Golden Database Format

Mike, is there any chance of making the December Golden Database available in supplement (tarsfle) format, with longer name fields, in addition to the taratsup format? Or will that create too much confusion?

What would you do with a gold master file in that format?

SwissSys is happy with either format. You just have to tell it which one you have in the database setup.

The one I’m using now is a Golden Database that was accidentally released in the “wrong” format a couple of years ago. I keep updating it because I like having the longer names. But it’s not as good as a new one because it doesn’t have unrated players.

Just thought I’d ask. If not many people would use it, it wouldn’t be worth the trouble to create it.

Couldn’t tournament software be written to read either format, without even being told which format it is, just by looking at the header information in the DBF file? This header includes the field names and field sizes, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Bill Smythe

The formats don’t have quite the same information in them.

I’d rather move towards a ‘unified’ format, possibly even a system where TDs could get downloads of just the data they need to bring their computer up to date from the last time they updated it.

That’s true, but software such as SwisSys and WinTD could be designed to read either one. Such software could then also read any future “unified” format, as long as each field name in the new format is the same as the field name in EITHER existing format. New fields could be added, too, and the tournament software could (or should) ignore them, with new versions of the software recognizing them if desired.

Bill Smythe

This may have been addressed before–how can any of the rating supplements be added to WinTD so that I can update the master rating lists?

Many thanks in advance!

Extract the zipped file to a folder. Open WinTD and go to . Use to move to wherever you saved the update file. Should be straightforward from tehre.

WinTD has provided a detailed set of instructions on their web site that are very easy to follow. http://www.estima.com/chess/index.shtml