Mark,
Apologies for the slight delay in responding.
PROlog
This is a software program written in Microsoft Visual Basic by a member of
Datchet Water Sailing Club, to replace a 'black box' system called a
Maritimer which the club purchased in the mid-80's.
The specification was for a system which would help a race team by
controlling the start sequence for them and recording the times of race
events, be they the times of start events (start signals, individual or
general recall etc) or finish times. Think of it as an electronic time
recorder at its most basic.
The system does not have to be used to control the start sequence if the
race team do not want it to, it then just records the time a button is
pressed to make a sound signal, if the system is switched on of course 
The software also makes use of the Microsoft Speech API to allow the race
team to be informed of the upcoming flag movements and to count down to the
sound signal. This speech facility is also made use of when recording finish
times as the software speaks the seconds at which the sound signal at the
finish line was made. We at Datchet always try to make a sound signal when a
competitor crosses the finish line to indicate that they have been seen.
There have been debates as to whether this is correct or not in other
forums!
We have now installed a dedicated computer running Windows 98 from flash
memory, no hard disk used to keep power requirements down, installed on our
frontline committee boat. We also run the software on a laptop on another
committee boat when the need arises.
I have made available on the Datchet Water SC web site for download in PDF
format an article written by the software author for the RYA Race Management
news letter in which he describes PROlog and its operation. The link is near
the bottom of the following page
http://www.dwsc.co.uk/clubsailing/race_management.htm
If you have any questions I will be pleased to try and answer them.
Kind regards,
Huw
···
-----Original Message-----
From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf
Of Mark Townsend
Sent: 30 June 2005 16:53
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [sailwave] Sailnumber wizard - real-time finish times
Thanks Huw...
If you have links to either ProLog or Race Day I wiould be interested in
reveiwing them.
I agree with your assessment.
Colin, I'll take a look at Huw's suggestions
Mark Townsend
s_mark_townsend@hotmail.com
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Huw Pearce" <huw.pearce@bcs.org.uk>
Reply-To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
To: <sailwave@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [sailwave] Sailnumber wizard - real-time finish times
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:38:06 +0100
Mark,
I don't know if you know about two software programs which do some if not
all of the things you have suggested, but they are separate programs to
Sailwave which can provide exports that Sailwave can then import.
I am biased because I helped with the specification of one of them,
PROlog.
The other is called RaceDay which is sort of a cross between Sailwave and
PROlog in that it can manage the start sequence for you as well as record
the finish times in a manner that you have proposed. RaceDay can also
produce the results for that race but not series results.
If you are interested I can provide more details on PROlog and a link to
RaceDay.
I personally think that Colin should continue making Sailwave the best
racing results program available and not add this functionality in, but as
I
said earlier I am biased as I have access to a software for Race
Management
;-)
Kind regards,
Huw Pearce
Datchet Water SC
-----Original Message-----
From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com]On
Behalf
Of Mark Townsend
Sent: 30 June 2005 15:22
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [sailwave] Sailnumber wizard - real-time finish times
Colin I tried out your real-time fininish time option and found some
problems and have some suggestions for improvement.
When using the real-time option the major thing we wish to capture is
the
finish time of each and every boat. So in real time it real needs to
act
like a recording stopwatch, every time you press enter it records a
finish
time, regardless if you have a sail number or start number.
If you try using the wizard the way it is currently designed it is
impossible to accurately record close finishes. When a group of three
boats
cross the finish line overlappped in a downwind finish it is impossible
to
enter the sail number, press enter, record the start time and press
enter
again. In practice the finish is called as "near boat, far boat, middle
boat... " which occurs in a 1-2 second period, then you figure out the
sail
numbers and match them with the finish times you get the finish.
In order for that to work several changes would need to be made to the
wizard.
1) Having entered the race no. and checked the real-time option on the
sail
number wizard. The next panel that you should have would enable you to
enter
the start times for all the boats/fleets.
2) The third panel would contain the sail number and finish time on the
same
panel, , the position and elapsed option should be removed for
real-time.
Currently one panel asks for the sail number the next if it is a
position,
elapsed time, or start and finish time. By the time you have filled out
all
those fields you have missed about the next six boats finish.
3) In real-time mode you should not need to eneter a sail number,
create
a
dummy sailwave boat and associate the finish time with it. The scorer
can
sort it all out later.
Mark Townsend
s_mark_townsend@hotmail.com
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Colin Jenkins" <colin@sailwave.com>
Reply-To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
To: <sailwave@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [sailwave] Sailnumber wizard - start times
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:47:21 +0100
Ian, this is fixed in 1.75 which will be available soon.
COlin
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Ian Payne
> Sent: 29 June 2005 12:33
> To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [sailwave] Sailnumber wizard - start times
>
>
> Thanks Colin, I believe that Ralph sorted my original query.
> I do have another query though, when doing average laps, when you
> entered the first boat and put the number of laps completed, this was
> remembered for subsequent boats in previous versions, but now it
clears
> on each entry and you have to re-enter it each time.
> Cheers,
> Ian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Colin Jenkins
> Sent: 29 June 2005 09:53
> To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [sailwave] Sailnumber wizard - start times
>
> Hi Ian,
>
> Sailwave 'guess's places and start times based on what start a boat
is
> in.
> If you have different fleets, racing in different ways or with
different
> start times etc you must add starts for each in each race. This is
> probably
> why the start time is resetting all the time.
>
> i.e. the starts tell Sailwave how the boats sailed which the sailno
> wizard
> then makes use of.
>
> Regards,
> Colin J
> www.sailwave.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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