The Physical Lincoln: Sotos numbering system
From Lincolnwiki
The non-chronological numbering of the Meserve and Ostendorf numbering systems greatly complicated medical analysis of Lincoln images. It became clear that a new numbering system was needed. Such a system would satisfy several desiderata:
- Date-encoding: Because of the importance of time in medicine, an ability to identify the date of an image from its label is highly desirable. Such a method would, for example, permit rapid identification of all images taken on a single day, or the rapid calculation of the time span between two images.
- Short labels: Several methods of constructing labels were tried. The ones that resulted in long labels were difficult to use -- too much mental time was spent reciting the various parts of the label.
- Tolerance of date imprecision: The dates for some images are not known exactly, and for others is not known even approximately.
- Applicability to multiple family members: Because Lincoln had a genetic illness, the images of his blood kin are just as important as his own images.
- Tolerance of new image discoveries: The chronological orderliness of the Meserve and Ostendorf numbering systems were destroyed by the discovery of new Lincoln images. Any new system should be impervious to such disruptions.
- Tolerance of date revisions: It is always possible that the date assigned to an image will change. This would force a change in the image's label, yet we would want users to be able to find the image using the old name.
Using a wiki is critical because of the last desideratum. "Redirect pages" make it easy to rename an image, while preserving access via its old name.
Ultimately, a method using the following syntax was adopted:
"Person" was encoded with a single letter corresponding to the person's first name. "Date" was encoded using numbers and letters. "ImageCounter" and "VersionCounter" were encoded with integers.
Examples
- a46 = Image of Abraham Lincoln taken in 1846.
- a54j = Image Abraham Lincoln taken in October 1854 (J is tenth letter; Oct. is tenth month).
- a64ah2-v2 = Second version of second image of Abraham Lincoln taken on Jan. 8, 1864.
- a57bzb = Image of Abraham Lincoln taken on Feb. 28, 1857 (ZB = 26 + 2 = 28).
- a60x8 = The eighth image of Abraham Lincoln taken in 1860 whose month and day are unknown.
- a64y2 = An image of Abraham Lincoln taken about the year 1864, specifically the second of such images.
Syntax Guide
| Field | Presence | Possible Values | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Required | a m r w t | Indicates a person who is the subject of the image. |
| Year | Required | 00-99 | Last two digits of the year in which the image was taken. Most years are in the 1800s, but a few of Robert's images are from the 1900s. |
| Month | Optional | A-L | A-L are the first to the twelfth letters of the aphabet, and indicate the first to the twelfth months of the year, respectively. |
| Optional | . | Indicates that the month of the image is uncertain. | |
| Optional | X | Indicates that the month of the image is uncertain. | |
| Optional | Y | Indicates that the year of the image is uncertain. | |
| Day of month | Optional | A-Z, ZA-ZE | A-Z are the first to the 26th letters of the aphabet. ZA-ZE indicate the 27th to the 31st days of the month. |
| Image Counter | Optional | (integer) | When more than one image was acquired on the given date, a counter distinguishes them. |
| Version Counter | Optional | -v(integer) | When more than one version of an image exists, a counter distinguishes them. |
