SITE TECHNOLOGY
Formerly the maps on the site were hand-crafted - back in 2003 Google Maps were new and didn't have nice APIs to build a site like this. So the maps were hand drawn in PowerPoint and rendered in html via XML and VML - a 9 month project. In 2015 the site was rebuilt using Google maps and their API - a 9 hour project! That's progress.
Firefox - used as the sole test web-browser since 2018
Google Maps - Used to render all clickable maps. The clickable map areas have been hand created using Google Earth, saved in KML format, and published locally.
MS Notepad Windows 10 version - used to write the code for all SHTML pages
PERL version 5.22 - the server-side programming language that accesses the database and builds the dynamic pages; also used as the basis for the search engine
Apache version 2.4.20- used as the localhost server
Javascript - used for miscellaneous page functions, such as showing a count of tracks selected, formatting popup windows, etc.
MS Excel 2010 - used to manage the database
Adobe Photoshop LE - used to create some images, such as the The Motor Racing Game graphics
Technology formerly used:
Fusion Tables - 'turned down' by Google starting August 2019
MS Internet Explorer 8 and Safari
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 - used to build all HTML pages
XML - used to manage the map information by segregating the map data in a separate file and drawing the data into the map pages dynamically, as called for by the options chosen
VML (Vector Markup Language) - used to physically build the maps (lines, etc) - more efficient than images (quicker download times), and more flexible (again, given the dynamic nature of information that must be displayed based on the options chosen)
MS PowerPoint - used for map layout integrity
MS Visual Basic - used to generate some of the more complex XML/VML code
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