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================================================================== README file for Geni Version 1.11 (c) Martin Dunstan (mnd@dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk) November 9th, 1996 ================================================================== Credits: Idea and design: Vivienne S. Dunstan Programming: Martin N. Dunstan Purpose: Browse genealogical databases with ease. Copyright: (c) Martin N. Dunstan (mnd@dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk) November, 1996. You are free to distribute Geni provided that you do not make any profit from it and it is accompanied by this README file and the RdGed program. This application is shareware. You may use it to browse to 25 individuals while unregistered. After this point the program will become unusable (except to read the help information) until it is registered. Features: * Databases stored in compact format e.g. 4000 individuals in 300K. * Browse to parents, siblings, children or spouses via a few easy-to-remember keypresses. * Ancestral tree display. * View details of current individual and their marriages. * Context-sensitive help as well as detailed help. * Searching with wildcards. * Remembers details of recently used databases. Changes from version 1.00 to 1.10: * Geni 1.10 runs far quicker than version 1.00. * Much quicker when closing down. * Databases incompatible with version 1.00 * Doesn't rely on the sex field for locating spouses. * Requires less memory to use. Changes from version 1.10 to 1.11 * RdGed uses non-recursive quick sort to save system memory. * Search string only has a * wildcard at the end not at the beginning as well. Registration: This program is shareware - if you like it and wish to register your copy please send 15 pounds (or whatever you feel the program is worth) in UK currency (Sterling cheque or international bankers draft) to the address below along with the name under which you want it registered (maximum of 60 characters). If you have an e-mail address please print it clearly and I will e-mail your registration code to you, otherwise I will reply as soon as possible via snail mail. If you wish I will notify you of any major changes or bug fixes. Martin Dunstan 1 Cupar Mills Cupar Fife KY15 5EH Scotland RdGed 1.11 Footprint: System memory (running) ... 22K User memory (running) ..... 13K Application size .......... 15K Total ..................... 48K If large GEDCOM files are converted then some extra memory might be needed for a lookup table. A database of 6000 records could require an extra 64K of system memory. Geni 1.10 Footprint: System memory (running) ... 47K User memory (running) ..... 28K Application size .......... 32K Help database ............. 7K Title screen .............. 7K Resource file ............. 1K Total ..................... 122K The operating system requires some extram memory when opening new Geni databases. This memory is released once the database has been successfully opened. For a database of about 380K the extra memory is around 22K. Description: Geni is a fully-fledged genealogical database browser for the Psion 3a and 3c. It is intended to be used by genealogists who maintain their data on a computer such as a PC or Macintosh using a package designed for the purpose. Users must be able to save their data in GEDCOM format for Geni to work. The databases used by Geni are very compact (usually half the size of the GEDCOM from which they were created) allowing the user to carry large databases on a small Psion without the need for extra disks. These databases are created from GEDCOM files by RdGed, a program which accompanies the Geni distribution. Users are not expected to keep the Geni file completely up-to-date with their central database but will recreate it when needed. The ability to save information in GEDCOM format is required for the creation of the Geni database file. The program begins by displaying an ancestral tree for the current individual. This is either the first individual in the database or the one which the user was at when the database was last used. The ancestral tree display shows the current individual and their parents and grandparents; the lifespan of each person is given for clarity. From this screen users can browse to the parents, children, siblings or spouses of the current individual via a few easy-to-remember keypresses. Alternatively a detailed display of the current individual can be viewed by pressing ENTER. At the tree display the following keypresses are available: f make their father the current individual m make their father the current individual s select a spouse to be the current individual. c select a child to be the current individual. o make their older full sibling the current individual. y make their younger full sibling the current individual. d show details of the current database. ENTER show details of the current individual. HELP show the currently available key-presses. MENU bring up the application menu. The "o" and "y" key presses browse to the next oldest or youngest full sibling where "older" and "younger" is determined by the order in which the siblings are listed in the GEDCOM rather than by age. Only full siblings are considered - to browse to half-siblings press "f" or "m" and then press "c". If the current individual is the oldest then the "o" search wraps around to the youngest sibling. Similarly the "y" search will wrap around if the current individual is the youngest. The detailed display shows the birth (or christening) and death (or burial) of the individual and two scrolling lists. The first scrolling list contains all the spouses of the current individual while the second contains all their children by all those spouses. The up and down cursor keys scroll through the currently selected list and the left and right cursor keys shift the list contents from side to side; the user can switch between the two scrolling lists by pressing the TAB key. Pressing ENTER will browse to the highlighted individual in the currently selected list and show their ancestral tree. As with the tree display, HELP provides context-sensitive help and MENU brings up the application menu. Individuals may be searched for by name from the menu. Searching is case insensitive and limited pattern matching facilities are available via the * and ? symbols. The * will match zero or more characters while the ? matches any single character. For example, to find someone called William Gordon with unknown middle names (or even no middle names) the pattern "william*gordon" could be used. To search for someone whose name might be spelt as Elizabeth or Elisabeth the pattern "eli?abeth" should be used. Note that Geni always adds a * after the pattern you type so "b*sM?th" matches "Fred /Blacksmith/ Jr" as well as names such as "Barbara Smith" and "Basmyth". Context-sensitive help is available at all times by pressing HELP. More detailed help can be obtained via the menus. At the moment the detailed help is in English but other languages could easily be provided in the future. There are no facilities for altering the information stored in the database except by modifying the original GEDCOM file and recreating the database with RdGed. Also, there are no facilities for querying relationships or for searching for people using anything other than their name. Geni supports multiple databases although only one may be viewed at a time. Various details of recently used databases are remembered such as the current individual and search string so users can quit the application and restart at the point where they left off. Menu options: File: Load (Psion-O) Search: Find (Psion-F) Find Again (Psion-G) Info: About (Psion-A) Help (Psion-H) Special: Register (Psion-R) Exit (Psion-X) Installation: The following notes assume you have enough memory to install Geni and RdGed as well as storing the GEDCOM and the Geni database file at the same time (see the Footprint section near the start of this file). If you are limited for space you can leave the GEDCOM on your main computer and access it via the serial link. If you are very short of space you can direct RdGed (via the dialog windows) to store the Geni database on your main computer until after installation. Make sure you are at the system screen and not inside an application. Now check that the RunOPL application is installed: hold down the Control key and press the Calc icon on the button bar (above the 9 and 0 keys). If you can see an icon in the shape of a speech bubble on a transparent background with the word "OPL" inside then RunOPL is installed. The Program application looks similar but has a dark background. If you can't find RunOPL and get the message "RunOPL not installed" then you should install it as follows: * Press the MENU button and use the left or right arrow keys to move to the "Apps" menu. Use the up or down arrows to select the "Install Standard" option and press ENTER. * A dialog box will appear with a name between two arrows. This will probably be RunImg but might not. Use the left or right arrow keys to find RunOPL. Once found press ENTER and the RunOPL icon will appear on the screen. Now make sure that the \OPO directory is created: select the Time icon and press TAB. Since the Time application has no files you should see a listing of the \ directory. Use the up arrow to see if \OPO is listed. If not press the MENU key, move to the "Disk" menu and select "Make Directory". Type in \OPO as the dirctory to be created. (1) Create directories: \APP\GENI \GENI \GENI\GED (2) Copy: GENI.OPA into \APP GENI.DBF into \APP\GENI GENI.PIC into \APP\GENI RDGED.OPO into \OPO Your GEDCOM file(s) into \GENI\GED (3) Install Geni (choose INSTALL from the system screen APP menu). (4) You can now run RdGed on each GEDCOM file to convert them into Geni files: see the tutorial section below for more help. Once RdGed has finished converting the newly created files can be used by Geni immediately. NOTE: the \APP directory in the notes above must be the same one each time (i.e. you can't install \APP\GENI on one disk and then place GENI.OPA on another). Also this directory must NOT be on a Flash disk. Usually one would install Geni on the internal disk but a RAM disk should work just as well. After conversion you can remove the GEDCOM files and RDGED.OPO as well as \GENI\GED if you created it. RdGed can read GEDCOM and write Geni databases over the serial link - at either of the dialogs press the down arrow and then use the left and right arrows to select the appropriate drive. Unfortunately Geni doesn't like to access the databases over the serial link so you must have them stored on the Psion somewhere, ideally in \GENI. The detailed help information is stored in the GENI.DBF file. If you need a little extra space this file can be deleted and Geni will still work although detailed help will be unavailable. If anyone would like to translate the contents of GENI.DBF into other languages such as French or German please send me a copy! Tutorial: This is a short tutorial to familiarise yourself with using RdGed and Geni. Start by installing Geni and RdGed as described in the previous section and copy DEMO.GED into the \GENI\GED directory. (1) From the system screen find the RunOPL application which should have RdGed listed as one of its files. Use the arrow keys to highlight RdGed. If RdGed isn't listed and you have definitely copied RDGED.OPO into the \OPO directory try pressing the System button (leftmost icon on the button bar). (2) Start RdGed by pressing ENTER and then use the dialog box that appears to select the GEDCOM file you wish to convert. If the DEMO.GED file hasn't been copied into \GENI\GED then press the TAB key and locate it using the standard Psion file browser. (3) Press ENTER and then type in the name of the Geni file to be created at the second dialog box that appears. If you have already created a Geni file with the same name and wish to overwrite it it may be quicker to press the TAB key and then use the arrow keys to find it. For the moment type in "DEMO". (4) When ready press ENTER. If the Geni file specified already exists you will be asked if you want to overwrite it - either answer yes to continue or no if you wish to enter another name. (5) A progress indicator should appear showing how much of the file has been indexed. When the indicator reaches the right edge it will be replaced by one showing how far the sorting has got. This indicator will start slowly before speeding up. Due to the way the index is sorted the indicator will probably not reach the right edge before it vanishes. The final indicator shows how far the conversion process has got based on the number of bytes read from the GEDCOM file. (6) When the conversion is complete a small dialog box is displayed informing the user of the number of individuals and families that were found. Press ENTER or ESCAPE and RdGed will finish. (7) Now locate the Geni icon on the system screen. It should have the name of the newly created database below it (DEMO). If not press the System button and it should appear. Move the highlight onto it and then press ENTER to start Geni. (8) Everything should be self-explanatory from this point onwards. If you can't rememeber a key press then use the HELP key to get context-sensitive help. For more detailed information select the "Info/Help" menu option. Notes: The Geni databases should be created using the RdGed program that comes with this distribution. This program accepts a GEDCOM file as input and will produce a compact database that Geni can read. I have tried to make RdGed as resilient as possible and it should be able to swallow any type of GEDCOM that is thrown at it. This is achieved by the ostrich approach (if a line isn't recognised it will be ignored and we hope it won't matter) and by placing very few restrictions on the format of the GEDCOM. The single main assumption is that the INDI and FAM records all begin at level 0 but this shouldn't create any problems. RdGed is also careful about memory usage: if there isn't enough memory to store the rest of the Geni file being converted the user will be prompted to either delete files to free up some memory or to abort. It may be sufficient to quit all other applications to free enough memory without having to resort to deleting files. The reason why Geni does not read GEDCOM directly (like Gedfried does for example) is because of the speed of parsing and the size of the GEDCOM file. At the moment the author is able to translate GEDCOM into the OPL database at a rate of 1.3 records (INDI or FAM) per second when both files are stored in main memory. When the GEDCOM and OPL databases are accessed over the serial link (necessary for very large GEDCOM files which might not fit onto a single flash disk) this drops to around 0.8 records per second. Since my wife has a 700K GEDCOM database containing under 6000 records, processing time is over an hour and the GEDCOM won't fit onto her 1M Psion! The conversion process usually produces a file about half the size of the original GEDCOM which should easily fit on a small Psion (my wife's database easily fits onto her 1M Psion with any disks). Users are expected to use RdGed infrequently so the inconvenience of having to create a special database for their Psion should be offset by the advantages of being able to take the information into places such as record offices and libraries in such a compact format. Bugs: No bugs have been found in this version although there must be some lurking somewhere. If you do find any bugs or the program crashes with a fatal error please let me know! Ideally I need to know the exact circumstances under which the bug appears so try and restart the program and replicate the bug using the least number of moves. RdGed also seems to be free from bugs - if you find any please send me a fragment of GEDCOM that is causing the problem. The program will attempt to tell you which line it stopped at but it is probably best to look at the lines immediately before and after it. If RdGed fails because INDI and FAM records aren't at level 0 (or a similar error) please let me know what program you used to create the file. I don't know what I can do to help with this but I'll see if and when it happens! ================================================================== README file for Geni Version 1.11 (c) Martin Dunstan (mnd@dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk) November 9th, 1996 ==================================================================