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Twistory 1.0 FAT
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Twistory Resources
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Twistory 1.0 PPC
Table of Contents
* Instructions
* Resources
1. About Resources
2. The File Mark-up: #file
3. The Place Mark-up: #c
4. The Era Mark-ups: #bc and #ad
5. The Person Mark-up: #p
6. The Event Mark-up: #e
7. The Sphere Mark-up: #s
8. Fields
9. Georef Format
10. Date Format
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About Resources
Twistory comes with a folder of text resources called "ttt" and an
index file called something like "index.ttt." When Twistory is first
launched, you are presented with an "open dialog." Open the index file.
The files in the "ttt" folder are of two types, identified by their
filename extensions. The extension ".ttt" stands for "twistory text." These
files contain information on places, people and events. There are also files
with the extension ".geo" which are actually just ".ttt" files, but which
are so named as a comment that they contain only place data. (You can
actually call the files anything you want.)
The other kind of file has the extension ".poly" for "polygon." These
are also text files, but are most easily created and edited with a separate
program called "PolyTool." They contain descriptions of closed or open
polygons on the surface of the earth. Their vertex data is in minutes of
latitude and longitude.
The following sections describe the format of the ".ttt" files. The
characters "#," "<" and ">" are reserved. They may only be used as
documented below. "C++ and C-style" comments may also be used. You will see
examples of these in the files.
The File Mark-up: #file
Twistory files are arranged in a hierarchy, and this markup is used to
link them together. An index file (which can have any name) is used to list
all files or sub-index files. As Twistory reads any file, if it finds the
sequence "#file" it suspends reading the file it is in and opens the file
whose name appears after the "#file" markup. The format is as follows:
#file "ttt/egypt.ttt"
This tells Twistory to look in the folder "ttt" for a file called
"egypt.ttt" and to read its data in right away.
The order in which files are listed in the index, and the order in
which items appear in the files, is significant. For example, a place
description must be read in before it is referred to in a person record.
The Place Mark-up: #c
The start of a place record is identified by the characters "#c". ("c"
was chosen for "city," but regions of all size use the same format.) Here is
a sample listing of four places:
#c <n>Canada<l>55N100W<rad>1200<nat>Canadian<col>100 60 80
#c <n>Saskatchewan<l>54N106W<rad>400<sup>Canada
#c <n>Ontario<l>49N83W<rad>600<sup>Canada
#c <n>Toronto<l>4339N7920W<sup>Ontario
As you can see, places also have a hierarchy. When the map is at small
scales, cities are not shown. An event occurring in Toronto would then
appear next to the word "Ontario." At even smaller scales, events occurring
in both Ontario and Saskatchewan would appear next to the word "Canada." The
meaning of the individual fields are given below.
The Era Mark-ups: #bc and #ad
These mark-ups have no fields, and are used to change the default era
for dates.
A change in the default era made within a file is forgotten once that file
ends and reading returns to a file which is higher up the hierarchy. But a
change is passed down to a lower file. The safest practice is to specify
either #bc or #ad at the beginning of every file.
The Person Mark-up: #p
The start of a person record is identified by the characters "#p".
Here is a sample listing of four persons:
#p <nat>British<o>king<n>George V<fa>Edward VII<b>1865 Jun 3<ac>1910 May 6<d>1936 Jan 20
#p <nat>British<o>king<n>Edward VIII<fa>George V<b>1894 Jun 23<ac>1936 Jan 20<ab>1936 Dec 11<d>1972
#p <nat>British<o>king<n>George VI<fa>George V<b>1895 Dec 14<ac>1936 Dec 11<d>1952 Feb 6
#p <nat>British<o>queen<n>Elizabeth II<fa>George VI<b>1926 Apr 21<ac>1952 Feb 6
#p <nat>British<o>prince<n>Charles<mo>Elizabeth II<b>1948 Nov 14
More information on the format and meaning of fields is given below.
Family relations are described by the father (<fa>) and mother (<mo>)
fields. The creation of the family tree in the genealogy views is dependent
on those links being specified in the database. A person's database record
may have his/her father and/or mother specified. The parents must then also
be in the database, and must appear in the listing prior to their children.
Children are specified only by their own links to their parents. This
seems to be the simplest way to implement family relations in the database,
since one may have many children, and several spouses, but one usually has
unique parents. (In the case of adoption, often only one of the parents is a
historical figure who would appear in the database.) Unions (marriages,
etc.) do not appear in genealogy windows, but that may be an option in
future. Relations other than parent-child cannot be specified directly; the
intermediate person(s) must also be in the database. (For example, the
relationship of uncle requires both the appropriate parent and grandparent
to be in the database, in order for that relation to be revealed in some
genealogy window.)
The Event Mark-up: #e
The start of an event record is identified by the characters "#e".
Here is a sample listing of events:
#bc
#e <t>battle<n>Fall of Jerusalem<d>586<c>Jerusalem<info>The city and the temple are destroyed
#ad
#e <t>use<n>decimal numbers in commerce<c>India<d>600
#e <t>invent<au>Gutenberg<n>movable type<d>1456<c>Germany
#e <t>wreck<n>The Vasa<d>1628 Aug 10
#e <t>war<n>Third Anglo-Dutch War<d>1672<e>1674
#e <t>extinct<n>Dodo<c>Mauritius<d>1681
The various fields are described below.
The Sphere Mark-up: #s
The outline of a region such as an empire can be shown in the map view
with a "sphere-of-influence" record. Here is an example:
#bc
#s <n>Old Babylonian Empire<col>80 100 100<d>1800(100)<poly>"oldbab.poly"<e>1600(100)
The sample polygon has only one date interval, but it could have more. If
you construct the polygons corresponding to the growth and decline of an
empire, all of them can be linked into one sphere record by repeating the
<d> and <poly> fields. Then end it with one <e> field. Information on these
fields is found below.
Fields
All of the information with a place, person, event, or sphere record
is in the form of fields, which have a uniform format. They all begin with a
field identifier between the characters < and >. Examples are seen above.
The following table summarises them. Some fields, like the name, <n>, can be
used with different types of records. Others can only be used with one type.
The letters c, p, e, and s indicate which records they may be used with.
Mark-up Description Applicability Remarks
<n> name c p e s
<sup> super-region (name of place) c s used to link places into a hierarchy
<aka> alias or alternate name c p
<wat> body of water c boolean mark-up (no field following)
<l> location (georef) c see below for format
<adj> national adjective c the name for a person who lives there
<col> colour c s The colour of a place is used in time-line bars.
<sur> surname p
<nat> nationality p should match some region's <adj> field
<fem> female p boolean mark-up (no field following)
<o> occupation p
<b> date of birth p see below for format
<d> date of death p
<fa> father's name p
<mo> mother's name p
<ma> name of spouse p
<ac> date of accession p
<ab> date of abdication p
<ap> date of appointment of power p
<pow> date of taking power p
<depo> date of being deposed p
<el> date of election to office p
<ret> date of retirement from office p
<pro> rank and date of promotion p
<c> place link (name of place) p e
<dep> date of departure p
<arr> date of arrival p
<info> additional information p e
<ref> reference p e
<d> date e s
<e> ending date e s
<au> link to author (name of person) e
<vic> winning side of battle e
<poly> polygon file name s
Georef Format
Geographic References are given as the latitude and longitude
concatenated together, in that order. Either one may be given in degrees, or
degrees and minutes. Following the angle must appear one of the letters 'N'
or 'S' for latitude, and 'E' or 'W' for longitude. NOTE: the degree part
must consists of either 2 or 3 digits, not 1. If the angle is less than 10
degrees, a leading zero must be used. (Otherwise, it would be ambiguous
whether a three-digit angle was greater than 99 degrees and given in whole
degrees, or an angle less than 10 degrees with minutes following.)
Date Format
Dates are given in the format:
year number [ era ] [ month name [ date number ] ] [ (uncertainty) ]
The square brackets indicate optional parts. The year is the only mandatory
element. It may be followed by either "A.D." or "B.C." to indicate an era
other than the default; it is necessary to do this for lives or events which
span the boundary between the B.C. and A.D. eras, since the default cannot
be changed in mid-record.
Following the year, the month name or its abbreviation (not number)
may appear, if it is known. If the month is given, the date of the month may
follow.
Finally, an uncertainty may be given. There is already an implied
uncertainty in any date that has only a year, or only year and month. For
example, if only 1520 is stated, the actual date Twistory uses to draw the
event is 1520 July 1, but the uncertainty will be plus or minus six months.
To specify another uncertainty, put a number in round brackets following the
date. (No spaces are necessary.) The units are those of the last element of
the date. For example, 1889 May(3) means three month either side of 1889 May
15.
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Last modified on 1998 May 9