Software that makes placemats

[jdaw1]

So there are two types of error.

The wrong circles can be joined:


Or the choice of circles is OK, but some within-circle reordering is required, of which the most general case yet seen is:

[jdaw1]

+WaterCountMaxRowLengths done.

Changed again. Parameters were specifying the size, and fitting in as many as possible. It better fits how I use the program to specify some measure of how many (WaterCountNumSideTriangle), and have the program choose the size based on that (though subject to WaterCountSizeMax).

[jdaw1]

Somebody in Belfast (probably Daniel) suggested that there should be one extra page, fixed and unchanging (bar fonts), being a check list for the organiser.

Item to go on checklist include:

• â–¢ Reserve venue.
  â–¢ Glasses: n people × m wines ⇒ at least nm recently cleaned glasses.
  â–¢ Print and bring placemats.
  â–¢ Bring sample jars.
  â–¢ Bring T-corks.
  â–¢ Bring a good corkscrew.
  â–¢ Bring a decanting funnel.
  â–¢ Bring muslin or coffee filter.
  Also:
  â–¢ Invite JDAW.

Presumably the list was to be longer than this what else?

Please could that Belfast person say what else is to go on the list, and please could others comment on the idea.

As items are suggested I’ll edit this post.

[djewesbury]

Somebody in Belfast (probably Daniel) suggested that there should be one extra page, fixed and unchanging (bar fonts), being a check list for the organiser.

Item to go on checklist include:

• â–¡ Invite JDAW
  â–¡ Glasses: n people × m wines ⇒ at least nm glasses, which have been recently cleaned.
  â–¡ Room hire.
  â–¡ Print and bring placemats.

Presumably the list was to be longer than this what else?

Please could that Belfast person say what else is to go on the list, and please could others comment on the idea.

As items are suggested I’ll edit this post.

I think it was Derek. Interestingly I had just written glasses = people x ports when you edited your post.

Perhaps
â–¡ Bring 'All-Eventualities Port Kit': sample jars / T-corks / good corkscrew / decanting funnel / muslin

[DRT]

I think it was Derek.

Guilty.

[jdaw1]

List updated.

Though echoing the suggestion, I’m not convinced by it. Often it isn’t the organiser who prints the placemats. And often enough the person who prints the placemats doesn’t really look at them until set-up time, that is, until it is too late. So I’m not (yet) convinced of the merits of the extra page.

[Glenn E.]

+1

I doubt I would use the feature as printing placemats is one of the items on my list.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[PhilW]

Though echoing the suggestion, I’m not convinced by it. Often it isn’t the organiser who prints the placemats. And often enough the person who prints the placemats doesn’t really look at them until set-up time, that is, until it is too late. So I’m not (yet) convinced of the merits of the extra page.

I probably wouldn't use this on the placemat sheets, as I'd rarely create and certainly never print without having done all the other tasks. However, such a list could be a useful sticky post somewhere (In Organising tastings sub-forum, probably), both as reminder-checklist but perhaps especially for someone who hasn't organised a tasting before?

[jdaw1]

A variant. Open the bell stickies, and observe that on each page of sticky labels (pages at the end) that there is a little note that can be opened. That note doesn’t print. Should there be, top-left of first page, such a sticky note, that opens to a list of things to consider remembering?

Though proposing this variant, my enthusiasm is only slight (though slightly more than for a extra whole page). However, it has the merit of being very easy to do.

[DRT]

This suggestion came about as a result of Daniel failing to remember to order glasses at a new venue. Both parts of that scenario are very rare events. Whilst pleading guilty to being the one who made the suggestion I must confess that my enthusiasm for it is very low.

Perhaps we should simply add a check list to this thread?

[djewesbury]

I agree with Derek. Having a checklist available somewhere is handy. Including on the placemats is unnecessary.

[jdaw1]

Perhaps we should simply add a check list to this thread?

Done.

[djewesbury]

Sorry. I suggest that

â–¢ Glasses: n people × m wines ⇒ at least n × m recently cleaned glasses

is insufficiently clear. Spares are needed for stink, breakages and bonus bottles. Perhaps a fraction of n × m can be found that is a correct number of spares?

[jdaw1]

insufficiently clear. Spares are needed

â–¢ Glasses: n people × m wines ⇒ at least n × m recently cleaned glasses, plus spares.

[jdaw1]

At Daniel’s request, www.jdawiseman.com/papers/placemat/page ... dvice.html has been updated. It now includes the following chart.

All page sizes are assumed to have margins of 30 points ! ≈ 0.42″ ≈ 10.6 mm. On the chart colours are pages sizes (  A4 in dark blue  ,  A3 in light blue  ,  US Letter = 8½″×11″ in red  ,  US Legal = 8½″×14″ in brown  , and  US Ledger = 11″×17″ in orange  ). The various marker shapes are the classes of elements of PermittedPackingStyles. The thick lines show the largest for each page size, these being reached or almost reached by the default value of PermittedPackingStyles. The thin lines are the values for /PostsAndLintel, assuming that the flag /CentralGlasses is at the default of 0.

Making the chart uncovered some obscure bugs, so was worth doing. (Well, uncovering the bugs in my code was worth doing. Uncovering those in Excel was fruitless pain.)

Comment welcomed.

[jdaw1]

Despite a minimal amount of waste, having 2 sets to each sticker sheet (with a blank column) means that certain people do not have to juggle two individual (and fiddly) strips of stickers during the tasting. For some reason i adopted Ray's stickers last year and had to deal with this - was not ideal. If the blank column could be the middle column, that would be perfect in terms of a quick "chop and distribute". Obviously disregard if it requires a lot of code.

How should this be parameterised?

As a reminder, the current StickyLabels parameters are:

Code: Select all

/StickyLabelsNumCopies 0 def
/StickyLabelsTypes [0 1] def

/StickyLabelsPaperType {[/A4 /A4] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsByNameWhichReplaceCirclearrays {StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitNumRows StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitNumCols mul 24 gt} def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitNumRows {[4 13] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitNumCols {[2 5] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitGapL 12 def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitGapR 12 def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitGapT {[36 31] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitGapB {[36 31] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitGapBetweenRows 0 def
/StickyLabelsWithPagePortraitGapBetweenCols 8 def
/StickyLabelsOrientationAutomatic true def  % of labels, not of paper. Boolean.
/StickyLabelsOrientation /Landscape def  % of labels, not of paper. /Landscape /Portrait. Ignored if StickyLabelsOrientationAutomatic.
/StickyLabelsColumnsChangeFaster {[true false] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsFirstPageStartPosition 0 def
/StickyLabelsPaddingWithPagePortraitTB {[12 6] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsPaddingWithPagePortraitRL {[6 3] StickyLabelsTypeThis get} def
/StickyLabelsReverseOrder false def
/StickyLabelsRemoveDuplicatesByWithinTitles true def
/StickyLabelsSortByWithinTitles true def

[PhilW]

How should this be parameterised?

I'm going to have to read the manual to understand the current parameters... One simple suggestion could be:

/StickyLabelPadWithBlank true def % true, false
/StickyLabelPadLen 12 def
/StickyLabelPadAfter odd def % odd, even, all, none

This would allow addition of padding after label set 1,3,5 etc (middle columns on 5-column sheets) or after 2,4,6 (right column on 5-column sheets).

[jdaw1]

Hmm. How about a boolean StickyLabelNewPageAfter, intended to contain arbitrary code?

[jdaw1]

Hmm. How about a boolean StickyLabelNewPageAfter, intended to contain arbitrary code?

That suggests StickyLabelNewColOrRowAfter, which doesn’t quite allow a blank row or column. Hmm. Maybe an integer StickyLabelColOrRowEndings, 0 being do nothing, 1 starting a new one, 2 starting a new one with a skip, etc. That works, but is uglier than pretty. Hmm.

And forcing the parameter to contain code, probably complicated, limits usage to me. Yuck.

[PhilW]

How about /StickyLabelsAllowAcrossPages which when defined as true works as currently, but when false you calculate how many attendees' labels will fit on one page, and then pads the rest? Padding could be after, or equally spaced between (the latter woul provide for RAYC's request.

[jdaw1]

How about /StickyLabelsAllowAcrossPages

Oooh, missus, very good. And /StickyLabelsAllowAcrossColumsnOrRows.

Edit: both would have to be ignored when things are too big. When things have to flow past a column/row/page, it must make an effort to minimise the number of undesirable breaks. Perhaps better expressed with opposite booleans, !Eschew! rather than !Allow!.

[jdaw1]

Done, as StickyLabelsAvoidAcrossColumnsOrRows and StickyLabelsAvoidAcrossPages, both of which are ignored unless StickyLabelsByNameWhichReplaceCirclearrays is true.

[jdaw1]

(I tried to add a comment (‟Oeneophiles desirous of the placemats might like to know that they were made using the free program at http://www.jdawiseman.com/placemat.html”) but it wouldn’t let me create an account except via Facebook. So I couldn’t.)

[djewesbury]

You have a twitter account. You can sign in with that as well. Or shall I?

[jdaw1]

You have a twitter account. You can sign in with that as well. Or shall I?

I dislike cross-sign-in. So I tried to create an account, which seemed to require FB, which in turn seems to require all your private information, and the right to do anything with it (also disliked). If you can and are willing to cope, please do so.