The Dove-Cote

IT Tag: Code: Open Source

  • Traceable Heraldic Art

    A collection of armorial clip art for SCA heraldic submissions and scribal uses.

    Contains over 6,500 entries illustrated by around a hundred different SCA heralds and scribes, or sourced from period and post-period sources. Most illustrations are suitable for SCA submissions, with flags for poor style or unregistrable items. However, is known to be incomplete and imperfect so should not be considered authoritative.

    License: All images are public domain or are licensed for free use in the SCA.

    Website: Available at heraldicart.org.

    Usage: Visited by 100–200 people per day.

    Technology

    Code: Perl.

    Database: Source material is in flat files. Exports and publishes database in JSON format.

    Source: All code and data files available for download.

    Team

    Developer: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin.

    History

    Started in 2016 as a small collection of ordinaries and field divisions, then imported the imported the Pennsic Traceable Art in 2017.

    Called for a volunteer to build a successor system in 2021.

    Pace of publishing new entries has declined from an earlier high of over a thousand year to a lower rate of around four hundred per year in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

    Future

    Web-First Rewrite: The existing data could be imported into a new web-based system that would become the system of record. I’ve posted about how the existing system works, about the database model, and the JSON export format.

    Get Involved: Contact Mathghamhain via email, Discord, or other channels.

  • Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources

    A large and reliable collection of given names with citations to source documents.

    Technology

    Interface: Website at dmnes.org.

    Code: Python. (Technical details.)

    Revision Control: Repositories at GitHub: github.com/uckelman/dmnes-viewer and github.com/uckelman/dmnes-editor.

    Database: The master data is stored in a set of XML files that are updated by the editor. From there, the data is loaded into a SQLite database used by the web viewer.

    Hosting: Linode.

    Team

    Editor: Aryanhwy merch Catmael (mka Sara L. Uckelman)

    Developer: Joel Uckelman

    See Also

    Additional Indexes for DMNES at digitalherald.org, built via a Perl script that reads citations from a web mirror of the site and builds additional index pages.

    History

    The predecessor to DMNES was Aryanhwy’s Database of Medieval Names (2009-2013).

    The DMNES was announced in 2014 and first published in 2015.

    Updates were frequent from 2015 through 2020, and have been much slower from 2021 on.

  • Kihō’s Blazon Parser

    Parses an SCA blazon and generates a set of armory description codes that can be used to run a O&A complex search for potential conflicts.

    Technology

    Interface: Website at xavid.us/blazon.

    Code: Python.

    Databases: Flat files

    Connections

    Imports: Uses the my.cat file from the O&A Website.

    Team

    Developer: Togashi Kihō.

    Revision Control: Repository at GitHub: github.com/xavidotron/blazon

    License: Open, MIT License.

    History

    Developed circa 2014. Updated occasionally (2016, 2020).

    Future Possibilities

    Integration with O&A: The blazon parser could be integrated into a future version of the O&A’s search interface. (It would be important to note its limitations and warn people against relying on it indiscriminately.)

    Generating Descriptions: The output of the blazon parser is intended for use in complex searches, but with a bit of effort it might also be able to help to automate some of the indexing work currently done manually by Morsulus.

  • O&A Website

    Web interface for viewing and searching the Society’s armorial database.

    Connections

    Imports: Receives the oanda.db and my.cat files from the Morsulus toolchain.

    Exports: Other services collect the oanda.db and my.cat files from here.

    Technology

    Interface: Website at oanda.sca.org.

    Hosting: Hosted on the main SCA.org server.

    Code: Perl.

    Databases: Flat files

    Revision Control: All code is stored in Git. The repository is hosted at GitHub: github.com/herveus/Morsulus-tools

    License: Open, Artistic License.

    Team

    College Staff: Morsulus Herald — currently Herveus d’Ormonde, transitioning to Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin.

    History

    The title of Morsulus Herald is given to the lead maintainer of the database.

    • Herveus d’Ormonde, 2000–
    • Iulstan Sigewealding, 1992–1999

    Other contributors:

    • Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin, 2019—

    Recent Enhancements

    Complex Search Flexibility: During 2023–2024, Herveus added some more options to make it easier to write armory descriptions.

    Docker Container: In 2024, Istvan built a Docker package that allows the O&A website to be run on a personal computer for offline use.

    Note that the Docker container replaces an earlier effort to package the O&A site for remote use, known as “HeraldStick” (circa 2011). There was also a “Herald’s Hot Spot” effort (circa 2017) to package the HeraldStick software on inexpensive hardware, which stalled before shipping.

    Future Work

    Updated Visual Interface: As of early 2025, Mathghamhain intends to add a new set of pages that provide the existing capabilities in a more modern visual style and with additional interactivity. (The current web interface looks essentially the same as it did thirty years ago.) Because many heralds are accustomed to the existing interface, it will be maintained as a “classic mode” to avoid disrupting their workflow while simultaneously offering a new one for new heralds and those ready to make the switch.

    See Also