From 677f9010d2fa642fa4f5649b1389ba0269b515de Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Philip Sargent Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:17:50 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Adding in ancient survex and expo-website articles of historical interest --- handbook/c21bs.html | 183 +++++++++++++++++++ handbook/getsurvex.html | 2 + handbook/manual.html | 3 +- handbook/survexhistory96.htm | 332 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4 files changed, 519 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 handbook/c21bs.html create mode 100644 handbook/survexhistory96.htm diff --git a/handbook/c21bs.html b/handbook/c21bs.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fc422f434 --- /dev/null +++ b/handbook/c21bs.html @@ -0,0 +1,183 @@ + + + +CUCC Website Genesis + + + +

CUCC Expedition Handbook - Expo Website Genesis

+

Taking Expo Bullshit into the 21st Century

+ +

Cambridge Underground 1996, pp 61-62

+ +

by AERW + + +

[This article was published in CU 1996, shortly after the site was put +on the web. The text is reproduced without change, but the URLs were +updated (in 2006) to reflect the then location of these pages.] + + +

For many years, the only documentation of CUCC's activities in Austria +comprised the Log Books written "in the field" and an article or two in the +annual "Cambridge Underground". A few write ups appeared in "BCRA Caves and +Caving" or "Descent", and occasionally a lecture would occur at the BCRA +Conference. The standard of underground surveying was poor and, for the most +part, surface surveying was non-existant. Often the only way to find some of +the earlier cave discoveries was to collar the people who found them and get +them to show you. Regrettably, even this didn't always work. Looking for +going leads often involved grovelling on the floor of the Potato Hut to +find an old logbook in a tatty cardboard box, then wading through it to +find the relevant write up and trying to make some sense of it. All this +before even going underground ! + +

Today, we exchange survey data with other groups working in the area, and +all of CUCC's internal and published documentation is available in a few +minutes anywhere in the world. Logbook write-ups are linked to cave +descriptions, maps, and even colour photos, and "every" going lead or +prospect is cross-referenced to the cave description. What on earth +happened to bring this all about ? + +

Two things - technology, and Kaninchenhöhle. The technology made it +all possible, and Kaninchenhöhle provided the stimulus to do it. + +

To explain: for many years, Andy had been quietly sticking all of CUCC's +cave descriptions, together with what translations of Austrian ones I could +get/make, into a catalogue of caves which was supposed to be useful in +Austria to prevent duplication of effort, and to avoid losing caves +completely. A printed version occupied a very hefty ring-binder and was not +found tremendously useful, particularly as maps were somewhat lacking. Trying +to get the information to keep it any less than about five years out of date +was also a losing battle. Some of the cave descriptions are inevitably quite +complex, and Kaninchenhöhle, in particular, has so many side leads and +connections between main routes that the description was becoming impossible +to understand. + +

It is a feature of complex cave descriptions that the main route becomes +hard to follow as more and more side passages get into the description. +If the side passages are instead described somewhere else, then it is equally +difficult to follow the route to the going leads at their ends. There doesn't +seem to be an effective solution to this in a printed guidebook, but by +writing the description in hyper-text, the side passage descriptions can +be removed from the main route without making them inaccessible. At each +junction, the passage is merely noted, and the main description continues. +But the note includes a LINK which can instead be followed to read the +full description of the side passage. + +

This approach was adopted for the KH description and proved rather +successful. However, the resulting description lacked context, and soon links +appeared to various other text files, which in turn were turned into +hypertext. The process gradually took off, until by last year's (1995) +expedition, all the cave descriptions were in this form, with additional +material to describe each area on the surface and the approaches to use to +get there. There were also a few photographs in the archive, though hardly +enough to be useful. + +

A few journal articles and some of the older logbooks were also on disc, +and it immediately became obvious that the value of these could be +enhanced by adding links to the other material. Hence a cave description +could have a link to the trip which discovered it; trips could be linked +to the previous and subsequent trips to the same place (not necessarily +in the same logbook) and journal articles could likewise be linked to +the relevant cave description. + +

As the process took off, the gaps became more obvious, so progressively +more logbooks have been transcribed and journal articles either retrieved +from mouldering floppies or typed in afresh. Some early (and painful) +attempts to represent logbook sketches in ascii text have been superceded +by scanned-in material and the archive continued to build. + +

All of this represented a considerable amount of work, and the danger with +such things is always that it will get lost, neglected or fall into disuse. +However, stuff on disc can always be distributed to many people, in the +hope that even if disaster befalls one copy of the archive, someone else +will have an intact copy. In this way, hundreds of kilobytes of updated +descriptions were soon passing backwards and forwards by email between +Andy and Wookey each week. But the material was still only available to +a tiny handful of people. + +

The format in which all this work had been carried out was, from the very +start, the very same format which was needed to make it widely available +on the Internet in the form of World-Wide-Web pages. Soon, Wookey managed +to find us a server which would put it all up for global access. This +revealed a very large number of problems with the system, but a couple +of weeks work fixed most of these. A Cambridge University Caving Club +home page was created, and the expedition archive (by now around five +hundred separate files) hung below this. The CUCC pages are still a bit +limited (the Home page, a brief description of the club and one of exCS, +and an (old) version of the Novice's Guide to CUCC). However, it is +hoped that CUCC itself will provide up-to-the-minute pages covering current +club activities and perhaps even a weekly copy of the club newsletter ? + +

It is hoped that by the time you are reading this, all the extant logbooks +and all the Cambridge Underground articles will be on the server, together +with fully up-to-date descriptions of all CUCC's caves that we still have +info for. The "Expedition slide set" which has been in gestation for over +five years might even come together this year, in which case a Photo-CD +can be made and a lot of much more useful pictures added to the archive. +This is by no means the end of the road however. There are still many +surveys and logbook sketches to scan, and we have a clickable map of the +surface to take you straight to the cave descriptions (but unfortunately +the server does not yet support this). There is foreign material from other +groups in the area to add, and we have links to another web site being run +by one of the German groups working in the area. The format allows for +things like video clips and sound, as well as text and photos so we have +the tantalising prospect of bringing a load of drunken students singing +"Wild Caver" to your computer screen... + +

However, like the caves themselves, the web site is not easy to describe +in printed text. We hope you'll try it for yourself, get enthused about expo, +and want to come along and contribute. We hope it's structured so that you +can find your way about fairly easily - if you have problems, please let us +know so that we can fix it during the ongoing process of development. To ease +your way, here are a few selected entry points. Note that the names are +case-sensitive, and that the initial "cucc" is lower case. + +

[All those links are now incorrect and don't work. They have been commented-out. Press ctrl-U if you want to see them.] + +

If there's anything you think is wrong, anything you think is missing, or +anything you have to offer to add, please get in touch at + +

Andy Waddington (mailbox 'Austria' on site 'pennine.demon.co.uk')
+Wookey (mailbox 'Wookey' on site 'aleph1.co.uk') + +

and finally, the entire web edifice will be out in Austria [in 1997] on one or more +machines in the Potato hut for expo members to browse through (and add to) +to answer all your questions about the caves of the Loser Plateau ! If +enough interest is shown, and enough photographs digitised, the current +"state-of-the-art" may be put onto CD-ROM. The site has outgrown floppies, +but can still be fitted onto a ZIP disc so, for the time being, if you +haven't got Internet connectivity, the edifice can be supplied on disc. + +

Andy Waddington + +

+ + + + + diff --git a/handbook/getsurvex.html b/handbook/getsurvex.html index d3b75401b..802226f49 100644 --- a/handbook/getsurvex.html +++ b/handbook/getsurvex.html @@ -11,6 +11,8 @@

The main software we use to process cave data and surface surveys is survex which has been written over several decades by CUCC cavers. The first version was written during the 1990 Expo in Austria in the (old) potato hut. +A history of survex article was published in Cambridge Underground 1996. It covers the period 1988-1996. +

Download the survex package here: www.survex.com and install it.

You will discover that the application installed is actually called "aven" but do not be concerned. This is what you will use to visualise .svx files as beautiful cave centre-line surveys. diff --git a/handbook/manual.html b/handbook/manual.html index 6e34696d7..addffd5df 100644 --- a/handbook/manual.html +++ b/handbook/manual.html @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ processes that a maintainer would want to do.

Appendices:

Getting a username and password

@@ -301,6 +301,7 @@ http://expo.survex.com/expo/surveys/surveytable.html http://expo.survex.com/surv

Archived updates

Since 2008 we have been keeping detailed records of all data management system updates in the version control system. Before then we manually maintained a list of updates which are now only of historical interest. +

A history of the expo website and software was published in Cambridge Underground 1996. A copy of this article Taking Expo Bullshit into the 21st Century is archived here.

The data management system conventions bit

This is likely to change with structural change to the site, with style changes which we expect to implement and with the method by which the info is actually stored and served up.

diff --git a/handbook/survexhistory96.htm b/handbook/survexhistory96.htm new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e90eced11 --- /dev/null +++ b/handbook/survexhistory96.htm @@ -0,0 +1,332 @@ + + + +Cambridge Underground 1996: History of Survex + + + +

CUCC Expedition Handbook - History of Survex

+

History of Survex as of 1996

+ +

Cambridge Underground 1996, pp 63-6

+ +

[This article was published in CU 1996, shortly after the site was put +on the web. The text is reproduced without change.] + + +

History of Survex

+ +

by Wookey + +

Back in 1988 CUCC used a programmable calculator to reduce survey data +in Austria, and only on return to the UK did we have access to anything as +advanced as real survey software. This was Sean Kelly's 'Surveyor '88' +software, written for the "Below Belize" expedition. This was pretty good +- you could give it data and it would do the sums, display them in +windows, and print out the results, on multiple sheets if necessary. It +didn't take us long to find a couple of serious bugs, but as Sean was +still in Cambridge we could hassle him until he fixed them. However he +wasn't really interested in developing it any further, and the software's +deficiencies were beginning to become annoying (you couldn't use tabs to +separate data items, or '+' on positive clino readings, and the graphics +were very slow and uninterruptible, so if you accidentally pushed a button +you were stuck until it finished displaying (in several minutes time for +KH on a slow computer). + +

So, I started to produce a spec for some better software, and Olly +Betts soon became interested and we worked together to decide what was +needed. Now there was already other software available at the time, but +the only other one that was any good which we knew of (SMAPS) was pretty +expensive at $99. So we took the same route as others, and decided to +write our own. The problem was that most authors had simply looked at +their own projects, and knocked together something sufficient for that. +Most of these had little or no loops processing as the authors didn't know +the maths or how to translate that into algorithms. There seemed no point +in repeating this short-sighted approach, so we determined to try and +produce something that would be useful to others as well as ourselves. +This meant it had to be versatile, and if we wanted it to be used it needed +to be free too. The basic spec was: + +

+ +

Surveyor '88 had many of the above features, and followed basically the +same design philosophy. We took the good ideas from that, and discarded +the bad ones. We could have worked from the Surveyor '88 source but our +multiple platforms requirement made that difficult as Surveyor '88 was +written in Pascal, and Pascal compilers were not readily available for all +machines. Thus we decided to write in C as it is a very portable +language and produces fast software. + +

A Specification was duly written (which still comprises a large chunk +of the documentation, unfortunately) and we started writing, with Olly +quickly taking on nearly all the programming work. The first tangible result +was the prototype for CaveRot which was written during the 1991 expo in +BASIC and ARM code on an A3000. + +

A trip to the Surveyors' meeting at the 1991 Swiss Caving Conference +showed us what was possible when we saw the Mac package 'Toporobot', +which was very capable and impressive. We talked to its author Martin +Heller, who was most encouraging, telling us that Toporobot was only ever +intended for the Mac, and we should go away and write some decent software +for all those other machines. + +

The bones took shape rapidly and Survex became the software of choice +finally superseding Surveyor '88 during the 1992 expo. Since then it has +grown to several hundred K of source, with versions for DOS, RISCOS & +UNIX. A major development was the use of the GNU PC compiler DJGPP which +removes the 640K memory limit imposed by DOS. This was necessary as +Kaninchenhöhle quickly became sufficiently large +& complex that the miserable 640K provided on a DOS PC simply wasn't +enough memory to process it in. + +

Five years on [1996], Survex has become a powerful cave surveying tool with one +of the most powerful data engines available. It lacks a great deal of +fancy user interface features (help, menus etc.) that can be found on other +good cave survey software packages, although the revolutionary +mouse-controlled CaveRot interface remains unique. + +

A great deal of care has gone into designing the way that data is +entered, stored and processed. The command structure is neat powerful and +extensible. The network processing is done reasonably rigorously. It could be +done more rigorously, but a great deal of extra memory would be required +for little practical benefit. + +

A number of other groups are now using it - it is particularly popular +in Brazil as the only survey software available in Portuguese. It has also +been translated to French, German, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and US +English. Various other people have supplied add-ons such as an HTO +converter by Bill Purvis (HTO is a standard for the interchange of cave +survey data), and a program that combines Survex data, LRUD passage +data, and surface data then outputs it all as a DXF file for input into a +drafting package. This is being used by Chelsea Speleological Society in +their survey of Ogof Draenen. It is also being used for +the OFD and Easegill re-surveys, and thus is the software of choice for the 3 +longest systems in the UK. + + +

Distinguishing features: +

+

Data processing: +

+

Printer support: +

+

Graphics: +

+

Other Utilities: +

+ + +

So where next? + +

The driving force of development is CUCC's surveying needs, and the +requests of users. The time and effort required for producing a survey of +a big system like Kaninchenhöhle means that we +struggle to produce surveys containing each year's new finds. The reasons why +the new bits cannot simply be added to the existing drawing are threefold + +

1) new bits go off the edge of the page +
2) new loops mean that the rest of the survey bends +
3) new additions often require redrawing of junctions or low-grade +surveys + +

All of these can be often be bodged round for a year or two but sooner +or later you have to re-draw the whole lot. In the case of the elevation +it has become so complex that we are simply incapable of drawing anything +that makes sense! + +

Doing the whole thing on computer would help in all of these areas. There +is no 'edge of the paper'. Perfect alterations can be made without smear +marks from rubbers. Adding the text so that it is all horizontal is easy. The +hard bit is bending existing survey sections when the centreline they were +originally drawn round has changed. Olly's 1991 computer project explored the +mechanisms required to achieve this, working from original work by David +McKenzie, and producing algorithms which could be applied to each vector or +bitmap cave data. The computer needs to be told how the drawing relates to +the centreline so that the whole lot can be stretched and rotated to fit. +This a feature that will eventually be implemented in Survex. + +

In the meantime we have been looking at how to use existing LRUD (Left, +Right, Up Down) data to produce an enhanced view with volume, rather than +just a line survey. We concluded that the data as it stood was too +'humanistic' to be sensibly interpreted by a computer. Such things as +which side are left and right, what to do with all the '?' and '-' entries +at junctions and on pitches, etc. are all problematic. Andy Atkinson worked +out a compromise scheme where we give the computer some extra information +about junctions, chambers, and changes from predominantly horizontal to +vertical passage, as well as abandoning LRUD entirely for pitches and +using NSEW (North, South, East, West) instead. This new format can be +retro-fitted to existing data with the aid of the sketches in order to +make it sufficient. Julian Todd's handy experience with a firm +that writes CADCAM software gives him the tools and competence to write +software that does all the hard sums, hidden line removal, and 3d-drawing +relatively easily. Once this scheme is shown to be viable it is likely to +become a fully-fledged part of Survex, giving excellent cave visualisation. + +

On a more mundane level work has been progressing towards fitting a +graphical front-end to Survex so that it can become a native application +in modern GUI Environments (Windows, RISCOS, X-Windows, MacOS, +etc). The main barrier to this is working out sufficiently cross-platform +ways of achieving it. + +

Finally there is a huge list of features people would like. Many of +these require a more advanced format for the 3d files that Survex +currently outputs. This has been largely worked out and is likely to hit +the streets in the next version of Survex. This will allow the cave viewer +to know lots of stuff about the cave, like which bit is which survey, and +where the loops, junctions and entrances are, so that these things can be +displayed on request. + +

SURVEX can be obtained from: +
Wookey, 734 Newmarket Rd, Cambridge, CB5 8RS 01223 504881(H) 01223 +811679(W) +
Mailto:wookey (at) aleph1.co.uk +
Please send a formatted disc and a Stamped Self Addressed Envelope +
You can also get it from the UK cavers archive site at +ftp://chert.lmu.ac.uk/pub/chert/Survex by anonymous ftp. Also keep an eye +out for a Survex Website in the near future. + +

[These days, get survex from https://survex.com/ ] +

+ + +