[Koha] Introduction

[Chris Cormack]

Hi Mark,

> > Bluntly, the CDK based issues system isn't reliable.  It crashes every so
> > often (sometimes 2-3 times in quick succession, sometimes only once or twice
> > a day).  We haven't been able to track it down directly, since it seems to
> > be a difficult-to-emulate combination of CDK, server load, and possibly 
> > giffy data coming out of the database.  The slang module supports colour,
> > and will provide us with more data points for the unreliability, whether it
> > is more stable or not.
> > 
> I've certainly experience some of the Perl wrappers segfaulting on me
> (the RRDtool wrappers spring to my mind) when you feed them crap.
> 
> Are you also using the SLang Toolkit by Joey Hess (Term::Stool)?
> When do you think you'll have your returns/issue converted over to slang
> and have made another release/set up anon CVS?

Yep, thats indeed what we are using. It has been pretty much all converted
over it just needs some serious testing.
The conversion only affects a small number of modules namely all those in
Circulation/ and Circulation.pm itself. The rest of the modules have been untouched.

Work had stalled for a little while, as I was away all last week, but I
should be able to work some more on it this week.

Im not entirely sure what I will do with Slang modified modules ... whether
I fork the cvs tree, or give them new names and add them.

I could tar them up and pop them on www.koha.org for download I guess, until
they have been tested. Then if its all good they can replace the CDK based
modules.
> 
> My next major conumdrum is where to start working on Koha, any suggestions?
> 
I know Benedict from poland is very keen to work on localising koha. He has
offered to write some locale files in polish. So that koha can be modified
to uses locales::gettext.
He's not a programmer tho, so he will need help on editing the perl scripts
to use gettext. 

Hmmm, there are also some bugs/glitches in acquisitions.
One of the biggest being, the librarians often want to order some books
with the same title but in a different format.
Eg A video, a talking book and a paperback copy of the same title.
The also might want each one of these to come out of a seperate bookfund.
At the moment there is no easy way to do this, and they would have to place
3 separate orders.

Another section that needs work is what im calling a catalog maintenance
section.
So, somewhere you can go to edit/delete subject headings in the subject
authority file. 
Or edit the other authority files.
Were you could tidy up mistakes easily, like merge two identical biblios.
And anything else the librarians need :-)

This may well fit into your goals below.


> In terms of my goals for producing a library system that UniSFA can use
> it would be working on a catalouging application in terms of their 
> requirements: ie as quick and painless for the (volunteer) librarian to
> use.
> 
> ziggy's catalog application -  (this may not be 100% accurate, I coded this
>    up over 12 months ago)
>  - ran in a telnet window
>  - code worked and proceeded as follows:
>      1. User scanned in EAN barcode from back of book or alternatively typed
>          in ISBN number (or just skipped this step)
>          If ISBN number was already in the database, copy details and goto step          4.
>      2. A listbox with a list of Publishers was displayed with
>          publishers who shared the same publisher code as decoded from the ISBN
>          listed first.  Alternatively, the user could enter a new publisher
>          into the database.
>      3. A listbox with a list of Authors (with authors who share the publisher
>           listed first) Alternatively, the user could enter a new author
>           into the database.
>      4. A screen to enter the rest of the books details in (including barcode)
> 
> Of course, I think a real librarian (tm) would run cringing from this, but
> UniSFA is almost exclusively devoted to one genre and these optomisations
> would save a lot of time.  (especially since we tend to catalog a lot
> of books at once rather than spread over time)
> 
> 
> Where should I start?  Or should I work seperately and make some effort
> to merge my changes back at a later date?
> 
If any of the areas I mentioned seem like a good place to start, let me know
and we can work out a good way to go about it.

There are also lots of other things to work on. So let me know what you think.

Chris


-- 
Chris Cormack                                  Katipo Communications
Programmer/Sys Admin                           chris at katipo.co.nz
025 500 789                                    www.katipo.co.nz

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Chris Cormack                                  Katipo Communications
Programmer/Sys Admin                           chris at katipo.co.nz
025 500 789                                    www.katipo.co.nz