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NEWGEN A Computer Program to aid Genealogists. Version 4.10 CONTENTS -------- 1. Introduction 2. Colour 3. Getting started 4. Files supplied 5. Equipment required 6. Files and disks 7. Disks and drives 8. Setting up to use NEWGEN 9. Using NEWGEN 10. The menu 11. Questions and prompts 12. The form 13. Identification numbers 14. Terminology and limitations 15. Using the form 16. Marriages 17. The function keys 18. General notes on using the form 19. The 0 option 20. Lists 21. Other menu items 22. Crashes and bugs 23. Updates and enhancements 24. Price list of NEWGEN 25. Disclaimer and conditions of use Appendix A FNTCON.PRG Appendix B PRINTIT.PRG Appendix C Joining strips Appendix D Printer codes Appendix E NEWGEN.INF Appendix F Character sizes Appendix G Enhancements in versions 4 About the author About NEWGEN For the more adventurous 1. Introduction --------------- NEWGEN is a program written for the ATARI ST family of micro computers (520, 1040, Mega or STE) and designed to help genealogists maintain the records of their researches and to print out birth briefs and pedigree charts. It may also be of interest to geneticists and plant or animal breeders. NEWGEN, unlike most application programs written for the ST, does not use GEM: windows, icons and drop down menus do not appear on the screen and you never have to use your mouse except to start running NEWGEN from the desk top. There are two reasons for this; firstly extensive use of GEM would have made the program considerably longer and it is desirable that it be compact enough to run on the 520ST; secondly GEM is admitted to be slow even by those programmers who delight in its use. So, alternatively, you communicate with NEWGEN to tell it what you want it to do entirely through the keyboard. NEWGEN displays questions on the screen and you answer them by pressing appropriate keys. Full explanations are also displayed so that you know what sort of answer is expected. If you enter a nonsense, NEWGEN will respond by asking again or telling you what is wrong. NEWGEN takes great care to preserve the integrity of the data you have entered so that it is unlikely that you will do anything that corrupts it or necessitates a laborious re-entry of data from scratch. Nevertheless you should ensure that you use good quality disks (you can be badly let down by using cut price disks or by using single sided disks formatted as double sided - I know from experience). To be on the safe side, you should backup your data file (NEWGEN.DAT) from time to time by copying it onto another disk from the desk top. Some of the facilities in NEWGEN take a little time to carry out. So that you do not think that NEWGEN has gone to sleep, a constantly altering progress report is displayed on the screen when appropriate. NEWGEN, when installed in memory takes up about 240 Kbytes. There may not be room enough for your favourite accessory. 2. Colour --------- Version 4 of NEWGEN (unlike previous versions) will work equally well using a colour monitor or a high resolution monochrome monitor. In fact colour is not used by NEWGEN and everything on the screen will be written in black on a white background (future versions may allow you to choose the colour - if you can see a good reason for using colour in some way, let me know). If you have a colour monitor, be sure to set it to MEDIUM resolution from the 'Set Preferences' menu of the desk top before you double click on NEWGEN.PRG. If you forget, NEWGEN will do this for you and work quite happily. But when you return to the desk top, you will find that the latter does not work properly - although even then you can reset the resolution from the 'Set Preferences' menu. 3. Getting started ------------------ To get started, I suggest you follow the instruction for setting up described in paragraph 8 below, double click on NEWGEN.PRG, and away you go. Follow the instructions on the screen and if you get stuck (which I do not think you will) refer to the detailed instructions in this document. If you like, you could, at the start, copy NEWGEN.DAT as supplied onto your data disk (see below) and play with that before you start serious work. When you are ready for serious work, delete these demonstration versions of NEWGEN.DAT and NEWGEN.TRE from your data disk and start again. Note that you should always have a copy of NEWGEN.RSC and NEWGEN.INF on the same disk as NEWGEN.PRG. Moreover, NEWGEN.RSC must by the one supplied with the the version of NEWGEN.PRG you are using and NEWGEN.INF must similarly have been created using the version of GENINF.PRG supplied. The forms of the .RSC and .INF files vary from version to version. 4. The files supplied --------------------- The files supplied on the disk (formatted single sided, since not everybody has a double sided disk drive) you have received are as follows: 1. NEWGEN.PRG This is the main program. Details of how to use it are given below. 2. NEWGEN.RSC This file contains a description of the data entry form, of the menu and of the codes that are sent to the printer NEWGEN will not work unless this file is present on the same disk as NEWGEN.PRG Moreover it must be the same file as was supplied with the program. 3. GENINF.PRG This is an 'initialisation' program which you must run before attempting to use NEWGEN. You must use the version supplied with the NEWGEN.PRG. 4. FNTCON.PRG This is a program you can use to convert font files to a form acceptable to NEWGEN. 5. NEWGEN.DOC This is this the file you are reading. You can obtain a printed copy with the aid of PRINTIT.PRG (see appendix B). 6. NEWGEN.DAT This file contain a fictitious set of records with which you can demonstrate to yourself the facilities of NEWGEN before you start serious work on your own family data. 7. PRINTIT.PRG A program for printing ASCII files in condensed characters (132 to a line) or with page breaks and numbers. 8. SERIF.GNT A sample font file you can use in printing pedigree charts. It is supplied free of charge. 9. DESKTOP.INF This specifies the form of your desktop You may want (or need) to change this in the usual way. 10. NEWGEN.NOT A file containing a table of dates useful to the British genealogist 4. Equipment required --------------------- To run NEWGEN you will require the following: An ATARI ST computer - 520, 1040 or Mega or STE A monitor (or TV if you have a modulator); NEWGEN 4.10 will work equally well with a high resolution monochrome monitor or a colour monitor (or TV) in medium resolution mode. At least one single or double sided floppy disk drive (such as the one built into your keyboard) A dot matrix printer; this should be EPSON compatible (but see Appendix D) and connected through the centronics port. Several disks Fan folded paper for your printer A second disk drive is desirable but by no means necessary; In essence, the more disk capacity you have, the more people you can enter into your data base files up to a limit of 999. A hard disk is recommended but NEWGEN will work well without one. 6. Disks and drives ------------------- NEWGEN can be operated in one of three modes. Which mode is chosen depends on the number of drives available on your system and their type: Mode A. A single floppy drive (A) only is available. Mode B. At least two drives, none of which are hard drives, are available; they may be floppies or RAMDISKS. Mode C. One or more hard drives (or partitions) are available as well as any floppies etc. When you run GENINF.PRG, you must inform it which drives are available to it. NEWGEN will then select the appropriate mode as indicated above. You need not enter all your drives, but they should be in entered in alphabetical order. Floppies should be drives A and/or B If you have specified more than one drive, NEWGEN asks you to select one or other of them to be loaded with your data disk (see below). 7. Files and disks ------------------ To use NEWGEN you will require several disks (if these are floppy disk, these should ALL be formatted the same size, single or double sided, preferably double): 1. The program disk to contain: NEWGEN.PRG NEWGEN.RSC DESKTOP.INF (optional) GENINF.PRG FNTCON.PRG PRINTIT.PRG NEWGEN.INF The first six of these are supplied. NEWGEN.INF is created by GENINF.PRG 2. The data disk to contain: NEWGEN.DAT NEWGEN.TRE NEWGEN.NOT Font (.GNT) files NEWGEN.DAT is created by NEWGEN and contains all the information you enter; it is valuable. NEWGEN.TRE is constructed from the data in NEWGEN.DAT by NEWGEN and contains tables of family relationships etc. It can be reconstructed easily. NEWGEN.NOT is supplied and contains useful data which can be edited or replaced if you wish. .GNT files are created by FNTCON.PRG and contain alternative fonts. 3. The text disk to contain: NEWGEN.TXT This is created by NEWGEN and contains note-sheets 4. The auxilliary disk which will contain: NEWGEN.PED NEWGEN.DES NEWGEN.BRF NEWGEN.LST These files are created by NEWGEN and contain temporary data. If one of the drives you specify in NEWGEN.INF is a hard drive (so that you run in mode 3), NEWGEN will assume that your data, text and auxilliary disks are one and the same and will use the hard disk (or a partition thereon) for all three. Similarly, if you only have a singe floppy drive (mode 1) NEWGEN will assume that your data, text and auxilliary disks are the same floppy disk which you will insert in drive A. If you have two floppy drives or a single floppy and have installed a RAMDISK, NEWGEN will ask you to choose which is to be your data disk. It will assume that your text and auxilliary disks will be inserted in one of the other drives or that the RAMDISK will be used for such. If you are running in mode 2 with two floppies, NEWGEN keeps track of what disk, if any, is currently in drive B. All will be well provided you only remove or insert disks when so instructed. It is only realy feasible to use a RAMDISK if you have at least one Megabyte of RAM available (NEWGEN uses about 250 Kbytes). You must copy any NEWGEN.TXT to your RAMDISK before you invoke NEWGEN and after you have left it. If you turn your computer off, anything in your RAMDISK is lost for ever! If you have a 520 ST and one single sided drive, you may not have room to enter all the people you want. One thing that may help is to format your data/text/auxilliary disk using some utility program so that it has more sectors or tracks. If you do this, make certain that your disk has exactly 512 bytes in a sector and exactly 2 sectors in a cluster; if you ignore this, you run the risk of losing data. I will not be responsible if your data comes to grief because you overlooked these provisos. You can leave your program disk write protected, but your other disks should not be write protected. 8. Setting up to use NEWGEN --------------------------- 1. It is suggested that the first thing you do is to copy the following files into the main directory (NOT a folder) of a new (formatted) floppy disk (or your hard disk): NEWGEN.PRG (but this CAN be put in an AUTO folder) NEWGEN.RSC GENINF.PRG DESKTOP.INF This will be your PROGRAM DISK. Keep the original disk in a safe place as a backup. 2. Now ensure your new program disk is loaded and reset your computer; wait for the desk top to appear. If you are using a colour monitor, set the resolution to MEDIUM at the desk top ('Set Preferences' menu) 3. Now double click on GENINF.PRG from the desk top. You MUST do this even if you have used earlier versions of NEWGEN and already have a NEWGEN.INF file. GENINF.PRG varies from version to version. Several questions about your computer system will be displayed on the screen; answer them appropriately; you can press RETURN to specify the default reply for all but the first of them but to get the best results you will may have to consult your printer manual to discover the appropriate answer of some of them. The information required is: 1. The disk drive units that intend to use. Each drive unit and hard disk partition is identified by a letter in its icon in the desk top (A, B etc.) Enter a sequence of the corresponding letters and complete the command by pressing RETURN e.g. If have: one floppy drive units (A) (mode A) enter: A two floppy drive units (A & B)(mode B) enter: AB one floppy, (A) and a RAMDISK (D perhaps) (mode B) enter: AD a hard disk (partition C perhaps) (mode C) enter: C There is no need to enter ALL the drives available (and no harm in doing so), but those you do enter should be in alphabetical order. If you intend to use a RAM disk or a hard disk (or partition), be sure to include its letter in the list. Note well that the number of drive units you have corresponds to the number of slots into which you may insert a floppy disk plus the number of hard disks you have (if any) plus the number of RAM disks (or partitions) you are using (if any). This number does not necessarily correspond to the number of disk icons on your desk top (there are always at least two, even if you have no extra drives). 2. The length of the paper in your printer It is possible to buy fan folded printer paper in a bewildering variety of sizes. NEWGEN needs to know the length from top to bottom of a page of the paper you are using. The length may be specified in POINTS where one point is 1/72". Measure the length of your paper in inches and multiply by 72 (e.g.11" paper has a length in points of 792, the default value). Enter the length of your paper in points and press RETURN 3. The width of the paper in your printer Again, paper of various widths are available. The important number here is the width in inches available for printing on. You should enter an integral number and press RETURN e.g. if the distance between the perforations holding the sprocket holes is 8.5", enter 8 (the default value). Note that wide carriage printers can be used to print drop line charts. The paper width for these may be 13" or 15". (but its the actual paper width, not the carriage width that counts) 4. The graphics mode in which you will print drop line charts. Your printer must be capable of working in 8 bit graphics mode (if you can do a screen dump it certainly can; it may be capable, even if screen dumps are unsatisfactory). This being so, there is generally the option of using it with different resolutions; NEWGEN can be used with three of these: 1. Single density mode 2. Double density mode 3. CRT mode All three of these may not be available on your printer. Although CRT mode is the best (and the default), you may have to choose one of the other two. You will have to consult your printer manual to discover which mode is available and you may have to experiment. See also appendix D. 5. The horizontal dot pitch Whichever mode you choose, NEWGEN needs to know the corresponding horizontal dot pitch. That is to say the number of dots per inch in a row across the paper. The default value is 80. NEWGEN uses the horizontal dot pitch and the paper width to work out how many characters to write across the page. 6. The vertical dot pitch NEWGEN similarly needs the vertical dot pitch - the number of dots per inch down the page in 8 bit graphics mode. The default value is 72 NEWGEN uses the vertical dot pitch to work out the distance to move the paper up after printing each row of characters. 7. One of the code sequences used by Epson printers which sets the distance moved by the paper each time a new line is started is: ESC 3 <n>. This is usually described as moving the paper by n/X inches. You need to enter X. The default value is 216 (for some other printers it may be 180). The program creates a file called NEWGEN.INF which must be on your program disk. NEWGEN.PRG will not work unless NEWGEN.INF (as well as NEWGEN.RSC) exists on the same disk as it. If you change your system in any relevant way, or if drop line charts are not satisfactory, you can run GENINF.PRG again at any time to make changes. Note that each version of NEWGEN has its own version of GENINF; you MUST use the correct version. 4. If you have not specified a hard disk (or partition), finally format a disk to hold your data (this will be your DATA DISK.) and if you have specified two floppy drives, format two more disks (your text and auxilliary disks). You may, optionally, copy NEWGEN.NOT onto your data disk. You may also like to copy one or more .GNT files (see appendix A). 5. You are now ready to start using NEWGEN. 9. Using NEWGEN --------------- IMPORTANT: If you have used earlier versions of NEWGEN, make sure you delete NEWGEN.TRE from your data disk before using version 4.10 1. Ensure that your program disk is loaded in a convenient drive, and switch on your ST. If you have put NEWGEN.PRG into an AUTO folder, go to stage 5. 2. Ensure that the following files are on it in its main directory: NEWGEN.PRG NEWGEN.RSC NEWGEN.INF 3. If you are using a colour monitor, set the resolution to MEDIUM using the desk top 'Set Preferences' menu. 4. Double click on NEWGEN.PRG from the desk top. 5. After a few seconds, the program will have been loaded; If NEWGEN.RSC or NEWGEN.INF are missing from the program disk, an appropriate message will be displayed; continuation will not be possible and all you can do is to abandon NEWGEN. If this happens, ensure the missing file(s) is put on the program disk and try again. If you are using the wrong version of NEWGEN.RSC or NEWGEN.INF, a message will also be displayed. All being well a title page will be displayed; you can remove your program disk if it tells you. 6. You must now load your data disk (unless it is a RAMDISK or a hard disk (or partition) and tell NEWGEN which drive it is in. If you only have one drive unit, you MUST remove the program disk before you insert the data disk and in this case you have no choice of drive. 7. What happens next depends on whether data files already exist on your data disk: A. If this is the first time you have used NEWGEN with your data disk, it will ask you if you want to initialise your data file (NEWGEN.DAT). Presumably you will answer: Y Then NEWGEN will tell you that NEWGEN.TRE is absent or faulty (it will be absent!). It will then proceed to set up this file. B. If NEWGEN.DAT and NEWGEN.TRE already exist on your data disk in its main directory, the information in NEWGEN.TRE will be loaded into the computers memory. This will take several seconds depending on how many people you have entered. C. In certain rare circumstances (such as a power failure occurring last time you used NEWGEN or when you start with the NEWGEN.DAT file supplied), NEWGEN may tell you that NEWGEN.TRE is absent or faulty. Press any key to continue. There will then ensue considerable disk activity while the data normally loaded from NEWGEN.TRE is calculated afresh and then saved. This will take several seconds depending on how many people you have entered; a running report on the progress in this is displayed so you do not think NEWGEN has gone to sleep. N.B. NEWGEN.TRE contains tables of people's spouses and children; it also contains a table giving the alphabetical order of the surnames on record. People with same surname are ordered according to their year of birth. If you ever come to doubt that the ordering is correct, try deleting NEWGEN.TRE at the desktop from your data disk. 8. All being well, information concerning the number of people currently entered and the maximum number you can cram onto your data disk will be displayed. When you have digested this, press any key to continue 9. At last the first page of the menu will be displayed. 10. To quit NEWGEN, press S from the menu. If you have entered any new records or edited old ones, there will be disk activity as NEWGEN.TRE is saved to your data disk. Finally you will return to the desk top. If you are using a colour monitor and forgot to set the resolution as MEDIUM, your desk top may not function properly when you leave NEWGEN (though NEWGEN itself will have worked properly) 10. The menu ------------ The menu consists of two pages. At the start, you will see the first page. You can move to the next page by pressing N (for Next); you can return to the previous page by pressing L (Last). To leave NEWGEN press S; resist the temptation to quit NEWGEN by turning the computer off or by similar unorthodox methods. No permanent harm would result, but it would result in one of those rare circumstances mentioned above. Otherwise you can select one or other of the facilities listed in either page of the menu by pressing its index letter key. Each facility is described in full below. Here are the menu items: Page 1 A. Enter/edit record of a person B. Print/display/save list of persons C. Print records/note sheets D. Display/print family of a person E. Print/display/save birth brief F. Print/display/save a descendant list G. Construct/save a drop line tree H. Print current drop line tree Page 2 A. Display useful information B. Create/edit note sheets C. Print note sheets D. Check all data on record E. Define macros F. Define drop line tree format G. Enter current date H. Change data disk S to quit; N for next page of menu; L for previous page of menu. 11. Questions and prompts ------------------------- Apart from the facility to enter data in the form (see below), each each facility you select will ask you one or more questions by displaying PROMPTS on the screen. As each prompt is displayed, the bell of the computer will ping. If this annoys you, turn down the sound volume control. You will generally see a CURSOR, a black square flashing on and off next to the current prompt. There are several sorts of prompt which require you to reply in different ways: 1. Some prompts ask a question which requires an answer, Yes or No. To reply YES, press the Y or y key; to reply NO, press the N or n key. You should NOT press RETURN afterwards (in actual fact you reply NO by pressing any key except Y or y). 2. Other prompts require you to PRESS a key. Respond by pressing the appropriate key (with no RETURN). For a single figure number press the appropriate key in the top row of the keyboard or in the auxiliary keyboard on the right. 3. Other prompts require you to ENTER some item of information (such as the ID number of a person). Respond by pressing one or more keys in sequence as appropriate and then signal that there are no more by pressing RETURN. You can erase the last character (before you press RETURN) if you make a mistake, by pressing BACKSPACE. 4. Sometimes reference is made to the ARROW KEYS. There are four of these pointing UP, LEFT, DOWN and RIGHT. Press one as appropriate. 5. Some prompts are intended to allow you to abandon something you have already started or 'escape'. Some of these may invite you to press ESC to escape or RETURN to continue. Respond by pressing the appropriate key. 6. In some cases you have to modify the effect of a key by holding down the Control, Shift or Alternate key while you press the key to be modified (probably you will be familiar with modifying a key on a typewriter by pressing the shift key in a similar manner). If you make an inappropriate reply to a prompt, NEWGEN will ignore it and display the prompt again to give you another chance. Even if your pet cat walks up and down your keyboard (avoid getting fur into the works!) no harm should result. When you press a key, give it a quick, light jab. Do NOT place your finger on the key and hold it down; if you do, it will, after a short delay, be as if you pressed the same key several times - with unforeseen results! (Your ATARI manual tells you how to adjust the delay to suit your personal response time; you can save the setting with your desktop) N.B. Your mouse can rest while NEWGEN is running - it is never used 12. The form ------------ If you invoke option A on page 1 of the menu, a blank form will be displayed on the screen. You use this to enter or edit particulars of people. This is what the blank form looks like: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Form to enter or edit a record for a person Surname: ____________ First names: ____________ ____________ ____________ Father: ___ Mother: ___ Gender [M,F]: _ ID number ( ): ___ Born on: ___________ at: _____________________________________________ Ref: ______________________ Baptised on: ___________ at: _____________________________________________ Ref: ______________________ Died on: ___________ at: _____________________________________________ Ref: ______________________ Funeral on: ___________ at: _____________________________________________ Ref: ______________________ Marriages: 1. On: ___________ To: ___ at: __________________________________________ Ref: ______________________ Children: __ 2. On: ___________ To: ___ at: __________________________________________ Ref: ______________________ Children: __ 3. On: ___________ To: ___ at: __________________________________________ Ref: ______________________ Children: __ Occupation: ____________ Abode: ____________ Note sheet: _ F1 saves form; F2 quits form; F3 clears form; F4 refreshes screen F5 clears field; F6 clears data; F7 makes spare; F8 creates/edits note F9 saves form & copies marriage data; F10 defines macros _______________________________________________________________________________ Fig. 1 The blank form _______________________________________________________________________________ You will see that there are 38 horizontal lines, each composed of one or more 'underlines' and preceeded by a short description. These are called FIELDS. Information is entered into these fields in a manner to be described below. The fields labelled 'children' and 'note sheet' are reserved and cannot be changed by you but here is a list of the other 34 fields in the order they are on the form and an indication of the nature of the information you will normally put in them: 1. Surname 2. First name #1 3. First name #2 4. First name #3 5. Father's ID 6. Mother's ID 7. Gender, M or F 8. Person's ID 9. Date of Birth 10. Place of birth 11. Reference 12. Date of Baptism 13. Place of baptism 14. Reference 15. Date of Death 16. Place of death 17. Reference 18. Date of Funeral 19. Place of funeral 20. Reference 21. Date of marriage #1 22. ID of spouse #1 23. Place of marriage 24. Reference 25. Date of marriage #2 26. ID of spouse #2 27. Place of marriage 28. Reference 29. Date of marriage #3 30. ID of spouse #3 31. Place of marriage 32. Reference 33. Occupation 34. Abode It is not suggested that everyone has three spouses or that you will know precise (or indeed any) details to put in all of these fields. Inevitably several will be left blank. If you are prepared to be unorthodox, you can place snippets of information in unused place or reference fields. 13. Identification numbers -------------------------- Each person you enter by means of the form is allocated an identification number or ID number for short. This enables you to refer to a particular person without ambiguity. ID numbers start at 1. The largest depends on how much room there is on your data disk. The following table lists the largest numbers for different types of disk. If you have other files besides NEWGEN.DAT and NEWGEN.TRE on your data disk, these maxima will be reduced accordingly: Highest ID number Single sided floppy disk 454 Double sided floppy disk 916 Hard disk 999 If you need to enter more than 999 persons you will need to obtain NEWGEN5K - see section 23. It may be possible to increase the number of people you can cram onto a floppy disk by formatting it in a non-standard way using one of the special programs available commercially or in the public domain. I cannot comment on whether this would work satisfactorily (see section 7). The number shown in the form in parentheses next to 'ID number' is the next free number. Each time you add another person to your records, this number will be increased by one, up to the limit and your data base will grow by one RECORD (a record contains 784 bytes). Thus each record is numbered by an ID number and contains the details you have entered for the corresponding person. There is no mechanism in NEWGEN for deleting a record, but you can assign an ID number (and its record) to another person by editing it; you will also have to ensure that any references to it in other people's records are altered too. You can find out who these may be by listing the person's family using option D.1. You can if you wish, give as surname: (Spare), or some such word so that it is ready for use when required; there is a special facility for doing this. It is useful to print out from time to time or display a list of all the people you have recorded. You can arrange to have this list printed in the order of the ID numbers or, alternatively, in alphabetical order of surnames with people with the same surname (more often the case than not in genealogy) ordered according to their year of birth or baptism (whichever is recorded). You can also list all the people with a given surname (togther with their ID numbers) or the people who have no relatives (isolates). 14. Terminology and limitations ------------------------------- A SPOUSE, as far as NEWGEN is concerned, is a person to whom another person is MARRIED. Marriage does not necessarily imply that the relationship was SOLEMNISED and NEWGEN allows you to record the distinction and indicate it in pedigree charts and lists You can record up to three marriages for a person and each of the three spouses can have two extra marriages to other people; this can lead to quite complicated interrelations if you come across them. NEWGEN has no special provision for recording divorces or bigamous or unproductive marriages or re-marriages. A person may have (as far as NEWGEN is concerned) up to 16 children in toto. He or she may have them by one, two or three spouses, but no more than 16 in all may be recorded for a given person (My copy of the Guinness Book of Records records that Elizabeth Greenhill gave birth to 39 children between 1652 and 1690 - she would stimy NEWGEN; NEWGEN is perhaps not suitable for genealogy in countries where polygamy is rampant). The children of a person and a given spouse constitute a FAMILY. A person may thus have up to three families. But note that a third family, although you can record it, CANNOT be displayed in drop line charts, though it can in descendant lists (see below). NEWGEN can cope with marriages between cousins and any resulting progeny. It can even cope with more incestuous relationships. NEWGEN knows little biology. In fact it is very naive on such matters. It will happily accept marriages between people of the same gender and even offspring of such unions! you can even tell it that a person is his own grandpa. You may not care to record such bizarre events, and if so, you should take care to avoid entering them; there is, however, a limited facility to detect them. All it really knows is that members of a family must have the same mother and father and that a family must have two parents. 15. Using the form ------------------ The form is used to enter or edit various details of people. Different types of information are entered into the different fields. A flashing cursor indicates the current field. You can move the cursor from one field to another by pressing one of the arrow keys, TAB or RETURN. Let us agree to call such keys TERMINATOR KEYS or TKs for short. Holding a TK down results in a rapid movement of the cursor from one field to the next (the order in which the cursor visits the various fields is not altogether straightforward - it is best to experiment till you get the hang of it). The first thing to do is to enter the ID number. Use the number in parentheses to create a new record for a new person; use a number less than this to edit the record of someone you have already entered. Ensure that the cursor is on the ID number field and type in the number. Finish by pressing a TK. If you are editing, the current details for the person you specified will be written into the form. If you are creating a new record there is not yet any data to display! In either event the cursor will leap to the Surname field and you can proceed from there. For most of the fields you can enter whatever printable characters (including 'space') you choose by typing them in and finishing with a TK. Certain fields are, however, more choosy. The fields (5,6,8,22,26 & 30) used to specify ID numbers will only accept the digits 1,2,3,...9,0; any others will be ignored. Similarly 'Gender' will only accept M, m, F or f. Here are some details about the individual fields: 1: Surname You can enter up to 12 characters. If this is not enough, you must use some sort of abbreviation. The surname is one of the fields that MUST be filled before you can store the data from your form. If you do not know the surname of a person, I suggest you enter: (Unknown). If a record number is not in use, I suggest you enter as surname: (spare) 2,3,4: First names Again only 12 characters are available. If somebody has fewer than three first names, you could use the extra fields to record such things as 'adopted' or 'no issue' or a nickname. 5,6: Father and mother Enter the ID numbers of the father and mother. If you have not yet created a record for either of them, you have two options: 1. Leave field blank till you have created one and then edit the child's record inserting the number whose record you have just created 2. Enter 0; this is much easier and a feature of version 4. When you come to save the record, the 0 will be replaced by the next free number available and a record for it automatically created. This facility is further explained below. 7: Gender Enter M (or m) or F (or f); this is another field that must be completed. 8: ID of person You will find that you cannot move the cursor to other fields till you have entered the ID of the current person here. 9,12,15,18,21,25,29: Dates You can use whatever convention you like for specifying dates; e.g. 2/3/1932 or 2-Mar-1932, or in the American convention 3/2/1932 or MAR-2-1932, or if you only know an approximate date c.1932 or 1932 or ~1932 or even <1933 or >1931 (but dates preceded by < or > never appear in charts or lists, being too vague) You can even enter: 'in infancy' or 'as child' in the death date field if appropriate; you may even care to put 'adulterous' in a marriage date field. If you have no information at all, leave the field blank. You should note that if the last four characters are digits, they are taken to represent a year (just in case you contemplating some way out genealogy involving dates B.C., do not use negative years; it will not work! and I have no advice to give you). The year of the birth date (field 9) is used to specify the order in which children are displayed in pedigree charts and in listings of people. If it is undefined, the date of baptism (field 12) is used instead. If this too is undefined, such people are listed last in pedigrees and first in listings. In listings and pedigree charts, dates are preceded by a letter which indicates their significance as follows: b. Birth x. Baptism (Christening) d. Death f. Funeral (burial) m. Marriage There is one final point about dates. If the first character in the date of death field is 'A', it is taken to mean that the person is still alive and their death (or funeral) will not be alluded to in any output, to the possible embarrassment of you or them. 22,26,30: Spouses Here you must enter the ID number of the person's spouses. If the spouse has not yet been entered, you can enter 0 (see Mother and Father above) The 0 will be replaced by the next number available when the record is saved. You should not enter the same spouse more than once. NEWGEN does not cope with remarriages or divorces. 10,13,16,19,23,27,31: Places You can write what you like in these fields but they are intended for the recording of places of the corresponding events. Information in these fields is not otherwise used in any way by NEWGEN. 11,14,17,20,24,28,32: References These fields are similarly not used by NEWGEN but you may care to use them to record the source of your information concerning the corresponding event. N.B. If you place X or x in the first positions of fields 24,28 or 32 the corresponding marriage is displayed in pedigree charts (see below) in a special way to indicate that it was not solemnised (this implies that any offspring are illegitimate). 33: Occupation You can use this field to record the occupation (trade, vocation etc.) of the person. 12 characters are available. 34: Abode You can similarly use this record to record the town, village, county etc. where the person lived. 12 characters are available. Four of the fields are not included above and cannot be altered by you; they are: Children In each you will find the number of children so far entered for the corresponding union. Note sheet This contains 'Y' or 'N' according to whether a note sheet for the person on the form has been set up (see option B.2) 16. Marriages ------------- Marriages deserve special comment. The ID numbers you enter into fields 22, 26 and 30 of person A, define the people who are A's spouses. The data in the corresponding date, place and reference fields describe the marriage from A's point of view. If you entered B in the ID field of a marriage, you would normally want one of the ID fields in B's record to contain A,and the other fields the same corresponding information. However, this requires special action on your part. In fact the description of the same marriage from A's point of view may differ from the description from B's point of view. There are two ways of ensuring the descriptions are the same: 1. By entering the same data in both A and B's form 2. By using the F9 key as described below It is also important to note that any information appearing in a family group, birth brief or pedigree that relates to a marriage is taken from the spouse's description - the spouse being the person married to a descendant. Because of this, trees describing matrilineal and patrilineal descent may show different marriage dates or opinions as to whether the marriage was solemnised. See the note in the previous section about 'children' fields. 17. The function keys --------------------- The function keys labelled F1 to F9 are used to do things with the form, perhaps when it is completed. When you press one, special things happen: F1 Save form ------------ When you have filled in the form to your satisfaction, you can save the the information on the screen into the data file, NEWGEN.DAT, by pressing F1. If you have left fields 1, 7 or 8 blank, NEWGEN will refuse to accept the data. Note that this (and after pressing F9) is the ONLY occasion that NEWGEN.DAT is written to. F2 Quit form ------------ When all is done and you want to return to the menu, press F2 Note that if you press F2 before pressing F1 (or F9) while information is shown on the screen, the latter is NOT saved. Save it with F1 first if you need to. F3 Clears form -------------- The entire contents of the entire form can be deleted by pressing F3; it then appears as you first found it. Nothing happens to NEWGEN.DAT This is useful if you have entered the wrong ID F4 Refreshes screen ------------------- If, in some unforseen manner, the screen display becomes corrupted, it can be put right by pressing F4. F5 Clears field --------------- The entire contents of the current field can be deleted by pressing the F5 key. This is useful if you have entered a wrong piece of information. F6 Clears data -------------- This has almost the same effect as F3; the difference is that the ID number is not deleted. This is useful if you have loused up several fields in some way and wish to begin again with the same ID. F7 Makes spare -------------- This deletes all fields except the ID; it then writes: (Spare) in the surname field and puts M in the gender field. This is useful if you want to expunge a person; if you now press F1, you have a spare record in NEWGEN.DAT. (Spare) will have no parents or spouse, but if the ID was previously that of some person, and that person was somebody's parent or spouse, such parent or spouse will now be (Spare). To avoid this difficulty, you would have to edit the record of the relevant children and spouses separately. Use this facility with care! Option D.1 will help you to sort it out F8 creates/edits note sheet --------------------------- Pressing F8 enables you to record further information for the person (if any) whose ID is on the screen. See option B.2 below for further details. F9 saves the form and also copies marriages ------------------------------------------- F9 does everything that F1 does and more. It copies marriage data: For every marriage with a spouse defined in fields 22, 26 or 30 the data relevant to that marriage is copied into the appropriate fields of the spouse's record. Anything that was there before is overwritten. If the spouses record contained no marriage to the person whose data is copied, a new marriage is created for them. If you have entered a date, place or reference for a marriage, but no spouse's ID, no copying takes place (NEWGEN would not know where to copy it to) In this way you can avoid having to enter dates, places and references of marriages twice, once for each partner. I can (just) conceive of reasons as to why you might wish the details recorded for the two partners to be different, so you do not have to use this facility. This copying facility works even though you are using the 0 option to define the spouse's ID number. Use this facility with care. Note that there is no way of simultaneously deleting a marriage from the records of both partners. F10 Define macros ----------------- Use this to define macros as described under menu item E.2 Shift F keys ------------ If hold down one of the SHIFT keys and press a function key (F1 to F10), the string defined for the corresponding macro is written into the current field starting at the cursor position and finishing at the end of the macro or the end of the field, which ever comes first. Note that if the macro is undefined, nothing happens. Note also that only legal characters are copied into the field. Brief details of these functions are listed below the form to jog your memory. 18. General notes on using the form ----------------------------------- 1. Avoid leading or trailing spaces; they will tend to upset the symmetry of pedigree charts and other output. 2. The following fields are (or can be, see below) incorporated in pedigree charts: 1 Surname 2,3,4 First names 9/12 Date of birth/baptism 15/18 Date of death/burial 21,25,29 Marriage dates 33 Occupation 34 Abode The first character in fields 24,28,32 (Marriage reference) also indicates (if it is X) whether the marriage has been solemnised as mentioned above. If any of these fields (except the surname) are left blank, the corresponding item is not listed in pedigree charts. 3. The following fields establish family relationships: 5,6 Father's and mother's ID 22,26,30 Spouse's ID It is important to note that NEWGEN only knows that several people form a family if you indicate that they all have the same two parents. Even if you do not know who one (or even both) parents were, you must nevertheless enter both, first creating minimal records for the unknown parent(s) if necessary - you could, for instance, give these 'dummy' people the surname: (Unknown). You should also ensure that a marriage is entered for both partners; if you only enter the marriage for one partner, you may find that whole areas of your pedigree chart are missing. 4. Marriages of a person are listed in family groups and pedigrees in the order in which you have entered them in the record of the spouse, so you may wish to enter these in temporal order. 5. You will find that you cannot enter the same person as a spouse of somebody more than once. Thus re-marriages are not catered for by NEWGEN. This is because NEWGEN has no way of assigning children of such a repeated union properly to the right marriage (to overcome this would involve radical rethink of the whole program). 6. You must fill in the following fields: 1 Surname 7 Gender 8 ID number of person If you fail to fill in one or more of these fields, NEWGEN will not allow you to save the record. 7. The last character of the current field can be deleted by pressing the BACKSPACE key. 8. It maybe that you forget the ID number of someone whose record you wish to edit. If you press the HELP key, you will be invited to enter a surname or to press RETURN. If you enter a surname all people with that surname together with their ID number will be listed on the screen. If you press RETURN you return to the form. Names will be listed properly irrespective of whether what you enter or what you originally entered was in capitals or small letters. e.g. SMITH matches smith matches Smith or even SmItH and vice versa. 9. The function keys F1-F9 (at the top of the keyboard) have special effects listed above. 10. You can alter the data on a screen as much as you want but NEWGEN.DAT will remain unchanged till you press the F1 or F9 key (see below) 11. The usual way of creating or editing a record is first to enter an ID number in field 8. A quick alternative is to press the up or down arrow key modifying the effect by holding down the Shift key at the same time. 'Up' results in the record after the one last displayed with the next number in sequence being displayed. 'Down' results in the previous record. If you had not yet entered an ID number, NEWGEN assumes number. 12. It maybe that you have entered some item into one of the fields and find that you can no longer move the cursor. This is because the item you have entered is illegal. The cure is to delete the field (F5 does this) and start again or leave it blank. The following illegalities are detected in this way: 1. In fields 5 or 6: when the parent whose number you have just entered already has 16 children if you enter a number equal to or greater than the next available number shown in parentheses if you enter the same number for both parents 2. In field 8 if you enter a number less than 1 or greater than the next free number shown in parentheses 3. In fields 22, 26 or 30 if the spouse whose number you have just entered already has 3 other spouses of their own. if you enter a number greater than or equal to the next available number if you enter the same number in two or more of these fields (no remarriages) 19. The 0 option ---------------- As we have indicated above, you can enter 0 in fields 5, 6, 22, 26, or 30, instead of entering the ID number of a person whose record already exists. When you come to save the record by pressing F1 or F9, the 0's are replaced by the next number available AND a new record is created for them. The surname is written as (Blank) and the gender is set: with 0 in field 5 (father) Gender: M 0 in field 6 (mother) F 0 in field 22, 26 or 30 (spouse) M if current person is F F if current person is M Note that you can thus create up to 6 new records in one fell swoop. The only proviso being that there is room on the data disk for them all. If there is insufficient room, you will be unable to enter the 0. 20. Lists ----------- Several of the menu items result in lists of people. These may be displayed on the screen (D), printed on your line printer (P) or saved to a file on your auxilliary disk (S). If you opt to save, it may be that there is insufficient room on your auxilliary disk, in which case a message to that effect is displayed and the process is aborted. One possibility of aleviating this is to delete one or more of the files NEWGEN.LST, NEWGEN.BRF, NEWGEN.DES or NEWGEN.PED or possibly NEWGEN.NOT or one or more of your .GNT files if these are on your auxilliary disk. This problem is only likely to be acute if you only have one single sided floppy drive. Old versions of these files are always deleted before new ones are created. This affords a method of making space on your auxilliary disk by deleting them. Thus NEWGEN.LST, .BRF, .DES or .PED can be deleted from within NEWGEN by invoking menu items A.1, E.1, F.1 or G.1 respectively and pressing ESC after NEWGEN has told you it has deleted the file. NEWGEN.LST, NEWGEN.BRF and NEWGEN.DES are pure ASCII files which means they can be edited (perhaps using 1st Word in ASCII mode) and printed after you have left NEWGEN. Do not try to edit NEWGEN.PED As we have noted, lists (of people on record, birth briefs, descendants, useful data) may also be displayed on the screen. Generally the complete list will more than fill the screen. To obviate this, NEWGEN pauses when it approaches the end of the screen and writes: - more - You can continue by pressing any key except 'Q'. If you press 'Q', NEWGEN abandons the list without further ado. [ESC is not used here because the desk top uses 'Q']. 21. The other menu items ------------------------ The other facilities that you can choose from the menu are more straightforward and you should have no difficulty in using them even without reading the descriptions given below. Below they are listed in order. Note that A.1 refers to menu item A on page 1 of the menu, etc. A.1 Enter/edit details of a person ------------------------------------ We have dealt with this option at some length above B.1 Print/display list of persons on record --------------------------------------------- It is useful to print out, from time to time, a list of all the people you have entered. You can then refer to the list when editing and updating the records. This facility enables you to either display such a list on the screen or print it, or save it in NEWGEN.LST The list may contain all people on record, just those bearing a given surname or isolated people (Spares etc) who have no relations (parents, children or spouses). You can specify which type of listing you require. The list can be presented in the order of the ID numbers, or in the alphabetical order of surnames, people with the same surname being listed in the order of their year of birth or baptism; people for whom neither of these have been entered are listed first. You can select either sort of ordering. Which ever sort of list you choose, the name of each person is preceded by their ID number and, if they have a note sheet, the letter 'N'. The current date is written at the top of the list. C.1 Print record of a person ------------------------------ This facility enables you to print out a record of all the information you have entered on the form for a person. Paper is more durable than magnetic disks and you may like to file away printed copies of records you have entered. You can either specify the ID number of the person whose record you you want to print, or you can opt to print out the records of everybody on record, though this could take some time. You can select the following: a. To start each record on a new page or to run them continuously separated by a line b. To include any note sheets you have defined; these are printed below the record. D.1 Display/print family of a person ------------------------------------- With this option you can display on the screen a family group, the family of any person on record. You do this by entering their ID number. The information displayed includes details (names, dates and ID numbers) of the person, their parents, their spouses and their children. With this facility you can rapidly trace the ancestors or a line of descendants of anybody on record. When the family has been displayed, you have the option of printing it. E.1 Print/display/save birth brief ------------------------------------ A birth brief is a list of the ancestors of a person (the root person) which displays the root person, his 2 parents, their parents (the 4 grandparents), their parents in turn (the 8 great grand parents) and so on. This facility enables you to construct a birth brief of any person on record and to specify how many generations you require up to nine (including the root person). There are 256 people in the 9th generation and if you have managed to find out who more than a few of them are, you are to be congratulated. The full name and dates of each person listed are given. If a particular branch comes to an end in the records (i.e. you have not specified a parent of one of the ancestors), nothing more is printed in that branch. You can opt to include ID numbers for each person. You are given the choice of displaying the brief on the screen, printing it out or saving it in a file called NEWGEN.BRF. The current date (if you have set it, see option F.2) is written at the bottom of the brief. F.1 Print/display descendants of a person ------------------------------------------- This facility enables you to prepare a pedigree listing. That is a list which starts with a specified person and his spouses (if any), and includes all their descendants and their spouses. The people are listed down the page; the spouses of a descendant are listed below the descendant; their children are listed below them indented towards the right of the page. Vertical and horizontal lines connect parents to their children (in a manner easier to observe than to describe) and spouses of a person are listed in the order in which you entered them and are distinguished from descendants by being preceeded by '=' or '~' and by having their marriage date (if any) listed; if you print the list, spouses are in italics. Children are listed in the order of their year of birth or baptism; if neither of these was entered, such children are listed first. The families of children and their families etc. are listed immediately below the child, so separating him from his siblings (if any). Hence the need for indentation. You are prompted to enter the ID number of the person whose descendants you want in your list and the number of generations you wish to include. A maximum of 50 generations may be specified - this is sufficient to take you back to about the time of the Norman Conquest! - or you can specify ALL generations; in this case NEWGEN lists on and on till it meets descendants with no children. You can opt to include ID numbers and you can select the depth of indentation between generations. You can opt to display, print or save the list to NEWGEN.DES. There is one limitation that you should bear in mind: Unless you have a wide carriage printer, the maximum number of characters you can print on a line, even using narrow condensed characters is 132; the number of characters that can be displayed on the screen is even less, 80. For this reason only the first 132 characters of each line can ever be made visible - in fact NEWGEN never records beyond 132 characters in such lists To alleviate this problem you can specify the number of spaces each generation is indented relative to the previous one. The standard indentation is 5 spaces but you can choose to have as few as 2. With 5, the practical limit to the number of generations you can display is 25 before the surname starts to run off the end of the line; with an indentation of 2 spaces, you could get in 50 generations before this could happen. Each line of the listing contains the following items of information taken from the form record of the relevant person: Surname 3 first names Marriage date (spouses only) Birth date Death date If any of these items were left blank in the form, they are ignored in the listing. If all 7 items were included, the maximum length of the line (excluding indentation spaces) would be 88 characters A special problem arises when a descendant marries another descendant i.e. when they marry a cousin or some closer relative. If this happens the marriage is listed twice but a message indicating that it is a marriage between relatives is written below the second occurrence If they have children, their family and their grandchildren etc. are NOT listed twice. G.1 Construct/save a drop line (pedigree) chart ------------------------------------------------- This is perhaps the most useful facility; it enables you to save and later print a 'family tree' containing all descendants and their spouses starting with some defined person. Such trees are printed sideways; that is to say the characters are rotated through a right angle so that consecutive characters on a line are written down the page and the different lines occupy different columns across the page. In this way, the length of a line is virtually unlimited. Your drop line chart is printed in this way as one or more STRIPS; successive strips contain the information on later and later generations. All the strips are exactly the same length and can be joined together (if there are more than one) to form a composite chart (see appendix C). You are prompted to enter the ID number of person whose descendants you want in your tree and the number of generations you require. All generations or a maximum of 50 may be specified. If your tree extends for more than 50 generations (congratulations!) it will be curtailed at 50. As soon as you have entered this information an abbreviated form of the chart is displayed on the screen. Only the ID numbers of the people concerned are shown but horizontal lines (BARS) connect members of the same family; short down pointing TAGs from the bars point to the children and short up pointing tags point to the marriage of which the family is the fruit. Descendants are joined to their spouses by an '=' or a '~'sign (see below). All members of a given generation are displayed on the same line. There is one serious limitation: We have seen that a person can have as many as three spouses and that each spouse can bear him children. This means that you can enter data indicating that a person has three separate families. NEWGEN is unable to include more than TWO such families in a drop line chart. If the person has only two families whether they be with spouses 1 & 2, 1 & 3 or 2 & 3, both will be included in the chart, but if he has a family with all three spouses, the third family will NOT be displayed. You could, of course, print out this third family in a separate tree starting with the third spouse (but if she had married somebody else outside the family of interest, you would get their descendants as well!). [The reason for this anomaly is geometrical - there is just no space available to contain the middle family; there are various possible solutions to this problem: the spouses could be spaced further apart; there could be bar lines at two levels; or you can imagine more complicated devices. All of these would mar the symmetric appearance of the tree or make it appear too fussy and the program would be severely complicated. If I ever think of a satisfactory solution to this problem, NEWGEN will be updated. If you can think of one, let me know] Note that a spouse may appear several times if he or she marries different descendants. Similarly, a descendant may appear several times if he or she marries one or more of relatives. If there is a large number of generations (more than 12) or a large number of people in any one generation, only a part of this abbreviated chart will be visible on the screen. You can bring the hidden parts into view by pressing one or other of the arrow keys; directions for this are displayed. This abbreviated chart gives you a preview of the general form of the full chart you can produce. When you have tired of inspecting the abbreviated chart press ESC to abort or RETURN to continue and to go on to write the full tree into NEWGEN.PED. In the full chart, each ID number is replaced by a rectangular block of characters which contain various items of information. The size of the block and information it should contain should heve been defined previously using option F.2 The block always contains the surname in its top line; the surname of of a descendant is joined to their first spouse (if any) by a sequence of '=' signs; the first spouse is similarly connected to the second (if any) and the second to the third. However, if you have indicated by an X in field 24, 28 or 32 of the form that the marriage of the spouse was not solemnised, the corresponding '=' signs will be replaced by '~' signs. Note that, just as with pedigree listings (F.1), the progeny of marriages between cousins (etc.) are not listed twice. Such marriages are marked on their second occurrence by an additional line in the block which draws attention to the fact that the marriages is between relatives. It is essential that you do not remove your data disk while NEWGEN.PED is being constructed. If your chart is very extensive, this process may take some time but NEWGEN gives you a running report on its progress. Do not attempt to edit or print NEWGEN.PED; it is written in a very special way. H.1 Print current drop line tree -------------------------------- This facility allows you to print out your tree chart (sideways) as explained above (G.1). Several options are available. Firstly you can, if you wish, select the style of the characters - the font - in which it will be printed. If you opt for this NEWGEN will display a list of the font files (.GNT) available (if any) on your data disk. You will be asked to indicate which one you want. Details of how to create a suitable font file are fully explained in Appendix A. If you do select to import a font in this way, you can choose to print it normal (8 x 16) size or double (16 x 32) size. If you opt, however, to use the standard system font, you can select one of four different sizes of character: # height width 1. 6 dots 6 dots 2. 8 8 3. 16 8 4. 32 16 The precise size of the characters in your printed tree depends on your printer and the graphics mode selected (see section 8 and appendix D). The smallest size, #1, results in the most compact chart; you will probably only want to use it for reference purposes. The largest size, #4, takes a long time to print out and is probably only useful to hang on the wall at family gatherings. Sizes #2 and #3 are the most useful for general purposes. Once you made these selections, NEWGEN will display on the screen details of how many pages and how many strips your chart will require. It then asks you how many copies you want to print out. You can specify 1 to 9 copies. It displays a running count of the copy, strip and page it is currently printing. NEWGEN will pause at the end of each strip and attempt to align the paper in such a way that each strip is the same length and starts at the same point relative to the top of a page. This may not work properly for all printers and as an alternative you can ask it to halt at the end of each strip while you adjust the paper. Note that you may find a completely blank page being printed sometimes; this is quite in order and is a consequence of the necessity of having the same number of pages in each strip. You may also find a completely blank page at the end of each strip. This may happen occasionaly and is a consequence of a variable distance (from printer to printer) between the tear bar and the print head (NEWGEN assumes this to be 1"). Before printing starts (and this may take some time if your tree is extensive) you have the opportunity of aborting by pressing ESC. Similarly, if you press ESC during printing, it stops (at least as soon as any printer buffer has been emptied). Assuming you opted to carry on, NEWGEN then reads the information, from NEWGEN.PED (which you have already prepared as described above in G.1) and prints it, strip by strip. When it has completed the first chart it, goes on to print another if you have ordered more than one, and so on till all is done. When everything is finished, you have the opportunity of going back to the beginning to select a new font or size and print again. A.2 Display useful information -------------------------------- This facility enables you to display on the screen the contents of a file called NEWGEN.NOT residing in your data disk. If there is no such file there, you will be told. The display pauses every 24 lines as explained in section 20. NEWGEN.NOT as supplied contains a list of dates useful to the British genealogist but you can edit it if you wish, or even replace it with a copy of NEWGEN.DOC renamed (at the desk top) as NEWGEN.NOT. I do not advise this however since NEWGEN.DOC is a very large file which would take up too much valuable space on your data disk and because it would take a considerable time to read to the end. B.2 Create/edit note sheets ---------------------------- The form into which you enter particulars of people is somewhat limited in its scope. There is no provision for recording anything about wills or other personal details. Inevitably you will know more about some people than others. This facility enables you to create or edit a more extended record for a specified person. Such a record, called a NOTE SHEET, can contain up to 25 lines of text, 80 charaters to a line; i.e. one screenful of text. The note sheets are written into a file called NEWGEN.TXT which could become very large. If you have only one drive (mode A), there may not be room for many note sheets, but you should have little trouble if you have two drives or a hard drive (modes 2 or 3). There are two ways of invoking this facility: 1. From the second page of the menu: Option B.2 In this case the ID of the person must be entered 2. By pressing F8 while a form is displayed In this case the ID is taken from the form Note that there must be a record in NEWGEN.DAT; If the ID on the form corresponds to a new entry, you must press F1 (to save the record) first and then enter the ID number again. Once the ID number has been specified, NEWGEN proceeds as follows: 1. If there is no pre-existing note sheet for the person, NEWGEN creates one (if there is room on the disk) and copies the full name of the person and their ID number into the first line. 2. If a note sheet already exists in NEWGEN.TXT, NEWGEN reads it in and displays it on the screen. When this has been done, you can type in whatever information you like or edit what is already there. The editing facilities are quite extensive and are similar to those found in many editor or word processing programs. A complete list of the commands you can use to move the cursor, find, replace etc. can be viewed by pressing the F1 key. Note that you can run it in either of two modes: overwrite or insert; you can easily change mode by pressing Cntrl INSERT simultaneously. Play with it a while before starting serious work. When you have finished, you can instruct NEWGEN to save your new or edited note sheet by pressing Cntrl X, or quit without saving by pressing ESC or Cntrl Q. C.2 Display/print note sheets ------------------------------ This facility enables you to display and print out a note sheet created by facility B.2. It is quite straightforward if you follow the few instructions displayed. D.2 Check all data on record ------------------------------ With the best will and the greatest care you will inevitably make mistakes while entering data in the forms. This facility gives you a limited ability to detect them. It will also draw attention to unusual events (e.g. a child born before its parents marriage) which may or may not indicate an error. The records in NEWGEN.DAT are checked against one another, one by one, and anomalies of various sorts listed. When it has finished NEWGEN displays a table listing people with anomalous records and the type of anomaly detected. This table is displayed 5 lines at a time. N.B. It makes no attempt to correct any anomalies it finds - that is up to you. Some of the anomalies it looks for should never occur because NEWGEN prevents them happening. If such are detected, it is an indication that NEWGEN.DAT has become corrupt or contains a bug - bad luck - but the chances of this happening are low. There are three anomalies of this sort: a missing surname, gender or ID number of the person or an ID number which is out of range. Here is a list of the anomalies NEWGEN looks for: A. No gender specified B. Gender is not M or F C. Gender of father is wrong D. Gender of mother is wrong E. Father is not married to mother F. Mother is not married to father G. Father ID # out of range H. Mother ID # out of range Spouse 1: I. Gender is wrong J. Not married to person K. ID # out of range Spouse 2: L. Gender is wrong M. Not married to person N. ID # out of range Spouse 3: O. Gender is wrong P. Not married to person Q. ID # out of range R. No surname or illegal number S. Father died before birth T. Mother died before birth U. Marriage dates do not match V. Parents married after birth W. Father born too early or late X. Mother born too early or late Y. Married before puberty Z. Married after death a. One but not two parents defined E.2 Define macros ------------------- It is possible to define up to 10 preset strings of up to 12 characters called MACROS. This strings can be inserted into the current field of the form by holding down a SHIFT key and pressing a function key (F1 - F10). The characters can be selected from any on the main keyboard including spaces. Characters are then copied from the macro to the field in so far as they are valid for the field. Macros may be defined or edited using this option. You can move the cursor from one macro to another using the up/down arrow keys. BACKSPACE deletes the character behind the cursor. When you have finished. press ESC. When you leave NEWGEN using menu option S, your macros are saved for use when you return to NEWGEN. F.2 Define drop line chart format ---------------------------------- The routine invoked by option G.1 constructs NEWGEN.PED. In this it writes a block of information for each person. The format for this bock can be inspected or defined by this option. As soon as the option is invoked, a box is displayed which demonstrates the current format. You can then press: RETURN to leave the format unchanged or D to set the default format or S to define the format of your choice. A format, once defined, is kept until you redefine it. It survives an exit from NEWGEN. The first parameter to be defined is the number of characters accross the width of the block; the default is 14, but it can be any number between 2 and 64. If a width less than 14 characters is chosen, it is possible that some items of information will be curtailed. A width of 2 will give only the first character of each item. Next there is the specification of the information to be included in the block. There may be up to 10 lines containing up to 9 items. The items are taken from the record of the person concerned. If the item was not defined in the form, the corresponding line is omitted from the block. The first item is the surname. This is always defined and always included at the top of the block. The items you can select (and the default selection) are indicated below: Default (1. Surname) Y 2. First name #1 Y 3. #2 Y 4. #3 Y 5. Birth or baptismal date Y 6. Death or funeral date Y 7. Marriage date (spouses only) Y 8. Occupation Y 9. Abode Y 10. Blank line to make it look better N Finally, if your block width is 4 or more, you can select to include the ID number. This is written into the last three positions of the block. Note that if the block width you have specified is less than 17, the last three characters of the surname may be overwritten by the ID number. To be safe, specify a block width of at least three more than the length of the longest surname. The default is not to include the ID number. Note that baptismal dates are only included if birth dates are undefined and similarly funeral dates only if death dates are undefined. Note that there is no way of altering the order of the items in the block. The when you exit from NEWGEN, current format is saved in NEWGEN.DAT for use when you return to NEWGEN. G.2 Set date -------------- NEWGEN writes the date at the bottom of birth briefs and pedigree listings and at the top of listing of people. This facility gives an easy way of telling NEWGEN what is the date you want to use (today's?). At the same time it sets the system date much as you would do with the control panel at the desk top. Enter the date in the three fields displayed which correspond to the day, the month and the year. Each field requires two digits. Silly days such as 45 are impossible to enter as are silly months. The earliest possible year is 1980. You cannot enter September 31st, etc., though you can always enter February 29th. If you louse it up, you can try again by pressing ESC which clears the date; if you make a mistake, BACKSPACE deletes the last digit entered. When you have completed the entry, press RETURN H.2 Change data disk ---------------------- It may be that you have several data disks (or hard disk partitions containing NEWGEN.DAT files); maybe one contains your ancestors and another contains those of your partner. Option H.2 allows you to return to the stage of the program where you specify your data disk. You can then process your next set of data or opt to quit NEWGEN. 22. Crashes and bugs -------------------- NEWGEN is so designed to minimise the possibility of a crash - an unexpected end to the operation of the program. In particular NEWGEN checks while it is writing to a floppy disk that there is room for the data it is about to write. If there is not, it displays a warning message and stops. Note that it always assumes there is at least one Megabyte of free space on a hard disk (or partition) - so make sure there is (i.e. don't clutter up your hard disk partition) [the reason for this is that it takes the operating system an unacceptably long time to find out how many free bytes there are on a hard disk]. It is unlikely that NEWGEN will crash because of a fault in the program (it has been extensively tested) but it is just possible that there is a bug lurking in it which I have not detected. If you find one, perform a public service and let me know - with as much detail as possible and I will try to fix it. If you do have to report a bug, make sure you send full details of the equipment you are using (TOS version number if you can) and precise details of the nature of the bug and how and when it was manifest. Remember that if NEWGEN does not work on your system for whatever reason, I will, at my discretion, either refund your money or fix the program. NEWGEN frequently checks to ensure that the correct disk is in the correct drive. If it detects something wrong, it prompts you to load the appropriate disk. Nevertheless, NEWGEN cannot spend all its time making such checks and you should not remove a disk unless NEWGEN asks you to. If NEWGEN expects to find a disk in a drive and finds none there, the system will show an alert box. You can continue by loading a disk and pressing RETURN. It is possible to have a power failure while using NEWGEN or your dog might succeed in pulling out the plug; again your computer may develop a fault or one of the leads at the back might become disconnected or you might have reset your ST etc. I hope that such things never happen to you, but rest assured, it is unlikely that your data will be harmed. A more devastating event is damage to or failure of a disk. USE GOOD QUALITY DISKS and BACK UP YOUR NEWGEN.DAT FILE REGULARLY. You have been warned. If a disk does cease to work properly, you could try cleaning your disk head and there are programs on the market with which you may be able to retrieve all or some of a file. [Technical note: The only occasion when NEWGEN.DAT is written to is just after you press F1 or F9 to save the data in a form. This is when your data is most vulnerable. If perchance there is a power cut etc. while this is happening, you are only likely to lose the record(s) you were entering at the time. You should check it out using option A.1 when you next start NEWGEN] As a fail safe device, NEWGEN.TRE is marked when you start up NEWGEN and the mark expunged when you exit from NEWGEN. If at the start, NEWGEN finds NEWGEN.TRE marked, it assumes that it is corrupt and recreates it from scratch as opposed to reading it in (which is the normal and quicker procedure). 23. Updates, Enhancements and other programs available ------------------------------------------------------- From time to time NEWGEN will be updated and new facilities added. As a purchaser of NEWGEN, you will be informed from time to time about their availability, but it may be worth your while asking me. It is my policy to try to ensure that your precious NEWGEN.DAT file is compatible with all future revisions of NEWGEN. Should this not be possible, a program to reformat the file would be provided. Note however that NEWGEN.TRE and GENINF.PRG (& NEWGEN.INF) may well change and you should always use the version of the latter that comes with NEWGEN.PRG As well as the standard NEWGEN described above, a version called NEWGEN5K is available. It requires an Atari ST, STE or Mega with at least 1 Megabyte of RAM and a hard drive to run, but it allows you to enter up to 5000 people. If you possess a NEC 24 pin printer, a program to print out .PED files and make use of the increased resolution is available. This was written and made available by Steve Davies. Also available is a disc containing 56 .GNT fonts suitable for use with NEWGEN. These vary from the elegant to the horrible. The DEMO version - which allows entry of only 18 people - is also available and is in the public domain; it may be freely distributed. 24. Pricelist -------------- Cost Cost if a disk & P&P is sent NEWGEN Standard version 17.00 15.00 NEWGEN 5K if you already have the standard version N.A. 3.00 if you do not have the standard version 20.00 18.00 NEWGEN Demo version 2.50 Gratis Disk of font (.GNT) files 2.50 Gratis 24 pin printer program 2.50 Gratis Minor update of NEWGEN 2.50 Gratis The author reserves the right to change this pricelist from time to time. 25. Disclaimer and conditions of use ------------------------------------- 1. Copies of the software supplied shall only be made for the purchaser's personal use. 2. No copy of the software in any form may be given, lent or sold to any third party. 3. NEWGEN is sold on the understanding that the author, E.G.Richards, shall not be held responsible for any loss, financial, or of data or time, arising from the use of NEWGEN, howsoever caused. 4. If for some unforseen reason, NEWGEN fails to work on the purchaser's system, or if a programming error comes to light, the author will either refund the cost price or arrange to supply a corrected version at his discretion. If you cannot agree to these conditions, please return your disk to the author who will make a full refund of the money you paid. 5. I am always prepared to offer help or guidance in the use of NEWGEN (but NOT in Genealogy). If you require such help of if your copy of the program appears not to work, write with full details of your system and with as much information about the fault as possible. There may be a delay since I am sometimes away. It is worth ringing me in the evening on 081-693-7499. Appendix A FNTCON.PRG ---------------------- Normally your tree will be printed in characters which closely resemble those you see on the screen. This style of characters is that of the STANDARD (or system) FONT. It is possible to read in (or import) a font of characters in some other style. These must be in a file on your data disk which must have the extension .GNT and contain exactly 4096 bytes. Font files are supplied with several utility programs for ST computers, but these come in a variety of different forms. The program FNTCON.PRG enables you to convert several different types of font file to produce .GNT files which can be read and used by NEWGEN for printing your drop line trees. FNTCON is not able to convert all possible fonts; only those which: 1. are 8x16 bit mapped fonts 2. contain 128 or 256 characters 3. are not proportional fonts (do not be concerned if you do not grasp these technicalities) To run FNTCON, double click on FNTCON.PRG and follow the instructions. At some stage you will be asked to supply the file name. If the font you want to convert is in a file called (for instance) HELVETIC.FNT, enter: HELVETIC.FNT. FNTCON will first ask you to specify the type of font; some help in deciding the type to specify is given below. FNTCON will read it in and make several tests. It may reject it if it finds that it is in a form it cannot cope with. If it accepts it, it will display all the characters in the font, which are used by NEWGEN, on the screen. If you like what you see, you can save the converted font (e.g. as HELVETIC.GNT). If what you see offends you or is a meaningless jumble of dots, you could try again using a different font type. Maybe you will produce something satisfactory. If, in the end, you do not succeed, it means that the font is not in a suitable form to be converted. Here are the five categories together with an indication of some sources of appropriate font files: 1. Transposed font; 128 characters e.g. 8x16 fonts supplied with MEGAFONT and DEGAS 2. Transposed font; 256 characters 3. Standard font; 128 characters 4. Standard font; 256 characters 5. GDOS 8x16 font; 128 or 256 characters e.g. 8x16 fonts supplied with DEGAS ELITE (SS16 only) Many other fonts are available with other programs and and even more from software libraries. A disk containing 56 .GNT fonts is available (see section 23). Note that fonts supplied for use with Publishing Partner are NEVER suitable. Appendix B PRINTIT.PRG ----------------------- If you try to print a file (such as NEWGEN.BRF or NEWGEN.DES) containing more than 80 characters to a line on a standard lineprinter, the result will be unsatisfactory and characters are likely to fall off the end of the paper. One solution is to buy a more expensive wide carriage line printer; a cheaper solution is to print the file using PRINTIT.PRG. Providing your printer understands the appropriate control codes (EPSON compatibles should) PRINTIT will print the file using condensed characters; you can get 132 of these on a standard printer line. PRINTIT.PRG also has a facility to enable you to print out long documents such as NEWGEN.DOC with gaps between the pages which are numbered. To use PRINTIT, just double click on PRINTIT.PRG and follow the instructions. Appendix C Joining strips -------------------------- If you have succeeded in tracing back through many generations, or if you elect to print your tree using one of the larger sizes of print, there may not be room enough to contain the entire depth of the chart in the width of a page. NEWGEN copes with this by printing the chart in several strips. These should each be the same length, and can be joined together to give a composite chart. It is really up to you how you join them together but here are some tips: 1. First carefully remove, at the perforations, the strips of sprocket holes. 2. Then carefully separate the strips - it is easy enough to separate them at the wrong point. Do NOT separate the individual pages of a strip. 3. If you now unfold the strips and lay them side by side, all being well, you will see how they should be aligned if they are overlapped by an inch or so. 4. To make a clean join you will have to remove a strip from the top edge of the lower strip or the bottom edge of the upper. This is best done by fan folding the strip up and cutting carefully with a guillotine if one is available. Otherwise you must do it with scissors. In either case ensure that the thin strip of paper you remove is straight and that the cut is parallel to the edge of the paper. 5. You now need a large table or a clean hard floor. Lay out two strips and align them. Get someone to hold one end while you align the other. Maybe you can temporarily stick one strip down while you align the other. Dabs of 'Pritt' glue between the overlapping regions help. Take your time and get the two strips perfectly aligned and overlapping by just the right amount. 6. When they are perfectly aligned, stick them together with strips of 'invisible sellotape' over the join (do NOT use ordinary sellotape - you will regret it if you do). Apply strips of sellotape about a foot long; do not attempt to apply a long strip stretching from one end to the other. When you have done this, turn the strips over and apply more 'invisible sellotape' over the join on the reverse side. Then join the third strip in a similar way and so on. 7. You can protect the chart from disintigration by placing small pieces of tape over the joins of the pages at the top and bottom edges. If you have joined the chart together with extreme care, you may be able to fan fold it. More likely, you will have to roll it up - but it will never lie flat again if you do! 8. You can buy spray on lacquer and a thin coat of this will help to protect your chart. Appendix D Printer codes ------------------------- Most available lineprinters are Epson compatible, that is to say that the sequences of bytes that you have to send to the printer to make it do various things is the same as with the Epson make of printers. Even so some printers billed as Epson compatible can do more than others. Here is the default list of codes and the effect NEWGEN expects of them: # Decimal Effect Hex ASCII ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 12 Form feed 0C FF 2. 24 Clear printer buffer 18 CAN 3. 27,64 Reset printer 1B,40 ESC,@ 4. 27,67,n Set paper length to 1B,43,n ESC,C,n n lines 5. 27,51,n Set line feed pitch 1B,33,n ESC,3,n to n pin spacings 6. 10 Line feed 0A LF 7. 13 Carriage return 0D CR 8.3 27,42,4,n,m Set to CRT graphics 1B,2B,04,n,m ESC,*,n,m mode (8 pin) n+256*m is the number of bytes to expect 9. 15 Set condensed mode 0F SI 10. 18 Cancel condensed mode 12 DC2 11. 27,4 Set italics 1B,04 ESC,4 12. 27,5 Cancel italics 1B,05 ESC,5 Code #8.3 (which is used for the CRT mode) may be replaced, according to the graphics mode selected in GENINF.PRG by: 8.1 27,75,n,m Set to single density 1A,4B,n,m ESC,K,n,m graphics mode (8 pin) or 8.2 27,76,n,m Set to double density 1A,4C,n,m ESC,L,n,m graphics mode (8 pin) Number are substituted for n and m as appropriate. These codes are written into NEWGEN.INF by GENINF.PRG. NEWGEN.INF may be edited to change the codes if necessary - see appendix E Appendix E NEWGEN.INF ----------------------- NEWGEN.INF is an ASCII file created by GENINF.PRG. It can be edited with the aid of an Editor such as 1st Word in ASCII mode (NOT WP mode). It contains 14 lines. Except for the first two, each line contains several integer decimal numbers. Each such number is allocated a field of 4 columns and is right adjusted therein with no leading zeros (I4 format). The first line contains the current version number (e.g. 4.10) taking up 4 columns. The second line contains 6 numbers in I4 format followed by a string of letters which denote the disk drives specified: 1. NPOINT, the paper length in points 792 2. WIDTH, the useful page width in inches 8 3. HPI, the horizontal dot pitch in dots/inch 80 4. VPI, the vertical dot pitch in dots/inch 72 5. X, the quantity referred to in section 8 216 6. NDRIVE, the number of drives 7. SDRIVE, the string of drive letters (the numbers on the right are the default values) The other 12 lines specify the printer codes described in appendix D. The number of integers on each line varies with the code, but invariably the first such integer denotes the number of bytes in the code. In code #4, n is replaced in NEWGEN.INF by the page length in lines - the integral part of NPOINT/12 In code #5, n is written as 0 in NEWGEN.INF but NEWGEN replaces the zero with some other number as required. In code #8 (1,2 or 3), n and m are written in NEWGEN.INF as: n = MOD(N,256) - The remainder when N is divided by 256. If the result is >127, 256 is then subtracted. m = N/256 - The integral part. Here N is equal to the horizontal dot pitch (in dots/inch) multiplied by the page width (in inches) as defined above for line #1 As mentioned in appendix D, line 9 will contain code 8.1, 8.2 or 8.3 according to the graphics mode selected. If you alter any of these codes, ensure that: a. There are 12 codes which perform the functions noted. b. Not more than 40 numbers are used in the codes. c. The first number on each line defines the number of bytes in the code. Appendix F Character sizes in drop line charts ------------------------------------------------ Each characters printed in a drop line chart can be viewed as being contained in a 'cell'. The size of this cell depends on: a. The font size selected in option H.1 b. The horizontal dot pitch (HPI) defined in GENINF.PRG c. The vertical dot pitch (VPI) defined in GENINF.PRG The width and height of the character cell (in points of 1/72") can be calculated from: Size Width Height 1 (6 x 6) 432/VPI 432/HPI 2 (8 x 8) 576/VPI 576/HPI 3 (8 x 16) 576/VPI 1152/HPI 4 (16 x 32) 1152/VPI 2304/HPI Since HPI can in principle take three different values (usually 60, 120 or 80) according to the graphics mode selected, twelve different cell sizes are available if you have a printer which supports all three modes. Appendix G Enhancements in NEWGEN versions 4 --------------------------------------------- The following enhancements are available in versions 4 which were not available in earlier versions of NEWGEN: 1. NEWGEN works with colour monitors (4.00) 2. The routine for printing drop line charts has been speeded up but you no longer get a preview on the screen (4.00) 3. You can create new records for relations using the 0 option (4.00) 4. Marriages can be copied automatically to the partner's record (4.00) 5. You can print family groups (4.00) 6. You can list isolated records (4.00) 7. You can configure NEWGEN for some non-Epson printers (4.01) 8. It is easier to configure NEWGEN for different types of printer (4.02) 9. Baptism and burial dates are entered in drop line charts in lieu of birth and death dates (4.03) 11. Baptism dates are used in lieu of birth dates in listings (4.03) 10. ID numbers can be entered into drop line charts (4.03) 11. Versions numbers of NEWGEN.RSC and NEWGEN.INF are now checked (4.03) 12. Facility for defining macros and using them in forms (4.05) 13. Number of children and existence of note sheet shown on form (4.06) 14. Separate option to define drop line tree formats (4.06) 15. Note sheet editor overhauled and changed (4.06) 16. Drive usage redefined (4.06) 17. ID numbers in ancestor and descendant lists (4.06) 18. Print out of records improved; note sheets can be printed also (4.06) 19. Facility to print all note sheets (4.06) 20. Birth brief routine rewritten for 9 generations (4.06) 21. Connecting lines introduced in descendent lists (4.06) 22. Errors in page length, italic printing etc. corrected (4.07) 23. Errors in drop line trees corrected (4.08,4.09,4.10) In all new versions, every bug that came to light in previous versions has been eliminated. About the Author ---------------- I am an 'early' retired scientist and I have been writing computer programs since 1961. I became interested in genealogy several years ago. The bother of trying to write pedigree charts by hand and having to start again and again lead me to write a program for my own use. Several other genealogists heard of my program and I persuaded myself to rewrite it in a more robust and generally useful form. This took several months. I charge for NEWGEN because otherwise I would never get round to distributing it and because there were overheads in writing the program. About NEWGEN ------------ NEWGEN is mostly written in FORTRAN 77 but some of the subroutines are written in Assembler and it makes extensive use of calls to the Operating System. It is thus not readily transportable to other computers. An attemopt has been made to make it run as fast as possible and to ensure that it reasonably foolproof. For the more adventurous ------------------------ It is possible to edit the ASCII file NEWGEN.RSC. This contains the text that appears against the menu items, the layout of the form and other data. N.B. Every number in NEWGEN.RSC is a decimal integer and takes up 4 character positions with leading blank spaces. The information in it is in five parts: 1. The version number 2. The number of menu items (16) followed by the menu entries You can alter the wording of these (up to 40 characters each) if you like but not their number or order. 3. The pattern of the form; this can contain up to 24 lines and is terminated by a dot on a separate line. You can alter the wording and even the positions of the fields, but you must on no account alter the sizes of the fields or the number of them; chaos will result if you do. 4. The number of boxes to be drawn followed by the X (1-80) and Y (1-25) coordinates of the top left and bottom right corners of each. You can alter these at will. 5. A number specifying the number of fields on the form (which must not be altered) followed by 34 lines which specify each field. Each set contains 9 decimal numbers arranged in columns: 1. The field number 2. The row it is in (the first line of the form is on row 2) 3. The column it starts at (1-80) 4. The length of the field (number of underlines) 5. The next field to be visited when you press a forward TK 6. The next field to be visited when you press a backward TK 7. The type of field: 1 for a number; 5 for a string 8. The current length of the field (always 0) 9. The position in the record at which the field data starts You can alter the numbers in columns 2,3,5 or 6, but on no account should you alter those in columns 1,4,7,8 or 9. If you do make such alterations, be sure to rearrange the fields in the form. You may like to note that if you can remember the sequence of key presses required to achieve some desired effect, you can press them in quick succession without waiting for the prompts to appear and produce the same effect. Note, however, that you cannot pass the menu in this way - the type ahead buffer is emptied before the menu is rewritten. Use this facility with care, NEWGEN might crash if the buffer becomes full. N.B. You do all this at your own risk and can expect no help from me! E.G.Richards April 1991