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Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso
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README
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1991-04-28
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Family History System
Basic Programs
(Compiled Version)
The Family History System was written to provide a simple means for
creating files of personal information including family relationships,
and for producing standard types of genealogical reports from
information in those files. Information for up to 3200 individuals
may be stored on a single DS/DD floppy diskette (or up to 9999 on a
hard disk). There are no limits on the numbers of relationships
(parent, child or spouse) that an individual may be involved in.
Reports produced by the basic set of programs include:
ancestor report, descendant reports (in list or "chart" format),
complete sets of ancestor charts, and family group reports.
The basic documentation (a 34 page manual) and the "interpreted"
version of the programs are contained on a separate diskette. This
diskette contains a version of the programs that has been compiled
using Microsoft's QuickBASIC (version 1.01) compiler. Requirements
for running these programs are:
an IBM PC, XT, AT, PCjr or compatible computer
at least 192k RAM
PC or MS DOS version 2.1 or later
at least 1 DS/DD floppy drive
and an 80 character monitor (monochrome or color, no graphics
required)
(a printer is recommended for making full use of the system but
is not required for creating the files or displaying
information on the monitor).
You may create as many copies of these programs as you need for your
own use. Further you may share the system with others, provided you
only give them a complete DISKCOPY of the distribution diskette as you
received it and you ask no fee beyond that required to cover the cost
of media, postage and handling.
You are free to use these programs without any feeling of obligation
for payment to the author, however if you are interested in receiving
an extended version of the system supporting additional options you
may consider becoming a registered user of the programs by sending a
$35.00 registration fee to:
Phillip E. Brown
834 Bahama Drive
Tallahassee, Fla. 32301
Registered users receive both interpreted and compiled versions of all
programs in the system and are notified of the availability of
additional enhancements (a $10.00 fee is required for subsequent
updates to either the interpreted or compiled versions of the system).
Currently the extended system provides the following additional
options:
a program for creating index files based upon combinations of
Surname, Given name, birthdate (YMD or MDY), Deathdate (YMD), sex,
& ID#;
a program for producing printed indexes for descendant reports and
sets of ancestor charts;
a program for searching the files and producing listings of
information for selected individuals (including latest residence
address);
a program for exporting information for selected individuals into a
GEDCOM format ASCII (standard character) file; the same program
will import information from a GEDCOM format file into another
family file, allowing you to create "subset" family files for
others. All family relationships between transferred individuals
are maintained across the export/import process;
a program for checking the consistency of internal "pointer"
information (and optionally making corrections as required); this
may be used to "recover" from errors resulting from an extended
update session that was interrupted by a power failure.
All programs are (C) Copyright 1985,1986 by Phillip E. Brown
TRYING OUT THE PROGRAMS:
You may try out these programs by placing this diskette in the "A"
drive of your PC and entering: A>faminit
You should be greeted by the system's "Title Screen" which should
soon be followed by a display of the system's "MAIN MENU" of
program options. If you instead see a message such as:
"Cannot run as a child of BASIC"
then you will first have to enter: A>zero
and then: A>faminit
Once you get to the "MAIN MENU" you may want to try one of the
utility options:
F3-A Change File Name Table
F3-B Change Colors & Error Tone
or F3-C Change Printer Control Table
Or you may consider trying to print out blank family group
worksheets (using F2-C, F5) or printing blank ancestor charts
(using F2-D, F5). All other report options will require that you
first CREATE a family file (using F1-F1-F3-Esc) and add some
information to it.
While it is best to look over a copy of the system documentation
(found on the diskette containing the interpreted version of the
system) to find out how the system is intended to operate, you may
be able to figure out how it all works by investing a little time
(and patience) while taking note of the following:
1. Options are usually single-key selectable from a "menu" that
appears on the screen.
2. Errors and "illegal" key-strokes are usually greeted by a
soft tone and occasionally by an error message on the bottom
line of the screen. If an error message has a trailing "..."
then the program is waiting for you to press any key before
continuing.
3. The ESCape key is (almost) always used to terminate an
operation that you do not wish to continue. Some operations
such as the creation of an ancestor or descendant workfile
are not interruptible, and at other times you are given
another means (usually pressing a function key) for ending an
operation.
4. When updating a multi-field formatted display, use the TAB
and SHIFT+TAB keys to move forward (or backward) to the next
updatable field. (The HOME key moves you to the First
updatable field and the END key to the Last updatable field
on the screen.)
5. If you are updating a formatted display and there is not
shown an option for letting the program know that you are
through, then you should press the ENTER or RETURN key to
tell the program that you wish to continue.
6. Reports may be paused by pressing any key. The message
"Waiting..." should appear at the bottom of the screen. You
may then terminate the report by pressing the ESCape key, or
continue it by pressing any other key.
CREATING WORKING COPIES OF THE PROGRAMS
A Batch procedure is provided to help you create a working copy of
these programs on either a floppy or hard disk. On a hard disk,
the programs are placed in a separate sub-directory (\FAMILY) and a
batch file (FHS.BAT) is created in the main directory of the hard
disk to make it easier getting into the system.
If you are installing the programs on a hard disk then place this
diskette in the "A" drive of your PC and enter:
A>INSTALL HD x yyyy
where "x" is the letter you use to designate your hard disk
(usually "C") and yyyy=ZERO if you found it necessary to enter the
ZERO command before running the programs (see TRYING OUT THE
PROGRAMS above). After the installation is complete, you may start
the system by changing the default drive to the hard disk and
entering "fhs" (without the quotes) in response to the DOS
prompt. (The compiled version of the programs can "co-exist" with
the interpreted version in the same sub-directory...of course you
will use separate commands to start them. Once you determine that
the compiled version works correctly on your equipment, you will
probably want to remove the interpreted version from your hard disk
by deleting all of the files in your \FAMILY directory with a
suffix of ".BAS".)
If you are installing the programs on a floppy diskette, you must
first format a diskette by placing your DOS diskette (which
contains the FORMAT command) in the "A" drive of your PC and
entering one of the following:
A>format b:/s (if the diskette is to be "bootable")
or A>format b: (if want more room on the diskette for data)
You will be asked to place the diskette that is to contain the
programs in the "B" drive. Make sure that you don't want to save
anything on the diskette that you use as all previous contents will
be lost.
After formatting the diskette, label it "Family History System
Program diskette", then place the distribution diskette in the "A"
drive and enter:
A>INSTALL FD xxxx
where xxxx=ZERO if you found it necessary to enter the ZERO command
before running the programs (see TRYING OUT THE PROGRAMS above).
After the installation is complete, you may start up the system by
placing the new Family History System Program diskette in the "A"
drive and entering: A>fhs (or by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL if you
formatted a "bootable" program diskette).
I hope you enjoy using the programs, please let me know if you have
any problems or if you have suggestions for improvement.