It all started with the length of a spoke.
1987 I needed to build my first wheels, my current "handbuilt wheels" from someone else were useless and would never hold up to what I was intending to do. Building a wheel is not difficult, but what about the spoke lengths, building can't start without first knowing the length of the spokes. So it was a bit of trigonometry, buy the spokes, build the wheels, then start preparing for the Three Peaks Cyclo cross (look that one up if you are unfamiliar with it). Spoke lengths and wheels were great, and performed as required.
As you probably know, building your first wheels takes you into another world of cycle mechanics, a separate hobby in itself. My new wheels were great, but I wanted to understand why my previous wheels and those used by people I knew were not so good. And then on to spoke lengths where I found many wheelbuilders struggled with spoke length calculations. So I produced some printed information on how to calculate spoke lengths. My job in the real world was in manufacturing systems in an engineering environment, system specification, user manuals and end user training, plus I had a technical background in mechanical engineering.
Printed material only reaches a few people, online is where it needed to be. When the Netscape browser introduced frameset layouts it was possible to write a decent online calculator which soon became the number 1 calculator available (it was also popular with the web programming community and often cited as an example of complex frameset design and user interface). Calculator number 1 was featured in early editions of the wheelbuilding book.
There was more I wanted to do, but I had to wait until web browsers improved, in particular the programming environment (Javascript) and the method of controlling the display (style sheets). Finally, Microsoft Internet Explorer was consigned to history, web standards were now in place and modern browsers adhered to them. So calculator number 2 was written and introduced a lot of cool features. By then I had a professional wheelbuilding shop and I kept adding features that I needed for spoke length calculations in my own business - which other people appreciated as well.
When I closed the wheelbuilding shop I had time on my hands, fortunately I enjoy Math and Computing and still built a few wheels, so I decided to write the ultimate spoke length calculator that would do everything. Now I could take advantage of modern computers and phones that had more than enough power to cope with complex formulas and graphics. Hope you like calculator 3 which is used on this website.
For the record, over the years I have built a LOT of wheels and I have never got a spoke length wrong.
www.spokelength-project.com/calculator
Roger