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Few results for "Toni Baker"

mjwilsonmjwilson
edited March 2008 in Infoseek database
I noticed that a search for "Toni Baker" had a only few of Toni's ZXC articles.

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekpub.cgi?regexp=^Toni+Baker$

(Maybe magazine articles aren't routinely linked with their authors?)
Post edited by mjwilson on

Comments

  • mheidemheide
    edited March 2008
    mjwilson wrote: »
    (Maybe magazine articles aren't routinely linked with their authors?)

    That's it, there's no such information in Infoseek...
  • mjwilsonmjwilson
    edited March 2008
    But the search does find "Light Screen Designer" and "Programming: Mastering Machine Code", which are both ZXC sets of articles.
  • mheidemheide
    edited March 2008
    mjwilson wrote: »
    But the search does find "Light Screen Designer" and "Programming: Mastering Machine Code", which are both ZXC sets of articles.

    True, but as you can see in the header of these searched, they're SPOT matches, not Infoseek. :-)
  • Battle BunnyBattle Bunny
    edited March 2008
    Type-ins indexing on SPOT is somewhat erratic, as the comprehensive index is on TTFn. On SPOT, readers' type-ins from SU/YR/YS are indexed under their individual titles, except for Program Pitstop contributions, which are indexed under a series with that generic title, one for each year. Other type-ins are indexed under numerous generic topic headings, each beginning with "-Programming:" (I think that the "-" is discarded by Infoseek).

    Individually indexed titles use the primary author field, which Infoseek uses for searching; generically indexed titles use a secondary author field against each index reference, which Infoseek doesn't use (not for searching, anyway). Generic titles (eg. "-Programming: Machine Code Tutorials") just have "various ..." as the primary author field.

    By the time I acquired the ZX Computing issues I was also maintaining TTFn and, as I didn't want to maintain the same information twice, TTFn is the only place where there's a comprehensive index of type-in articles from ZXC. (Errm, well, that is, except for the SPOT appendices B3 "Spectrum utility routines" and B4 "ZX Computing type-ins" ... .). In particular, readers' type-in contributions to ZXC are not indexed in SPOT, only in TTFn. Although series which were more about programming techniques rather than specific programs will be entered under their individual subject headings in SPOT (eg. Steve Turner's "Professional Touch" series). Indexing of programming/type-in articles from mags other than SU/YR/YS/ZX follows a similar trend to ZXC.

    The perils of maintaining data in more than one place are evidenced by my noticing that there are a number of program/article data files which exist on TTFn which do not have a URL link from their separate reference in SPOT (Light Screen Designer, for example) as I'd forgotten about the other reference.

    So that's why you're not getting as many Toni Baker matches via Infoseek as you might expect. (Yes, there was a point to my mad rambling.) However, from the 750-odd mags I have there are 10 of her articles/series in Your Spectrum and 15 in ZX Computing, and they're all available "in another place".
  • mjwilsonmjwilson
    edited March 2008
    Battle Bunny wrote: »
    So that's why you're not getting as many Toni Baker matches via Infoseek as you might expect. (Yes, there was a point to my mad rambling.) However, from the 750-odd mags I have there are 10 of her articles/series in Your Spectrum and 15 in ZX Computing, and they're all available "in another place".

    Does "in another place" just mean at TTFN? Or have I missed the point?

    What about things like, say, "Into the 128" from the last couple of issues of ZXC ? (This was the origin for my query in the first place, I was wondering if an Infoseek query for "Toni Baker" would let me find the months in which this series was printed.) That doesn't seem to be in TTFN.

    [edit to add:] I'm not trying to complain by the way, just interested in what is/isn't in the database.
  • Battle BunnyBattle Bunny
    edited March 2008
    mjwilson wrote: »
    Does "in another place" just mean at TTFN? Or have I missed the point?

    Yes, you're right, I meant TTFn - it was a bit of Parliamentary humour.

    As regards TB's "Into the 128" articles, these are listed in SPOT under the generic heading: "-Spectrum:2f 128k (Features)"
    ...
    F ZX 5.86 p. 56 -BAT Into the 128
    F ZX 5.87 p. 84 -BAT Into the 128
    F ZX 6.87 p. 52 -BAT Into the 128
    ...
    The only code in the 1986 article is a very short BASIC fragment which doesn't qualify it as a type-in. The 1987 two-parter should be on TTFn, as it has two program listings, but has unaccountably been missed (it's not in the B4 appendix either). I'll add an entry for it shortly; the article and programs will take somewhat longer than shortly, as I'm working on the Crash update for SPEX at present (nearly finished 1989).

    I don't know if SPOT references under generic headings are held in Infoseek; I can't get any matches for "-Spectrum:2f 128k (Features)" or any part of it.
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