NaME - the Name Management Engine

Version 0.7 by Nathan Wilson (nathan at collectivesource dot com) © 1999, 2000, 2001
released under the GNU Public License

Future Plans and Needs

Name is far from complete even as a first real release. The problems range from important (it only runs on a Mac and has no web interface) to minor (it would be nice if genera were abbreviated in species lists). However, this release adds an important key. It is now possible for non-programmers to extend the database in a resonably intuitive way. My hope is that this will allow anyone who is interested to start contributing in the same spirit of of openness that the software for this project has been developed. Open Source/Free Software purists will complain about my choice to make the GUI based on Metrowerks proprietory GUI package, PowerPlant. I would love to see the GUI ported to a freer (read Linux based) package. My next major plan for the project is to switch over to a Java-based interface with a non-graphical database backend which will hopefully greatly exapand its usability and the user base. Anyone with experience writing software are particularly encouraged to help out.

Current Wish List

The following is a list of all the known issues and desired features as of Sept. 2000. I have roughly categorized them according to the type of issue (File, GUI, Internal, Performance and New Features). Following each item I have given an order of manitude estimate of how long it would take me to fix these things. The order I will work on them in is indeterminate and will heavily depend on which things bother me and which things I get particular feedback on from you the users. Items followed by a question mark (?) are features that I thought of, but haven't decided if they are a Good Idea yet. If you have an opinion on them, I'd love to hear it. These are items that are very likely to not get addressed unless someone complains. Finally if the estimate is (*), it means that I have worked on the issue some and didn't find a good solution or it was more complicated than I wanted to mess with at the time.

File issues:

Genus abbreviations in species list? (hour)
A syntax in the ASCII Extension Format for handling a name becoming Incertae Sedis after having an accepted parent at a lower level? (*)

GUI Issues:

Indicate in the Save panel whether they are saving a DB or a List (hour)
List Windows loaded from a file are initially locked? Seems like a safer default. (hour)
Titles for search windows? Not sure how to distinguish them. Perhaps DB name and a search window id number. (hour)
List number of selected items in a search window? (hour)
Java interface (month)
Widening the list window doesn't widen the column width so redrawing when cells are collapsed and expanded doesn't work right for names larger than the width (*)
Make selected genera visible when panel is inactive (*)
Level menu on under window doesn't redraw correctly (*)
Make it so PPSearchWindows actually closes rather than just hiding. These windows are hidden to avoid a nasty memory problem. Again I'm hoping this problem will go away. (*)

Performance:

Slow if select on a large set of species. The first thing to look at here are the number of redraws/repopulations that happen in the Search Windows. The next thing to try is to cache Filter search results. (day)

New features:

Cut and paste between List windows (day)
Collection notes (day)
Name authors, e.g. Boletus edulis Fries (day)
Option for re-analysing a species list for name changes (day)
Fast loading file for allowing different accepted names (week)
GUI for managing accepted names, adding new names and editing links (week)
Common names. See "Nicknames" in the design document. (week)
Database merging. This includes providing a mechanism for uniquely identifying a database. Interface-wise this would mean extending File->Add to load all types of database formats. (week)
Undo (week)
Full Collection Info. See design document (week)
Printing. Would like to be able to generate species tags for displays. (week)
Support hybrids and clades. (week)
Taxon discussions (week)
Network input. Figure out how to really get the database set up for Internet access. (month)
Linux GUI (month)
Window GUI (month)
Turn collection lists into a real database that allows for comparisons between dates or locations. (month)