[Babase] VIV demog notes or RANK error

Karl O. Pinc kop at meme.com
Wed Sep 10 17:28:58 EDT 2008


On 09/10/2008 03:13:32 PM, kfenn wrote:

> OK, and first, thanks for all the sleuthing and fixes and  
> explanations.  My apologies for making it more time-consuming than  
> necessary...I did refer to the census data in babase_test (above) to  
> indicate which db I was working in, although I could have been more  
> clear about the fact that I was exclusively working there.  FWIW: I  
> always first test every change/upload in babase_test so usually when  
> I have a gripe about babase it starts off with "this worked fine in  
> babase_test and now it won't work in babase".

No worries.  I didn't spend all that much time in babase
and figured it out on re-reading.  I just like the reports
that say: I was here doing this expecting that but got
thus instead.  Reproducing the problem is the first
step in solving it so it helps to have all the assumptions
explicit.

> 
>> 
>> So, there's 2 questions here:
>> 
>> What to do about the error message, if anything.
>> 
>> Has this bug affected rankings, group membership,
>> or the like?  Were changes made that shouldn't
>> have been made during the conversion or on
>> other occasions in the past when the error
>> message showed up and shouldn't have?
>> 
> 
> Is there anything you want me to do/check regarding the 2 questions  
> you posed below?  I would pretty much swear that this message has  
> never come up before with regard to a census or demog upload.   I'm  
> not really worried that I changed data during the conversion that I  
> shouldn't have as a result of this message.  I don't change data  
> unless there is a sensible explanation for the error message....I  
> usually come whining to you first.

I don't have any solid recommendation.  Three was a whoooole lot
of errors that came up during the conversion, many back before
you started, and we could have easily seen this one and not
remember.  My only thought is to check with Jeanne and maybe
Catherine to see if we didn't move groups en-masse.  IIRC
the group assignment during whole early 90's fission stuff
was something of referee call.  Maybe there were more calls
during the conversion to just lump individuals into groups
irrespective of the actual census?

The Babase design is supposed to allow for recording of
actual census information during group fission, while
still making sense of rankings.  (The glitch is the
"only censused in one group per day" rule.)   It'd
be a shame if we didn't actually _use_ the feature. :-)


Karl <kop at meme.com>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                  -- Robert A. Heinlein



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