[squawksarah]

Looks good but may be very slightly high, although that's a bit fussy.
I have noted that it does not save the option on closing and re-opening, so it needs to be selected each time.
I attach a screen shot.

If you can't see the image it is at:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b027dab/n/Aviasoft.Jpeg

Thanks Alex

I will fix the WVGA 'save' and also lower the buttons a small amount (I am guessing here because I do not have WVGA) !

Sarah

[squawksarah]

New VGA/WVGA CAB

All issues fixed.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0289ef ... GA_CAB.rar

Looks and works great. Screenshot attached.

If you can't see the image it is at
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b028cb3/n/Aviasoft2.Jpg

[squawksarah]

Hi Birders!

I photographed a Mandarin Duck yesterday at a local lake.



I am wondering if it should be in the software? Apparently it lives in Britain as an escaped 'feral' bird. There are maybe 2000 pairs here in the UK living and breeding in the wilds.

Any opinions?

Sarah

Yes I think it should be included. I am just reviewing a much longer list of birds which includes Mandarin. There are a lot of vagrant bids and introduced birds on the new list. I am suggesting that the GROUP2 list should now be
SEABIRDS VAGRANT
WATER BIRDS VAGRANT
BIRDS OF PREY VAGRANT
PASSERINES VAGRANT
NON PASSERINES VAGRANT
PASSERINES INTRODUCTION
NON PASSERINES INTRODUCTION
UNUSED 22
UNUSED 23
UNUSED 24
UNUSED 25
UNUSED 26
UNUSED 27
UNUSED 28
instead of all unused. The INDEX1 list the text, drawings and photos are ready, I am starting on the index files but I'm first looking to see if I can automate that on OpenOffice Basic, the first time I've used that, because it seems quite time consuming otherwise. If that works I should be done perhaps by the weekend. I attach the Mandarin pictures I was intending to use. Yours would probably be better

instead of all unused.

Hi ZoomIn,
Sarah has extended the number of groups and indexes also after my request.
In fact with the current situation , I've been able to divide groups into a set of "near" homogeneous species. Just to be clear this is my Group+Group2 content:

PROCELLARIE
SVASSI
PELLICANI
CIGNI e OCHE
ANATRE
AIRONI CICOGNE e FENICOTTERI
RAPACI
GALLIFORMI
GRUIFORMI
TRAMPOLIERI
GABBIANI
COLOMBI e TORTORE
STRIGIFORMI
CARACIFORMI
PICCHI
RONDINI
ALLODOLE
MOTACILLIDAE
AVERLE
MERLI e TORDI
SILVIE
CINCE
ZIGOLI
FRINGUELLI
PASSERI
CORVI
GAZZE e GHIANDAIE
IND. LIBERO

It is in Italian but I'm sure you understand what I mean. The last index (IND.LIBERO=FREE address) is tactically filled with birds seen in a given occasion).
If you look at the 700+ species which Lobo took out from Collins, you can see many non European birds, but grouped with the Europeans...
So I cannot support the idea to use so many indexes for vagrants: rather I will mix them among similar species as I did for Mandarine Duck.
In fact vagrants are part of missing species: in Southern Italy you can find species (vagrants?) coming from NorthAfrica. I've added to the original Sarah's lists some species taken out from Lobo's. As usual I may have made errors but this is the line I will keep.
A last point: Pocket Birds (as all the guides by Sarah) has been developed with "simplicity" in mind: so the easier the better. If you happen to see an unknown species (let's use Mandarine for instance) you may quite easily decide that this is a DUCK and look inside DUCKS to find a similarity, not inside "Ducks" and "Vagrants"...
I'll be happy to have your comments.
Thanks
Amedeo

[squawksarah]

instead of all unused.

Hi ZoomIn,
Sarah has extended the number of groups and indexes also after my request.
In fact with the current situation , I've been able to divide groups into a set of "near" homogeneous species. Just to be clear this is my Group+Group2 content:

PROCELLARIE
SVASSI
PELLICANI
CIGNI e OCHE
ANATRE
AIRONI CICOGNE e FENICOTTERI
RAPACI
GALLIFORMI
GRUIFORMI
TRAMPOLIERI
GABBIANI
COLOMBI e TORTORE
STRIGIFORMI
CARACIFORMI
PICCHI
RONDINI
ALLODOLE
MOTACILLIDAE
AVERLE
MERLI e TORDI
SILVIE
CINCE
ZIGOLI
FRINGUELLI
PASSERI
CORVI
GAZZE e GHIANDAIE
IND. LIBERO

It is in Italian but I'm sure you understand what I mean. The last index (IND.LIBERO=FREE address) is tactically filled with birds seen in a given occasion).
If you look at the 700+ species which Lobo took out from Collins, you can see many non European birds, but grouped with the Europeans...
So I cannot support the idea to use so many indexes for vagrants: rather I will mix them among similar species as I did for Mandarine Duck.
In fact vagrants are part of missing species: in Southern Italy you can find species (vagrants?) coming from NorthAfrica. I've added to the original Sarah's lists some species taken out from Lobo's. As usual I may have made errors but this is the line I will keep.
A last point: Pocket Birds (as all the guides by Sarah) has been developed with "simplicity" in mind: so the easier the better. If you happen to see an unknown species (let's use Mandarine for instance) you may quite easily decide that this is a DUCK and look inside DUCKS to find a similarity, not inside "Ducks" and "Vagrants"...
I'll be happy to have your comments.
Thanks
Amedeo

I agree with Amedeo really.

When I saw that Mandarin duck the first place I looked was under 'ducks' because it looked like one (short tail and beak) and was hanging out with a bunch of Mallards. I guess it is quite unusual to come across a rare migrant or one of these escapee types but I doubt I'd know where to look but in the similar-types groups. I intend to check through Amedeo's 140mb VGA data set and upload it as the 'official' main VGA/WVGA folder. It would be great if any future changes to the birds lists would fit with this folder. I wonder if there are many still outstanding?

[squawksarah]

New CABs for QVGA and for VGA/WVGA posted in main post.

Changes...

- WVGA display option in VGA CAB

- Automatic detection and setting of Storage Card

Hi Everybody.
I would confirm that I will do the lists by species regardless of being introduced or vagrant. If others wish differently I'm hoping the tool I am developing will allow them to arrange them easily. I am having difficulty with that, and I may need to move from Openoffice basic to Microsoft basic, which I'm trying to escape from, but I understand that better.
To get away from my problem for a while, I am going to release a beta version of the PBEdata folder over 750 species. Initially it will be in vga/wvga with photos but without the changed species lists, although the main list is complete.
I have been testing it, and if anyone wishes to try it, feedback will help the final issue. If anyone wishes a qvga copy, it won't be a problem, just let me know.
I have incorporated the sounds and species maps by pucci463, enlarging the species maps to 350pixels where needed. I trust that is ok.

Sarah,
I have found that in the 10 cases where I do not have a 1300 pixel image, xxp.jpx that it shows the next higher image, not no image available. I'll put in images to correct that in the next release, and try to find the missing maps and sounds, but not until after I solve the lists issue. It won't eventually matter.
The search does not seem to work in Latin, but that may be uncorrected, rather than a problem with 3.6.4, I'm not sure.
Thanks again for such good programmes.

The release can be found at
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5161040/PBEdata.rar
and
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8TTEVT2J

[squawksarah]

Alex, this is exellent news!

Once you are happy with the new 750 bird release I will copy the link to replace the current main post link. I will also make a QVGA dataset because lots of people still use QVGA.

I will also have a look at the Latin 'search' error. I have to admit I didn't consider what would happen if one searched in Latin rather than English. So it is probably something fairly simple to correct. Also I am releasing the birds cabs in both non-HTC VGA and in HTC-VGA for the gps side of the program to work on all devices. I wish to include a Google Maps POI file alongside the normal GPS recording file so that you can view all birds on the Google mapping system (Amedeo's request).

Also the new cabs include a 'sound spacer' so that when in single-step mode the program doesn't 'jump' over a bird.

Is there anything else that I should consider implementing?

I can make a qvga set very quickly, so I'll do that. I have everything ready. I think it is 250 pixel and 650 pixel maximum.
I do think it might be wise to keep the 400 bird version as well, because most people will never see any of the other birds and the size alone is an issue. Translation of a larger version would be an issue too for other language speakers.
It may be an improvement to go from whatever is selected, say a photo, when going from one species to another, rather than returning to the sketch every time, but it's still very quick.
I like the changes you suggest, but I find it really easy and simple to use, so I don't think anything else is really needed.

[squawksarah]

I can make a qvga set very quickly, so I'll do that. I have everything ready. I think it is 250 pixel and 650 pixel maximum.

Thanks

I do think it might be wise to keep the 400 bird version as well, because most people will never see any of the other birds and the size alone is an issue. Translation of a larger version would be an issue too for other language speakers.

OK. We could have a Basic Lite version (the current one) and an all inclusive Pro version (the new one) of the dataset, maybe?

It may be an improvement to go from whatever is selected, say a photo, when going from one species to another, rather than returning to the sketch every time, but it's still very quick.

Yes, I understand. I believe the original reason for forcing it to reset to the main illustration was because the text page took so long to display that, in text display mode, you could not move readily from one bird to the next without long delays. I don't think that applies now.

I like the changes you suggest, but I find it really easy and simple to use, so I don't think anything else is really needed.

I have to admit I quite like simple programs and sometimes programmers mess them up by over-complication. That was my concern over all the extras and options this one has. Sometimes I wonder if we should have a Lite version of the program that has all these professional extras stripped out, a bit like the other nature programs I have made. Simple and easy to use for those who are just starting out with birding.

I really appreciate all the hard work you, Lobo, Amedeo and Ponrepo have put into improving this software. Thanks Alex.

Hi Everybody.
I would confirm that I will do the lists by species regardless of being introduced or vagrant. If others wish differently I'm hoping the tool I am developing will allow them to arrange them easily. I am having difficulty with that, and I may need to move from Openoffice basic to Microsoft basic, which I'm trying to escape from, but I understand that better.

......

Alex,
there is a point which you should consider while writing your routines.
Species are defined by ID,Local name and Latin name.
Now if you add a new species you will probably use a new ID which falls far away from "similar" species.
So when building a new/updated index probably you won't see similar species proposed toghether.
What you need is a second number to be used to build (and rebuild as needed) the right sequence.
Just for a better explanation, I'm adding from time to time new items into what I call "boletales" in Pocket Fungi.
IDs are not in sequence so I add this seq.nr. and run a sort before starting to build indexes.
My process is based on Excel, columns are:
seq.nr. / ID / Local name / Latin name and many index colum as needed. Put "X" under index when an item has to be included. Sort by index column and seq.nr. , copy the area with ID+Local name+Latin name and paste inside an empty indexN.txt.
Now the real annoing work begins: moving the 3 fiels into 3 lines as many times as are the number of items in that index. At the end ALL the "boletales" will show toghether.
Do not know if this is clear enough: let me know in any case.
Thanks
Pucci/Amedeo

The qvga version of the PBEdata can be found at:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E0JJBEFW
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5161040/qvga/PB ... BEdata.rar

Sarah
I'm happy with whatever you decide.

Pucci/Amedeo
I see what you have done. The task I am setting myself is a little simpler, still using Excel or equivalent, but I am trying to do the annoying part automatically because of the large numbers involved. I already have the spreadshhet set up. My real dificulty is that I don't have much experience with Openoffice Basic, so I will probably revert to Microsoft to do the tedious part.

Pucci/Amedeo
I see what you have done. The task I am setting myself is a little simpler, still using Excel or equivalent, but I am trying to do the annoying part automatically because of the large numbers involved. I already have the spreadshhet set up. My real dificulty is that I don't have much experience with Openoffice Basic, so I will probably revert to Microsoft to do the tedious part.

Please , let me insist on the need of keeping/forcing a predefined sequence.
With this fixed , I'll be very happy to have something supporting the "non creative" part of the task.
Tks a lot for your work.
A.