all this talk of databases reminds me of the following web-comic strip:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/exploits_of_a_mom.png

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 00:46, GMac999 <gmac999@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry Jim, but my forte was Cobol and Pascal.  Two more dinosaurs.
>
>
> GregM
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Jim Arnott
> Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:25 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Database designer?
>
> So I found that with the new hardware, archive searches actually work.
> I entered a one word search term and searched the entire archive.
> Took about twenty seconds to return results. Then I perused the results...
>
> Search term? "statz"  What did I find? The last weakly statz was ten years
> ago!
> <http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind9901B&L=vanagon&P=R14565>
>
> Now over the years I've periodically prodded Joel to resume publication but
> he has repeatedly told me that the university retired the mainframe ton
> which he compiled them then they retired he who did the compiling. Joel
> doesn't speak modern database language nor do I.
> He speaks something called REXX which is what he apparently used to write
> the program that he used to generate our fondly remembered "Weakly Statz."
>
> So.... Is there anyone on-list that has a background that would lend itself
> to coming up with a new method of rendering Joel's lovingly collected data
> into a report form that could be published again?  He's not stopped
> collecting it. He just had to stop publishing it.
>
> We need some help here!  Can someone come up with something that we can just
> pour Joel's data into?
>
> Please contact Joel and/or me with your ideas.
>
> TIA,
>
> Jim
>