Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/misc/family3.zip/README

Text File | 1987-10-20 | 14KB | 251 lines

                        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 3500 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),
     relative reports, complete sets of ancestor charts, and family
     group reports.

The basic documentation (a 50 page manual) and the "interpreted"
version of the programs are found on a separate diskette.  This
diskette has a version of the programs that has been compiled using
Microsoft's QuickBASIC (version 3.0) compiler.  Requirements for
running these programs are:

     an IBM PC, XT, AT, PCjr or compatible computer
     at least 256k RAM
     PC or MS DOS version 2.0 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 $10.00/12.00 fee is required for subsequent
updates to the interpreted/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), most
   recent marriage date (MDY), sex, & ID#;

   a program for producing printed indexes for ancestor, descendant,
   relative and family group reports and sets of ancestor charts;

   a program for searching the files and producing listings of
   information for selected individuals (including comments, latest
   residence address and relationship);  this program also produces a
   Surname Summary Report which can be used to evaluate the completeness
   of certain types of information for groups of records;

   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;

   an option for producing a Mailmerge format file of latest residence
   addresses and phone numbers; this can be used with database
   managers (such as the publicly distributed PC-FILE III) to print
   mailing labels, and can be used with many word processors to print
   form letters;

   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 1985,1986,1987 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
   (NOTE: even though all programs in the system are .EXE files, they
   are not individually executable.  The system MUST be entered through
   program FAMINIT.  All other programs are selected from the MainMenu
   of system options.)

   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).

   If you get a message like "Unsupported function in line" when
   requesting MainMenu option F1, the problem is probably insufficient
   available memory on your machine.  Even those with 640k of RAM
   installed may face this problem if large RAM disks or many resident
   routines are used.  If you get this message, try rebooting without
   some of your RAM resident routines to see if the message goes away.

   While it is best to look over a copy of the system documentation
   to find out how the system is intended to operate (the manual is
   found on the diskette with the interpreted version of the system),
   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 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
         (previous) 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.  A message such as
         "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.
      7. There is a DATECALC utility which performs a number of useful
         date manipulations.  If you boot the system from the diskette
         created by the INSTALL procedure (described below) then the
         utility has been made RAM resident and may be called up at
         just about any time by pressing the ALT and CTRL keys at the
         same time.  If you are using DOS 3.0 or later and have enough
         free memory, you can also call it up from the MainMenu by
         pressing the F7 key.  The calculator "window" may be moved
         around using the cursor control keys.  When a calendar is
         displayed, it may be scrolled backward and forward by months
         and years by using the cursor control keys also.

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 you 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...If you are not creating a "bootable" diskette, then you
   should also copy COMMAND.COM from your DOS diskette to the newly
   formatted program diskette before continuing with the INSTALL
   procedure.  This will avoid a message prompting you to insert a
   diskette with COMMAND.COM on it when you terminate a FHS session.

   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).

   (Note: With the current and subsequent updates to the compiled set
   of programs, the total size of the program files and QuickBASIC
   runtime support has grown to the point that, depending on the
   version of DOS that you use, there may be insufficient space on a
   360k diskette to create a "bootable" program diskette.  If you get
   a message such as:
                "Insufficient Disk space to copy...."
   during the installation procedure, then reformat the new program
   diskette without the "/s" option and retry the INSTALL procedure.
   Don't forget to place a copy of COMMAND.COM on the diskette.

   You could also split the programs between two diskettes, one of which
   is "bootable".  You should have no problem doing this if you observe
   the following "rules":
        1. The FAMILY.DAT file must only be on the "bootable" diskette.
        2. Program FAMINIT.EXE should only be on the "bootable" diskette.
        3. For convenience only:
           a. place a copy of COMMAND.COM on both diskettes
           b. place a copy of FAMMENU.EXE on both diskettes
           c. if you want to invoke the DATECALC utility using F7 from
              the MainMenu, then make sure DATECALC.COM is on both diskettes.

Please note that when running from floppy diskettes, the program diskette
only has to be in the default drive when starting the system, when selecting
an option from the MainMenu, or when returning to the MainMenu from one of
the option processing programs.  At all other times you may remove the
program diskette and replace it with a data diskette.  The system will let
you know when it is necessary to put the program diskette back on that drive.
When you are using the file update program, MainMenu option F1, you should
be careful never to remove a data diskette from either drive until you have
closed the files, or returned to the MainMenu program, or have been told
by the system to put the program diskette in the default drive.

I hope you enjoy using the programs.  Please let me know if you have
any problems or if you have suggestions for improvement.