor_Sector.xls

An XML map can be created which easily turns this data into XML.

 

[Valarian]

I'm not sure whether a spreadsheet like this will work unless you have a line per milieu. The blank columns will be tricky for a database or conversion tool to consolidate without problems with null or duplicate data.

I'm tempted to try to do a tool that would allow conversion from formatted files to XML format and back. Possibly with a means of editing the data on screen in a friendly way. Ideally, the tool will deal with .SEC format files, Galactic 2.4 format, or comma-delimited files.

The only problem being, I'm fairly time poor at the moment for this type of project. I'll give it a go and see what I can come up with.

This sort of thing was debated a while ago here.

 

[robject]

Yes, there'd have to be a front-end translation that converts this data into a series of rows. This is a compression of many possible rows, for the sake of human editability in a spreadsheet.

And you've given me a good reason to prefer this: namely, we're all fairly time-poor, and this is not a paying job.

But, perhaps some other format has wide use already (Galactic or Universe et al).

 

[inexorabletash]

Originally posted by robject:

The first way is to simply store any number of UWPs, indexed by milieux, along a row of data in an Excel spreadsheet. This is the primary data line.

The second way is to have a separate line, for data which varies significantly from the primary data line -- for instance, when the world name changes, or a base code changes, or the star goes nova.

The officially published multi-era (sorta) resource - Regency Sourcebook - needed to opt for the second approach. Enough data varies (UWPs, trade codes, bases, allegiances, mainworld names... PBG least of all I suppose) that I don't think the first approach is terribly viable unless everything but the hex number is replicated horizontally.

So that leaves vertical replication... and like the RS, it means you could prefix each line with the era/year. (I like using M0, M990, M1100, M1200, M1248, as it indicates the milieu rather than a specific survey year.) With a prefix in a spreadsheet or database, it's simple to filter to show the era you want.

Of course... that's a simple transform away from just having separate files for each era, or having a big XML file for all data broken into sections. On my site I'll probably opt for the file-per-era.