Posto to DELTA-L (delta-l@nic.surfnet.nl), MORPHMET-L
(morphmet@cuny.cunyvm.edu)
To Whom It May Concern,
This is to announce an update to the Digital Taxonomy Home Page, that
can be reached at the URL:
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/8695
Major additions are as follows:
o A new section, "Information Models" has been added to the Documents
page, with links to proposed data models for databasing of biodiversity
data, as well as examples of (actually implemented) physical models;
o The section "DELTA and Identification Software" in the Software page
has been enlarged to include not only DELTA-related software, but also
other identification programs not based on the DELTA format;
o Several new programs have been included in the section "Database
Software" of the Software page;
o Links have been made to the new NEXUS Web site by Maddison et al.,that
provides sample code for reading NEXUS format files (this may prove
relevant concerning other biodiversity data formats, especially White &
Allkin's XDF);
o Minor changes have been made to the HTML code to make the pages readable
with *any Web browser* (including those old text-based ones as Lynx - I'm
indeed doing arrangements with a group in Africa to allow the entire
Digital Taxonomy
Page to be retrieved by e-mail...).
Thanks to Joe Kirkbride, Roland Cottin, Robert Colwell, and Manuel
Sanchez-Ruiz for sending me links to new and useful software.
I would also like to take this opportunity to make clear some points
concerning the Digital Taxonomy Home Page:
* In order to not violate the Guidelines of the GeoCities (the US
Internet provider that offers me free space for maintaing the page), I
*cannot* (and will not!) made direct links to any commercial software,
even those that might be treated as "books" (and are indeed distributed
by academic book publishers). On the other side, I can (and want to)
provide links to every *free* software relevant to the issue of
biodiversity data management and analysis. Shareware software is also
acceptable - provided that it they sold either by their own
authors or by non-commercial organizations (as is the case of DELTA,
PANDORA, and Platypus) *and* at least a donwloadable demo version is
available. This latter restriction is not posed by GeoCities, but by myself,
and attempts to deliberately avoid links to a few Web pages that
announce "biodiversity software" but offer nothing more than rethoric
in HTML format.
* The main purpose of the Digital Taxonomy page is to provide links to
sofware and documents relevant to the technical issues of biodiversity
data management; as such, it focuses more on the *software developer*
than on the ordinary user. This should make obvious that this page is
*not* directed to secondary school students, achool children, amateurs,
etc... The bureaucrats that want to do politics at the cost of docent
and technical personnel hard work (but do not support it properly) are
invited to look for another, more easily accessible, source of blood...
* As a corollary of the above, I do *not* intend to provide the Digital
Taxonomy page in any language other than English - if you can't
understand it, then this page is definetly not for you!
With regards,
-- + - - - - - - - - - - - Prof. Mauro J. Cavalcanti - - - - - - - - - - + | Departamento de Biologia Geral Universidade Santa Ursula | | Rua Fernando Ferrari, 75, Botafogo 22231-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ | | Phone: +55 (21) 551-1899, Fax: +55 (21) 551-6446 BRASIL | | Internet: maurobio@uerj.br | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +