Re: Database design goals...

[mike_phillips urscorp com]

> DESIGN GOALS: The functions that read or perform searches of the
> reformatted (or fplan format) files should be efficient in both
> speed and storage resource requirement terms. The data files
> should be easy to install and update on the end user system and
> of a reasonable size (a reasonable download on a system with a
> dial-up connection to the internet).  An application suitable
> for installation and use by the end user must be available that
> supports the construction of a separate personal database that
> is always be searched by fplan BEFORE the system-wide database.

Agreed. I've started off using Postgres because that's the database
I know the most. Once I've got the the conversions done I can start
to trim down the information to the subset that we need. 

Personal databases: Definately. 

I'm in full agreement with the design goals and am working towards
these goals. Intermediate steps in the development may seem to bring
in far too much data, but the final versions will be a lot faster
and smaller. 

>Conversions would be
> done using scripts in interpreted languages because they have
> minimal development time and still provide good effficiency;
> Perl, Tcl, Python to mention a few. 

This was my first thought too rather than using C code to do the
conversion. I only really played with awk and it barfed because of
the tab delimited format in the DAFIFT files. 

>  - active parachute jump zones
Yep.

>  - airspace boundaries (esp. MOAs, restricted, prohibited airspace)

Eeek. Not a problem, but the datafile is nearly as big as the waypoints
file. 

>  - other DAFIF items from the list I have forgotten...

As I delve further into the files its obvious that the information we need
is split across several files. (i.e aprt, runway, and communications). 
It's
easiest to bring all these files in first (in full) and then combine them 
to 
produce the information we require.

Also, the DAFIFT data dictionaries are not totally accurate. I'm working 
through
the differences, they aren't major, but enough to make it "interesting".

Mike