Graeme Aldous, the Show Co-ordinator, writes:
For 2011, Moorsholm Show reaches a landmark — the special computer program that's been taking the entries for decades has been retired.
When I first started helping with the Show, entries were still taken on a sheet of paper, with 6 carbon copies to help the Stewards match the prize-winning entries with their entrants. This was fine when the Show Schedule was a single sheet of foolscap paper, run off on a (borrowed) school Gestetner duplicator, but as the number of classes expanded it was getting too clumsy. It was time to move into the computer age.
Clearly there were no 'off-the-shelf' computer programs to run a village show, and certainly not for the very simple Amstrad PCW computer that was all that I had to work on. So I had to write a special basic program (in the computer language appropriately called 'Basic') to do the job. It started purely as a method of getting in the entrants' names and the number of entries that they wanted to make, and storing them as a file for printing out a list. But as each year passed, more enhancements were added, until the program would automatically calculate the ticket numbers that would be needed, and how much that would cost (taking into account the fact that children's classes are free). It even put a message on the screen if an entrant had spent enough to qualify for a free admission ticket.
Then the files that were being generated could be fed into the PCW's LocoScript word-processing program to work out the scores for the trophies that relied on points being gained, such as the Nellie Liddell Memorial Trophy. 'Real' computer experts scoffed at LocoScript, but it was in fact a very powerful program, that was far simpler to use than its Microsoft equivalents. But I was very much aware that, as computer use widened to Windows-based machines, no-one else was using LocoScript. It was time to move into Windows.
I've always been very much aware that it's dangerous to have something as important as running the Show purely in the hands of one person. It was necessary to have a system that could potentially be run by anyone with a little bit of computer knowledge, so I started to convert the system to run within the Windows Office family of programs, which are available on most computers. By around 2005 I had an Excel spreadsheet to do all the calculations of the winners and the trophies... but it still had to start with the Basic program to take the entries.
You see, the trouble was that I couldn't find anyone to help me devise the routine that allocated the ticket start and finish numbers for the next entrant, based on how many entries they wanted to make. It had been comparatively simple in Basic, and I knew it would be possible within Excel... but I didn't know how to do it.
And, it seemed, neither did anybody else. I tried many times to persuade Teesside University's prestigious School of Computing to take it on as a student exercise, but to no avail. I even signed on myself for a summer school to see if they could teach me! But the trouble was that it was very difficult to get an outsider to understand what was required — after all, the existing program had evolved over the years to be quite sophisticated and complex.
I then found a retired IT expert in North Tyneside who was willing to provide computer help to registered charities in return for a donation to the charity of his choice. He worked hard at the very basic routine at the heart of the problem, and actually solved it (for which I am very grateful)... but when it came to adding all the other enhancements that I'd got used to, I was once again out of my depth. Reluctantly I had to stick to the old method for the 2010 Show.
Then, at that Show, one of our judges was also involved with the running of another show in East Cleveland. She was impressed with our system, and I agreed to adapt it for her show's needs. But this meant providing the same Basic program for her to run on her computer (or on the special laptop that her committee had authorised her to buy for the purpose.) This all took a little time, but in mid July this year I went to her house to give some training in how to use it.
And this is where all the wheels fell off the project! Her brand new laptop ran Windows 7... and no way would Windows 7 accept the clunky old Basic program that was key to entry-taking. We were stuck, unless I could find a way of getting that central routine to work in Excel.
Then at the eleventh hour I found an international online forum specifically for Excel queries — I posted my problem, and within just a few hours an expert named Jerry in California came up with the couple of lines of calculations that performed the routine that I needed. It's at times like that that the internet works as a wonderful tool for good! With Jerry's code, and the experience from the old Basic routine, it was relatively simple to construct an Excel spreadsheet that would handle everything, from the taking of the entries to the scoring of the trophies. And above all, it would run on virtually any Windows computer, to be understood and operated by anyone with a little bit of computer knowledge.
I made two versions — one specific to Moorsholm Show, and the other tailored to the other event... and I shall be be visiting that one in a week or so to see how they get on. If they can use the routine without the years of past experience that I've had, then I shall be very pleased indeed.
And, of course, more confident that all will go smoothly for Moorsholm on August 27th! But it will be the end of an era.
GRAEME ALDOUS
Moorsholm Show Co-ordinator