Jeff P
02-13-2004, 09:25 PM
First, a little background before I get to my question-
I use my own software. It's written in VB6 and uses SQL tables- I did all of the coding and testing myself. It uses Bris single format data files. It has routines that crunch numbers of my own making and spits out reports that I designed and they are formatted just the way I want them. It has a query tool that lets me test new ideas, ways of playing, or what if scenarios against the sql tables. It imports Bris exotic results files and then builds and maintains models of what has worked in the past and what is working right now. It's a black box that I wrote for my own use and I don't ever plan on selling it. On the whole, I'm very happy with it and it definitely works for me.
But one thing about it just rankles the hell out of me. Scratches.
My current way of handling scratches is a module with a side by side pair of vb combo boxes (drop downs) populated with lists of horses. The one on the left is populated with all of the horses running that day. The one on the right is populated only with the horses that the user (me) has scratched. To scratch a horse the user simply selects/clicks a horse from the drop down on the left. Code in the click event adds the scratched horse to the drop down on the right. To unscratch a horse, the user simply reverses the process and selects/clicks a scratched horse from the drop down on the right. Code in the click event removes the horse from the scratched horse drop down. All of the code works just fine. You can click away till you're blue in the face scratching and unscratching horses. Afterwards, I always double check my own work- I sometimes find the odd case where I've scratched the wrong horse. Then I run my number crunching and output routines which are simply coded to ignore horses that have been scratched.
But, as a user, I find this simple sounding process to be both time consuming and tedious. Especially when dealing with 6-8 tracks on a daily basis. In short, I've come to dread the 20 or so minutes I spend each morning visually scanning the Bris or Equibase web pages that have the scratches on them and then clicking and double checking my own drop downs.
I'm wondering- has anyone else out there come up with a better interface? I'm tinkering with the idea of writing my own HTML parser for getting scratches and/or jockey changes directly from the Bris and/or Equibase web pages. Conceivably I could simply just import the parsed information directly into my own program.
What do HSH, HTR, or Equisim users have in the way of an interface for handling scratches?
I use my own software. It's written in VB6 and uses SQL tables- I did all of the coding and testing myself. It uses Bris single format data files. It has routines that crunch numbers of my own making and spits out reports that I designed and they are formatted just the way I want them. It has a query tool that lets me test new ideas, ways of playing, or what if scenarios against the sql tables. It imports Bris exotic results files and then builds and maintains models of what has worked in the past and what is working right now. It's a black box that I wrote for my own use and I don't ever plan on selling it. On the whole, I'm very happy with it and it definitely works for me.
But one thing about it just rankles the hell out of me. Scratches.
My current way of handling scratches is a module with a side by side pair of vb combo boxes (drop downs) populated with lists of horses. The one on the left is populated with all of the horses running that day. The one on the right is populated only with the horses that the user (me) has scratched. To scratch a horse the user simply selects/clicks a horse from the drop down on the left. Code in the click event adds the scratched horse to the drop down on the right. To unscratch a horse, the user simply reverses the process and selects/clicks a scratched horse from the drop down on the right. Code in the click event removes the horse from the scratched horse drop down. All of the code works just fine. You can click away till you're blue in the face scratching and unscratching horses. Afterwards, I always double check my own work- I sometimes find the odd case where I've scratched the wrong horse. Then I run my number crunching and output routines which are simply coded to ignore horses that have been scratched.
But, as a user, I find this simple sounding process to be both time consuming and tedious. Especially when dealing with 6-8 tracks on a daily basis. In short, I've come to dread the 20 or so minutes I spend each morning visually scanning the Bris or Equibase web pages that have the scratches on them and then clicking and double checking my own drop downs.
I'm wondering- has anyone else out there come up with a better interface? I'm tinkering with the idea of writing my own HTML parser for getting scratches and/or jockey changes directly from the Bris and/or Equibase web pages. Conceivably I could simply just import the parsed information directly into my own program.
What do HSH, HTR, or Equisim users have in the way of an interface for handling scratches?