Complete Spectrum - partwork

[equinox]

In Crash issue 25 (Feb 1986), on page 71, I noticed this advertisement:
"The Complete Spectrum: all you want to know about the world's best-selling computer" — (was it really?!) — "a Database Publication, six monthly parts, part 1 now on sale at your newsagents, £1.50".

Does anyone know about this, or own it, or has read it? I think our archive coverage of books and magazines is outstanding, better than one would expect for an old computer, but this one seems to be missing. So even if we can't find it, we ought to include it in the archive as an entry, right?

(The SC archive does have The Complete Spectrum (Granada Publishing, 1984) but that is a paperback book and presumably unrelated.)

[PeterJ]

Hi @equinox,

It's here:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/magazin ... e_Spectrum

[equinox]

Then why did it not appear when I searched for "complete spectrum" in the search? See results:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/x-list? ... e+spectrum

[PeterJ]

@equinox,

Because it's classed as a magazine

[equinox]

lol... oh?
I think this is a failure in the search functionality (the "advanced search" where I can remove and filter things is neat, but the default one should find everything, right?)
Or maybe I am just dumb? Why are magazines hidden? If I search for "crash" in the box, then I get a bunch of games with "crash" in the name, plus "groups" (4 Crash Smashes), plus magazines (Crash and the zine Crashed), plus "entities" (Crash Micro, Crash Software Systems).
As a user or researcher, how am I supposed to know that I can't find a magazine called "Complete Spectrum" from the search box?

[PeterJ]

@equinox,

You won't actually get Crash magazine in search results, rather titles published by Crash.

There is a 'Mags' link on the home page.

It's an interesting point you make, but as far as I know WoS, WoS Classic and ZXInfo work this way too. Maybe you could test those sites?

[equinox]

You won't actually get Crash magazine in search results, rather titles published by Crash.

That is extremely subtle, and counter-intuitive.
I think we should complain about this to — whoever — does — whatever.
Any other opinions from forum readers, and database makers?

[PeterJ]

Would you like a refund @equinox?

Seriously though, check those other websites to confirm what I'm saying. I would imagine it would involve a huge amount of work. My suggestion is use the Mags link. I agree it should be clearer.

[equinox]

Hey look I'm not blaming SC, and I know there are other sites that use the same database.
What I am saying is that a database is just a collection of data. The question is how you interrogate and process that data. Do you run the same programs and search scripts, etc. as all the other sites? (Whew, I wouldn't want to! Vulnerabilities...) You can change your PHP or JavaScript or whatever, to treat magazines differently, if you want to.

"Do you want a refund" is funny, but really not a good thing to say, because you know I am not trying to get "value" out of your database but I care about it and I think it's bad if we can't search it effectively. Don't be mean.

But I'll shut up for now. On this thread. (I would like to hear other opinions, though, because users are God. Am I being a petty idiot? Or have other people failed to find a magazine because they used the wrong search box? Do you like pineapple on pizza?)

[PeterJ]

I was trying to be funny @equinox, but apologies if it upset you.

Even before WoS moved to ZXDB I'm sure magazines were still separate.

So, can I ask how you find magazines currently? For example Crash?

We will try and make the magazine search clearer, so others don't face the same issue

[equinox]

I was trying to be funny @equinox, but apologies if it upset you.

It's all good. I'm not snowflakin' at you. Just saying that sometimes humour deflects the need to make a change.

So, can I ask how you find magazines currently? For example Crash?

Excellent question: the answer is that I (almost) never want to find a magazine specifically, but sometimes I might find a game, and look at the reviews (ZXSR) and then click through to the "physical" (lol) PDF magazine, and scroll around. I don't just think "I want to read Crash issue 9 today". (not even the one with the sexy witch on the cover -- see CSS Folklore FAQ)

If I did want to find (say) Crash issue 9, I would probably just google "Crash issue 9" and find it. You know? But your earlier response has clarified that "crash" will find basically everything except Crash magazine. Go figure...

We will try and make the magazine search clearer, so others don't face the same issue

Thank you for thinking about it. It's true indeed that most people want to grab a game, and the people looking for mags and books are a small minority (I rarely want them myself: remember that most of the text content, like game tips and type-in listings, has been archived elsewhere in text format). But showing zero results is bad.

[StooB]

@equinox,

Because it's classed as a magazine

To be fair, the search box that @equinox is using:

Then why did it not appear when I searched for "complete spectrum" in the search? See results:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/x-list? ... e+spectrum

is supposed to be searching "ALL", not the separate categories, so it is broken.

[PeterJ]

@StooB & @equinox,

I'm not sure who @equinox got that search link from. Thanks for noticing the search page he was using @StooB. It's certainly not our default home page. I'm not going to support anything that is not the main page. The page that @equinox was using has now been hidden. Some extra pages have been developed over the years by others, but are not officially supported.

EDIT: Einar has let me know that these x pages are to do with his compact version that we host for him. This is his own project that we host for him. Please PM him with any questions if using the compact view. Thanks.

Our search page is:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/

The Quick Search is like this:



Off topic, but one of the best things about Windows is the 'Snip' tool. You can set a delay for screen grabs and therefore capture drop down menus. It's fab!

Apologies for being pedantic, but broken is where something is not working as intended. It is working as intended, but I accept it was not very clear. As mentioned previously this is the same way that WoS (now, and before they used their own database), WoS Classic and ZXInfo work.

I have updated the words on the advanced search to make it clearer.



PS - @equinox, if you use the magazine link from the top of the page, many of the magazines have a lovely internal flip page viewer. It's like the old WoS magazine viewer used to work. Here is the page from your first post.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 92&page=71

[equinox]

Wow, was the problem that I was using an ancient URL?
I was using a custom search (in Google Chrome), à la "how to be fast"
I bookmarked this years ago, when Martijn's WoS stopped being a thing — so that I could type things like "sc rainbow islands" in my browser address bar.
(Incidentally I had to write a search system for some company, that took about 4 or 5 URL parameters, and then they started copying search links to their pages, so it was necessary to be backwards-compatible, and nothing could be changed any more. Absolute horror.)

I'm quite drunk right now but I'll make a note to try to fix this afterwards, to the correct modern URL.

[equinox]

I'm not going to support anything that is not the main page.

equinox appreciates a truthful corporate statement. Love you all. Fixing my bookmark.

[equinox]

Oh, here's the freakin' punchline: if I go to spectrumcomputing.co.uk and put "complete spectrum" into the search box, then I get nothing. Absolutely no results of any kind. Explain!

I don't want to criticise these people who have done so much work, but this does actually suck. "Have you written a better search indexer?"
Actually YES I have done so, and it runs every single night, and helps people find things on the site of a non-profit charity. So hush your mouth.

Come on, how come the new search is worse than the old search?

[PeterJ]

Oh, here's the freakin' punchline: if I go to spectrumcomputing.co.uk and put "complete spectrum" into the search box, then I get nothing. Absolutely no results of any kind. Explain!

Change the drop-down to book. Four results.

[equinox]

Change the drop-down to book.

Where is the "find anything" search box
e.g. book should be optional narrowing criterion. If I don't choose to narrow, it should find everything (this isn't expensive, you are only running a database query over about 10,000 records). Same problem as before

[PeterJ]

Use the advanced search below. It finds Software, books and hardware.

The quick search was changed because people complained it brought back too many results!

[equinox]

Use the advanced search below. It finds Software, books and hardware.

Do you hate your users?
Oh well, thanks, it's the same feeling as when you read the instructions and find out that the keys are Q-W-E-R-T.

[PeterJ]

Do you hate your users?

No, it's good to hear feedback. You can design something, but the user may see it totally differently. As long as it's constructive, it's fine.

[equinox]

No, it's good to hear feedback. You can design something, but the user may see it totally differently. As long as it's constructive, it's fine.

All right, as a jerk semi-qualified in GUI, how about:
* "one-box search" (OBS) should ideally find everything, no exceptions (because how would you know what it will omit?)
* UNLESS there are specific sub-areas that are considered worth omitting (e.g. "type-in listings from homebrew typewriter zines")
* IN WHICH CASE it should be clear to the user that these things have been omitted and are available ("your search also found 4 homebrew zine hits, click here to see them")

Never mind, 'cause I know it will take some annoying programming to do everything perfectly. The one thing that is really important (and isn't this why I started the thread??) is that searching for X should find X, even if it's a magazine or some nerdy thing like a type-in listing.

The "advanced search" is also quite cool, but I'd also personally like to extend it so that you can use multiple criteria. (There's currently no way to find games that are Spanish language AND platform games.) Don't pretend it's impossible. Look at Microsoft Outlook 95 search criteria, lol, I've actually written the exact thing myself, but I can't link because I'd dox my employer. Remember: some people come to find a game they half remembered (those are the "one box" search people) but most of us are Unix nerds who are absolutely capable of writing complex searches and regular expressions.

Thanks. Love you anyway. This archive is very important to me.

[PeterJ]

If it's wanted by others, and someone volunteers to develop it, then fine.

This is all very much a volunteer effort. The development focus at the moment is on integrating what was called Spectrum 2.0.

[equinox]

Since I spouted my mouth off: here's a search dialogue from equinox's own application (used in an obscure library somewhere). "Title contains 'spectrum' and ISBN doesn't start with 3" -- a very stupid search -- but very, very powerful. Think this way.

[redballoon]

Since I spouted my mouth off: here's a search dialogue from equinox's own application (used in an obscure library somewhere). "Title contains 'spectrum' and ISBN doesn't start with 3" -- a very stupid search -- but very, very powerful. Think this way.

Most people don't want to have to think when searching and they certainly don't want to do any logical stuff, like your search - they just want to type in stuff and get results. Y'know?

Your search smacks of "search written by developer" I'd say.

You want to search for Spanish language and platforms? Search for one and have to ability to filter or refine the search results. Course, that functionality needs to be developed and should be a simple input fired to filter on the results or the list of options to refine that you simple click on and off.