Messages

1

BeerXML Projects / Re: Too many units!

« on: October 27, 2010, 03:38:08 AM »

I would have said the exact same thing before purchasing a high accuracy lab balance for measuring hops.  It's truly amazing the wide range of electronic balances available these days.

I bought an high precision balance too for "testing" hops and spices (I make hop/spice's tea to test them). It has precision of 0.01g and measures from 0.05g to 200g that means still 5 significant digits...

Which platform/language are you using to save the XML document?

Actually I worked on the mobile version of a popular open-source italian program. I used .NET 3.5. This doesn't support BeerXML. Soon I'm planning to make a my own brewing software for windows (.NET) and android (java).

Ciao

Michele

2

BeerXML Projects / Re: Too many units!

« on: October 26, 2010, 05:10:08 AM »

If a user inserts "10000 grams" of malt we may assume that the number of significant digits is 5 or less.

My homebrewer's side tells me that there are never more than 3, maximum 4 significant digits (and I'm quite sure it's the same for a professional brewer too). That's why I think that considering 5 significant digits is simply a wrong start and another complication cause you'll always have make other calculation for the propagation of significant digits in your calculation...

All I'm asking is please don't artificially create precision for a measured value when you save the file as BeerXML v2 format.

BeerXml 2.0 will* support units so (if I want to support it in my program) I'll do the same and I'll save in the same units the user is using in that time. Honestly I'm not planning to write an entire xml-management library so I will simply use a double in my program and I will have no direct control on how many digits will be written in xml. This means that if my user will write that his recepy has 1kg of Cascade in xml this will probably be "1.0" not caring if the user wrote 1 or 1.000000000.

Ciao

Michele

*P.S.= When will BeerXML 2.0 be completed?

3

BeerXML Projects / Re: Too many units!

« on: October 25, 2010, 06:00:07 AM »

If we choose to store more decimal places as you suggest, then we completely ignore the accuracy of the original measurement

That's true. So you probably think to manage every measured value as a string in the program else you'll loose the accuracy. That's "quite annoying" to develop, but honestly good.
BTW: If a user inserts "10000 grams" of a malt how many significance digit would you consider? 1? 5?  Does your user really know that you consider exactly the number of digits he used? Will he really write 245.0 or will he simply write 245? For basic users I think it's better that the developer decide the number of significant digits. Of course that's just my opinion... 

Ciao

Michele

4

General Discussion / Re: Batches support

« on: October 20, 2010, 03:21:08 AM »

Many people reads, but none comments... 
Please people reply "I support this"! 

5

General Discussion / Batches support

« on: October 14, 2010, 05:34:52 AM »

I think that an interesting extension of BeerXML could be the support for "batches".
I state that I'm Italian so consider to correct my english-errors.
I purpose a draft:
<batches>
 <original_recipe>
  <recipe>
   ...
  </recipe>
 </original_recipe>
 <batch>
  <brewers>
   <brewer>Michele</brewer>
  </brewers>
  <date>...</date>
  <real_recipe>
   <recipe>
    ...
   </recipe>
  </real_recipe>
  <mash_log>
   <mash_log_entry>
    <minutes_elapsed>0</minutes_elapsed>
    <!--I would suggest no units in all BeerXML so temperature in Celsius  , but if there will be than I suggest to use an attribute like  unit="celsius" -->
    <temperature>10</temperature>
    <ph>7</ph>
   </mash_log_entry>
   <mash_log_entry>
    ...
   </mash_log_entry>
  </mash_log>
  <fermentation_log>
   <fermentation_log_entry>
    <date>full datetime format</date>
    <gravity>xxxx</gravity>
    <temperature>xxxx</temperature>
    <ph>xxxx</ph>
   </fermentation_log_entry>
  </fermentation_log>
  <fermentation_notes>Fermentation had a slower start than expected, maybe because of...</fermentation_notes>
  <taste_notes>i.e. This batch was this and that, maybe I used too much of this, etc. etc.</taste_notes>
  <general_notes>...</general_notes>
 </batch>
 <batch>
  ...
 </batch>
</batches>

6

BeerXML Standard Document / Re: BJCP Stlyes XML <--> BeerXML

« on: October 14, 2010, 04:39:37 AM »

Can anyone tells BJCP that they should use a STANDARD UTF8 ENCODING instead of what they actually using? 
I tryed to, but I recived no answer!

7

BeerXML Projects / Re: Too many units!

« on: October 14, 2010, 04:22:43 AM »

Yes, I understand that conversion may introduce some small errors, but keeping enough decimal places and the use of a simple "Round" function can solve this problem. 
Instead of this "simple way" BeerXML 2.0 will introduce a complication. 

8

BeerXML Projects / Too many units!

« on: October 01, 2010, 10:51:31 AM »

BeerXML should standardize a recipe, so I'm missing the point of using so many weight and volume units... I think conversion should be a "program feature" following "user's preferences" and BeerXML should ALWAYS be written in standard units (like BeerXML 1.0).
Instead of "complicating" BeerXML I would suggest to "expand" BeerXML. I.e. I do support the idea of implementing batches xml's description.