Re: Database details

[frank@clark.net]

Hold off actually doing anything for a while. There's a program reviewed
by Ellwood McGee (a fine fellow here in the D.C. area, even though he's
an
opera lover) in the _Journal of the Association for Recorded Sound
Collections_. I can't place my hands on the issue, though, but it seems to
be just what you are looking for.

What you want to do is to start inputting information that you now think
you will want but keep the database open so that you can go back and add
more information later. Do you know what a matrix number is, for example?
For which Gould CD would this information be important?

I'm just testing your knowledge. I brought the matter up on this list
before, with the specific example in mind. Alas, there wasn't enough
activity for more than one other person to go check out his CD for the
matrix number. I'll reveal it to you, and repeat it to the others later.

It is my understanding that many, if not most, of these programs (for the
PC; dunno about those computers with automatic transmission made by Apple)
have a structure underlying them in a "dbase" format. So, no matter what
software you put on top of your data set, if you tell me what the fields
represent, you can ship me the floppies and I can read it using software I
have gotten familiar with. I have done almost no work with dbase, so I
don't know what the stuff looks like in ANSI. I do know that I can't
directly read a dbase data set in WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS or by using edit
at the DOS prompt. (As you can imagine, I like manual transmission
computers, since I can keep track of every step, at least at some level.)

I'm thinking of buying the program Ellwood recommended so warmly. What I
want to be able to do is to keep track of all the sessions and takes of
the artists in the studios. Of course, I can (and do and have) just type
it up, but I can't manipulate the information. Since Gould made multiple
trips to the studios, having this availability would be most important,
and I'm not sure the program Ellwood recommended would really do the job.

Has anyone noticed that Nancy Canning gives many more studio dates in _A
Glenn Gould Catalog_ than Sony has put up on its Web site?

Frank