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DESCEND - An Expanded Descendant Chart for PAF
by John C. Barron
510 E. Braker Lane
Austin, TX 78753
Version 2.3
23 Apr 1992
Abstract
This program reads Personal Ancestral File (PAF) 2.x data
files and produces an expanded descendant chart. The chart can
include up to 16 generations, any person can have up to 5 mar-
riages, and any couple can have up to 20 children. There is a
limit of 5,000 selected marriages. An individual entry consists
of a descendant with birth, death, and (optional) notes followed
by a spouse with birth, marriage, death, (optional) parent data,
and notes. This pattern is then repeated for their children. An
index is generated after the chart. Up to 5,200 index entries
can be expected and the user is warned if the index cannot be
completed. The chart can be routed to three output sources:
printer, screen, or disk file. Printer drivers for about 40
printers can be selected and drivers can also constructed for a
specific printer. DESCEND require a 16 pitch font to operate
correctly since it indents for each generation. Several new
options are supplied with this version.
Introduction
The Personal Ancestral File Genealogy System produced and
sold by the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) is an extremely
good, inexpensive way for genealogists to organize their data.
For storage and searches it is hard to beat, but its output is
very generic and is often not optimal for certain uses.
Along with the usual pedigree charts and family group
sheets, PAF produces a descendant chart. It is limited in nature
and outputs just the generation number, name, date of birth, and
RIN of the descendants. You can route it to screen, disk, or
printer but you have no control over the contents.
Development History
The program was begun in March, 1988, but little progress
was made until the end of the year when Bourland Corp. released
Turbo Pascal 5.0 and its interactive debugger. By the use of
this powerful product, I was able to solve some very tricky
problems and complete the project. The following table lists the
released versions of the program and the principle modifications
of each.
Vs. Date Modification
1.0 20 Jan 1989 Completed using Turbo Debug.
1.1 11 Feb 1989 Added search window.
1.2 10 Mar 1989 Fixed dual date problem.
1.3 18 Mar 1989 Used paf unit for path.
1.4 4 Aug 1989 Limit no. generations.
1.5 13 Sep 1989 Increase no. persons input.
1.6 7 Oct 1989 Fix LF on null note problem.
1.7 24 Nov 1989 Fix note line length overflow.
1.8 18 Jan 1990 Use christening & burial if birth or
death dates missing.
1.9 23 Feb 1990 Set maximum marriages to 5000.
2.0 10 Oct 1990 Revised marriage array, added PAF
name/address to output, added command
line path input, more bullet proof input,
revised mar array, indicate spouse with
sp-, added option for printing notes, add
name & rin of selected person, added
chart title option, checked index memory
usage.
2.1 22 Nov 1990 Fixed bug with MaxSpo, fixed problem when
person had blank surname, fixed problem
with it not running in current directory.
2.1a 11 Mar 1991 Released as shareware version.
2.1b 24 Mar 1991 Increased marriage arrays back from 1,000
to 5,000.
2.1c 5 Apr 1991 Fixed problem with note printing.
2.1d 31 May 1991 Revised final page output.
2.2 4 Jan 1992 Isolated output, added options screen,
added margin, printer options screen,
added config file, overlayed files, fixed
note overflow, added burial usage, tagged
note option, uppercase surname option,
spouse's parents, select up to 30 RINS.
2.3 23 Apr 1992 increased mrin display length, restore
orig. video settings, replaced all
integer type with word, added pafhalt
standard procedure, fixed spouse parent
addition bug.
Usage
The program can be started in two ways from the DOS prompt:
1) by entering the name (DESCEND), or 2) by entering the name and
a path to the directory where the PAF files are located. The
following examples illustrate the methods:
D:\>DESCEND
D:\>DESCEND D:\PAF\
If a valid path to the PAF files is given, DESCEND goes
directly into operation. If no path is given and if no PAF.CFG
file is present (more on this later), an introductory screen
describing the program is shown followed by another screen re-
questing the path. If the PAF data files are in the current
directory, DESCEND begins running. If you are confused about
directories and paths to them, then it would be advisable to read
your DOS manual, especially the chapter about tree-structured
directories.
If no path to PAF files is given on startup, DESCEND prompts
the user for this information with the path screen. At this
point, and at almost any other input option, the user can halt
the program. If the user chooses, however, a path can be given
and the program will continue to cycle in this screen until a
valid path is input or until the user decides to quit.
Once a valid path to PAF files is given, DESCEND prompts the
user for some additional information. At this point you can
still (Q)uit, or you can (C)hange the path once more, or you can
(S)ave the path in the PAF.CFG file for later usage, or you can
(U)se the path. If you save it, it automatically uses it too.
The file PAF.CFG is written on the current directory when you
save it and is also used the next time DESCEND is started. It is
simply an ASCII file containing the path to PAF files.
Using the path gets you started with the rest of the pro-
gram. The next step displays a window which gives the user a
number of options which can be selected by the user to customize
the chart as desired. The options available at this point are as
follows:
A. How many descendant generations do you want? (maximum is 16)
B. How many spaces on the left margin? (maximum is 20)
C. What output mode do you want? (Screen/Print/File)
D. Do you want printer commands in file output? (Y/N)
E. Do you want to change the default chart title? (Y/N)
DESCENDANT CHART - Version 2.2
F. Do you want to include RINs & MRINs in the chart? (Y/N)
G. What notes do you want to include? (All/Tagged/None)
H. What tag do you use in your notes?
I. Do you want the make surnames upper case? (Y/N)
J. Do you want "son/dau of" in spouse data? (Y/N)
S. Do you want to save these settings for future charts? (Y/N)
Option A - Prompts the user to enter the number of genera-
tions to use in the chart. The maximum (and default) number of
generations that DESCEND can process is 16. Entering 2 genera-
tions would produce a chart similar to a family group sheet. If
the number of generations desired is exceeded during the process
of producing a chart, DESCEND ignores them and prints a message
indicating that more information is available.
Option B - Allows the user to set the number of spaces on
the left hand margin of the chart. This has no affect for charts
sent to the screen however. The default margin is 0 (none).
Option C - Concerns the output destination for the chart.
Three modes are available: screen, print, or file. Screen
output shows the chart to the user on the terminal and does not
produce printed output. This is recommended for checking a chart
before printing a lot of pages. The default is to send the
output to the printer. The third option is to send the output to
a disk file named DESCEND.TXT which you can edit and print with a
word processor or print with the DOS print command, PRINT.COM.
Option D - This options allows the user to insert printer
control (escape sequence) codes into the optional DESCEND disk
file. These are normally wanted to print the file with the DOS
print command, but not wanted for a file that will be subsequent-
ly edited before printing.
Option E - Here you can personalize the output by using the
next option which asks if the user desires a title for the chart.
If you select yes, then an input area is opened which will allow
you to enter a 55-character chart title which will be printed at
the top of each page. If no special title is requested, then the
name and version of the program is used in its place. I recom-
mend that you use a chart title listing the first person in the
chart.
Option F - The next option for the chart concerns the list-
ing of RINs and MRINs in the output. The user is asked if these
reference numbers are desired. If the chart is to be sent to
others, these numbers make no sense to them and should be left
off which is the chart default. On the other hand if the chart
is for your own use as a reference for additional work, you can
nearly always find good use for the RIN and MRIN numbers. The
MRINs are shown in parentheses after the RIN of a spouse entry.
Option G - This option asks the user about including notes
from the PAF files in the chart. Three options are available:
all notes, tagged notes, or no notes. If "all" notes (the de-
fault) is selected then the PAF notes are included along with the
birth, marriage, and death entries. Only regular notes created
by PAF are included; those created by a word processor and linked
to a PAF entry are not included. Perhaps inclusion of these
notes can be implemented by a future update of DESCEND. If the
"tagged" notes option is selected then only those note entries
starting with your personal tag are included. Obviously, the
"none" selection will include no notes in the output.
Option H - This option allows you to enter your own personal
one-character tag. The default is ! which is what is recommended
by PAF.
Option I - With this option the user can instruct DESCEND to
make all surnames uppercase regardless of how they were recorded
in the PAF database files. The default is no which will use the
names as they are in the database.
Option J - The is a much requested new option which allows
the user to include information about a spouse's parents in a
chart entry, provided, of course, they are in the PAF file. If
the default value (yes) is selected, then male spouses will have
"son of" [his parents names] included before his notes section
while for a female spouse "dau of" will appear. These parent
names are also included in the index and I recommend that the
option be used for a more complete chart. Additionally, its use
also shows the user where "holes" exist in a PAF database.
Option S - This option allows the user to save most of the
above selected options in a disk file named DESCEND.CFG which is
saved in the default directory. This provides a way to customize
and optimize your chart settings for future use without resetting
the options every time. You can use this to your advantage by
setting the no saving switch when you make a special chart having
options for a specific reason. The default is to save the se-
lected option settings.
If the chart is to be sent to the printer, then additional
options can be set. These printer options are displayed by an
additional menu which looks something like the following.
======================== Printer Setup Screen ===================
Printer Selected 1..Select Another Printer
2..Show Code Details
3..Change Printer Codes
Initialization Code 4..Abort This Chart
0..Continue With Chart
Pitch Code
Enter choice -
8 Lines/Inch Code (blank for 6 l/i)
Port
================================================================
The options addressed in the printer menu work as follows:
1) select your specific printer from a list of some 40 provided
in the program, 2) show the details of the escape codes of your
selected printer, 3) change or customize your printer codes to
what better suits your needs, 4) abort or abandon the chart, and
finally, 0) continue with creating your chart.
1..AT&T (DM) 17..HP Deskjet 33..Qume Sprint
2..AT&T 457/458 18..HP LaserJet 34..Silver Reed
3..AT&T 473/474 19..IBM ProPrint. (New) 35..Star
4..Brothers (DM) 20..IBM ProPrint. (Old) 36..Star NX-1000
5..Brothers (DW) 21..IBM Quietwriter III 37..Tandy DMP
6..C-Itoh F10-40/55 22..Juki 6100/6300 38..TI 855
7..C-Itoh Prowriter 23..Microline IDS 39..TI 865
8..Citizen 24..MPI 50 G 40..Toshiba P351/P1340
9..DEC LA 50/100 25..NEC 8000 41..Transtar
10..Diablo 1620/30 26..NEC Spinwriter 42..Default Printer
11..Diablo 620/30 27..Okidata 43..Other
12..DOS Text Printer 28..Okidata (Epson)
13..Epson EX/LQ 29..Okidata (IBM Comp.)
14..Epson FX/LX/RX 30..Oliveti Ink Jet
15..Epson MX 31..Olympia Compact
16..Gemini 32..Panasonic
The above printers are currently supported. For the most
part, these are the printers supported by the 2.2 version of PAF.
If you have a dot matrix printer that is not listed, try using
the 1st menu option and selecting either the default printer
(#42) or the Epson FX/LX/RX (#14). If you have a laser printer
that is not listed, try selection 18, the HP LaserJet.
If your printer still doesn't work properly, then you may
have to build your own printer driver. To do this select printer
menu option 2 (Show Code Details). You will see a screen that
shows the presently selected codes for printer initialization,
pitch, and lines per inch. The table looks as follows:
================================================================
Printer Name: HP Deskjet Port: LPT1: LPT2: COM1: COM2: COM3:
Initialization: ^E
27 69 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Pitch: ^(s16H
27 40 115 49 54 72 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
8 Lines per Inch: ^&l8D
27 38 108 56 68 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
================================================================
After viewing the selections, return to the printer menu and
select option 3 (Change Printer Codes). The numbers shown are
the decimal equivalents of the escape sequences of the selected
printer. For instance to initialize an HP Deskjet printer, you
send an escape E sequence while escape @ initializes Epson com-
patibles. Check your printer manual for your particular initial-
ization code.
The pitch code is special for DESCEND. Your printer must be
set to a non-proportional, compressed pitch of 17 characters per
inch or more. Since each generation of a chart is indented 4
spaces, without a compressed pitch or font you will quickly have
lines longer than can be properly printed. This will usually
result in a margin overflow situation and some of the line will
be printed along the left margin jumbling the indentation.
The next thing that can be addressed in the print change
menu is the 8 lines per inch (lpi) vertical option. The standard
printer setting is to print 6 lines per inch and DESCEND comes
equipped to do this. However, more information can be presented
by using 8 lpi and most printers can do this. If your selected
printer does not show a code in this slot, check your manual and
change the settings.
The default output port is set to LPT1:, but with the print-
er change menu this too can be changed to whatever parallel or
serial port you use. If your printer doesn't work with the
default, keep changing the port until you select the right one.
If your printer still does not work properly with the print-
er selected, then you should set the file output mode to send the
output to a disk file. The resulting file is named DESCEND.TXT
and is written to the current directory. The names of the indi-
viduals in the chart are listed and scroll by to merely show the
user that something is taking place. Birth and death dates,
notes, etc., do not appear on the screen, but are actually in the
file.
You should rename the disk file if you wish to keep it
permanently; otherwise, it will be overwritten the next time you
choose this selection. You can edit this file with a word pro-
cessor and make whatever changes are desired. Care should be
taken, however, not to make changes that affect the page numbers
or else the index will no longer be correct. You should be able
to print the file either with your word processor or with the
PRINT command from the DOS prompt. This is done as follows:
>PRINT DESCEND.TXT
At this point, you are ready to tell the program which
persons to include in the descendant chart. You can enter up to
30 individuals for a run, all of whom will be included in the
order given and separated by a message indicating the beginning
each new line. Only a very small amount of information will be
duplicated in a chart with common lines. At the prompt, you can
either enter a RIN if you know it, search for a particular per-
son, or, as usual, quit.
If you enter a RIN number, DESCEND accesses the PAF files
and displays the person, along with parents and spouse. The user
is then asked to verify the selection and a message asks if this
is the correct person. The user can answer (Y)es, (N)o continue
search, or (Q)uit search. Quitting returns to the enter RIN
prompt as does selecting no. Choosing yes selects the displayed
individual as part of the descendant chart run. The name of this
selected person replaces the enter RIN prompt line and the pro-
cess is repeated.
Most of the time RINs are not remembered and you will need
to choose the search selection at the enter RIN prompt. You can
search for as many as three names of a person's names. If fewer
than three names are input, you must still press the enter key
for each of the name fields on the screen. If the search finds
no such combination of names, it will inform you and return to
the current enter RIN prompt. If the search finds an individual
with the entered combination of names, it will display the person
along with parents and spouse. Once more it will ask if this is
the correct person. If you select no, the program will continue
to search for additional persons of the entered name combination.
Quitting, of course, returns you to the current enter RIN prompt
and choosing yes selects the displayed person for the descendant
chart.
You can continue the selection of RINs for inclusion in the
chart until reaching the limit of 30 or stop at any amount fewer.
This limit is imposed at this time as a safety feature to try to
prevent the overflow of index entries which are presently kept in
memory as a linked list. If a memory overflow occurs, the index
cannot be completed and the program will halt and ask the user
whether to continue. At the end of the run the memory used by
the index is reported.
Discussion
Well, that's about it. The program is pretty simple and
hopefully user friendly. I have been pleased and surprised by
the reception it has received by PAF users in many parts of the
country. Users of the NGC echo have been especially helpful in
giving me suggestions for improvements as well as pointing out
bugs and shortcomings. Thank you all and keep the comments
coming.
I release the program under the shareware concept which
essentially provides you a trial use period. Try the program
out; check all the options. If you find it helps you in your
research, please fill out the included registration form and send
me a fee of $20.00 toward its future development. You may enthu-
siastically provide copies to your friends and acquaintances for
their use, upload it to your local computer bulletin boards, and
call it to the attention of your computer and genealogical
groups. You may pass it around and distribute it in any manner
except for sale. Thank you, John.