Change in Text Stats Format?

[Digital Parasite]

Howard, did you change the format of the Text based team stats today? It seems that the external stats engines like MacNN, Dyy's, and mine are all fubared. :confused: I believe it is because there are now commas in the # of structures complete.

Any particular reason why you changed this without warning?

Jeff.

[IronBits]

Ya... I caught that one to.
Why do we need COMMAS in a TEXT file for STATS engines to parse is beyond me.
You can DISPLAY commas on the fly for HUMANS to read without modifying the one the computers use.

I added a quick Perl trick to strip all COMMAS until they get that fixed.
Of course, doesn't help one bit now that all 3rd party STATS sites databases are polluted and may have to be purged and started over. :(

[Brian the Fist]

I hate to tell you but HUMANs read text too (especially those who like to check their stats on wireless portable devices). Anyhow, sheesh. First you complain there's no commas, so I add them, then you complain there's commas :bang: :haddock:
I'm sure the stats-keepers can figure out how to do something simple as get rid of commas if they can plot all those fancy graphs and things.

As for giving 'warning' of the change, frankly I wouldn't know who to tell. I'm sure they can get it straightened out in no time though.

[pointwood]

Originally posted by Brian the Fist
As for giving 'warning' of the change, frankly I wouldn't know who to tell. I'm sure they can get it straightened out in no time though. A post on your fine news page and/or maybe here in the forum would have been nice.

[runestar]

To all those that maintain stat sites (not just your own team or a select few teams) I'd like to keep track of the stats sites.

Would you drop me an e-mail @ admiralrunestar@netscape.net or drop me a note in our folding forum (see tag).

Thanks,

RuneStar½
PBB

[runestar]

BTW, Since the stats are tab-delimited, why would the commas be messing things up? I mean yes, commas can be used as seperators, but since Howard never has used commas for seperators...

RS½

[Paratima]

Originally posted by runestar½
why would the commas be messing things up?Murphey lives!

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by runestar½
BTW, Since the stats are tab-delimited, why would the commas be messing things up? I mean yes, commas can be used as seperators, but since Howard never has used commas for seperators...

It depends on the stats system. In my case, my parser was using tabs to seperate each section of the stats but my integer variable didn't understand what "134,435" meant so it stored it as 134 instead of 134435. Now that I know what the problem/change is I was able to modify my parser to remove the commas first before processing the text as a number.

Jeff.

[bwkaz]

The C atoi() function (a string to integer converter) stops processing input on the first non-digit it sees. That might be behind some of the problems, depending on languages people are using and their implementations.

[IronBits]

Originally posted by Brian the Fist
I hate to tell you but HUMANs read text too (especially those who like to check their stats on wireless portable devices).
Point is mute, damage has been done. I remember in the beginning 'we', (stats engine guys) requested a pure TEXT file to use, which you did promptly, and we were so grateful for. ;)


Anyhow, sheesh. First you complain there's no commas, so I add them, then you complain there's commas :bang: :haddock:

I understand your frustrations... :(


I'm sure the stats-keepers can figure out how to do something simple as get rid of commas if they can plot all those fancy graphs and things.

Their abilities to code is not in question :) I know they can, the problem stems from the fact they didn't know the change was coming, so they couldn't do anything about it before hand... and now it's too late. :(


As for giving 'warning' of the change, frankly I wouldn't know who to tell. I'm sure they can get it straightened out in no time though.
I suggest you make all your announcements here in the official project supported Forums where everyone comes to get the lastest information.
I almost never go to the www.distributedfolding.org site because I can get the stats I need from other sources, and I can get the all the information I need from the Forum, so I thought.
It's all water under the bridge however, so don't worry about it.
I'm sure there is a valuable lesson to be learned here someplace ;)
Thanks for all the hard work you and the gang do over there !
I'll bet you are super glad that CASP5 thing is over, so we can get back to taking a nap :) :sleepy:
:D