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Old 02-18-2018, 09:04 PM   #16
mikesal57
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Hey HH...your on a freaking roll

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Old 02-23-2018, 07:23 PM   #17
headhawg
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I didn't make much progress this week. <sigh> I did send what I had to a tester and he confirmed that it worked on Win8.1 so that's a plus. I am developing on Win7 so it's good to know that it works on a different OS. My goal now is to finish by Sunday and send a complete working version to the beta testers. Hopefully I will attain that goal.
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Old 02-28-2018, 04:45 PM   #18
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Almost gave up on this as I lost a lot of whatever coding skill I had. Anyway, still plugging along. I am not in love with the scratch screen by any means but what I wanted to do requires delving into more unfamiliar Windows controls programming techniques that I don't feel like spending time on right now. I might increase the font size but not going to do any major changes unless I have to.

Two major hurdles left -- keeping track of scratched/unscratched horses when the user closes the scratch screen or switches races, and making sure that the modified datafile works. I posted earlier that I did some pre-testing on that and it seemed to work so <fingers crossed>.

Make that three...I forgot that I have to combine the scratches from the Equibase xml file and whatever the user adds/subtracts. Ugh.

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Last edited by headhawg; 02-28-2018 at 04:57 PM. Reason: added info
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Old 03-01-2018, 03:20 PM   #19
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Yes count me in

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Old 03-08-2018, 11:05 PM   #20
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Update

The scratch screen appears to work correctly when the user scratches/unscratches. It also reads the downloaded Equibase xml file and populates the scratched horses list box. A couple of my testers have the program now and hopefully will put it through its paces and see how many bugs are left.

Assuming no major problems with scratches there's only one more hurdle and that is the writing of the modified data file. Once my testers get back to me about the scratch screen I will work on the file section of the code. I could have this done as early as tomorrow but that will only happen if things go very smoothly which they rarely do.
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Old 03-09-2018, 03:14 AM   #21
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You are "THE MAN" HH!! I only wish that I knew how to write code/program.
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Old 03-09-2018, 09:29 AM   #22
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The obvious reply to you Vinnie is that I wish I knew how to code, too.

Programming is both rewarding and frustrating for me. I have given up on the scratch tool at least three times but there was this desire in me to overcome the obstacles. It's close to being finished, so hopefully nothing will stop me from getting a working version completed soon.
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Old 03-09-2018, 12:12 PM   #23
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Murphy's Law, of course. Scratches didn't work correctly due to the incorrect parsing of the xml file. I told you that I hated parsing. Fixed version sent to the testers so hopefully they will report that it works now. Thank you testers.
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Old 03-09-2018, 03:11 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by headhawg View Post
The obvious reply to you Vinnie is that I wish I knew how to code, too.

Programming is both rewarding and frustrating for me. I have given up on the scratch tool at least three times but there was this desire in me to overcome the obstacles. It's close to being finished, so hopefully nothing will stop me from getting a working version completed soon.

You are something else HH......

Have a great day and a terrific weekend. Thank you for all of your efforts sir!
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Old 03-09-2018, 10:30 PM   #25
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The good news: the modified data file loads in Equisim, Excel, and Handifast.
The bad news: the modified file will NOT load into any of NCG's programs or Pandy's PowerPace.

I have spent way too much time on this, and am at the point where this just doesn't make sense to me. There must be some minor issue with writing back the data file with some rows (horse data) missing that some programs don't like when they try to load the new file. The kicker is that every field lines up perfectly in Excel; no data appears out of place. You would think that all programs would either load it or not.

I will take one more look at it tomorrow but I am fresh out of ideas.
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Old 03-10-2018, 12:10 AM   #26
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I think I know what the issue is. In the data file the first horse in each race contains fields of race information that no other horse has in its record. Specifically I am referring to Fields 16 and 225 and there may be others. I suspect that the NCG programs and other programs that won't work with a modified data file rely on those fields for some kind of data processing.

For example, perhaps a handicapping program won't process a non-thoroughbred race. So maybe the program searches Field 16 for the word "thoroughbred" and when it doesn't find the word it doesn't load the race. Or maybe the program is parsing out the race information from those fields. Without the source code I don't know exactly what the NCG programs look for but I suspect it's something exclusive to the information in the record of the first horse in each race. Obviously if that information is missing because the horse was scratched and its record (data row) is no longer in the modified file the program won't work properly.

This also explains why Handifast HHX and Equisim work -- they are not reliant upon the information found in the first horse's record so they happily load the modified file that is missing the scratched horse(s) data.

Bottom line? I could probably do a workaround for the scratch program that won't delete the data for the first horse in each race but that kind of defeats the purpose of the program.

Last edited by headhawg; 03-10-2018 at 12:13 AM.
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Old 03-10-2018, 02:15 PM   #27
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I finished coding the workaround which I am referring to as "Safe Mode". I figured what the hell -- I already have a bunch of hours into this so I may as well see it to completion.

So what does Safe Mode do? It prevents the record of the first horse from being deleted no matter if it's in the xml file or if the user manually scratches it. I have done some minimal testing and it appears to work fine. The programs that didn't work correctly with the modified data file now appear to run normally.

What does the workaround mean to the user? It simply means that you will have to manually scratch the first horse in every race from within your program of choice (e.g., the NCG programs) if necessary. The data will still be in the modified file even if the horse was scratched from within the scratch program. It will be minimal extra work as all of the other horses scratched by my program will not have their data in the modified file so they don't show up as needing to be scratched.

I still have to do some more testing and write up some documentation, and then code in some minor details and do some code clean-up, but I will release this as soon as I can. I won't send this version to the beta testers; I figure that the users here will tell me what's wrong with it.
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Old 03-10-2018, 08:37 PM   #28
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HDST version 1.00

So here goes. I am attaching the scratch program. Officially it's called Headhawg's Datafile Scratch Tool or HDST. It seems to work fine but there are bugs left in it no doubt -- I just haven't come across them yet. There are also a few things that I haven't implemented yet either. But before you use it there are a few things to know. Read the Readme.txt file! As people probably won't -- at least not at first -- I will summarize:
  1. The author is NOT responsible for any computer damage or data loss. HDST writes nothing to the Windows registry. There isn't even an installation program. However, if you have any doubts about my coding skills then don't download, install, or use it.
  2. No user support or warranty is expressed or implied. I will do my best to help out here on PA, but there is no guarantee of that. I almost quit writing the code for this darn program so I reserve the right to just let this thing die a natural death.
  3. HDST is released as freeware which essentially means there is no fee to use the program. It is NOT open source and the author retains all rights.
  4. From the Readme: If you use HDST and like it (and the author assumes that using = liking) please consider making a donation supporting the PaceAdvantage.com website. Details for doing so can be found at the site. If you're feeling really generous, please make the donation on behalf of headhawg. He would like to have VIP status, even if it is by proxy.
Installation and use: Extract the HDST.zip file to a drive/folder of your choosing. If extracted properly you should see the HDST folder with a couple of subfolders and some files. Don't mess with the contents or HDST won't run.

Double-click the HDST.exe file to launch the program. The main screen buttons are self-explanatory but include tool tips if you hover. You can manually scratch without the Equibase file, but the program will use the xml file as a starting point if you so desire. Be patient when downloading -- I haven't put in a progress bar yet but a message box will pop up when the download is finished. NOTE: I have not put in a date check yet, so you will experience some weirdness if you use mismatched data and xml files.

You can only load one datafile at a time. My suggestion is to put the data files in the main HDST folder. The files must be UNzipped.

The scratch screen shows running horses on the left (in black) and scratched horses on the right (in red). Of course, not literally horses but horse NAMES. Use the buttons to scratch/unscratch. Single click to select horses; the program accepts multiple item selection.

When done with scratches click the Save New File button. HDST will write a new file in the same folder as the original file. If you follow my suggestion that will be in the main HDST folder. HDST appends an "m" to the file name. For example, AQU0310.DRF would be named AQU0310m.DRF. Be smart and use copies of your data files. See #1 above.

I think that's it. I hope HDST works correctly and people find it useful. Please provide feedback and any bug reports by making a reply in this thread. Good luck.
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Old 03-11-2018, 08:37 AM   #29
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Thanks so much for all your hard work, headhawg! I'll be giving it a try today with NCG's programs and I'll report back. Today's a good day to try it, the wife is out of town!
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Old 03-11-2018, 08:59 AM   #30
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I'm attaching yesterday' (3/10) scratch file. Put it in the main HDST folder so that you can give the program a test run using yesterday's data files. Once you use the Download Scratch File button it will overwrite the xml file which, of course, will be fine for today's races. I will add a feature that will let you archive the scratch files so that you can use HDST with previous racing dates.

Floyd...when you use HDST today and you're wife still hears you screaming about scratches while she's out of town we will both be in trouble.

I forgot to put this in the instructions post -- don't forget about the Safe Mode workaround. HDST will NOT delete the first horse in any race. That is not a bug it's a feature. See post #27 for an explanation.
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Last edited by headhawg; 03-11-2018 at 09:11 AM. Reason: added info
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