You (or rather I :) can thank the software programmers
for Microsoft windows.
Remember the old 8.3 name structure? Arrghh.
As soon as we had the LFN (long file names) in 98 & XP
a whole new world of database stringing became available.
I still don't get it though, regarding working together.
If people such as we on this forum, got together
and exchanged a common text string format in say Xcel SS format
we could just about do away with basic stamp catalogues altogether
for searching and identifying stamps.
If we, for example had
AUST SGXXXX (1967) TXXXX 40c fauna lizard [die cut) coombs
We could then swap between each other, lists of numbers.
It takes about an hour to type in a year of numbers,
they can be scott or SG or no number at all, it really doesn't matter.
The owners own list can easily be modified or even adding a
further string or adding a column in excel for say "want list"
"missing" , [perf variety] or whatever.
By doing subset searches in a free database (I use works or openoffice) you can search in nanoseconds by designer, engraver, topic, value or whatever your little heart desires.
I do that with all my stamps. If I am sorting a bag of Aussie
a simple search of 2c shows 12 stamps in the whole Aussie catalogue
and what year it was produced etc&etc, it is so simple.
With my "glass insulators" I typed in "insulator"
and it searched the entire 340,000 in a few seconds.
I am sure there are more, but I am limited to what
I put in the file descriptive in the first place.
I am unsure what Excel limitations are, but in MSWorks
one could have every stamp on the planet listed
on just 14 databases.
Posted 05/16/2010 6:27 pm
