The Val function

[drisconsult]

Hello Colin
I can assure that my background is very different being head and principal, but in very different circumstances. I had to witness two students being executed in Uganda during the Idi Amin days, as well as dealing with malaria, snake bite and yes kidnapping. I would not exchange this experience for all the databases in the world.
When you have a student who turns up for his first year in rags and the arse out of his trousers and then eventually becomes a pilot for the then East African Airways, nothing can top that.
You have not heard the last me I'm afraid, you have the coding skills that I have never really achieved, my background is actually engineering design. Having finished my last ten years at the University of Greenwich teacher training school at Avery Hill.
Regards
Terence

 

[isladogs]

Hi Terence
I'm going to reply by PM

 

[drisconsult]

Hello All
A problem has arisen that I had not thought about . It is in regard to class names. In my own program I have used the standard 1A, 2B, 2C etc. Unfortunately for me, there is a school in a remote part of Kenya that is using my program, where the teacher is using Swahili for her class names.
1A is translated into MojaA,
2B is translated into MbiliA and
3C is translated into TatuC and so on

The numbers are:
1 = Moja
2 = Mbili
3 = Tatu
4 = Nne
5 = Tano
6 = Sita
7 = Saba
8 = Nane
9 = Tisa
Zero = Sufiri

Any idea on how I wold incorporate both English and Swahili into an Update class Form?
Asante sana (thank you)
Terence

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Since the names 1A, 2B, 3C are strings and your MojaA, MbiliB, TatuC are also strings, you could try a reverse translation table of sorts.

Have a table that lists two columns - the name and an internal number.

Name   ClassNum
1A        1
MojaA     1
2B        2
MbliliB   2
3C        3
TatuC     3
etc.

In this case, the NAME column is the PK and the ClassNum column is non-unique. You then have to someone assign a unique number to each class. Then when you get info from the teachers using Swahili, you build a query that looks at the name they used to look up the correct INTERNAL number (that nobody ever really sees).

Depending on how pervasive this is, you might not have a practical way to reach this solution, but something related to having a translator table for class names and an internal class code is the way to handle synonyms.

 

[drisconsult]

My Update Problem

Many thanks for your reply.
Here is my problem. The school in question is run by a friend of mine. Her background is PE and she is not keen on technology.

My problem is that my coding is not up to scratch any more after a twenty year lapse. In order for her to update classes, I must develop a form that has two fields, the first field ask to input the class to be updated, lets say this class is TATUA (Class 3A)

She then enters NNEA (Class 4A) into the second field. She then presses enter and the class is updated to NNEA (Class 4A)

Or, there could be a parameter query where she enters TATUA in the search window and then a blank field asks her to enter the class to be updated to, which would be NNEA, into the field. She presses enter and the update is completed.

Am I asking for too much here?
Regards
Terence

 

[Gasman]

Give her a form with two combos, source class and updated to class.
She sees the Swahili version in the combo, you use the 'proper' class names as you have done for the non Swahili classes.
Then just run your existing code.

Obviously place checks to make sure they are not the same and the update to class is valid for the source class.?

 

[drisconsult]

Class names and the problems they cause

Hello All
I have come to the conclusion that I cannot provide personal service regarding class updates. I have worked in about 20 schools and colleges in Africa during my 50 year teaching career, and every one of them had distinctive methods for class naming.

One school in Nigeria had class names of Muslim scholars. A school in Uganda had classes named after various districts. A school in Tanzania had classes named after mountains. A school in Kenya, apart from the one I'm dealing with named their classes after animals.

I think my only choice here is to fix the names of classes myself. If that does not suit the school concerned then they shouldn't use it. The only reason I am doing this is to bring some sort of order to very rural, poverty stricken schools that exist on a shoestring.

Regards
Terence

 

[Galaxiom]

Re: Class names and the problems they cause

I have come to the conclusion that I cannot provide personal service regarding class updates. I have worked in about 20 schools and colleges in Africa during my 50 year teaching career, and every one of them had distinctive methods for class naming.

Of course you can. The names just need to be treated as data and stored in a lookup table while your programs works with some code like ClassID.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

As a matter of fact, you can map YOUR names based on their names. The translation table I mentioned doesn't HAVE to translate to a number. You could use it to translate their name to your equivalent. String-to-string translation works just as well as any other way.

 

[drisconsult]

The GoSub problem

Hello All
Thanks to all your help I have now completed a beta version of a very basic School Management Database designed for Africa below the Sahara.
However as usual, errors have occurred. I have asked friends to use it for and to continually load Forms to discover any errors.

Today I was loading a particularly completed Form and got the dreaded GoSub error message. I have updated my 2007 to Service P3, but no avail.
After shutting down and reloading it works. The Microsoft help page describes on error and suggest I look for this piece of code on the Form:
OnOpen Property =[Field]

I cannot find this code on any Form, Query or Table. My problem is that the program is now not reliable.

I am sending a screenshot of the offending Form of which there are 3. Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9.
Terence Driscoll
London

 

[drisconsult]

As nobody is prepared to respond to my latest request, I will bid you all farewell, and thank you for your help in my previous requests. I have had a very good result from an old university colleague.

Thank you and goodbye
Terence

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Sorry you feel you were let down, Terence, but you should note that your #53 post did not have a screenshot in it even though the text said you had sent one. There was nothing to look at.

 

[Gasman]

It has only been two days.?
People on here have a life I expect, other than this forum.

I myself have asked for help in the past, which to me was quite urgent, but still realised that the people here are doing me a favour by helping, and that it will be responded to as and when they can.?

For an error like that, i would expect uploading the DB would be more beneficial.?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

It has only been two days.?

I've seen this type of behaviour before I believe it is called "Flouncing".

The people that "Flounce" ALWAYS come back to see if you are talking about them!

I always talk about the flouncers because I love to see their reactions when they come back, after saying they wouldn't!

It's just one of the little games I play that amuses me!

In essence, I'm just as childish as they are!

BTW, you can check all of my posts, and you will discover the evidence that I regularly monitor the unanswered posts section of the forum. If a post is not answered within about 5 days I bump it up the list. I have been doing this for years.

In other words have a bit of patience, and even having a bit of dacorum would be handy, everyone here is a volunteer and quite frankly attitudes like this chaps stink...

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