POLL: Software Chosen ATL Biographical Data

Would you like/need/use my software? Should I finish it?


  • Total voters
    33

Zagan

Donor
Note:
I placed this thread (with poll) in this forum (Before 1900) because only those who write TLs spanning several centuries need a lot of entirely new ATL characters (usually royalty).
If someone believes that the forum is wrong, they may tell me or contact a moderator.


Synopsis:
If your TL keeps going on after more than a generation from the POD, you will usually find yourself in need of entirely new characters for your dynasties, etc.

For an ATL character you will have to come up with a lot of information:
- date of birth;
- gender;
- name (if born on/near a major Saint's day, take that into consideration, etc);
- spouse;
- date of marriage (make sure that it falls in a Sunday, take into consideration Julian / Gregorain Calendar, etc);
- number of issue (and their sex, order, twins, postnatal survival, etc);
- other optional marital data (date of divorce*, date of death of spouse*, date of remarriage*, etc);
- monarchical data (date of start of reign, date of coronation, date of abdication/ouster*, subsequent reigns*, etc);
- lifespan (date of death);
- post death data (date of burial, date of beatification/sanctification*, etc);
- maybe lots of other data.

* = if applicable.

How do we do it?
1. Skip it (do not provide more data that is actually needed for the progression of the TL);
2. Make up the data as we need it (for the sake of the TL, we may want a king to die in a precise year, etc);
3. Create the data yourself, taking into account a lot of factors (usual lifespans in the period of your TL, usual number of children, usual marriageable age, etc);
4. Let a software do it using statistical modeling and a good deal of randomization.

Method 1 impacts the history book feel of story, Methods 2 and 3 may enter significant human bias (as us humans are notoriously poor at picking random numbers) and Method 4, while the most statistically correct, needs either a lot of tedious calculations or a dedicated software.


Discussion:
As a software programmer, I have the habit of creating small and unpolished helper programs for all my needs, including this one.

You may have a look to a post of mine which made heavy use of the software. For me, it would have been quite difficult to create it without software help.

Some further discussion in the same thread...
Is the program you wrote something that's easy to share? I sometimes get the same feeling that I introduce too much human bias into my own family trees.... Just thinking it's something I could possibly use for my own TL....
While computer programming is not my cup of tea, I'd bet that there are some here who could be keen use it for their own TLs.
... gave me the idea to create this poll.

However...
As of now, the so-called program is only a large and messy bunch of codelines in several Visual Studio C# files.
It does not have any kind of User Interface, not graphic, not text, not even command-line. The only way to use it is to manually modify the constants directly into the code, re-compile and re-run the program.
Because of that, I believe that it would be difficult to use by another programmer and impossible to use by someone who does not know programming and does not have Visual Studio.

I would like to share the program but I am really ashamed of its current shape. I did not refine it because it is just fine for my personal use.

I will make a poll and if sufficient people seem to be interested in it, I will spend a few days to wrap a GUI around the barebone code and post it as a ZIP attachment on this forum.


In a nutshell:
1. I have a barely functional software, which while good enough for me (a programmer and its creator), will be between very difficult and impossible to use by other AH members.
2. To make the software nice and user-friendly, I will have to devote a significant amount of time to it (10 - 20 hours).
3. I am ready to do it only if I am convinced that my work will be needed and appreciated by you.
4. So, vote in the poll.


Obviously, you are encouraged to comment or ask questions.

Thank you.


Note: If this reaches a predetermined but undisclosed number of Yes votes, I will do it and attach both the executable and the source code here in a ZIP file. If that number is not reached, I will find some better use for my spare time.
 
This is a really interesting proposition, thank you for even proposing to make it available to the general ah.com public! (I also need to find the time to read your timeline: it seems extremely interesting!)
 

Zagan

Donor
This is a really interesting proposition, thank you for even proposing to make it available to the general ah.com public! (I also need to find the time to read your timeline: it seems extremely interesting!)
Thank you for your kind words.

The TL is quite long and not finished yet. You'll need some time to read it.

The software will not be in the public domain. It will still belong to me, albeit free to download and use (freeware, no money needed, but still copyrighted).
 
Thank you for your kind words.

The TL is quite long and not finished yet. You'll need some time to read it.

The software will not be in the public domain. It will still belong to me, albeit free to download and use (freeware, no money needed, but still copyrighted).

Of course! I meant that when I wrote "available", sorry if it was unclear.
 
A very generous offer, and I can understand your dilemma regarding bumping the poll.

Forgive my spelling (my pronunciation is even worse and a source of much mirth with my wife and her family ( they are Romanian) has something to do with the ts sound)

But mulțumesc
 
Considering the speed at which my own TL is going* (not yet on this site - I want to be a bit further through before I start posting), if I said 'yes' then I'd be asking you to do work which I might never use. But it sounds really useful. So I've gone for the cop-out vote of 'don't know' - which in my case translates as 'please only do it if you really want to - you're the only one who can decide how important your time is'.

* something slower than a snail on valium, at present!
 
Very good idea, I think you can first release a rougher version so that users more acquainted with programming can tweak around with it (just make sure to comment out which constants and other inputs affect what).

Afterwards, when you find more time, then it can be feasible for you to make a polished version of the program with a GUI.

This is all under the assumption you WILL release your program, since as of right now 80.8% of votes are for the release of your program. Obviously, you can change your mind, and it is at your discretion as the creator.
 

Zagan

Donor
Very good idea, I think you can first release a rougher version so that users more acquainted with programming can tweak around with it (just make sure to comment out which constants and other inputs affect what).

Afterwards, when you find more time, then it can be feasible for you to make a polished version of the program with a GUI.

This is all under the assumption you WILL release your program, since as of right now 80.8% of votes are for the release of your program. Obviously, you can change your mind, and it is at your discretion as the creator.
If I am not too ashamed of the rough version, maybe...
It seems that enough users may use it so I will give it a try, perhaps sometime next week.

Oh, and if we can use it for completely fictional things and made-up worlds, all the better.
Of course. If your aliens live around 2,000 years and have 50 children or so, you only have to modify a few parameters.


I'll let you know when I start the polishing phase.
Thanks for the votes!
 

Zagan

Donor
If we could also use it for non-royalty in our timelines, I'd use it.

Sure, it can be used for any person / family tree.

I mentioned royalty because:
- I use it for the Imperial Family of Romania in my TL;
- it has little use in After 1900 TLs because the timespan of the TL is inherently shorter and the number of important new characters conceived after the POD is small;
- non-royalty is usually less proeminent in Medieval TLs.
 
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