[CS-FSLUG] Church Software Project

[Don Parris]

On 8/7/05, Clinton Evans <clinton.evans at rogers.com> wrote:
> For many years, my Church in Ottawa has been providing audio recordings of the
> service on cassette tapes. It is clear that cassettes are approaching the end
> of their product life and we wanted a CD-based system in place before
> cassettes cease to be available.
> 
> I volunteer for our library which, traditionally, has distributed the tapes.
> Being a Presbyterian Church, we NEVER challenge tradition so we wanted to
> produce CDs in the library, too.
> 
> The system that has materialized, so far, works as follows:
> 
> 1)      The person who operates the sound system captures the
>         service audio on his OSX Mac laptop.
> 
> 2)      After the service, he runs a shell script which pipes the data
>         to a Linux machine in the library. This machine captures
>         the raw file and also produces a processed file, suitable for
>         immediate burning. Optionally, it burns a couple of CDs of
>         that service, automatically.
> 
> 3)      We keep past services on disk and burn copies, while people
>         wait, after the service.
> 
> Steps (1) and (2) are so tightly coupled to the operation of our Church that
> the options for using them elsewhere are pretty limited. However, item (3)
> may provide opportunity for a little cross-pollination.
> 
> I originally planned to use a music database, e.g. Juk, to index the audio
> files and burn them, as required. This system is in use, now, but has not
> proved very satisfactory.
> 
Have you looked at Asaph?  I'm not sure it quite fits the category of
what you want to accomplish.  It is a song database, but seems more
concerned with lyrics stuff than what you seem to desire.  It's a Java
solution.  PyAsaph builds on that to offer lyrics projection.


> I looked at a number of programs but did not see anything I really liked. In
> all cases, the program did lots of things I did not want, with the associated
> complexities, and did not things I did want. In the end, I decided to write
> my own code.
> 
> Currently, I have the database editor in a working condition but with some
> planned features still missing. The searching and burning code is a little
> behind the editor but it should be working in a few weeks.
> 
> Here are some details:
> 
> Language:               Python
> GUI Toolkit:    qt, pyqt
> Database:               Zope object database
> 
> I am also considering libbatch to run the conversion and burning queues.
> Alternatively, I may write my own queues.
> 
> I expect other folk must want to organize audio service recordings on disk and
> burn them, to order. I am interested in the possibility of collaboration and
> would appreciate any advice on getting such a project going.
> 
> Clinton
> 
> _______________________________________________

I'm just starting to learn Python, and have a vision for eventually
bringing my own CHurch ADministration DataBase (CHADDB) project to
life at some point.  I got off to a good start but recently decided to
migrate to PostgreSQL from MySQL, due to the former's feature set. 
That is slowing me down just a bit.  However, I do like your choice of
Python - sounds like a great fit for the project!

You should also post to the Linux4Christians list - you might find
some interest there.  However, the Christian Open Developer Network
has revamped its site, and you should sign up and post your project
there.  I would appreciate being kept aprised of your progress, as I
can include mention of it if/when there comes a need for a 3rd edition
of "Penguin in the Pew".

Blessings,
Don
-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
"Hey man, whatever pickles your list!"