I'm finding the listing program works pretty well when all the albums have already been interconnected, but near the beginning it has certain problems. I'm also still occasionally finding some little bug I didn't notice earlier, and I'm still fiddling with constants to make the results evenly spread from 0-100 without crowding each other.

If you want the program as it is now, I'll put it up, but if you'd rather wait till it's a little more perfected and has the other features I want to add, that's fine to.

I'd like to test it out.

Me too.

Count me in.

I think you can count all the forum in !

Sure !

Ok, the early version of the program is up at http://www.neoptolemos.com/AM/

It is a command line Java program, so if anybody has any questions about how to use the command line I can answer them. Basically, if you're on a Mac go to the applications -> utilities folder and click on Terminal, and if you're on a PC go to 'Run' in the start menu and type 'cmd'. Then type in 'cd (full directory path of directory the program is in)'.

Make sure you have Java version 1.5 or later by typing java -version, and then you can run the program with the command 'java AlbumOrganizer'.

I'm going to need a little more help. Do I download everything on that page? Which one am I pointing the cmd to?

Did not have Java 1.5, so downloaded it from here:
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp

Then downloaded all the classes from the server into a folder on my PC.

Program seems to work, but do I guess right that one needs to enter all albums manually first?

Looks great but a bit difficult.
Few questions:
When I add an album: After asking band, album title, when it was released and when I purchased that album, program asks "correct". Do I answer y or yes or what?

Do I need to load albums after adding them.

And when I add results what is the correct way to write down those albums (do I separate bands too with dash or just band name and album name).
Is this correct Radiohead-OK Computer Radiohead-Kid A done
or Radiohead-OK Computer-Radiohead-Kid A done

Okay, I definitely should have explained this stuff better.

When you enter albums you can either add:

Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead
Kid A

If you enter 'Radiohead' it will give you a choice between all Radiohead albums.

When you add an album you pretty much enter anything that starts with the letter y.

It sounds like you want a quicker way to add albums so you don't have to go through the whole thing for every album. Next time I update it, I'll give you the option of just adding a series of artist - album combinations with the optional 'artist - album year' or 'artist - album year purchasedate', which will automatically put 0 for year and today for purchase date if you don't enter them.

Here's how loading works. If you just load the program, it loads the basic album information and the stored score. Loading is what loads all the specific comparisons you've already made. If you choose 'print albums currently loaded' or 'rank albums currently loaded', it will only list the ones loaded, and if you ask for a suggestion it will only suggest ones loaded (That way you could say, demand that it only list ones from 1987 or something.)

The difference between soft update and full update:

Soft update is intended for if you just added a new album to the program and want to get it's score without changing all the other scores.

Full update will completely re-calculate all the albums relative to each other, then list only the ones that are loaded.

Next time I'll also put up a readme file.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Also, I've already fixed one of the problems with the formula.

Basically, before if you entered A > B > C > D > E, if the C > D one was weighted higher than the D > E weight it would sometimes give you something like:

A) 75.00
B) 50.00
C) 25.00
D) 0.00
E) 0.00

This has now been fixed. It also increased the accuracy in general by making it so higher weighted ones don't completely eclipse lower weighted ones like they used to.

So, the suggested albums are ones you've already ranked?

I need help on actually starting the program.

Thanks for all the explanations, BillAdama.

Will look into it later, holidays are over for me ...

John,
I think BillAdamas advices were very helpful.
If you have still problems,
here is some advice to run that program (I have windows xp).
Download all BillAdama's files from Stephan's site.
Check the path where you have downloaded that file.
Then go to "run" (it's in start menu) and write cmd.
You are now in place which look likes msDos (back in kindergarten days).
Now type your path
for exampe:
cd My Documentsacclaimed music
if you wanna go back the command is cd..
When you are in right folder just run the program.

Command is
java AlbumOrganizer

"Suggest a matchup" is meant to give you an idea for the next group of albums to compare.

It picks which album is the highest priority (Determined mostly by score and how many comparisons it has already), then picks other albums spread around it's score, favoring those it hasn't been compared to yet.