Mats Elfstr�m wrote:
> OK OK I know about attachments but I could not find this at the
> Directions Magazine site.
> BTW - I find it hard to look for files there, it was much easier the way
> Bill had it organized before.
You might be surprised to know how many mail servers world wide
stripped off this attachment or just bounced your message because
it had an attachment. More than a handful, from the number of
bounces I got at [EMAIL PROTECTED] I'm not going to
suggest that "no file attachments" be a rule, but it's a good
guideline.
Streets.zip is at
http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/Default.asp?a=file&id=169
But your BTW is what really concerns me. I've heard more than one
comment that files are harder to find now than they used to be,
and I'm curious to know if anyone can put their finger on exactly
what the problem is? I'd like to hear anyone's suggestions on how
best arrange and present this collection.
Perhaps it's breaking up things into categories that don't match
your mental map? For example, I posted a collection of four
solutions submitted by people here on how to get the current time
in MapBasic
(http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/default.asp?a=file&id=144),
and since this involved mostly source code examples, I would have
thought it should go in "Code Samples", but they ended up in
"White Papers" (Currtime.zip *is* also a short discussion about
time in MapBasic, so whether it's a paper or code examples is a
close call, but I couldn't find it right away when my mental map
of its location didn't match reality. I didn't choose the
category in this case and so I was just like anyone else trying
to find it.)
However, the "Search" option works pretty well. As long as you
enter the right keywords! A search on "streets" turns up nada,
while "street" picks that streets.zip file right up.
Another thing you can do is list everything at once in one of
several orders. Suppose you go to the top "Tools" page at
http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/ and click on "All Tools".
Then sort by say, Filename. In the URL window at the top of your
browser, notice this geeky gabble:
http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/Default.asp?a=alltools&id=&orderby=Filename+ASC&Page=1&Pagesize=5
You can change the parameters listed next to each ampersand (&)
if you know what the keywords are and mean. Next to &Pagesize,
change the '=5' to '=250', and then hit enter. After a while,
you'll get the entire list of all tools sorted by filename on one
page, which is just like it used to be. Save it as a bookmark,
and you can jump right back to the whole list anytime you please.
(But don't forget to increase the 250 to whatever when we
accumulate more that 250 tools!)
Another thing you web page builders can do is make your own
collection of pointers to this collection. To make a URL that
points to a particular file, you simply create a URL that has the
'a' parameter set to 'file', and supply an id parameter set to
the file's id and stick these on the end of the Directions
Magazine Tools URL. For example,
http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/default.asp?a=file&id=59 will
lead you to Hershey.zip, and
http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/default.asp?a=file&id=93 takes
you to WindBarb.zip. These are both complete URLs that take you
right to the file.
To get the parameter info on files here, you first locate them
once with your browser. Then put your mouse over the file name,
and press the right mouse button. Netscapers click on "Copy Link
Location" (which puts the whole URL in clipboard), and IEers
click on "Properties" where you can view the full URL. The Id is
right there on the end. From this info you build the URL starting
with: "http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/default.asp?a=file&id="
to which you just tack on the Id number to complete it. Then put
that in your bookmarks or on your own local web list of links, or
stick it in an email to someone who's looking for it.
If you want to supply your own descriptions, etc, and want to
make a direct download link, you just use the 'download' action,
and include the filename and id parameters, like so:
http://www.directionsmag.com/tools/default.asp?a=download&filename=WindBarb.zip&id=93
- Bill Thoen
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