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This document is intended to give an overview of the revision history of SailOK Software, Scoring as well
as Handicapping. It does not delve into the minor details, such as preliminary additions or bug fixes
unless those are important and highly significant to the understanding of how the software reached its
current status.
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Scoring
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Handicapping
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1.0 The first working version was essentially a beta test version. It was used live
at our club for a year. Several desirable features were discovered during that time and were
implemented whenever practical. These features dealt mostly with user convenience and some
enhancements to the program's guessing or remembering functions. All bugs were found and
exterminated during that year.
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2.0 This was the first commercially ready version. It was submitted to US Sailing
for inclusion in its list of certified scoring packages. A few minor additions were made as
their desirability was discovered, such as allowing alpha-numeric sail numbers and
distinguishing between bow numbers and sail numbers and cross-referencing the two. Also
the ability to elegantly score reverse handicap races was added without changing revision
numbers.
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2.1 This revision added internet pre-registration so competitors can register
for a regatta over the internet or other means. The scoring system can then import the
data from the web page directly into its Participants table, saving the scorer significant
time and effort in entering the data manually.
Next was added a simple form for the race officials to record at the finish of a race then
transmit the finishes to the scorer by any of various means. Again, this data can then be
imported directly into the Finishes Table of the scoring system.
In order to more elegantly handle large regattas where it may be necessary to have some
qualifying series to seed the competitors into two division, the ability to score such a
series was added. Of course, this scoring could have been done with the previous version
but it would have required significant additional manual work and the posted results
would not have looked very "nice." This new feature solves both those problems.
Finally, at the request of a user, the ability to easily change the PHRF Time-On-Time
factors, if used, between races was added. Each race now remembers the factors used so
that it is possible to change between races then later score an earlier race without
messing up the time correction.
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2.2 (Proposed 2007) The ability to score Match Race Series and other Ladder or
Round-Robin type events will be added.
As a result of preliminary design work and testing, it appears that adding Match Race
support strains the limits of Microsoft Access. Therefore, revision 2.2 will be completely
rewritten using 100% pure Java, including the underlying data base. This will effectively
remove any such artificial limitations as well as significantly improving preformance. Of
course, performance has not been much of a problem as long as the hosting computer met the
suggested specifications. An added benefit is that Access will no longer be required.
Java runtime environment and the data base server are readily available at no charge and
it will run on virtually any popular computer system, including Mac OS, Unix and Linux as
well as Windows.
As usual, all subscribers can elect to receive the new version at no charge for the
upgrade.
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- 1.0 Like Scoring, the first working version of Handicapping was also essentially a
beta test version. It too was used live at our club for a year. A few desirable features
were discovered during that time and were implemented whenever practical. These features
dealt mostly with user convenience and some additions to the data stored for each rated
boat. All bugs were found and exterminated during that year.
- 2.0 This was the first commercially ready version. It was submitted to US Sailing
for review along with Scoring but USSA does not certify handicapping programs. A few minor
additions were also made here as their desirability was discovered, such as allowing
alpha-numeric sail numbers and retaining retired certificates in an archive file rather
deleting them completely.
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