What Neil has been up to.....

[fv1609]

You might be forgiven for thinking that Neil has spent most the last month fiddling around with his Stalwart brake lights. But I can reveal he has spent a vast amount of time helping me.

 

I have a large collection of British Army technical documents. Although I have catalogued them in Word documents, I felt frustrated that I could not extract things like: all documents printed in a given year, all user handbooks, all regulations, documents on a given vehicle or equipment etc. I also wanted to see how the earlier classification e.g. 26/Regs/3181 tied in with the WO or Army Code No.

 

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Well last year Neil set me up a database to allow me to do just that. As some may be aware not only I am significantly dyslexic but a complete nitwit with computers. So just as we try to help each other out on the forum with things we know about Neil with his professional expertise has been a real star in helping me.

 

I recently asked him if he could take things a stage further to try to decipher the coding of groups of codes used very often at the end of the documents. There are obvious ones like, date, the printers name & the number in the print run, but other little puzzles like Gp or Group at the end, the start is sometimes just a number or preceded by G which is in addition to Gp at the end. The other puzzler is Wt split into two groups. I have weighed large numbers of books & can find no relationship to weight at all. In fact similar sized documents have vastly differing Wts recorded. Some similar sized ones of similar subject matter can have quite varied Wts. Added to this Wt comprise two independent number groups.

 

 

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So Neil’s new database encompasses this including the print run. It will allow a vast option of searches & correlations. I haven’t fully grasped the potential of all the knobs & buttons. But it will allow the comparison of the new DAT type records & even the codes used in Indian Army documents.

 

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The books I have, are not like my vehicles exclusively post-war, but span over 120 years, I find it fascinating that the system whilst evolving contains many of the original features. So a big thank you to Neil for his hard work behind the scenes and I have to warn you that once I cracked the logic of the codes, there will be the inevitably article to follow. :shake:

 

 

[Jack]

Great work gents, that must of great help to you Clive, and Neil well done - you are one of the most helpful blokes I know and glad you are on our side.

[Mark]

Nice one Neil, respect to you :clap:

[Marmite!!]

Well done Neil :-D

[ian2b]

Excellent work Neil and Clive. :tup:

[ArtistsRifles]

:oops: :oops: :oops:

 

Ummm - highly embarrassing..... I can't make any great claim to fame folks - it's what I do for a living - well at least for the next 5 months!! :-)

 

Way I see it - I'm indebted to a lot of folk - people from the forum have given me great help since starting in MV ownership both in getting little Maud home, stored and kept running etc. whilst Jack and the rest of the Mods have done a fantastic job in providing us with this forum so I tried to put a little bit back in to the pot as it were.

 

Just glad that Clive is happy with the end product!!! :-) :-)

[FV601 (R.I.P.)]

Well done to the two of you :-)