SEED SWAP DATABASE

For the last 4-5 days I've been writing a database program. As much as I try to get away from geeky blawgs, it's not happening.


It's a database that manages seed swapping, and it does it in a clever way. Let's say you have a box that you keep all your seeds in. Let's say it has two sections. The first section is your keep section. It contains all the seeds you aren't going to swap; they're for you. The second section is your swap section.

Now the goal is to get as many varieties of seed in your keep section as possible and hold as many of each as possible. You can only hold so much of each type of seed in either section. If your keep section is full of that type of seed, it goes into your swap section.

So I came up with this. Every seed has a value. I invented a currency called the U. Every seed in my keep section is worth 1U, but the value of seeds in the swap section changes. Let's say I add a tomato seed to my collection. The value of that tomato seed is less than any other tomato seed in the collection. The same happens with the next tomato seed I add. So, the value drops.


This works out awesomely two ways: if you come to me with seeds and I don't already have that variety of seed, then they are worth a good amount to me. You can get a lot of swap seeds in exchange. This encourages growth in my keep section and discourages growth in my swap section. It's great for someone swapping seeds with me because they usually get a lot more seeds than they gave.

Well I wrote a program that manages all of that stuff. You can create a database for seeds, add seeds to it, save and load databases to/from files. It will automate a swapping transaction, and issue credit if you have credit left over after a swap. And a few other nifty tricks.

It's not pretty though. It's all command line stuff. But it works.

So, if you have seeds that you want to swap, come to me and get them valued. If I have swap seeds, you'll get a very good deal. If I have nothing you need, leave your seeds and I'll issue you with credit. You can come to me later, bring your credit, and maybe pick up something you need then. Neat, huh?