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Return of the Custom PostScript Business Chart
2 January 2007
Back in 1994, we had a regular job creating customised business graphics and charts for a
client's clients directly from a database using the Adobe PostScript language. We were reminded with a little
job over the Christmas period how much this approach still has to offer.
Firstly, hand-crafted PostScript files allow you to draw any graph or diagram you
can imagine and reasonably describe. So you can have an appropriate chart to suit the data or job
in hand; much better than being stuck with the choices provided by applications such as Microsoft Excel
or, even worse, having to draw it 'freehand' in software such as Photoshop or Illustrator.
Secondly, calculations and plotting can be carried out in the PostScript code or in
custom-written software which generates the appropriate PostScript code to draw a graph. This makes
it easy to create custom graphs and charts directly from databases or survey results. For example,
you can quickly produce fifty charts for a report or automatically produce twenty charts twice a day
for display on a financial website. A little bit of intelligence also avoids having to individually
correct each chart... for example, our PostScript pie chart plotter used to slide labels and
key-lines around by itself so that all were visible without cropped or overlapped text.
We were reminded of these ideas over Christmas when we were asked to produce examples
of a three-dimensional 'triangle' plot for a paper on statistical techniques. The
chart type was new enough not to be supported by any packaged software available to the client and
the calculations involved to locate individual points made it difficult and error-prone to produce the
charts in a drawing package or even by hand.
Our solution was to create a PostScript program which, fed with suitable input data,
performed the relevant calculations itself and output a suitable chart. The software was executed on
a PC under GhostScript to output a series of high-resolution jpeg files for the publication.
Bringing fairies together over the World Wide Web
22 November 2006
Strange Software has developed a new membership database and mailing list application for
The Fairyland Trust, a charity which promotes conservation of the natural environment among young people through a
mixture of education, creative play and magic. The new multi-user distributed database provides a customised solution
for a small business whose volunteer workers are scattered across the UK and who often work outside normal office hours.
The database is held on a Strange Software server and accessed over the web, allowing
records to be viewed, entered or amended from any location with a working web browser. True multi-user access with
password-protected accounts and record locking has allowed the Trust to split a huge data entry and verification task
among its volunteers without having to install database software for each volunteer separately and without having to
physically segment the database.
As well as recording more complete information about its supporters, the database's mailing facility
lets staff create and send regular or one-off messages to particular members or groups of members. This includes a
regular newsletter, an automatic 'Welcome' message sent to new supporters as their details are added and 'canned'
useful replies and messages such as booking confirmations, despatch notes and reminders.
Other benefits of a client-server database hosted on the web include automatic daily off-site back-up,
a detailed audit trail and log of activity on the system and the ability to easily maintain, adapt, update and improve
the software as necessary. For example, a bug discovered in the first days of use was fixed - for all users - in 40
minutes. More recently, the trust requested a new record editing option and we were able to make the new feature
available to all users in under an hour.
E-Learning CD-ROM produced for UK government department
1 September 2006
Strange Software has completed a specialist training CD-ROM to help with the introduction of
some new government regulations. Spanning around 800 pages covering over 350 topics in eight sections, the project
provided a considerable production challenge, with multiple authors and reviewers in several locations and organisations
and a 'moving target' in that the content required repeated revision as the relevant regulations themselves were
developed and revised before their introduction.
Strange provided initial designs and structure for the CD along with UI design, sofware development,
authoring, editing, compilation, production and internal testing. A requirement that the material should readily adapt to
future use on the web was met by formatting the course material as a set of HTML pages. Source text was developed in a
loosely XML-based mark-up from which final pages were generated with custom-written software, allowing for rapid
revision, topics and chapters to be easily rearranged or restructured and visual design and layout to be globally
adjusted and changed as the project progressed.
Internally, we used the Trac project management system linked to Subversion version management
software to manage the source files for the project from a central webserver, allowing change requests, corrections,
bugs and amendments to be logged and followed up and multiple authors to amend content simultaneously. Regular
prototype versions of the package were made available on-line over the web from a server at Strange's Norfolk office
to allow client reviews and commentary during development.
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