Heralds

[I. Marc Carlson]

<aodhan at dobharchu.org (Aodhan Ite an Fhithich)>
>"MC> colors not in the database, and so forth. 
>When do expect to have this program written?

Don't look at me, I can't *write* programs at all, although I *can*
write a rhetorical absurdity, which, come to think of it, was what 
that suggestion was.  Or would you seriously consider turning over 
the entire acceptances and rejections process to a machine?

If so, then I'm sure the people who are here who DO program computers,
could tell us (hypothetically and with no commitment, mind you) if it's 
too hard to come up with one to run a simple comparison of characters 
in a specific order, and que the results up in a variety of different
categories (say, "the first five words are the same", "the first four",
and so on).

>Tadhg and I attempted several years ago to produce a grammar for blazon.  It
>only addressed our ideal for blazon, not the abominations that too frequently
>appear in the SCA Armorial, nor all the period variants, and even so was
>incomplete..

Since the point I was trying to make was that unless you want to turn your
rejections and acceptances proceedure over to a simple algorithm simple
to check for conflicts, you are going to have to have retain human beings in
the process, which means retaining human behavior, it is really beyond the
scope of my thesis as to the standards or lack thereof in blazoning
proceedures.  At best, it simply adds to the pile of reasons, such as 
simple taste, legalistic maneuvering (for example, you can tell there's
no real difference between a "Pentagram" and a "mullet of five points, 
voided and interlaced", while a computer might not be able to), that if you
are going to have submissions for registration, you are going to have to
retain human beings.

>...It was published in the Proceedings of one of the Known World Heraldic 
>Symposia to elicit comment from the heraldic community.  No comments
>were forthcoming.

You have my sympathies.  I have recently come to learn that major reason
that so many things never get done in the SCA is that the people who are
motivated to do something or other are so quickly burned out by dragging the
people who can't be bothered to hoist their fat asses into doing anything
that either won't be handed to them completely, or won't win them another
award; as well as those people who, for whatever reason, feel threatened
enough by change to actively campaign against even open dialogue (never
realizing that the torpor of their comrades will be more than enough to
kill even the simplest of dialogues).

I. Marc Carlson, Reference Librarian    |LIB_IMC at CENTUM.UTULSA.EDU
Tulsa Community College, West Campus LRC|Sometimes known as:
Reference Tech. McFarlin Library        | Diarmuit Ui Dhuinn 
University of Tulsa, 2933 E. 6th St.    | University of Northkeep 
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