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One of the back projects that I will never get to is "how much of this kind of moving graphic could be built with basic animation tools and data from tables in a spreadsheet style interface". I think a HyperCard for showing simulations would be an amazing tool. For something like this put the map as a graphic for the background, define the animation routes, the shape of the ship, and then read the data off a table to know what to animate when. There are tools for this type of stuff, but, last time I looked, they are fairly complicated. It would be amazing to have Harry Potter-style living documents.

Ha sheet, part of my ancestry was on one of these ships. My mother met an mixed Indian at the head of an associations, he told us records (for what they're worth) were kept in an archive somewhere. I didn't know (maybe him too) there were digitalization efforts to make them ...clickable. Weird loop.

psedit: Erf, sheet again, "only" African trade. Too bad, can't click on my (grand^n)pa.

Ha - I was impressed before realizing you could do that. Now I'm even more amazed!