About SoloChart

The web charts referenced by the Philadelphia Region SCCA Solo II Charts page are programmatically generated by a series of small programs I've written. (You really don't think I was masochistic enough to hand craft each of the charts did you? - Just masochistic enough to write the programs that generate them ;)

PHLSoloResults

PHLSoloResults is a Java application that reads the race results of each Philadelphia Region SCCA Solo II event (see http://www.autox4u.com/phillysolo.htm) and reduces the information into raw comma separated value data (CSV) files. This greatly simplifies subsequent processing. The CSV format is defined to have the following ordered fields:

Car Number
Car Class/Category
Driver Name
Car Description
PAX Time
Actual Times (one or more)

CSV

CSV is a Java application that reads CSV files, manipulates it, and produces another CSV file. CSV works irregardless of the nature of the values being processed. The two options useful for producing the Solo II charts are:

group

sort

SoloChart

SoloChart is a Java application that reads CSV files in the format specified above and produces the final HTML files. The HTML files make extensive use of tables.

Generating the 1997 Holbert Memorial Charts

The following script file takes the 1997 Holbert Memorial results and produces the class/category chart and CSV file, as well as the PAX chart. Though these Java applications are run on my home Windows 95 PC, they can also be run on most other computers (e.g., Unix) due to the portable nature of Java.

jview PHLSoloResults <txt\event8.txt >temp8.csv
jview CSV group SS AS BS CS DS ES FS GS HS ASP BSP CSP DSP ESP AP BP CP DP EP AM BM CM DM EM FM L N <temp8.csv >phl97\event8.csv
jview solochart "Event 8 - Holbert Memorial" "Sept 28, 1997 Camden, NJ" 34 70 <phl97\event8.csv >phl97\event8.html
jview CSV sort <temp8.csv >phl97\pax8.csv
jview solochart "Event 8 - Holbert Memorial" "Sept 28, 1997 Camden, NJ" 34 70 <phl97\pax8.csv >phl97\pax8.html

Step 1 produces the raw CSV file. Steps 2-3 produces the class/category results. Steps 4-5 produces the PAX results. Here's the play-by-play:

jview is Microsoft's Java compiler (JavaSoft's javac can be used as well) used to run PHLSoloResults which processes event8.txt and generate temp8.csv.
temp8.csv is not grouped by car category (since the original event8.txt are not). Therefore, temp8.csv is fed into CSV and is grouped according to the car classes/categories seen to produce event8.csv.
SoloChart is fed some title information, the time range to be charted (34 - 70 seconds), and the previous event8.csv file. It produces the event8.html file that you see.
To produce the PAX chart, temp8.csv (from step 1) is again passed through CSV, except this time, it is sorted by PAX time, producing pax8.csv.
SoloChart is again called upon to produce pax8.html from pax8.csv.

Future Projects

Hopefully you have not been totally bored or lost in the tech talk. Here are some other projects I (or you) might like to undertake sometime:

Chart non-PHL results. All one has to due is write a program or script (e.g., AWK, Perl, etc.) to process some other region's results and produce files in the CSV format described above. The CSV and SoloChart programs above would not have to be modified at all!
Produce derived statistics. I've posted the CSV files on my site hoping that someone will use them to produce interesting statistics. Currently I merely report and graph the actual and PAX times.
Produce driver histories. Currently all results are event-based. It would be nice to have page (or a section of a page) containing links to all events a given driver raced in.