Newsletter
Wednesday, September 13, 2000

by Robert A. Chant

Welcome to another sessions of what's he up to now! I had a few people wondering about what was going on with the site, so I thought I would put together a newsletter and let you all in on the secret.

As some of you may have noticed, the site has gone sometime without an update, since April in fact. I hope the next few weeks (months? ;-) will change all that, as I once again attempt to process the back log of information I have on hand. (Rob's promise #452672.)

I am also in the process of reformatting the site (again!) and using CGI scripting to make my life a little easier. This will reduce the time it takes to prepare and update material for the site. It should also (eventually) lead to members of our group being able to contribute and update material online, without intervention from me.

This idea is not really new, I had planned to do it this way from the beginning. I just never really had the time to sit down and do the work that is required to pull it off. My web design company is now defunct, so I should have a few extra hours to devote to the site. I am on vacation this week from my Letter Carrier job, and I have been working on the PERL scripts since last Friday afternoon. It is a slow process, but at least it's moving forward.

The PERL scripts will be the backbone of the site once they are in place. It will allow me to use an online database for all our information. It should be very easy to keep information current and all material should be easy to maintain.

Right now I am concentrating on getting a photo database online. We have received almost 4,000 photos over the last few months. I started to construct an index for these, but stopped before it was finished. I knew it would be too much work to keep the information current, if the pages were hard-coded and had to be updated.

I plan to link the photo database directly to a roster database. The scripts would then be able to extract current data on each unit, then process that information and generate an index file. It is a huge task, but I think we can pull it off. The roster database can also be maintained by others by employing user ids and passwords.

I am also planning the same arrangement for the Railways of Canada Database and Mapping Project. I will use an online database (I dumped the framed page idea for a better solution--told ya I hate frames!) that stores facts on one particular event. Each record will contain the date of the event, the details, keywords, source, submitting source, additional information that explains the event in more detail, notes, and submitting date. That way the information can be sorted and view chronologically; by a key word search, e.g. province, town, railway, etc.; and by posting date.

Well that's about it, I have to get back to (my vacation?) work. I really appreciate all the kind e-mails and words of encouragement I have received over the last few months. But I must say that the praise should go to those who took the time to contribute material and allowed me the pleasure to place it online. It's those individuals that made this site possible.

Sincerely, Robert A. Chant

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