7/2006 i/ref/id/data/ - a quick reading says do it over. what is the focus here? Re: Abbreviations for philatelic and useful terms especially in the Category & Specialty fields of the Dealers' database & in associated indexes. First, I should do a study of what is currently used by others. =================================================== To repeat myself from the Intro (intro-db.txt): Well, why have this Category field when it is stated in the Specialty field? ('it' being the subject the dealer addresses in his own description) Ans.: to offer alternative (or additional) index headings and not disturb the original description (probably supplied by the vendor)... Now, my next (and real) question is , why use abbreviations? To save space? Perhaps to develope a system for use in index listings where space is a premium item. And/Or for future data entry ease? My instinct says, yes, use 'em, but perhaps by writing about it I can bring it into a clearer view then the necessary coding process will make sense. if. (This is kinda like a story Dr. Scott was fond of: One young duck tells another, "My dad says his instincts tell him to fly South." And his friend says, " Well, my end stinks too but it doesn't tell me which way to fly..") And how do I most effectively put it to use? Parsing can pull much from the Specialty field itself. Perhaps creating a 'translation' table will help bring clarity... So here we go... The idea is to creat a reference table in the general form: Cat. Abbrev. | Meaning | index ver. | Specialty field use | Further discussion --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Au | Autographs | Autograph | Autographs BWI | British West Indies | BWI | British West Indies (BWI) P&P | Pages & Panels | P&P | Pages & Panels (P&P) | PG-PNL.TXT ApprO | Appraisals offered | Appraisals | Appraisals . . . For a more detailed discussion of this see: cat-chat.txt In actual usage the PUBLIC abbreviations are in parentheses (e.g. (US) ) and are found in the Specialty field text in the form: "United States (US), United Nations (UN) ..." CATEGORY FIELD I use the category field to shorten the process of extractions later (does it?) but, mostly, to add to the listing. With simple terms like 'war', 'air' to create somewhat gross areas for future refinement... and with terms like 'Oecania-British' for the original 'British Oceania' to add dimension beyond just 'British'. I am there reviewing the text so I make use of the time... But how does this 'extraction process' function? Parsing can seperate things based on the comma (or whatever) and the controller uses those terms for indexing and this will/should be relied upon in some measure. How can it work? Terms would/will need to be pre-defined in a table such as the one outlined above. This can be consulted by the 'controller' when the 'parser' picks out an item. If it is listed then the controller posts the dealers ID to another table which is dedicated to that specific term or item. This will require an entire database devoted to Philatelic Terminology. Tables: Terms Users (ah, the plot thickens - is the above example the basis?) There should be a couple of tiers: Basic and Advanced: (e.g. Stationery vs. Postal Cards, Postal Stationery) (simply indicated in a field: basic or advanced (a yes/no?)) Here variations can be unified: Original Specialty field Examples: 1. Appraiser: Qualified 2. Auction Firm, Buyer, Europe, Freaks & Errors (EFO), Plate Blocks, Postal History: Worldwide, Appraiser: Qualified, Auctioneers: Qualified Public, United States (US), Worldwide I would rather see: 'Qualified Appraiser', 'Qualified Public Auctioneers' ... in the description area but filed under a heading like "Appraiser-Qualified" in a topical index. There seems to be a problem with the use of the colon (:) which normally indicates something follows. A parser (human or software) can be told to see this - somewhat. But once recognized where does it stop? For example, is CSA to be included w/'Classics'?, Ducks w/ 'Covers'?... Covers, Advertising, Classics: United States (US), Confederate States of America (CSA), Covers: United States (US), Duck Stamps (Federal), Postal History: United States (US), United States (US) and does Postal History: US get repeated? Further, Basic parsing can seperate and store every word (which requires intervention to seperate the chaff from the wheat: ' of' & 'America' ...). Or use the comma much (more sensible here) like simple text delimiters are used in data files used by arrays and database programs to seperate words AND phrases. This comprises much of what I am dealing with. But the problem here is that context changes on the comma and unless every exact phrase is known in advance it won't know where to quit appending after a colon. Again, I may have no other choice but the thought does occur that such a hand built translantion table may be a usefull item in itself. Most entries found are of the 'phrase' type (more than one word and seperated from others with the comma) and not in sentences. They seem to fall into 3 basic categories: Literature titles, Product Names and Specialization Name (US, GB ...). A parser can deal with most of these. LITERATURE TITLES I try to put literature titles in single quotes (actually apostrophes) with an extra space after the open one and before the closing one - e.g. ' JSDA Catalog ' in the Specialty field. A hand editing job (a 'pre-defined' effort). PRODUCT NAMES (BRAND NAMES) Still have to work on that one.. So let's work: let's take White Ace Albums from Wash. Press. - how about: 'Albums-White Ace' in the general topical index under 'Supplies' (a further dream is a deeper topical index called Names - which I actually has but have yet to considered here - glad it came up - should they be combined?) Original listings for Wash. Press: 1. Artcraft First Day Covers (FDC), White Ace Albums, StampMount Mounts 2. Covers: First Day (FDC), Finland, Manufacturer, Supplies, Wholesalers 3. "Artcraft, White Ace, and Stamp Mount brand names" 4. Artcraft, White Ace, Stamp Mount Not everything is really clear as to what is what. What do they wholesale? just supplies? how about quanty FDC's? - have to ask. But, none the less, how does it come together in an index? The term 'Artcraft' is both a title and a product if you know it. (an FDC) They own the name so how do I reflect this?: FDC-Maker-Artcraft FDC-Artcraft-Maker FDC-Artcraft Artcraft-FDC I like the last 3. the 1st would be unique but followed by the next which would include others interesed in their product - as would the 3rd. Even the very 1st one might be useful. It would isolate all (known) makers. All of this, so far, requires considerable hand editing and I may simply have no other choice but... I like to be lazy and see what I can do..... The 1st 2 are unique but the 2nd 2 could have more than one adherent. what say we put 'Artcraft' in a sperate table with the 2 index terms above as the 'key'. a search shows the term Artcraft at: Dupont Stamp Studio Poppygun, Inc. Smith & Son - United States (US) Stamps & Postal Stationery, United States (US) Artcraft First Day Covers (FDC) The Washington Press / Washington Stamp Exchange Multiply this times a considerable numbers of other products and the workload of doing it by hand is not small. Again, I may have no other choice. What about using a search engine? This is what most would expect. Well, I like the idea of ordered indices which, at the same time, expose others to ideas (in the form of index headings in the 'physical' local) and the fact of a fixed set. The set s/b updated by the simple addition of any record with the stated relavance. It's hard to fight Google, but I am looking to have something that can be discussed and won't change unless it is specifically done. Does this really exclude a search engine? - I think I need to know more... Setting that aside: Let's think about the mechanics of this as I am working on it. ====================== DIRECTIVES ========================== These would be symbols used to create an effect - a form of abbreviation. CATEGORY FIELD directives: symbol / reason x / exclude parsing of Specialty field (hopefully I've done the job already in the Category field or it is a duplicate.) This doesn't mean the Specialty field is to be ignored as it's contents may be in quotes (" ....") for display use: see: '(#)' + / used as a seperator instead of the comma which may be used for other purposes (textural) (e.g. Classics: GB, US, WW ) (#) / sets up a sequence for ordering inclusion on a web page (or dispaly) of data in the Specialty field enclosed in quotes. (not all data in the field - just that in quotes). the symbol is not required but covers where there are multiple sets of double quotes either in one or more fields (one vendor may have several records w/key elements in more than one Specialty field, or i may just be using the Category field. - / the dash: used to append terms (e.g) US-Quality would/should produce one of the two basic purposes in all of this: an index heading &/OR sub heading: UNITED STATES (US) (vendor name, pg link [.us-CA]) USPS, .US HE Harris, .us-GA >US - Discount Joe Luft, .us-WI >US - Quality Grade (vendor name,pg link) this might leave enough room for two/there columns. (SPECIALTY FIELD directives): " the double quote (in pairs) as the first & last items enclosing text I wish to have printed on the pages where- ever further directed. In indexes the abbreviations may be used and are the third element in the table below. : the colon (:) indicates the usual: what follows..... but to end it? seriously: how do you end this? (and have a computer programs know it.) (how about with a dash?) (e.g. United States (US): Covers, Postal Histoy - British Empire) ? this is not currently implimented but may begin to appear.... ============================================================== (Terminology): (abbrevs in Category field, meaning, index abbrev., Specialty field use) (to import: replace all tabs (first start w/3 and work down) w/ commas.) Hopefully this will educate readers to our usage. There are 2 types of words in use: Items (a loose term) & Modifiers. There is one basic implied item: Stamps and all they represent. Other items relate to stamps in one way or another, ("This is a football"). Cat. Meaning Index Ver. Specialty Abbrv. of abbrv: Txt / Link: field use: =================================================================================== (.xx) (Country Names in interntese e.g.: txt or link -------------------------------------------- .us United States US / .us United States (US) .at Austria .AT / .at Austria .uk United Kingdom UK / .uk United Kingdom (UK) .za Rep. of South Africa S.Afr. / .za South Africa etc. note: lower case is used in the linking portion of vendor leading to their actual listing for Country names and UPPER case for State/Prov. names (.us-NY) the upper case (e.g.: US) is used in the descriptive area to indicate a specialty. (in fact, I have used the dot system as specialty descriptions quite extensively and now wish to modify this...) example:
  • ABC Co. - Mr. Jones (US, Br Emp, BNA), .us-CA further discussion see: index.txt Much of what follows is new in my thinking and not fully in use yet. note: for the Category field the abbrv or the Index ver. is OK. (but to limit searches it should be limited to abbrv.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cat. |Meaning |Index |Specialty |Further Abbrv. |of abbrv: |version: |field use: |discussion: =========================================================================================== air* Air related (none) (needs refinement)* Ap Approvals Approvals Approvals Q-Apr Qualified Appraiser Apraiser Appraiser: Qualified (from authority) ApprO Appraisals offered Appraisals Appraisals Aut Autographs Autograph Autographs Auc Auctions Auctions Auctions auction.txt P-Auc Public Auctions Auctions Public Auctions QAucnr Qualified Public Auctioneer Auctioneer Auctioneer: Qualified Public GBA British Asia Br. Asia British Asia BNA British North America BNA British North America (BNA)* GBO British Oceania Br. Oceania British Oceania [(GBO)] BOB Back of the Book (BOB) BOB Back of the Book (BOB)* BOB.TXT BWI British West Indies BWI British West Indies (BWI) CZn Canal Zone (US-Poss.) US-Canal Zone Canal Zone (A US-Possession) C Classics Classics Classics CP Ceremony Programs CP [Ceremony] Programs [(CP)] PG-PNL.TXT CSA Confederate States of America CSA Confederate States of America (CSA) Cvr Covers Cvr Covers [(Cvr)] D Duck Stamps Ducks Duck Stamps [(D)] DF Federal Duck Stamps Ducks Federal Duck Stamps [(D)]-! DF Federal Duck Stamps Ducks Duck Stamps (Federal) DWI Danish West Indies DWI Danish West Indies (DWI)* EU Europe Europe Europe EU-E Eastern Europe E. Europe Eastern Europe EU-W Western Europe W. Europe Western Europe FDC First Day Covers FDC First Day Covers (FDC)* FFC First Flight Covers FFC First Flight Covers (FFC)* GB Great Britain GB Great Britain (GB)* GBE British Empire Br Emp British Empire [(GBE)] GBC British Commonwealth Br C'wealth [British] Commonwealth [(GBC)] L&C Lots & Collections Lots Lots & Collections [(L&C)] Meter Meter Stamps Meters Meter Meter Meter Stamps Meters Meter Stamps NLC Netherlands & Colonies .NL Netherlands & Colonies P&P Pages & Panels p&p Pages & Panels [(P&P)] PG-PNL.TXT PB Plate Blocks PB Plate Blocks [(PB)] PC Post Cards (Gen.) PC Post Cards [(PC)] POC Postal Cards POC Postal Cards [(POC)] PPC Picture Post Cards PPC Picture Post Cards [(PPC)] P&E Proofs & Essays P&E Proofs & Essays (P&E) PH Postal History P.H. Postal History ** PS Postal Stationery P.S. Postal Stationery [(PS)] R Revenues Rev. Revenues ** T Topicals Topicals Topicals [(T)] TC Topical Cover TopCvr Topical Cover [(TC)] TS Topical Stamps Topicals Topicals US United States US United States [(US)]* war* war related (none) (need refinement)* WL Want Lists Accepted Wants Want Lists WW Worldwide WW Worldwide [(WW)] - * currently widely in use in the Specialty field. (air & war in Cat. field) ** found compounded (e.g. US-R, PH-US) IN THIS TEXT: [ ] : terms in brackets may be (& PROBABLY ARE) omited in the dbf and are used in this list only to indicate such. ------------------ (random notes and thoughts) phrases in use: Auctioneers: Qualified Public Pacific Oceania, British Asia, Email Auctions - CAT: Auctions-E-Mail Bids Antarctic, British Empire & Commonwealth, British North America (BNA), Malaysia, Postal History, Worldwide, Space Philately, Sheets, United States (US), South Pacific, Supplies, Topicals British Colonies Great Britain (GB) & British Commonwealth & Colonies Great Britain (GB) British Commonwealth The mother country is a complicated affair and might be best approached from two directions at once: geographical & historical geo.: Commonwealth hist.: Empire, Colonies United States (US) Postage & Revenues Auctions, New Zealand: Retail, Wholesale (THE COLON THEN COMMA) E-mail price lists Price Lists (W/NOTHING IN CATEGORY) FDC + PC + PB-@ Face Value = First Day Covers (FDC), Old Post Cards, Mint Plate Blocks (face value) Worldwide Postal History and Covers ww + Cvr-ww = Worldwide Covers, Worldwide