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PEDIGREE.TXT
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1994-02-02
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PEDIGREE
Version 3.7
by
Ken Murphy
1
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
WHAT PEDIGREE DOES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
General Functions and Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
INSTALLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Distribution Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Program Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
After Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Review and Cleanup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The First Printer Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Epson-Compatible Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
DIP Switchs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Printer Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Character Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
GEDCOM DATA INPUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
GEDCOM 4.0 Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
PAF Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Date Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Age Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
USING "PEDIGREE" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Optimizing Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Execution Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Printing Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Starting The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The First Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Choosing 4 or 5 Generation Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Why Choose 4 Generation Charts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Why Choose 5 Generation Charts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Screen Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Banner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Chart Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chart Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Chart Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Title? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
GEDCOM File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Prepared For: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Display Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Double Strike? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Unidirectional? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Print Age At Death? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Print Marriage Date? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2
Printer Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Printer Character Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Character Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Force Upper Case Printing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Enable Audits? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Audit Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chart Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
GEDCOM File Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Starting Person Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Moving Around the List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Navigating With Family Links . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Name Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Sorting The List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Printing The List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Printing the Surname Cross Reference . . . . . . . . 46
Printing the Surname Index Report . . . . . . . . . 46
Printing the Surname Summary Report . . . . . . . . 46
CVectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Pedigree Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Moving Around the Pedigree . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Printing The Pedigree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Graphic Pedigree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Picklist Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Surname Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Surname Cross Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Surname Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Managing The List With The Pedigree . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Key Commands Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Parameter Specification Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Select Starting Person Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Pedigree Chart Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
REGISTERING PEDIGREE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
THE REGISTERED VERSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
PEDIGREE TECHNICAL SPECS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
USER SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
REVISION HISTORY / WHAT'S NEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
EPSON BUILT-IN CHARACTER SETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
REGISTRATION FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3
4
I. INTRODUCTION
Development of this program grew out of my need to draw "presentable"
pedigree charts that I could give to others. By "presentable" I mean
something reasonably attractive and more than your basic genealogical
database program can produce. Additionally, the charts had to be drawn
using my 24-pin dot matrix LQ printer.
After looking around for other software available, I discovered there
was only one program that would make "display quality" pedigree charts
on my printer, and it cost more than $60. Besides the cost, I would
have had to re-input all my genealogical data into it's database.
An alternative that some genealogists used was to employ a word
processor and a laser printer to make pleasing pedigree charts in
landscape mode. Again, that wasn't an acceptable alternative since all
I had was my trusty 24-pin dot matrix printer.
Where to turn? I wasn't after monk-drawn parchment stuff - just
something I felt comfortable giving to my grandmother. Well, it seems
as if I'd found an excuse to do some programming!
Note: as you read this you'll notice all references to keyboard keys or
keystroke sequences are enclosed within <>. For example, <F1> means to
press the F1 key. The sequence <Ctrl K><B> means to hold down the
<Ctrl> key while pressing the <K> key. Then let up the <Ctrl> and <K>
keys and press the <B> key by itself. Don't type the <>.
The unregistered version is fully functional, but it is limited in the
number of persons and families it will process. Thank you for using
PEDIGREE, and enjoy the program!
II. WHAT PEDIGREE DOES
PEDIGREE prints display-quality, 4 or 5 generation pedigree charts on
an Epson LQ-compatible 24 pin dot matrix printer at 180 dots-per-inch
using standard GEDCOM data as input. The 4 generation charts have
boxes for 15 persons, and the 5 generation chart has boxes for 31
persons. Each box contains names, birth and death dates and,
optionally, the age at death. Marriage dates of parents can optionally
be printed next to siblings. You can "design" your own pedigree chart
by choosing from 6 chart border designs and 5 box styles. You can also
suppress the border on the chart. Altogether, PEDIGREE offers 70
different pedigree chart designs. The chart designs differ one from
another in border style, box style, type font, shading and number of
generations. All charts fit on one 8.5" x 11" page and are printed in
portrait (vertical) fashion.
PEDIGREE also has use as a GEDCOM utility for such things as viewing
the file without printing. You can use PEDIGREE's on-screen scrolling
pedigree display to "view" a pedigree generated from a GEDCOM file. Or
you can use PEDIGREE to print several types of reports from a list of
persons and families in a GEDCOM file without asking for a pedigree
chart. You can use PEDIGREE's sorts to analyze the contents of a
GEDCOM file in ways not available with other database programs.
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PEDIGREE has numerous audit checks designed to find bad genealogical
links. PEDIGREE is particularly good at spotting links to a parent
whose data suggests he/she might not actually be a "real" parent.
These cross-record checks supplement PEDIGREE's record-level checks for
each person/family.
A. Features
· Parameter screen - no command line parameters
· Automatically saved/reloaded parameters
· Standard GEDCOM format used for input data
· On-screen, scrolling pedigree display
· Scrolling picklist to select the pedigree's starting person
· Five sort sequences to order the Starting Person picklist
· Name search within the Starting Person picklist
· One-key navigation to the Father, Mother or Spouse in the
Starting Person picklist
· Graphics-based pedigree chart on an LQ dot matrix printer
· GEDCOM pedigree "viewer"
· 10 special printer fonts for names & dates
· "Personalized" pedigree chart with any name you choose
· Selectable screen sizing for EGA and VGA displays
· Option to force UPPER CASE when printing a chart
· Context-sensitive help
· Select border & box designs for all charts - over 130 possible
design combinations
· Age (in years) at time of death optionally printed
· Marriage dates optionally printed
· GEDCOM standard list report of "marked" or all persons
· Selectable 13 Epson built-in international character sets
· 4 and 5 generation charts
· Single-sheet feed "pre-printed" chart option
· Options to control chart printing quality vs. speed
· Compressed graphic chart image files to conserve disk space
· Uses EMS & RamDisk for program storage to improve performance
· Single keystroke navigation of the pedigree
· Automated installation of the registered version
· Soundex codes for surnames in Starting Person picklist
· Surname cross-reference summary reports with Soundex codes
· CVectors to help find duplicates, twins, data errors, etc.
· Audits for ages & sex of parents & grandparents - user limits
· Menu access to all the printer's built-in style & appearance
features
B. General Functions and Processing
PEDIGREE has four major purposes. It's primary purpose, of course,
is to print display-quality pedigree charts on an Epson-compatible
printer. Over it's evolution PEDIGREE has grown from a program
capable of printing a single 4-generation chart design to 7 chart
designs to 70 chart designs to over 130 chart designs both 4 and 5
generation.
It's secondary purpose is to permit the user to explore the GEDCOM
data through on-screen scrolling pedigree and picklist displays
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while being able to track the GEDCOM links to ancestors.
It's third major purpose is to print register reports with one or
all or any number of persons the user selects from the GEDCOM data.
The reports are available both at the detailed and summary level.
Finally, PEDIGREE has some comprehensive data auditing capabilities
to help analyze the GEDCOM data. It can construct and use CVectors
to locate bad genealogical links, find duplicates, locate twins,
etc. It can also spot parent links to persons whose data suggests
they might not be the correct parents.
As noted, PEDIGREE's primary purpose is to print display-quality 4
and 5 generation pedigree charts on a 24-pin dot matrix printer.
That's right, you don't need to cough up those $$ for a laser
printer to get presentable pedigree charts. Nor do you need to
custom build a chart with a word processor. With PEDIGREE, you can
use your current genealogical database program to make a GEDCOM
file, and PEDIGREE will print attractive pedigree charts using that
GEDCOM file. PEDIGREE also can print a few standard register
reports from your GEDCOM data. Another useful purpose is to view
and/or chart data in GEDCOM files given to you by another
genealogist.
PEDIGREE uses "industry standard" GEDCOM files as it's data input
source. Yes, I know that the GEDCOM format isn't "standard" and
it's still evolving, but it's the closest thing we genealogists have
to a common denominator data format as I write this. Using GEDCOM
as input means that this program will be usable by the widest
possible genealogical data processing community.
PEDIGREE allows you to select the specific 4 or 5 generations to
print using a scrolling, searchable "picklist" of the persons in the
GEDCOM file and on-screen scrolling of the pedigree display. The
pedigree display looks like a pedigree and not just a list. You can
"walk" the pedigree using the cursor control arrow keys. Using a
picklist to scroll within the list of persons is an essential
feature if you have several family lines within the GEDCOM data.
You can sort the picklist of persons in one of five ways. Using one
of PEDIGREE's sorts is the easiest way to collect together everyone
with the same (or similar) surname or everyone in the same family.
Sorting the list by name is the easiest way to determine exactly
which surnames are present in the GEDCOM file, and which persons
don't have surnames (they'll sort to the end of the list). You can
instantly move the picklist to the Father or the person highlighted,
the Mother or the Spouse.
PEDIGREE can calculate a CVector to help you locate duplicated
entries in your GEDCOM file. A CVector can also be used to locate
twins and incorrectly linked records or bad birth years. PEDIGREE
can audit the age-at-birth of both the parents and both sets of
grandparents using age minimums and maximums you supply and show you
possible errors in your GEDCOM links.
7
PEDIGREE can also be used as a GEDCOM data file "viewer" without
printing. Suppose you've just received a new GEDCOM, and you want
to see what the pedigrees are like before you load it into your
database? No problem. PEDIGREE will show you exactly what the
GEDCOM data contains person-by-person and by ancestry. And PEDIGREE
can be used as a simple GEDCOM lister. There's an option to print a
standard register style report from the GEDCOM list. These last
features operate completely independent of any "pedigree" processing
to display or print charts. You can optionally "mark" those persons
to be listed or you can print the entire list.
PEDIGREE provides much the same family linking ability and
associated displays that any genealogical database program offers.
It also has the simplicity and ease of use afforded by single
keystroke navigation of either the list of names and dates or the
scrolling pedigree.
PEDIGREE lets you select the style of printed chart. You can choose
from 7 chart borders (including "NONE") and 5 box styles for either
a 4 or 5 generation chart. Both the border style and box style are
individually selectable as is the text font. Pick the chart style
that pleases you from among the wide variety of choices.
PEDIGREE also provides a feature to print a blank pedigree chart. I
found this useful for making blanks on which I (or my relatives)
could write. Of course, once you've made the first blank, you could
run off a bunch of copies on a copier just as easily. That's fine.
A registered user is free to reproduce any chart as often as needed.
Printing a BLANK chart is an essential prerequisite to using the
PREPRINT chart feature.
Reproducing on a copier a blank chart which was originally printed
on a dot matrix printer will often look better than the original
because you can adjust the copier controls. This is a good
technique when you want to use a chart you've enhanced through
copying or pen-and-ink work. PEDIGREE has an option that will allow
you to single-sheet feed these "Pre-printed" charts into your
printer. Using this mode of charting, PEDIGREE will send only the
pedigree data to the printer and not the chart graphics. PEDIGREE
will expect, of course, that you've mounted one of it's own designs
into the printer. Using the PREPRINT chart mode potentially
provides not only the highest quality of printout but also the
fastest.
As noted above, PEDIGREE will print a standard, column-oriented
report that looks exactly like the on-screen picklist of persons.
That is, rather than printing a pedigree chart, you can print the
list of persons in standard register report. PEDIGREE expects you
to select the persons to be printed in the report by individually
"marking" them. Printing in list form is a good idea if you're
dealing with a new GEDCOM file, and you're not ready to print a
pedigree chart. Sorting the list before it's printed is an easy way
to collect together for "marking" and subsequent printing all those
persons with the same surname. PEDIGREE can also print a report
listing every unique surname in your GEDCOM data along with the
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GEDCOM numbers of the persons with that surname.
PEDIGREE also provides access to the Epson printer's built-in
international character sets and special printing effects. An Epson
850/950/1050 has 14 built-in international character sets. PEDIGREE
allows you to select which character set you want the printer to
use. With this feature you have access to 13 of the built-in 14
international character sets. PEDIGREE also provides access to the
3 ornamental styles of letters.
PEDIGREE has options to improve the print quality of a chart. You
can "emphasize" a printed result by using a Double Strike printing
technique. PEDIGREE does this through micro vertical positioning of
the paper and reprinting of the data. Although an "emphasized"
chart takes twice as long to print, it very often has a marked
improvement in appearance. PEDIGREE also permits a "draft" mode to
speed printing of a pedigree chart by not using the appearance
improvement options.
PEDIGREE has an option that effects print quality by allowing you to
select Bidirectional or Unidirectional movement of the printer's
print head. Again, there's a trade-off between speed of printing
and quality of result, but the choice is yours.
As you can see, PEDIGREE provides a wealth of options for you to
customize the pedigree chart. You have control over almost all
aspects of print style and content.
C. The Charts
There are many different chart designs available. Each of them uses
boxes to "contain" the data for an person. The boxes are connected
with lines to show familial relationships. Some chart designs use
shadowed boxes, and others use unshadowed boxes. Some chart styles
use straight line boxes while others used "plaque" style boxes. The
border is different on each chart as is the text font for preprinted
words. You have the ability to select whatever border style you
like from 7 choices and whatever box style you like from 5 choices,
and you can select either for a 4 generation chart or a 5 generation
chart.
Above the central person's box is the word "FATHER", and below it is
the word "MOTHER". In every case, the Father's box appears above
the sibling while the Mother's box appears below.
Each chart has a border around the perimeter of the page, and it is
different for each chart. At the top of the chart is the word
"PEDIGREE" in large letters. On several charts border styles, the
title "PEDIGREE" appears in the middle of the top border. On one
border style it appears in the upper left corner of the page, and
the top border is unbroken. PEDIGREE provides an option wherein you
can suppress the printing of the stylized title "PEDIGREE" if that's
your preference. A sample printout made during printer testing
illustrates all of PEDIGREE's border and box designs.
9
In the bottom left corner of the page is a graphic of a tree. To
the right of that are two lines (one over the other) containing
"Family Tree" and "Prepared For:".
Half of the possible chart designs are 5 generation. Because of the
limited space on a 5 generation chart, the lettering is done only in
pitch 15 characters. Also, border design and box style cannot be
altered on a 5 generation chart.
III. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
You'll need a compatible IBM "286" or better with MS-DOS and 640K bytes
of main storage to run this program. PEDIGREE requires 2.2 MB of disk
space to install the registered version. The unregistered version
requires slightly less than 2 MB. After installation, the ZIP file and
some of PEDIGREE's documentation and installation files can be deleted.
In that form PEDIGREE requires about 1.8 MB. Both the registered and
unregistered version require an extra 550 KB work space to construct
the graphic chart image. PEDIGREE's need for main memory increases as
the number of persons in the GEDCOM input increases. PEDIGREE has
successfully processed a GEDCOM file with 4500 persons and 1200
families using a computer with 618K free main memory and 130K free
Upper Memory Blocks. Using a memory manager such as QEMM to load
processors into the high (above 640K) RAM frees RAM below 640K.
PEDIGREE uses main RAM to store an person's data. The more persons in
your GEDCOM file, the more main memory PEDIGREE will need.
PEDIGREE runs with MS-DOS version 3.1 or later. It also runs as a DOS
application in Windows 3.x.
You'll also need an Epson-compatible 24-pin dot matrix printer of the
LQ persuasion (that's what this is all about, right?). The printer you
use MUST be fully Epson LQ compatible.
If you're going to print a pedigree chart rather than just view it
on-screen, you'll get much better results if your printer ribbon is
fresh. Secondly, your chart will look much better if your printer
handles single sheets and you can use colored paper of heavy stock.
I've had good success with an ivory or light beige colored paper.
Minimally, you'll need a CGA-compatible color monitor. PEDIGREE looks
best when you've got an EGA monitor or better. I've designed PEDIGREE
to use EGA colors, but it'll work on a CGA.
You do not need memory above 1 MB such as EMS, but, if you have it,
PEDIGREE will use it. With version 3.2 or later of the
Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) available,
PEDIGREE will load parts of it's code into EMS thereby improving it's
performance since it's overlays won't have to be loaded from slower
disk.
PEDIGREE will not run from a floppy. It's too big to be contained on
any single floppy. Earlier versions of PEDIGREE were able to run from
a floppy, but versions 2.5 and later require a hard disk.
10
After the installation, you can delete several of the files from your
hard disk which PEDIGREE does not require to run. That will reduce
registered PEDIGREE's needs to less than 1.8 MB.
IV. INSTALLATION
A. The Program
1. The Distribution Files
PEDIGREE is distributed in three .ZIP files; PEDGR0.ZIP,
PEDGR1.ZIP and PEDGR2.ZIP. They all can be unpacked by any of
several programs available through CompuServe and other sources
that unpack the ZIP v2 format. PKWARE, Inc.'s PKUNZIP v2 is the
program of choice.
PEDGR0.ZIP contains the program documentation. In the
unregistered version, it contains the single ASCII file
PEDIGREE.TXT. The registered version has the WordPerfect 5.1
formatted manual PEDIGREE.DOC. PEDGR1.ZIP contains the
executable code and other system files, and PEDGR2.ZIP contains
the compressed chart images, borders and boxes. PEDGR2.ZIP is,
essentially, the graphic image library for PEDIGREE
There may be a "READ.ME" file on the disk shipped to registered
users. Since PEDIGREE continues to evolve, the READ.ME file
contains late-breaking news that didn't make it into the
program's manual prior to shipping. The version of PEDIGREE
shipped usually has changes not available in the unregistered
version uploaded to a BBS, CIS, etc. The disk shipped to
registered users also contains an automatic installation program
for installing PEDIGREE to a hard disk. If you have the
unregistered version, you have only the three ZIP files.
Before you do anything else, make a backup copy of the
distribution ZIP files. You can copy the files with the DOS COPY
command. Put the originals safely away. Now you're ready to
proceed with the installation using the copies.
There's nothing unusual to installing the program ... simply copy
the PEDGRx.ZIP files onto your working disk in the subdirectory
where you want PEDIGREE to live. Then use one of "unzipper"
programs such as "PKUNZIP" to unpack them. Or you can "unZIP"
the distribution files from the copy you made directly to your
hard disk. As their filename extension implies, the distribution
files will not execute by themselves. Registered users get an
automatic installation program which does everything to install
the program without intervention by the user.
Assuming the PEDIGREE distribution disk copy is in the A: drive,
PKUNZIP is what you're using, it's visible to DOS, and you're
installing to your C: hard disk by first copying the distribution
files to it, type the following from the DOS prompt:
C: . make C: the active drive
11
CD \ . make sure we're at the root directory
MKDIR PEDIGREE . make new directory PEDIGREE
CD PEDIGREE . switch to the new directory
COPY A:\PEDGR*.ZIP . copy the distribution files into it
PKUNZIP -e PEDGR0 . unZIP the distribution files
PKUNZIP -e PEDGR1 .
PKUNZIP -e PEDGR2 .
Don't type anything beyond this point
A better alternative is to unzip the files directly from the
floppy to the hard disk. Assuming the PEDIGREE distribution disk
copy is in the A: drive and you're installing to your C: hard
disk without first copying the distribution file to it (unZIPping
from floppy to hard disk), type the following from the DOS
prompt:
C:
CD \
MKDIR PEDIGREE
PKUNZIP -e A:\PEDGR0.ZIP C:\PEDIGREE
PKUNZIP -e A:\PEDGR1.ZIP C:\PEDIGREE
PKUNZIP -e A:\PEDGR2.ZIP C:\PEDIGREE
If the distribution files are already on the hard disk, follow
the second example above but replace the "A:\" with whatever hard
disk path has the distribution ZIP files.
As noted above, the registered version includes an automated
installation program which is the recommended way to install the
PEDIGREE system. To use it, put your PEDIGREE distribution disk
into a floppy drive and enter:
INSTALL X Y
where X is the drive letter of the installation floppy and Y is
the hard disk to which you want PEDIGREE installed. PEDIGREE
will be completely installed into Y:\PEDIGREE, but without
copying the ZIP distribution files. Installation in this manner
requires 2.3 MB of hard disk space.
2. The Program Files
After unzipping, PEDIGREE expands into the following files:
a. x.EXE (the executable programs of PEDIGREE)
b. PEDIGREE.BAT (batch file to run the PEDIGREE system)
c. x.BOR files (compressed border graphic images)
d. x.BOX files (compressed box graphic images)
e. x.CHT (compressed fixed design charts)
f. PEDIGREE.TXT (the manual in ASCII text)
g. PEDIGREE.DOC (the manual in WordPerfect 5.1 format)
h. x.LQC files (optional printer fonts)
i. READ.ME file. It contains late-breaking or version-
specific info about the program that wasn't included in
12
this document.
j. TSTFONTS.BAT file. Execute this to test the special fonts
on your printer.
k. TESTONE.BAT file. TSTFONTS.BAT uses this. There's no
reason for you to mess with this.
l. FONTTEST.TXT file. Sample text to be used for testing each
of the special fonts.
m. EXAMPLES.BAT file. Execute this to print a single page
illustrating all of PEDIGREE's border and box designs.
3. After Installation
a. Review and Cleanup
PEDIGREE is now installed on your hard disk along with it's
supporting files and documentation. First, print or display
(and read!) any READ.ME file. Next, you'll need to review the
program documentation. You can either COPY the PEDIGREE.TXT
file to your printer or you can use WordPerfect 5.1 to
retrieve and print the PEDIGREE.DOC file. If you have a way
to import a WordPerfect 5.1 document into your word processor,
then do it. Using WordPerfect to print the manual gets you
special graphics and illustrations not possible in the ASCII
.TXT version. NOTE: the unregistered version does not have a
manual in WordPerfect format.
It's now safe to remove some of files from your hard disk
which PEDIGREE does not need. Once again, make active the
directory where PEDIGREE lives, and type in the following DOS
commands:
ERASE PEDGR*.ZIP
ERASE READ.ME
ERASE PEDIGREE.TXT
ERASE PEDIGREE.DOC
The first "ERASE" command removes the original PEDIGREE
distribution files. They're not needed to run the program so
save the disk space. Besides, you've made backups, right?
Later on you'll be able to erase a few more small files.
PEDIGREE requires the .EXE, .CHT, .BOR and .BOX files, and
they must be in the same subdirectory as the program or
"visible" on the DOS path. The .LQC files are required if you
intend to use one of the special printer fonts.
Now you can run any virus scanner with which you're
comfortable. If you're cautious like me, you're well advised
to be "safe rather than sorry". I can guarantee the files as
I distribute them, but not those you received from a source
other than myself or CompuServe.
You do not need to alter your CONFIG.SYS file. It's best, and
makes the most sense, to keep all of the PEDIGREE files in the
same subdirectory. The unzip program will have put them all
in one place.
13
If you want to reduce PEDIGREE's hard disk space usage to the
bare minimum, you can also erase it's printer test files and
chart examples AFTER you use them as described in the
following section. Those files are:
EXAMPLES.BAT and EXAMPLES.CHT
TSTFONTS.BAT, TESTONE.BAT and FONTTEXT.TXT
CHARTPRT.EXE
Erasing those six files will return about 164 KB of disk
space.
b. The First Printer Test
The first thing you should do is test your printer for
compatibility with PEDIGREE. If you have an Epson LQ-
850/950/1050 there's no need to run this test, but I recommend
you do it anyway. The test will provide you with a printed
record with examples of every special font, border and box
styles PEDIGREE can use. To run the printer test ready your
printer and then do the following from the DOS prompt (this
assumes you installed PEDIGREE into C:\PEDIGREE):
C:
CD \PEDIGREE
TSTFONTS
Executing the TSTFONTS.BAT file from the DOS prompt will test
the special fonts and graphics capability of your printer.
Each font, in turn, will be downloaded to your printer
followed by test text to be printed using that font. The
screen displays a message as each font is sent to the printer.
Last, a full page of graphics is sent to the printer. This
page is an example of every border and box design available,
and it makes a good visual reference when running PEDIGREE in
the future.
If the test succeeds, the printer will print text in every
font, the full page of graphics, and then it will stop.
Examine the printed result carefully. Keep the test printouts
for future reference. You can reprint the full graphics page
with the examples at any time by entering the following
command from the DOS prompt with PEDIGREE's subdirectory the
active one:
EXAMPLES
The printer test may fail in one of several ways. If the
printer is not completely Epson LQ compatible, failure most
likely will be the printer's refusal to print accompanied by
some sign of objection such as a warning light or "beep". Or
the printed result may be garbled. If you don't get a
successful printer test result and you're sure your printer is
Epson compatible, PEDIGREE will still be useable - just avoid
using the special fonts. To use PEDIGREE, however, you MUST
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be able to print the EXAMPLES chart of border and box styles.
After running the printer test you can delete the following
files:
TSTFONTS.BAT
FONTTEST.TXT
TSTONE.BAT
EXAMPLES.CHT
EXAMPLES.BAT
Any file deleted can be recovered from the original
distribution files.
B. The Epson-Compatible Printer
1. DIP Switchs
The major consideration for using PEDIGREE with your Epson
LQ-compatible printer is to assure that any DIP switches are set
properly. This generally means leaving them at (or returning
them to) the factory defaults. The important settings are:
Skip Over Perforation - OFF
Auto Line Feed - OFF
Character Table - Epson Graphics
International Character Set - USA
Page Length - normal 11 inchs
Bottom Margin - None
Paper Out Detector - Enabled
Usage of RAM - Download (not buffered)
Character Set - Epson (not IBM)
DIP switch settings shouldn't bother PEDIGREE because it sets the
printer modes with software commands. Some printers lock the
setting of the printer console buttons if, when the printer is
turned on, you have pressed certain printer control buttons.
Don't do that. PEDIGREE needs control of the printer. I don't
recommend that you mess with the DIP switchs unless PEDIGREE has
a problem with the printer.
The Epson 24-pin printers have a DIP switch setting for selecting
an international character set. Your printer can be configured
for any character set with it's DIP switch, but PEDIGREE software
selects whatever international character set you select on the
parameter entry screen. That selection remains in effect only
until PEDIGREE finishes.
Another DIP switch setting chooses between the italics or the
Epson Extended Graphics character table. PEDIGREE employs the
Epson Extended Graphics character table, and, again, it's
software selected.
2. Printer Capabilities
15
Your Epson LQ-compatible printer must be capable of the
following:
· triple-density (180 Dots-per-Inch) printing
· n/180 inch vertical positioning
· Downloadable user fonts (R)
· Switchable between ROM and RAM fonts (R)
· Selectable absolute horizontal print head positioning
· Selectable character tables
Note: Some "Epson compatible" printers, while correctly
interpreting the Epson printer command codes, do not print on the
same page area as a true Epson. Some Panasonic printers, for
example, have a larger non-printable white space margin at the
top and bottom of a page. The Epson LQ-850 has a top margin of
.33" and a bottom margin of .53" for continuous feed paper. A
Panasonic KX-P1123, on the other hand, has a top margin of .7"
and a bottom margin of 1.0" for continuous fan-fold paper. That
means, for the Panasonic, there are positions on the paper it
can't reach that the Epson can. Secondly, the margin limits for
some printers using single sheets are different than if using
continuous feed paper.
I've tried to create pedigree chart designs which fit within
margin limits of "Epson compatible" printers known to me. If you
see charts spilling over onto a second page, you may have one of
those printers. A poor alternative for such a printer is to
print a pedigree chart without a border.
PEDIGREE has been successfully tested on the following printers:
Epson LQ-850/950/1050
Panasonic KX-P1124/1526/1624
Star Micronics NX-2400
"Tested" means that a pedigree chart correctly printed. Not every
feature of PEDIGREE was tested on printers other than an Epson.
I cannot say with certainty, for example, that special fonts work
on a Panasonic 1526.
3. Character Sets
PEDIGREE allows selection of several printer features which
control the appearance of the printed alphanumeric characters.
Among these features are the font and the character style. A
basic Epson LQ-850 has two built-in fonts, i.e., Roman and Sans
Serif. To use Courier, Prestige or Script font, you need the
optional font cartridge.
Other LQ-compatible printers are different. For example, the
default type styles of the Star Micronics are Courier, an
optional font, Prestige, Orator and Script. Those fonts are
built into the printer hardware.
In order to provide the maximum versatility in printing charts
16
and to give you control over character appearance, PEDIGREE has
two features. First, there are 10 custom fonts supplied with the
program. If, for example, your Epson does not have the optional
font cartridge and you want a script font, you'll be able to
print a chart the way you like using one of the custom fonts.
Second, PEDIGREE permits selection of one of two of the printer's
hardware fonts. The parameter screen shows all the fonts
available. The first two in the list of fonts are called
PRINTER1 and PRINTER2, and they really mean whatever your printer
defines as default font 0 and 1. The Star Micronics, for
example, would use Courier and the optional font. The Panasonic
would use Courier but ignore font 1. Look in your printer manual
under the command "Escape k" for the exact meaning for fonts 0
and 1. Just be aware that selection of one of the first two
fonts in the list relate directly to your printer's built-in
hardware fonts.
4. Character Styles
Epson LQ-compatible printers have the ability to print characters
in one of four ornamental styles, i.e.
a. Normal
b. Outlined
c. Shadowed
d. Outlined with a shadow
This feature provides special effects for the built-in printer
hardware fonts. PEDIGREE allows you to select which character
ornament style you want to use, but the selection applies only to
the first and second fonts, i.e., the printer hardware fonts. If
you use one of the custom fonts, this feature does nothing.
V. GEDCOM DATA INPUT
A. General
I've come across quite a few bizarre "GEDCOM" files, and I haven't a
clue what software could have made such messes. PEDIGREE has a
reasonable amount of "self protectiveness" built in to protect it
from some of the more obtuse "GEDCOM" formats. A word of caution
... make sure your GEDCOM input is in good shape. A mangled GEDCOM
file will surely bring PEDIGREE to it's bit-mapped knees.
The GEDCOM Format supported by PEDIGREE is documented in "The GEDCOM
Standard Release 4.0 August 1989" and "Personal Ancestral File,
GEDCOM Specifications January 1990" prepared for the Family History
Department (by the Projects and Planning Division) of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I've seen documents that refer
to "GEDCOM 2.0" or "GEDCOM 2.1". As near as I can figure, those
specs are the release version of "Personal Ancestral File" which is
a genealogical database program developed by the LDS Church. The
GEDCOM specifications differ slightly between those two "standards"
as is explained later in the section on Dates.
17
The GEDCOM specification employs many different keyword-specific
data lines. In GEDCOM terminology they're "tags". The GEDCOM
specification documents over 600 tags. PEDIGREE uses only a small
subset of them - 10 tags in all. It won't bother PEDIGREE in the
least if even the most arcane GEDCOM tag appears in the input file.
The first "field" in every GEDCOM record is a "level" number. Level
numbers define the hierarchy of the GEDCOM records. Therefore, you
cannot move GEDCOM records around in the file. They must remain
fixed in position relative to the records around them.
The keywords that PEDIGREE uses are:
INDI (Individual)
NAME (Individual's name)
SEX (Male or Female)
BIRT (date of birth)
DEAT (date of death)
FAMC (family number in which person is a child)
FAMS (family number in which person is a spouse)
FAM (Family number identification)
MARR (Marriage information)
DATE (Various dates)
Not all these keywords are required. The INDI, NAME, FAM, FAMC and
FAMS keywords are the bread-and-butter data that make pedigrees.
Other than those tags, PEDIGREE expects the first record in the
GEDCOM file to be a level 0 record with the keyword "HEAD". It also
anticipates a last record with a keyword of "TRLR" or "EOF".
PEDIGREE "looks" at a GEDCOM file as a two part data stream
consisting of "Individual" and "Family" data. Every individual in
the file has a GEDCOM number. So does every family. The number is
assigned by the program that made the GEDCOM file, and it usually
starts with 1. That is, the first individual in the file will be
GEDCOM #1, the 2nd GEDCOM #2 and so on.
The same numbering applies to families in the GEDCOM file, i.e., the
first family is GEDCOM #1, etc. Individuals are "tied" to their
offspring and ancestral families by having the numbers of those
families included with the individual's data. That's how I can
collect all the persons for any given ancestral family.
PEDIGREE does not require that the first individual be GEDCOM #1.
Nor does it require that the first family be GEDCOM #1. In fact,
PEDIGREE doesn't care a whit what the numbers of the individuals and
families are - as long as they do have GEDCOM numbers, and the
numbering is ascending and consistent.
What does it all mean, Ken? Well, you might decide to use your
favorite text editor to edit out some of the folks in the file to
make things more manageable. That's OK. You can edit the file any
way you like. But be warned! Do not alter the GEDCOM formats or
the GEDCOM numbers or the relative position of GEDCOM records.
18
If you want to mercilessly block-delete groups of families, go right
ahead. Is that going to bother PEDIGREE? Nope. If, for example,
PEDIGREE looks for the father of an individual by trying to locate
that individual's family and it can't find the family with the
correct number, it will let you know on it's on-screen pedigree
chart display by showing "Not Available" where the name would
normally appear.
The GEDCOM standard provides for several character sets for data,
i.e. 8 bit ANSEL, ASCII (USA version) and "other" character sets for
future use. ANSEL is the "American National Standard for Extended
Latin Alphabet Code Character Set for Bibliographic Use", and it's
the default character set of GEDCOM. It is the only character set
that will handle a wide variety of diacritics and special characters
for Romanized languages. ANSEL preserves the full integrity of
original Roman-alphabetic languages, including diacritics and
special characters.
PEDIGREE employs the USA Character Set and The Epson Extended
Graphics character table. That includes many of the diacritical
characters so you can use them freely within the ASCII data. You
do, however, have access, via a parameter, to any one of 13 built-in
foreign language character sets if your GEDCOM employs those codes.
These character sets are built into the printer - not the PEDIGREE
software.
19
Just to reinforce how the GEDCOM numbering scheme works, consider
the following diagram.
Individual #34:---> Ancestral Family #5
│
│
┌─────────────────────────────────────┘
Family #5:----> Father #23; Mother #24
│
│
┌──────────────FATHER─────────────────┤
│
Individual #23:---> Ancestral Fam #8 │
Father's family │
│
┌──────────────MOTHER─────────────────┘
Individual #24:---> Ancestral Fam #12
Mother's family
B. Names
Names in GEDCOM can be very long. They often include titles, middle
names, personal names and so forth. How names are processed by
PEDIGREE when preparing charts and displays is described in the
following section.
PEDIGREE has room on the printed chart for 29 characters. The
display screen, however, has room for only 23 characters due to the
amount of display space consumed by the GEDCOM number, birth and
death dates, etc. PEDIGREE always attempts to reduce a name to 29
characters. The display will show the first 23 characters of the
name. If the name exceeds 23 characters, the display will appear to
be missing a few characters on the right of the name. They're
there, and they will be printed, but PEDIGREE can't display them.
PEDIGREE attempts to build a name in the format "LAST NAME, ALL
FIRST NAMES". If that wont fit within the space allocated to a
chart box, PEDIGREE attempts to build a name in the form "LAST NAME,
FIRST NAME MIDDLE NAME" by removing all but the first two "FIRST
NAMES". The "MIDDLE NAME" is assumed to be the second name in the
series of given names. If that wont fit, PEDIGREE tries "LAST NAME,
FIRST NAME, MIDDLE NAME INIT". If that wont fit, PEDIGREE removes
the middle name initial to build the field "LAST NAME, FIRST NAME".
If that can't be contained within a chart box, PEDIGREE will resort
to "LAST NAME, FIRST-NAME-INITIAL". If that can't be contained (one
heck of a last name!), PEDIGREE truncates the last name to fit.
Throughout this name-building process, PEDIGREE retains 25
characters of the first name field from the GEDCOM data. PEDIGREE
always attempts to keep full names before it resorts to initials.
It's possible albeit unlikely that the GEDCOM data contains a first
name field longer than 25 characters, but PEDIGREE will accept only
20
the first 25. If your GEDCOM data has such "first names" it may be
due to your use of that field for other than first names.
C. Dates
PEDIGREE has several routines designed to "clean up" GEDCOM data to
make it as presentable as possible. PEDIGREE removes all leading
and trailing spaces and any consecutive spaces from every GEDCOM
data element. For example, if the GEDCOM date string " ABT 1654
" is input, PEDIGREE will reduce it to "ABT 1654".
If PEDIGREE senses a date in the format YYYYMMDD, it will convert it
to MMM DD YYYY. For example, "18320423" will display and print as
"Apr 23 1832". The next sections explain specifics about date
processing.
1. GEDCOM 4.0 Dates
The 4.0 GEDCOM standard distinguishes between regular and
irregular dates. Regular dates are defined to be bona fide dates
from the conventional Gregorian calendar. The following are
correctly formatted regular dates:
29 FEB 1960 10 JAN 1802 JUN 1714
1932 7 DEC 1942
Notice that a regular date may have a day and a month, but it
will always have a year. If a day and/or month are present, they
are presented in the same order all the time, i.e. day followed
by month followed by year. The month is always the 3-character
abbreviation for the name of the month.
GEDCOM also permits the use of irregular dates which differ in
form and/or content from the regular dates. Examples of
irregular dates are:
MDCCCXV
Abt. 1850
5 June (year missing)
7-12-84
Before 3 Mar 1913
PEDIGREE does not process irregular dates when calculating age at
death or at any other time. An irregular date will be display
"as-is", but PEDIGREE will make no attempt to "clean up" or
standardize irregular dates.
2. PAF Dates
Dates are either standard or "dual year". In addition, an ABOUT,
BEFORE or AFTER designation may be appended to a formatted date.
In some cases a special code word may be put into a date field in
place of an actual date.
Standard dates are recorded as YYYYMMDD where YYYY is the year,
21
MM is the month and DD is the day of the month. Years prior to
1000 AD (A.C.E.) and days less than 10 must include a leading
zero. Dates prior to 0 AD cannot be recorded with this format.
If parts of the date are unknown, the unknown portions are
indicated with zeroes.
Examples of standard dates are:
19830416 18450500 (day is unknown)
17140000 (month and day are unknown)
ABOUT, BEFORE and AFTER dates are indicated by appending an "A",
"B" or "F" respectively. E.G. 19380700A
3. Date Processing
For regular dates, PEDIGREE attempts to convert both GEDCOM 4.0
and PAF forms of dates to an internal form. PEDIGREE will remove
extra spaces and otherwise "clean up" a date. PEDIGREE needs a
standard internal form in order to calculate the age at death if
you elect that option.
For the age-at-death option, valid dates must fall between
1/1/1600 and 12/31/3999. PEDIGREE's internal date calculations
are done using a date form called "Julian". The term "Julian
date" means different things to different people. Among
astronomers and historians, it has a very precise and technical
meaning. At the present, PEDIGREE does not work with "true"
Julian dates. A much broader definition is used for internal
calculation with PEDIGREE which infers that a Julian date is "a
date stored as an integer value representing the serial number of
days from 1/1/1600".
The age at death is printed on the pedigree chart to the right of
the birth/death dates between parenthesis, e.g. "(74)".
As noted, a regular date may have only a year (or only a month
and year). If either the day of the month or the month are
absent, PEDIGREE replaces them with "01" and "JAN" respectively.
This is done only for age-at-death calculations. Therefore, a
birth date of "1782" will be assumed to be "1 JAN 1782" for the
purposes of calculating the age at death. A date of "ROUGHLY
1875" will be assumed to be "1 JAN 1875".
PEDIGREE can process all PAF-type forms of standard dates except
dual-year. As per irregular dates in the GEDCOM 4.0 standard,
PAF permits many forms of irregular dates none of which receive
any special attention from PEDIGREE.
4. Age Processing
PEDIGREE calculates ages for several reasons. Ages are the
crucial component of a CVector. Age of a person at death is
calculated for display and printing. Ages of parents are
calculated for audit purposes. In every instance the age can
22
range from 0 to 128 due to the way PEDIGREE does the calculation.
128 is the maximum age PEDIGREE can deal with under it's present
architecture.
Age calculations do not always require a complete month, day and
year. Read the references to "age at death", "CVectors", and
"audits" for detailed information on how an age is calculated and
used for each of those purposes.
Ages in a CVector, for example, are always positive values
although bad genealogical links could produce a negative result.
CVector audits on ages of ancestors are calculated to the nearest
year. Ages of parents at the time of birth of a child are
calculated using only the YEAR parts of the two birth dates. Age
at death uses all the date information if it's available, but, if
it's not, PEDIGREE uses whatever is available.
VI. USING "PEDIGREE"
A. Limitations
The unregistered version of PEDIGREE is limited to 400 persons and
100 families from your GEDCOM input. If your GEDCOM input exceeds
those limits, PEDIGREE will display an appropriate error message and
keep going. In other words, if you tell the unregistered version to
read a GEDCOM file with 550 persons, PEDIGREE will accept the first
400, display an error message that you've exceeded the limit, and
then ignore all remaining persons in the input file. But it keeps
on chugging so you can use whatever was loaded.
The registered version permits more than 10 times that number for
families and persons, and, generally, is limited only by the amount
of memory it can use. That works out to roughly 5000 persons and
1800 families within one GEDCOM file on a 640K computer with most of
the memory available.
B. Optimizing Speed
1. Execution Speed
You can improve PEDIGREE's execution time by allowing it to write
it's work files to a fast device. To do this, you create an
environment variable named either TEMP or TMP whose value points
to an area where PEDIGREE can write/read. Creating an
environment variable is usually done in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file,
but you can also do it from the DOS command prompt. You do it
with the DOS command "SET" as follows:
SET TEMP=K:
That creates an environment variable (think of it as just a name)
and assigns to it whatever comes after the "=". In the above
example, if PEDIGREE asks DOS "is there an environment variable
named 'TEMP'?", DOS replies, "Yes, and it's value is 'K:'." You
can enter anything you like after the "=". "K:" was just an
23
example and probably won't work on your system. Whatever you put
there, it must be a valid DOS path for your system.
There's nothing special about the name TEMP, but it's often used
by software to designate temporary workspace. If you expect to
improve PEDIGREE's performance, PEDIGREE will ignore even your
TEMP environment variable unless the area to which it "points"
meets specific requirements. Those requirements are:
a. It must be an acceptable path name. That is, it can be a
drive letter or a drive letter with a subdirectory
attached.
b. It must NOT end with "\" unless it's only a drive letter.
c. It must point to either a hard disk, a Bernoulli drive or a
Ramdisk.
d. There must be at least 800 KB of space available on the
drive.
If all of those conditions are met for either a TEMP or a TMP
variable, PEDIGREE will use that place for work files.
Why should you do this? Ideally, you'll set TEMP or TMP to a
Ramdisk. A Ramdisk appears to PEDIGREE to be a disk drive, but
it's actually main memory and, as such, a great deal faster than
a mechanical disk drive. And that's where the performance
improvement is found. Consult your DOS manual for how to create
a Ramdisk. If you can't find out, ask me. Following are some
examples of a SET command and an indication of their
acceptability to PEDIGREE.
SET TEMP=A: Wrong - floppies are not allowed.
SET TEMP=C:\WPR OK assuming subdirectory WPR exists on drive C:
SET TEMP=D:\ OK if D: is a valid drive
SET TMP=D:\TEMP\ Wrong due to trailing back slash.
SET WORK=C: Wrong - PEDIGREE doesn't look for "WORK"
PEDIGREE will first look for TEMP. If TEMP is not available or
fails the requirements test, PEDIGREE tries TMP. If neither is
available, PEDIGREE uses whatever disk drive\path in which it's
installed. If you already are using the name TEMP, but it is
equated to anything other than what PEDIGREE expects, don't worry
- PEDIGREE will ignore it.
2. Printing Speed
If you're going to let PEDIGREE create and print a chart, the
fastest printing is done with Bidirectional printing and no
Double Strike and no special fonts. Even faster than that is one
of the PREPRINT chart modes. In PREPRINT, PEDIGREE avoids two
time-consuming operations, i.e., constructing a graphic chart
image, and sending it to the printer. If you're dissatisfied
with the speed of printing charts, consider making a "master"
chart using PEDIGREE in the BLANK chart mode. You can use pen
and ink or felt-tip pen to mark the master chart by filling in
and darkening any light areas or even by adding your own
24
graphics. Then, use a copier machine to reproduce your master.
A second suggestion is to use the PREPRINT mode as a "draft"
printing just to see what data shows in the pedigree. That's
very fast. Then, when you're satisfied that the pedigree
contains the data you like, rerun PEDIGREE in a STANDARD mode to
make the full chart.
C. Starting The Program
Assuming you installed PEDIGREE on your "C:" hard disk in the path
"\PEDIGREE", PEDIGREE is started by doing the following:
1. From the DOS prompt make the drive where you installed
PEDIGREE the active drive.
2. Next, make the subdirectory in which you installed PEDIGREE
the active one by entering a "CHANGE DIRECTORY" command.
3. Start PEDIGREE
Here's an example of the DOS commands:
C:
CD \PEDIGREE
PEDIGREE
If you're using a menu system, you can create an entry in it to
automatically run the PEDIGREE.BAT file. Keep in mind PEDIGREE's
need for, and use of, main memory especially for large GEDCOM file
populations. Some menu systems leave a small portion of themselves
in main memory. That memory reduces the amount of memory available
to applications such as PEDIGREE. If you're running PEDIGREE as a
DOS application under Windows 3.x don't worry. Windows, DESQview,
et al, have their own memory managers.
D. The First Execution
You'll need a GEDCOM file. Find one on your hard disk or on a
floppy. If you don't have one, use your genealogical database
program to make one. Write down it's complete disk\path\filename,
and then start PEDIGREE. The first screen you'll see is the
"banner" screen which identifies PEDIGREE by name and version
number. After 5 seconds it goes away or you can hit <Space> or any
other key to stop it.
Next, PEDIGREE displays it's parameter selection screen. For the
first parameter, select "STANDARD4" by moving the highlight bar over
it and pressing <Enter>. The cursor automatically moves to the next
field. Press <F1> to get help. PEDIGREE "explodes" a window with
information about the Chart Border Styles. Use <PgDn> and <PgUp> or
the cursor control arrow keys to scroll through the help. When
you're finished, press <Esc>, and the help window is removed. For
the border, select anything other than "NONE", and for the box style
select "PLBOTH".
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The cursor is now in the GEDCOM file name field. Enter the complete
disk\path\filename of your GEDCOM file. PEDIGREE automatically
converts lower case to upper case so you don't need to use <CAPS
LOCK> or <SHIFT>. After you've entered the full path name, press
the <Enter> key. PEDIGREE will make sure that the file path is
correct and that the file is indeed a GEDCOM. Lastly, key in <Ctrl
Enter> to accept all parameter screen data.
PEDIGREE will now use the border and box specifications you entered
to construct the complete chart design. As it does this, it
displays progress bars.
After constructing the graphic chart image, PEDIGREE proceeds to the
loading of the GEDCOM data. While reading your GEDCOM file,
PEDIGREE displays counters for the number of families and persons it
recognizes. It also displays a running count of the number of total
GEDCOM records.
After loading, you'll see a window with a list of the names and
dates accepted from the GEDCOM file. This is the "Starting Person
Selection" picklist. Press <F1>. PEDIGREE explodes another help
window explaining what keys can be used for the Starting Person
Selection screen. After reading all the help text, the help window
is removed.
Press the <F6> key. You'll see that the entire list has been
rearranged from ascending GEDCOM number sequence to ascending name
sequence. Press <F5>, and the list is returned to GEDCOM number
sequence.
Use the up and down arrow keys and the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys to
scroll through the list. When the highlight bar is over a person
who has a father and mother number, press <Enter>. By so doing,
you've registered your selection for the starting person of a
pedigree.
The pedigree of that person will be displayed. Press <F1> again,
and another help window pops up, this time with key explanations
about the pedigree display. Press <Esc> when you're ready to close
the help window. Use the <F> key (upper or lower case is OK) to
scroll the PEDIGREE to the father, the <C> key to scroll back to his
child and then the <M> key to scroll to the mother. See how the
entire pedigree changes? If you attempt to scroll the pedigree to a
person with no ancestors, PEDIGREE will "beep".
You now have a choice. If you press "P" (print), PEDIGREE prints a
4 generation chart in the design you chose using the starting person
you selected. If you press <F10>, PEDIGREE exits the on-screen
pedigree and returns the display to the window with the list of
names. Let's do that. But before you do, scroll the pedigree back
to the father of the person you originally selected. OK, now press
<F10>.
Notice that the highlight cursor bar is now resting on whatever
person was selected as the central person of the pedigree when you
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exited the pedigree display. In this case, it's the father. In
other words, the picklist of persons and the scrolling pedigree can
interact one with another.
Now press <Space>. You'll see a check mark appear to the left of
the person under the highlight cursor bar. You've just "marked" a
person. Move the highlight cursor bar to another person and press
<Space> again. That person is also now "Marked". Key in <Ctrl
Enter>. All the check marks disappear.
Move the highlight cursor bar to the beginning of the list by
pressing <Home>. Key in <Ctrl K><B>. That marks the start of a
block although you won't see anything yet. Now move the highlight
cursor bar down a few names and enter <Ctrl K><E>. All of the names
between the first name you marked and the last will be "checked",
i.e. you marked a block of names. The purpose of "marking" is to
allow a column-style report to be printed with just those names you
select. You can try that later. Enter <Ctrl Enter> to remove the
check marks.
Key in the first letter of the last name of someone in the list
south of the highlight bar. PEDIGREE starts a search and, when it
finds that person, stops with the highlight bar over that person.
Keying another key continues the search, but this time PEDIGREE
examines the second letter in the last name. So, you can move
through a list of any size by using the cursor control keys or by
searching.
OK, return to the start of the list with <Home>. Look down the
right of the screen where the GEDCOM numbers of the Fathers and
Mothers of persons are listed. Find a person with a Father's GEDCOM
number. Using the highlight bar cursor control keys, move the
highlight bar to that person, and press <Alt F>. The display has
now changed so that the highlight bar is on the Father. So you can
move around the list as easily as you can the pedigree.
Press <Esc>, and PEDIGREE returns to the original parameter
selection screen. Press <Esc> again, and PEDIGREE execution ends.
E. Choosing 4 or 5 Generation Charts
1. Why Choose 4 Generation Charts?
4 generation charts allow use of options not available with a 5
generation chart. First, a 4 generation chart can use the
customized fonts feature. The "Customized Fonts" feature is not
available with the 5 generation chart other than for the
"Prepared For:" data. This is due mostly to the very tight
printing requirements of a 5 generation chart. A 5 generation
chart uses pitch 15 Roman print characters. That could be too
small a print font to easily read. If you need the larger
lettering, select a 4 generation chart. Also, 4 generation
charts have larger boxes and bolder lines and, as such, may be
easier to read.
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To summarize, use 4 generation charts if:
a. You don't have a 5th generation to print
b. You don't want the recipient to see the 5th generation
c. You want the larger type styles
d. You want to use a custom print font
2. Why Choose 5 Generation Charts?
Obviously, the 5 generation chart displays twice as many persons
as the 4 generation chart. There's room for 31 people on the 5
generation chart versus 15 people on the 4 generation chart.
This feature will be sufficiently important for most people to
opt for the 5 generation chart.
As noted above, however, you give up the ability to control the
size and style of print characters. A 5 generation chart uses
only the printer's built-in pitch 15 Roman characters. You still
have control over the capitalization of the lettering and the use
of international fonts, however.
F. Screen Displays
1. Banner
The first display you'll see is the PEDIGREE banner screen. It
identifies the program by name and version. If you have the
registered version, you'll see your name at the bottom of the
screen. If you have the unregistered version, you'll see
"Unregistered Version." The screen will display for 5 seconds.
You can end the display sooner by pressing any key.
2. Parameters
PEDIGREE displays a screen containing the parameter window with a
two-part help window at screen bottom. The help at the screen
bottom is divided into two sections by a horizontal line. The
top section is used for error messages and prompts related to
parameters which you enter. The bottom section displays keyboard
key meanings used within the parameter window.
At any time while the parameter screen is displayed you can press
the <F1> key for help. If you do, PEDIGREE displays an
"exploding" window with help on the field in which the cursor
rests (context sensitive help). Often the help text is longer
than can be contained within the help window. If so, PEDIGREE
will display either or both of "Up" or "Down" to indicate there's
more help in that direction. Use the "Page" or arrow keys to
scroll the help text. Pressing <Esc> closes the help window.
Moving amongst the fields is done with the <Tab> key to move
forward or <Shift Tab> to move backwards. As the cursor enters a
field, the field name color intensifies from light gray to bright
white. This is visual confirmation of which field is the active
field. Using the <Enter> key registers your selection for a
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particular field and moves the cursor to the next field. Using
<Enter> on the last field on the screen has that same effect,
i.e. the cursor returns to the first field. You must use <Ctrl
Enter> when you've completed all the parameters.
As you move through the fields you may find that PEDIGREE
prohibits cursor movement into one or more fields. Based on
entries you make, PEDIGREE can determine some later fields should
not be changed or have no meaning. For example, if you select a
PREPRINT chart type, PEDIGREE skips the cursor over the chart
border and box fields. For a PREPRINT chart PEDIGREE does not
create the chart design. If you elect a BLANK chart, PEDIGREE
will allow changes to only the border and box parameters. Most
decisions to prevent/permit field changes are based on the chart
type.
PEDIGREE will save all your parameters in a disk file. The name
of the file is "PEDIGREE.PRM". The file is not supplied with the
distribution file, but PEDIGREE creates it during the first time
it's run. Those parameters are used as the defaults for the next
execution. When you execute PEDIGREE the next time, the
parameters will be set to whatever they were during PEDIGREE's
last execution.
PEDIGREE uses context-sensitive help for the parameter data entry
screen. Pressing <F1> at any time will pop-up a window with help
information for the field in which the cursor rests. Press <Esc>
to close the help window.
If, while entering any parameter or when you <Ctrl Enter>,
PEDIGREE dislikes your selections, it will object by beeping and
displaying an appropriate error message. PEDIGREE will not
continue until it's satisfied with all parameters.
Pressing <Esc> while the parameter entry screen is displayed will
stop PEDIGREE, and the system will return to the DOS prompt.
The parameter window has fields for the following parameters:
a. Chart Type
The choices are "STANDARD4", "BLANK4", "PREPRINT4",
"STANDARD5", "BLANK5" and "PREPRINT5". You scroll through the
choices by using the "+", "-" or <Space> keys. Obviously, the
selections with "4" are 4 generation and those with 5 are 5
generation. "STANDARD" is the default mode of PEDIGREE. In
this mode PEDIGREE will print a pedigree chart using GEDCOM
data which you select. It will merge the pedigree's person
data with the graphic chart image. You also use STANDARD mode
if you're using PEDIGREE as a GEDCOM viewer (printing is not
mandatory).
"BLANK" means no GEDCOM input; just print a blank chart.
PEDIGREE will simply print whatever chart style you choose
with no person data on the chart.
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"PREPRINT" means that you're going to manually insert into the
printer a preprinted chart design. The Epson 850/950/1050
printers (as well as most compatible) have a single sheet feed
option. In the PREPRINT mode PEDIGREE will send only the
pedigree's person data and not the graphic chart image. This
option is useful for using charts which you've manually
enhanced using a copier or pen-and-ink. In the PREPRINT mode,
PEDIGREE will provide appropriate paper-load messages and
warnings.
One caveat using the PREPRINT mode - the single sheet must be
inserted into the printer's feed path precisely. If you
misalign the paper even slightly, PEDIGREE's resultant chart
will not please you. For this reason use PREPRINT with
caution and only after you've experimented with it and your
printer.
When the cursor moves into this field, a picklist of choices
is automatically displayed. Move the highlight bar over your
choice, and press <Enter> to register it.
NOTE: If you select one of the PREPRINT chart types, PEDIGREE
will automatically skip the cursor over the Chart Border Style
and Chart Box Style fields. Those two fields have no effect
on PEDIGREE's processing if you're using a preprinted chart.
b. Chart Border
As noted, there are many chart styles available when printing
a 4 generation chart. This parameter provides selection of 1
of 7 possible chart borders. Scroll through the picklist of
choices using the arrow keys. Use the single page
illustration of PEDIGREE's borders and box to help you select
which border you like.
"-NONE-" cause PEDIGREE to print a chart with no border around
the perimeter of the page.
When the cursor moves into this field, a picklist of choices
is automatically displayed. Move the highlight bar over your
choice, and press <Enter> to register it.
NOTE: If you selected one of the PREPRINT types, PEDIGREE will
automatically skip the cursor over this field. This parameter
has no effect on PEDIGREE's processing if you're using a
preprinted chart.
c. Chart Box
PEDIGREE allows you to select from a list of 5 box styles.
Basically, you choose between plain boxes and plaque style
boxes, and you can select whether or not shadowing is used.
Use the examples on the single page illustration you printed
earlier to help you select which box style you like.
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When the cursor moves into this field, a picklist of choices
is automatically displayed. Move the highlight bar over your
choice, and press <Enter> to register it.
NOTE: If you selected one of the PREPRINT chart types,
PEDIGREE will automatically skip the cursor over this field.
This parameter has no effect on PEDIGREE's processing if
you're using a preprinted chart.
d. Title?
This parameter is the control over whether or not you want the
stylized title "PEDIGREE" printed on the chart. On most
charts the word "PEDIGREE" is printed in the center of the top
border. The font used for printing the title varies from
border to border. The sample printout shows the varietes of
fonts used for the chart title.
This is a "Yes/No" field in which you enter the single
character "Y" or "N". If you enter "N", PEDIGREE suppresses
the title and prints an unbroken top border. If you enter "Y"
(the default), PEDIGREE will print the stylized title
"PEDIGREE" on the chart.
This parameter is effective only if you select some style of
border for the chart, i.e., if you select NO border ("-NONE-
"), PEDIGREE ignores this parameter.
e. GEDCOM File
Type in the full drive\path\filename of the GEDCOM file. If
you've selected the chart print mode "BLANK", leave this field
empty. PEDIGREE forces all characters in the GEDCOM file name
to upper case.
If you've already run PEDIGREE at least once, PEDIGREE
displays the file path you previously entered. The field
contents can be overwritten or edited. If you enter any ASCII
character in position 1, PEDIGREE assumes you're replacing the
entire path and it will automatically erase the field contents
to accept the new path name value.
If you've selected a Chart Mode other than BLANK, this field
is required. If you've selected a BLANK Chart Mode, this
field must be left empty.
f. Prepared For:
You can enter anything you like. Whatever you enter here will
be printed on the pedigree chart alongside the words "Prepared
For:". You can create charts for relatives and enter the name
of the relative in this field. PEDIGREE automatically
capitalizes the first letter of each word. If you type in
"ken murphy", PEDIGREE changes it to "Ken Murphy".
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If you must have a lower case letter starting a word as in the
second word of "Grandmom and Grandpop", type in "Grandmomand
Grandpop". Next, use the cursor arrow key to move the cursor
back under the "a". Then, press the <Space> bar to insert a
space in front of the "and". PEDIGREE will leave the "a" in
lower case.
The name (or whatever you entered) will be printed using
whatever font or international character set you've selected.
If you've run PEDIGREE at least once before, it displays the
previous value of any personalized name you entered. You can
accept or edit this value. If you type in any ASCII character
in position 1 of the field, PEDIGREE assumes you're replacing
the entire field contents, and it will automatically erase the
old field contents.
g. Display Mode
VGA display adapters can display 50 lines of text on one
screen. EGA display adapters can display up to 43 lines of
text. CGA color display adapters are limited to 25 lines of
text.
PEDIGREE permits selecting the number of display lines
irregardless of your display adapter type. I.e., if you have
a VGA display, you can run PEDIGREE in the 25-line display
mode, the 43-line display mode or the 50-line display mode.
This setting effects only the Starting Person selection
screen. Displaying 50 lines at one time on a VGA means that
the Starting Person selection window can show you many more
persons at one time than on a 25-line display. But (and it's
a big "but"), the 50 line display can be harder to read
because all the text is smaller.
With this parameter you can pick the display size you prefer.
You cannot, of course, select 43 or 50 line display for a CGA
monitor nor can you select a 50 line display for an EGA
monitor.
The parameter accepts one of the values CGA, EGA or VGA. To
change the value use the <Space> bar. Register your selection
with the <Enter> key.
h. Double Strike?
The Double Strike option gives you control over one of two
aspects of printing which effects both print quality and print
speed. Double Strike controls whether or not PEDIGREE uses
emphasized printing.
Emphasized printing is a technique which prints the same data
twice to emphasize (or make bold) the printing. The second
pass at printing is done with the paper moved vertically
1/180th of an inch. Emphasized printing, although taking
32
twice as long as non-emphasized printing, can produce a
substantial improvement in the appearance of a chart. This is
especially true if your ribbon is not in the best shape or if
your printer is showing signs of age in head positioning.
Emphasized printing will affect all printing both graphics and
text. Emphasized printing is a useful option if you intend to
make a "boilerplate" prototype chart to be reproduced on a
copier.
Double Strike printing is enabled by typing a "Y" in this
parameter. The default is "N".
i. Unidirectional?
Unidirectional printing improves the printer's ability to
position the print head. Unidirectional printing always
starts the print head from the left edge of the paper.
Bidirectional printing prints both left-to-right and right-to-
left. Bidirectional printing is faster than unidirectional
printing because the printer does not need to return the print
head to the left. Unidirectional printing, on the other hand,
can produce a higher quality appearing output since the print
head positioning is more precise.
Unidirectional printing is enabled by typing a "Y" in this
parameter. The default is bidirectional printing.
Selection of either Emphasized or Unidirectional printing
should be made based on the condition of your printer ribbon,
the general condition of your printer, and your need for
highest quality output. You should experiment with your
printer to determine which quality mode produces the output
that pleases you.
If bidirectional printing produces a good looking chart, use
it. It will certainly be faster than unidirectional printing.
The same is true for emphasized printing, i.e. if you're
satisfied with non-emphasized chart printing, there's no point
to wasting the extra time for an emphasized chart. In any
case, you have complete control of the quality vs. speed
tradeoff.
j. Print Age At Death?
This "yes/no" option accepts the single character "Y" or "N".
"Yes" will enable PEDIGREE's calculation of the age at death
of each person. That age will be displayed on the Starting
Person Selection screen along with birth/death dates. It will
also be printed on the pedigree chart.
A prerequisite to the ability to calculate the age-at-death in
years is both a birth date and a death date in regular form as
described earlier. Any deviation from a regular date in
either birth or death will result in no age-at-death display.
33
Note: PEDIGREE will always calculate (if possible) the age at
death and display it on the Starting Person Selection screen.
This option is used only to control whether or not it's
printed on the pedigree chart.
k. Print Marriage Date?
This option is another "yes/no" field which will accept the
single character "Y" or "N". "YES" will enable the printing
of the year of marriage of parents of each sibling on the
chart. The marriage year of parents is printed immediately to
the right of the appropriate sibling's box. It takes the form
"M: yyyy" where "yyyy" is the four digit year.
l. Printer Font
When you move the cursor into this field, another picklist
window opens with the names of all printer fonts available.
Highlight the font you want by moving the cursor bar with the
up and down arrow < > and < > keys. Register your selection
by pressing <Enter>. To use no special fonts, select the
first entry "PRINTER1". "PRINTER1" is the default printer
hardware font. In this mode PEDIGREE will use the letter
quality Roman typeface at pitch 12.
Both the first and second fonts in the list are hardware
fonts. Even though their names are "PRINTER1" and "PRINTER2",
your particular printer may use other typefaces as it's
internal hardware fonts. Read the section on Epson
Compatibility for more information. It's important to note
that those first two selections are HARDWARE fonts and all the
other are CUSTOM fonts.
Custom Fonts are:
BOLDTYPE EMERALD
CROWN ROMAN
GOTHIC OPAL
PEARL FRANKFUR
RUBY SAPPHIRE
The names of these fonts are probably meaningless to you. Use
the test program supplied with PEDIGREE to print them. That's
the surest way to see how they'll look on your printer.
Note: Use of an international character set and a special font
is mutually exclusive. If you select a special font (your
selection is not "ROMAN" or "SANSERIF", you can not use a
built-in international character set. Also, you can not use
one of the alternate fonts if you're printing a 5 generation
pedigree chart. The alternate fonts are all "pitch 12" size
fonts, and they won't fit onto the 5 generation chart.
PEDIGREE will allow you to select a font for a 5 generation
chart, but it will use it only for the "Prepared For:" data.
34
Special fonts are not merely "icing on the cake". They're an
integral part of producing a pleasing pedigree chart. I, for
example, almost always use the PEARL font for my charts
because I find it prints bolder on my Epson, and it's more
attractive than the rather plain Roman font. I think you'll
find among the custom fonts one that pleases you more for
pedigree chart printing than the default Roman font.
m. Printer Character Set:
The Epson LQ 850/950/1050 printers have built-in international
alphabet capabilities. There are 14 built-in sets of special
characters used in various alphabets. These special character
sets control the symbols used to print 12 ASCII codes. Those
codes (in hexadecimal) are: 23, 24, 40, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E, 60,
7B, 7C, 7D and 7E.
PEDIGREE allows selection of 13 of the printer's built-in
sets. The possible values for this parameter are: USA,
FRANCE, GERMANY, ENGLAND, DENMARK1, DENMARK2, SWEDEN, ITALY,
SPAIN1, SPAIN2, JAPAN, NORWAY and LATINO.
When the cursor moves into the "Character Set" field, a
picklist of the character set names opens. Use the arrow keys
to move the highlight bar to the character set you want, and
press <Enter> to register your choice. "USA" is the first in
the list, and it's the default.
Note: Use of a character set and a special font is mutually
exclusive. If you select a special font (your selection is
other than "-NONE-") you can not use a built-in Character Set.
To use one of the 13 built-in character sets, select font
"-NONE-".
See the section "Epson Character Sets" for a detailed
explanation of the 13 character sets. Be aware that these
character sets are built into the printer and not into the
PEDIGREE software. PEDIGREE merely provides a way to activate
one of the set. If you're using a non-Epson printer, your
printer may not have these character sets. Consult your
printer manual if you intend to use this feature.
Use of an alternate character set applies to both the
"standard" report made from the Starting Person picklist and
to the pedigree chart.
n. Character Style
The printer is capable of some special effects for the
characters in it's built-in fonts. Although the usefulness of
these ornamental characters is questionable for pedigree
charts, you have access to them through this parameter.
There are four choices of ornamentation, and they apply ONLY
to the PRINTER1 and PRINTER2 fonts. They are:
35
(1) NORMAL - Print all characters with no special
effects. This is the default.
(2) OUTLINED - Print characters in whitespace with an
outline.
(3) SHADOW - Print characters with a slight shadow at the
bottom.
(4) BOTH - Print characters with both an outline and a
shadow.
The TSTFONTS procedure that tests your printer for
compatibility exercises all four of these options using the
PRINTER1 font. Refer to that for illustration of how these
special effects look. The ornamentation applys to both the
4 generation and 5 generation charts.
o. Force Upper Case Printing?
This field accepts only "Y" or "N". "Y" means to force all
names and dates displayed or printed into upper case. "N"
means leave them as input in the GEDCOM data. The default is
"N".
p. Enable Audits?
This "yes/no" field gives you control over whether or not you
want PEDIGREE to any audits to the GEDCOM data. If you enable
audits, PEDIGREE will check the data of every parent for
reasonableness. With audits enabled, it also constructs a
CVector. Enable the test by entering a "Y" causes PEDIGREE to
display a second screen showing all the current age limit
defaults for CVectors, and it allows you to change them. See
the following section for details on this screen. The Audit
Specification screen is displayed at the time you tell
PEDIGREE you're finished with the Parameter screen, i.e. <Ctrl
Enter>.
This field can also enable audit tests for the sex of parents.
If audits are enabled, PEDIGREE will check that all fathers
are marked as males and all mother are marked as females.
PEDIGREE will also check that a parent did not die too soon
before the birth of a child for that person to be the "real"
parent.
The default for audits is always "N". Disabling audits can
improve the execution speed of PEDIGREE on slower machines.
And there's no point in wasting the time to perform audits if
you don't need them.
3. Audit Specifications
PEDIGREE has limited ability to audit your GEDCOM data for
correct links between persons. Since PEDIGREE constructs
CVectors for one of it's Starting Person Selection picklist
sorts, it can apply minimum and maximum age tests to both parents
and both sets of grandparents. The default for the age audits is
36
"disabled". You have the ability to enable age audits
individually for either the female ancestors or the male
ancestors or both. The data entry screen "Audit Specifications"
is where you specify your own minimum and maximum age limits
over-riding PEDIGREE's defaults, and it's where you enable or
disable the tests.
Here are the specific age boundaries you can specify:
a. Minimum age a male can be a Father 10
b. Minimum age a female can be a Mother 10
c. Minimum age a male can be a GrandFather 20
d. Minimum age a female can be a GrandMother 20
e. Maximum age a male can be a Father 80
f. Maximum age a female can be a Mother 60
g. Maximum age a male can be a GrandFather 120
h. Maximum age a female can be a GrandMother 110
The numbers are the defaults PEDIGREE applies if you enable the
age tests and don't provide your own values. PEDIGREE displays
on the "Audit Specification" screen each age boundary. You can
overtype any or all. Like all other PEDIGREE parameters, age
audit values are saved and restored during subsequent executions
of the program.
The two fields at the bottom of the screen are:
a. Enable Male Audits?
b. Enable Female Audits?
Both of these fields are simple "yes/no" fields. Simply enter a
"Y" to enable the appropriate age limit test or "N" to disable
it.
As in the first data entry screen, context-sensitive help is
always available with <F1>. If you enable either or both of the
age audits, PEDIGREE will automatically compare those ages
whenever you request a CVector sort from the Starting Person
Selection picklist. If, at that time, PEDIGREE detects an age
out of bounds, it will automatically "mark" that person so you
can examine it. Automatically marking the person also can lead
to request a printed register report which will contain just the
marked persons with the age errors. See the sections on the
Starting Person Selection screen and CVectors.
4. Chart Construction
If you've elected any option which requires the printing of one
of PEDIGREE's custom charts, it will display a screen showing the
progress of creating that chart design. Any border design or box
style which you selected will be decompressed (the files are
compacted to conserve disk space) and combined to make the final
printer chart design. Depending on the chart styles selected,
you may not see this screen. PEDIGREE only displays the screen
when it must dynamically construct a pedigree chart layout.
37
If PEDIGREE determines the chart design you've requested is the
same as the previous, and that design still exists on the disk
from a previous construction, PEDIGREE won't bother to
reconstruct it to save time. In that case you won't see the
Chart Construction display. Whenever PEDIGREE starts or when it
terminates, all temporary files are deleted including the result
of constructing your specific chart design.
5. GEDCOM File Loading
After the chart construction screen, PEDIGREE displays a screen
with "rolling" counters of GEDCOM records, persons, unique
surnames and families as it processes the file. This screen will
only be displayed if you've selected "STANDARD" chart mode. The
counters will give you an exact measure of what's in your GEDCOM
file insofar as number of persons, surnames and families.
PEDIGREE also displays the full path/filename. If you're
printing a blank chart then this screen is skipped.
Also, if PEDIGREE determines the GEDCOM file you're using is the
same as the previous execution, PEDIGREE won't bother to
reprocess the data thus saving the time. In that case you won't
see the GEDCOM File Loading display. Whenever PEDIGREE starts,
or when it terminates, all temporary files are deleted including
the result of processing your GEDCOM file. As long as PEDIGREE
is active, it will check whether or not you've simply changed
processing parameters or whether you've changed the GEDCOM file
name. If you terminate PEDIGREE and then restart it, the results
of GEDCOM processing will have been lost, and PEDIGREE will
repeat the processing even though you're using the same GEDCOM
file as before.
6. Starting Person Selection
The "Starting Person" as used for the purpose of this program is
that person that "starts" the pedigree, i.e., the central person
from whom ancestors are determined. On the pedigree display
you'll see the starting person at the left in the center of the
screen.
The Starting Person Selection list is also used to select those
persons you want printed on a standard listing report. The
picklist is "multiple-choice" allowing you to "mark" one or more
persons in the list for printing. Under some circumstances
described later, PEDIGREE will automatically "mark" selected
entries in the picklist. You can move around the list navigating
much the same as you would with any genealogical database. You
can, with a single keystroke, move immediately to the Father,
Mother or Spouse of an person if that data is available.
See the section "Key Commands Summary" for a complete list of
keystrokes to manage the Starting Persons Selection list.
a. The Display
38
PEDIGREE automatically determines the type of color monitor
you have and adjusts the limits of the "Starting Person
Selection" picklist accordingly. If you have a lowly CGA,
you'll get a standard 25 line display. EGA users will have a
43 line picklist and VGA users will have a 50 line picklist.
The higher level monitors allow me to display more names at
one time making it easier to move up and down a large list of
names. The Starting Person Selection list uses the parameter
selection for display type to determine how many persons can
be displayed.
Within the on-screen "Starting Person Selection" window one
line is displayed for every person in the GEDCOM file. This
display is a typical "picklist". Use the cursor keys to move
the highlight bar up and down to select the starting person
for the pedigree.
Along the right edge of the Starting Person Selection window
is a scroll bar. Scroll bars are usually intended for use
with a mouse, but PEDIGREE is rodent-free. I use the scroll
bar and it's slider to indicate the current relative position
of the cursor highlight bar within the entire list of persons.
The slider moves up and down the scroll bar as you move
through the list, i.e., if the slider is in the center of the
scroll bar, the highlight cursor bar is sitting on a person
(excuse the expression) somewhere near the middle of the file.
At the bottom of the screen is a small window. The window has
help info on the meanings of the keystrokes within this
screen. Immediately above the small help window, the surname
and it's Soundex code is displayed for whatever person is
highlighted in the picklist.
There are 6 items of data shown for every person.
(1) The GEDCOM NUMBER of the person.
(2) The NAME of the person (Last, First).
(3) The BIRTH/DEATH dates.
(4) The age at death (if good birth/death dates)
(5) The GEDCOM NUMBER of the Father.
(6) The GEDCOM NUMBER of the Mother.
If there is no data in any one of the 5 fields, then that data
wasn't present in the GEDCOM input or PEDIGREE rejected it.
For example, there might not be a Father/Mother number. It
would be pointless to attempt a pedigree on that person.
If audits are enabled, PEDIGREE checks the sex of the father
and mother of every person. If the father is not explicitly
designated as a "male" in the GEDCOM data, the father's GEDCOM
number is displayed in RED so you can spot it. The same is
true of the mother's data for an person. This means any
parent whose SEX has been omitted will have their GEDCOM
number highlighted in RED. Thus, the test is for both
incorrect sex specifications as well as missing ones. If
39
audits are disabled, no tests on the sex of parents is made.
If audits are enabled, PEDIGREE also calculates the difference
between the death year of a parent and the birth year of the
child. PEDIGREE flags in RED the GEDCOM number of any parent
who died 1 year or more before the child's birth. This test
helps spot links to parents who died too soon to be the "real"
parent. If PEDIGREE highlights a parental GEDCOM number
because this test failed, you should check the parent's death
date and child's birth dates closely.
NOTE: If you're running PEDIGREE on a monochrome monitor,
errors are indicated by high intensity white GEDCOM numbers
rather than red.
PEDIGREE also displays the Soundex code for the surname of
whichever person is highlighted by the cursor bar. The
Soundex code is displayed in immediately below the picklist
window.
If you've sorted the picklist by CVector, item (3) will be
replaced by the value of the CVector. See the section below
explaining the use of CVectors. The seven subfields of the
CVector are separated one from another by a forward slash,
e.g. "/". Left-to-right the subfields are:
(a) Year the person was born
(b) Age of the Father at (a)
(c) Age of the Mother at (a)
(d) Age of the Paternal Grandfather at (a)
(e) Age of the Paternal Grandmother at (a)
(f) Age of the Maternal Grandfather at (a)
(g) Age of the Maternal Grandmother at (a)
If you print a register report with <Alt L> when the CVectors
are displayed, they'll print (and can be read) exactly as
detailed above. Every CVector has seven values. As explained
later in the section on CVectors, the ages expressed in the
CVector are always absolute values. There are never negative
ages even though bad genealogical data could produce them.
NOTE: PEDIGREE can display only 23 characters for the person's
name. The pedigree chart, however, will print up to 29
characters within a box. If the name of the person is longer
than 23 characters, PEDIGREE truncates it to fit within the 23
character screen display field. In that case you might see a
person's middle name missing a few characters on the right.
Rest assured that PEDIGREE will print the entire name. See
the section on PEDIGREE's name processing for more
information.
b. Moving Around the List
The up and down arrow < > and < > keys move the highlight bar
through the list of persons in the appropriate directions.
40
<Home> moves to the top of the list of persons. <End> moves
to the last person in the list. <PgUp> moves one screen-full
up and <PgDn> moves one screen-full down in the list of
persons.
Move the highlight bar with the cursor keys until you've
highlighted the person you want as the pedigree's starting
person. To display the pedigree of that person on-screen,
press <Enter>. Or, if you want to exit the Starting Person
Selection screen without displaying the pedigree, press <Esc>.
You'd use <Esc> if you're using PEDIGREE as a "GEDCOM file
viewer". Pressing <Esc> will return you to the Parameter
screen to allow you to change parameters for another run.
As noted before, PEDIGREE always displays an age at death even
if you've elected to not print the age. PEDIGREE, in this one
instance, makes an attempt to use an irregular date. As long
as PEDIGREE has a valid year as the last data item in a birth
and death date, it probably will be able to calculate an age.
For example,
"1873-ROUGHLY 1886" produces the age 13
"ROUGHLY 1872-ABOUT 1909" produces the age 36
This attempt at calculation of an age at death also applies to
the printed pedigree chart. If you don't want these
approximations on the chart, don't select the option to print
ages.
c. Navigating With Family Links
You can "navigate" the Starting Person Selection list as
easily as you do the pedigree with a single keystroke.
Pressing <Alt F> moves the cursor bar to the FATHER of the
person, <Alt M> moves the cursor bar to the MOTHER, <Alt C>
moves the cursor bar back to the child, and <Alt S> moves the
cursor bar to the SPOUSE.
In order for PEDIGREE to automatically move to a parent or
spouse, there must be an appropriate GEDCOM number for that
person. If you press <Alt F> with the cursor bar over a
person that has no GEDCOM number for a Father, PEDIGREE will
not alter the position of the cursor. The picklist displays
both Father and Mother GEDCOM numbers so there's no mistaking
whether or not they're present in the data.
The picklist does not, however, display the GEDCOM number of a
spouse since there could be several. You'll have to use <Alt
S> to make the attempt to move to the spouse if that interests
you. If there isn't one, PEDIGREE won't move the cursor bar.
Since there may be many, PEDIGREE will stop with the highlight
cursor bar on the first spouse it locates.
Using <Alt C> to move back to a child presumes you've used
either <Alt F> or <Alt M> to move the cursor bar tracking the
41
genealogy back the ancestor tree. <Alt C> gives you the
ability to return the cursor bar back to a preceding child
from which you had originally moved using the navigational
commands. PEDIGREE will not arbitrarily find some child of a
Father/Mother pairing and move to that person. Moving back to
a child works exactly like it does with the on-screen
pedigree.
Remember, to use this automatic family tracking feature you
must press the <Alt> key and hold it down before pressing
either <F>, <M>, <C> or <S>. This is the only way that
PEDIGREE can distinguish between a name search using, for
example, <F> as a surname's first letter and an automatic
reposition to the Father.
d. Name Searching
PEDIGREE will search for a specific surname within the
Starting Person Selection window. To locate a specific
person, type in up to 15 characters of the last name while the
Starting Person Selection window is displayed. Whenever you
press a keyboard key that is not one of PEDIGREE's picklist
commands, PEDIGREE begins searching forward from the current
cursor position looking for a surname match. If a match
occurs, PEDIGREE places the highlight cursor over the matching
picklist entry. If you then press another non-command key,
PEDIGREE appends the new keystoke character to the previous
and continues the search. The search mode terminates if you
press a picklist command key or if the search fails.
For example, if you press the "M" key, PEDIGREE will move
forward in the list stopping at the first person whose last
name begins with "M". If there aren't any, PEDIGREE doesn't
move the highlight bar. Press the "U" key next and PEDIGREE
moves forward to the first name beginning with "MU". Press
the up arrow key and PEDIGREE terminates the search mode. If
you then enter another non-command character, a new search
begins. As long as PEDIGREE is able to match your input to a
name, it will continue to search forward. The first character
that causes PEDIGREE's name search to fail will reset it's
internal memory of what you were typing.
Whenever PEDIGREE is in the search mode, it displays the
surname search string in the lower left corner of the Starting
Person Selection window. The surname search characters will
over-write the left corner of the picklist window's border,
but the border will be restored when the search mode is
terminated. Thus, you can determine if PEDIGREE is or isn't
in search mode, and, if it is, what surname string it's
seeking.
For example, try searching for the name "SZABO". Let's assume
you have someone in the file whose last name begins with "S".
As soon as you press the "S" key, PEDIGREE displays "S" in the
lower left corner of the picklist window and moves forward
42
stopping with the highlight bar on that person. Let's also
assume there aren't any "SZABO"s in the file. When you press
the second letter of the surname "Z", PEDIGREE display's "SZ"
in the lower left corner and looks for a surname beginning
with "SZ". The search fails; PEDIGREE clears the display of
the "SZ" by restoring the window border, and it doesn't move
the highlight bar. Pressing the "A" key would start a new
search causing PEDIGREE to position the highlight bar over the
first person whose last name begins with "A".
NOTE: I suggest that you type your surname search characters
slowly one at a time watching for the result of each character
search before typing the next.
e. Sorting The List
When the list of persons is first displayed, it is presented
in the natural order of the GEDCOM data file, i.e., in
ascending GEDCOM number sequence. It's probable that not all
persons with a common surname are together in the file nor do
they need to be to generate a pedigree chart. However, with
common surnames displayed together, the list may be easier to
understand especially if you have many hundreds of persons in
it. Additionally, if you want to print a standard column-type
report and no a pedigree chart, sorting the list first is
almost essential to avoid having to browse through it to
locate everyone with a particular last name.
To help you review the list and understand it's contents,
PEDIGREE provides five different sorts so that you can
rearrange the list. These sorts are activated by pressing a
function key while the Starting Person Selection picklist is
displayed. After the list has been rearranged, all functions,
such as name search, are available. The function keys and
their effect is:
<F5> Sort the list into ascending GEDCOM number sequence.
As I noted, this is the natural order of the file.
You can use this sort to put the list back into it's
original sequence after you've changed it with one of
the other sorts.
<F6> Sort the list into ascending NAME sequence. The list
will be rearranged so that the sequence is low-to-
high alphabetically based on the person's last name
and first name. Middle names or initials are not
considered.
<F7> Sort the list into descending NAME sequence. This is
the opposite of the <F6> sort. With an <F7> sort,
the list is rearranged so that persons with the
alphabetically highest last and first names will be
first in the list.
<F8> Sort the list into ascending sequence based on the
43
Father's GEDCOM number. This sort has the effect of
collecting together all siblings of the same father.
<F9> Sort the list into ascending sequence base on the
CVector. The CVector is a data key used to locate
persons with common ancestors or persons born at the
same time. Twins, for example, will have identical
CVectors since they're born at the same time from the
same lineage parents and grandparents. See the
following sections explaining the use of CVectors.
Although children often have a parent different from another
sibling in the family, I did not provide a sort based on the
Mother's GEDCOM number. The sort based on the Father's GEDCOM
number, along with the ability to track to the Father, Mother
and Spouse seemed adequate to manage and understanding the
list. If anyone feels that a Mother's GEDCOM number sort is
useful, I can easily add it.
As noted above, the usefulness of sorting the list cannot be
underemphasized. Here's just a few useful ideas for using the
sorts:
· Locate persons who have NO surname. They'll sort to the
end of the list.
· Locate any persons whose name might be slightly
misspelled.
. Audit the data for all persons with the same surname for
completeness of information. Is there a missing GEDCOM
link for one of the family members?
· Collect together all siblings of the same Father (and,
generally, of the same Mother). Is there a sibling of
whom I was unaware or attached to the wrong Father?
· Locate duplicate persons or twins.
· Locate incorrect links through age audits
If you sort the list by CVector and if you've enabled one or
both of the age audits, PEDIGREE will automatically "mark" any
person in the list whose ancestor's fail an age test. You can
then visually spot and examine those "errors" with the
CVector. Or you can simply request a register report with
<Alt L>, and PEDIGREE will print a report only with those
persons marked, i.e., anyone whose ancestor(s) failed an age
audit.
f. Printing The List
Rather than printing a pedigree chart, PEDIGREE will print a
register report that resembles the starting person selection
picklist. You can "mark" any/all persons to be printed with a
44
few keystrokes.
Use <Space> to toggle the mark. To mark one person for
printing, place the highlight cursor over that person and
press the <Space> bar. You'll see a check mark appear at the
left of the line for that person. Pressing the <Space> bar a
second time removes the mark.
You can mark an entire block of persons in the following
manner: place the highlight cursor on the first person in the
block and press the keys <Ctrl K> and <B>. That means, hold
down the <CTRL> key and then press <K>. Let up the <Ctrl> key
and press <B> (for BEGIN BLOCK). Now move the highlight
cursor to the last person in the block and enter the key
sequence <Ctrl K><K> to mark the end of the block. You'll see
check marks appear to the left of every person in the block.
You can remove all marks by pressing <Ctrl Enter> or <Ctrl
K><H>. If you press <Ctrl Enter> with no persons marked,
PEDIGREE will mark them ALL. <Ctrl Enter> is a toggle whose
effect depends on whether or not any person is already marked.
<Ctrl K><H> always just removes any marks.
When you're ready to print the list, press <Alt L>. PEDIGREE
prints the list with those persons marked and then redisplays
the Starting Person Selection list with all marks removed.
PEDIGREE provides special tests for CVectors when printing the
register report. If PEDIGREE is printing a register report
from a list sorted by CVector, PEDIGREE will compare
consecutive CVectors. If they're identical, PEDIGREE prints a
special indication next to the entries with matching CVectors.
Keep in mind that PEDIGREE only prints those persons you've
marked for printing. If you want to analyze the entire GEDCOM
file with CVectors, you must first sort the Starting Person
Selection list by CVector using <F9>, then mark the entire
block of persons that have CVectors (not all will), and lastly
request the register report with <Alt L>.
The special report marks provided by PEDIGREE in a CVector-
ordered register report will identify the deepest level at
which a match occurred. Here's the list of possible marks and
their meanings:
1 Equality to generation 1, i.e., same birth year and the
same age of parents
2P Equality to generation 2, common paternal grandparents'
ages
2M Equality to generation 2, common maternal grandparents'
ages
3 Equality to all levels, i.e., identical CVectors in all
ages
Note that a 2P equality implies that the maternal grandparents
ARE NOT the same as the previous CVector even though the
45
paternal grandparents ARE. Also note that matching by
CVectors does not recognize either surname or GEDCOM numbers
of parents. It is possible, therefore, for two people to
match simply because they were born in the same year, and one
of the pair had parents each of whom was identical in age at
the time of birth to the other person's parents. That is,
both people were born in the same year and the first mother's
age equals the second mother's age and first father's age
equals second father's age.
g. Printing the Surname Cross Reference
PEDIGREE will print a report listing in ascending alphabetic
sequence with every UNIQUE surname, it's Soundex code and the
GEDCOM numbers of all persons with that surname. The report
is selected with <Alt X>. The order of the GEDCOM numbers is
determined by the current sort sequence of the Starting Person
Selection list. If the list is in ascending GEDCOM number
sequence, the GEDCOM numbers on the Surname Cross Reference
will be the same. If the Starting Person Selection list is in
name sequence, the GEDCOM numbers on the report will be in
whatever sequence that alpha name sort creates.
Every page in the report has a title that names the report and
the GEDCOM file path from which it was made. The surname and
it's Soundex code is printed in bold type on a line by itself.
Under the surname, the GEDCOM number of every person with that
surname is listed 13 GEDCOM numbers to a single print line.
At the end of the report is a count of the total number of
unique surnames and persons. The detail lines of the report
are indented several spaces to provide room for 3-hole
punching.
h. Printing the Surname Index Report
Another surname summary report similar to the preceding
Surname Cross Reference report is the Surname Index report.
This report is activated by <Alt I>. This report is very
similar to the preceding "Surname Cross Reference" report
except that, rather than printing just the GEDCOM numbers of
persons with the listed surname, each first name is also
printed along with the GEDCOM number. This report lists two
names to a print line. Obviously, it will take a little
longer to print a "Surname Index" report than it would to
print a "Surname Cross Reference." This report, however, is
very similar to those you'll find in the backs of published
genealogies.
As with other reports produced from the picklist, the Surname
Index report is sensitive to the order of the picklist. It
also lists the entire database ignoring any "marks".
i. Printing the Surname Summary Report
The "Surname Summary Report" is a condensed version of the two
46
preceding reports. It's activated by <Alt R>. The report
lists each unique surname, it's Soundex code, and the number
of persons with that surname. It also breaks down that number
into the numbers of male, female, and unspecified persons with
the surname. This report is insensitive to the order of the
picklist.
j. CVectors
The concept of a CVector first appeared in Genealogical
Computing on page 37 of Volume 10, Number 1 published in July-
September, 1990. The CVector is intended to be a key to an
person's data constructed from dates such that, if compared to
other CVectors, it can be used to locate duplicates or twins.
CVectors have also been demonstrated to locate person linking
errors. As published, Genealogical Computing suggested using
the following components to generate a unique key for every
person:
(1) The birth year of the person
(2) The birth years of the parents
(3) The birth years of both paternal grandparents
(4) The birth years of both maternal grandparents
Those 7 items of data were deemed unique enough to isolate
data errors, locate twins, find duplicate person entries and
generally help to audit a genealogical list of persons. I
have generally followed Genealogical Computing's suggestions,
but the principal modification was suggested by Peter Cook of
Gilbert, AZ. Although I have not precisely followed Peter's
algorithm, my implementation is quite similar. That technique
replaces the birth years of all ancestors with their age at
the time of birth of the person. Test have shown that this
key is, indeed, virtually unique and does not suffer from a
technique which uses names which can often "hide" people
rather than disclose them.
The usefulness of this technique to analyze a set of
genealogical data is uncertain but looks promising. It's not
clear as of this writing that CVector support will remain in
PEDIGREE. There is, however, obvious usefulness of CVectors
in the information they provide, i.e. the age of parents and
grandparents at the birth year of offspring and in their
ability to detect some forms of linking error. Additionally,
CVectors are not available anywhere else to my knowledge.
One tester, for example, determined that, based on the age of
a parent, a child in a family could not possibly have been
produced by the recorded Father. The CVector showed that the
person was born in 1886 and the Father was born 152 years
earlier! A prodigious feat and, in this case, due to an
incorrect link between the child and the parent. I've also
seen, during testing, CVector audits found grandparents whose
age-at-birth of the person were under 10, grandmothers over
150 and a father aged 2! In one test file of over 4500
47
persons, 28 errors were found using CVectors. Obviously,
there is value in using CVectors to audit genealogical links.
CVector values are always positive. If, for example, there's
a person born in 1969 linked to a mother born in 1966 (she was
born before her child), the age calculation will produce -3.
The CVector age, however, will be +3. That's no problem with
using a CVector. The absolute age difference will still
produce the desired audit results since a 3-year old could not
have given birth.
In any case, some users requested a method whereby they could
find duplicate persons or twins or help audit data, so, thanks
to Genealogical Computing and Peter Cook, here it is. Whether
or not CVectors stay in PEDIGREE depends on response from
users describing it's usefulness. As always, if anyone can
improve on the technique, I'm listening.
When you request a CVector sort with <F9>, PEDIGREE builds the
CVectors if they haven't already been built, sorts the list
based on the CVectors and then redisplays the Starting Person
Selection picklist replacing the birth/death dates with the
CVector. Using one of the other sorts returns the display
that shows birth/death dates. While a CVector-sorted list is
displayed, you can use all Starting Person Selection functions
such as name search, one-key linking to parents, marking for
reporting, etc. It's no different than any other picklist
display.
If you've enabled one or both of the age audits, PEDIGREE will
compare each ancestor's calculated age-at-birth to the audit
minimums and maximums. If an age is found to fall outside the
age boundaries, PEDIGREE automatically "marks" that person in
the picklist so you have a visual cue. You can then visually
examine the persons marked or immediately print a register
report with <Alt L>. Since the register report prints only
persons marked, a report at this time will contain just those
persons failing an audit.
Since the key is constructed as outlined above, the picklist
will show all persons that have no birth year in their GEDCOM
data at the front of the list. Below that, persons will be
ordered in ascending sequence based on the YEAR of their birth
and, within that, the age of the Father and the age of the
Mother at the time the person was born. If those three data
items are identical amongst records, PEDIGREE uses the ages of
both the paternal and maternal grandparents as part of the
sort key. If, during the construction of a CVector an
ancestor is processed who has no birth year, that age-at-birth
will be expressed as 0. Obviously, all parts of a CVector
require the person's birth year as the basis for determining
age-at-birth of all ancestors. Also, note that PEDIGREE
currently uses YEAR arithmetic only to calculate ages for a
CVector. Neither month nor day participate in the
calculation.
48
PEDIGREE applies no CVector comparisons between persons listed
in the Starting Person Selection picklist. In this version of
PEDIGREE, comparisons of CVectors must be visual. It does,
however, make CVector comparisons if you request a register
report with <Alt L> if the list is sorted by CVectors. If
PEDIGREE is printing a report from a list sorted by CVector,
it compares consecutive CVectors for equality at some level.
If it finds such an equality, it prints an indication on the
report preceding common CVector entries. See the section
above on printing the register report for more information on
this topic.
As an example of using CVectors visually, imagine there's a
person in your GEDCOM list whom you suspect is a duplicate
entry or a twin. Move the highlight cursor bar over that
person in the Starting Person Selection picklist, and then use
<F9> to sort the list by CVector. Since PEDIGREE maintains
list cursor position integrity, after the sort and the list is
redisplayed the cursor will still be at your original person.
If there is another person with a common CVector, you'll see
that person right next to the one you originally highlighted.
Thus, you can move back and forth between sorts exploring
relationships.
A final note on CVectors - the value of a CVector is
significantly diminished when either paternal or maternal
grandparents' birth years are not known. Unfortunately, the
chance of that tends to increase the further back in
genealogical time your data goes, and that's usually where the
biggest research need lies. Since the use of CVectors is
relatively new, I will continue to explore ways to use and/or
improve them. I hope you'll do the same and share with me
similar suggestions.
7. The Pedigree Display
a. Moving Around the Pedigree
The on-screen pedigree shows four generations beginning with
the person you selected as the starting person. The name of
each person is displayed with the birth/death dates. If there
are more ancestors beyond the 4th generation, there will be an
arrow pointing to the right displayed at the right side of
that ancestor's data, i.e., the ancestor has either, or both,
a Father and Mother available for display. If you scroll the
pedigree toward the Father or the Mother, an arrow pointing
left is displayed to the left of the central person to
indicate there is data for a child that has scrolled off the
display.
Use the cursor keys to "walk" around the pedigree. Scrolling
the pedigree changes the starting person. In doing so, all
ancestors on the pedigree become those of the new starting
person. The keyboard keys to use while the pedigree is
on-screen are:
49
<F> move to the Father
<M> move to the Mother
<C> move to the child
You can also press <F1> for help. <F1> opens a "Help" window
which explains all the keystrokes usable while the pedigree is
on the display screen.
In the pedigree display, the idea is to select the correct
starting person for potential printing by scrolling the
pedigree. Once you've done that, you're ready to print.
Remember, you needn't actually print the pedigree. You can
browse around the pedigree as you like and then return to the
Starting Person Selection screen to pick another family line
for pedigree display.
If you want to abandon the pedigree so you can pick another
starting person, press the <F10> key. You'll be returned to
the Starting Person Selection window so you can pick some
other starting person. The highlight bar will be positioned
on the most recent starting person from the pedigree chart
when you left it.
If you want to print the pedigree, press <P> or <p> ("print").
If you want to exit the program completely, press <Esc>.
b. Printing The Pedigree
If you elect to print a pedigree by pressing <P> or <p> from
the on-screen pedigree display, PEDIGREE starts printing and
changes the display screen to let you know it's in the
printing process. Towards the bottom of the screen is a
horizontal "progress" bar that moves from left to right as
printing of the pedigree proceeds. The bar moves within a box
that is marked with %-of-completion values. The box is marked
at 0%, 50% and 100%. The size of the bar within the box lets
you know how far PEDIGREE is from completing printing of the
pedigree chart.
Towards the top of the display is another box. As PEDIGREE
sends data to the printer for each person, the name of that
person is displayed in the box. Along with the progress bar,
this is a way PEDIGREE keeps you informed of it's progress.
If you're printing a blank chart, the name and it's box are
not displayed.
Immediately above the progress bar PEDIGREE displays a few
lines of information corroborating your printing choices. The
first line displays the type of chart being printed. The
second line displays the style of border and box, if
applicable, being printed. The third line displays your print
quality selections.
When PEDIGREE completes printing the pedigree chart, it
returns to the Starting Person Selection screen awaiting your
50
selection of another person for whom it can print another
pedigree chart. You can select another person or you can
press <Esc> to return to the parameter selection screen.
G. Reports
Other than screen displays, PEDIGREE offers a variety of hard copy
outputs. For the graphic pedigree you have full control over it's
design and content. For the list report you have control over both
the sequence of the report and the content. The two surname summary
report are sensitive to the sequence of the picklist again giving
you that control. Any of the hard copy outputs can be generated
with just a few keystrokes.
1. Graphic Pedigree
A display-quality, printed pedigree chart is PEDIGREE's
primary purpose. As noted above, you can print either 4 or 5
generation charts. You have control over the types of
graphics used for the border printed around the perimeter of
the chart and the style of box used to "contain" data for each
person on the chart. And there are many other controls
available for the printed chart each of which is selected with
the parameter data entry screen. Every chart is 8.5 by 11"
printed vertically. You generate a pedigree chart using the
following steps:
a. In the parameter screen select the type of chart, it's
border style and it's box style. Also provide the filename
of your GEDCOM data.
b. When PEDIGREE presents the picklist of persons, move the
highlight cursor bar over the person for whom you want the
pedigree drawn, and press <Enter>.
c. PEDIGREE displays an on-screen version of the pedigree
chart. You can scroll around it if you like.
d. When you're satisfied that the on-screen pedigree
represents your intention, press <p> or <P>, and PEDIGREE
will print the graphic pedigree chart.
2. Picklist Lists
The primary purpose of the picklist is to present you with a
scrolling display of all persons in the GEDCOM file so you can
select the Starting Person for a pedigree chart. The picklist
has many others uses such as analyzing your GEDCOM data with
sorts and CVectors.
An option available any time a picklist is display is the ability
to print one of several reports. The simplest is the "List", and
it is selected with <Alt L>. A list is merely a line-by-line
report of the same data you see on the picklist, i.e., GEDCOM
Number, Name, Birth/Death dates, age-at-death, GEDCOM number of
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the Father and GEDCOM number of the Mother. Each person in the
list is one print line.
You have control over the content of the list in that you can
select which persons to report. You do that by "marking" them on
the picklist. The list report will print only those persons you
mark no matter how few. If you want a list report of everyone,
you'll need to mark them all before you select the list report.
PEDIGREE will automatically mark persons for you if you're using
a CVector sort and you've enable age audits. If you use <Alt L>
without marking anyone on the list - no report.
The list is always printed in whatever sort sequence the picklist
is sorted. This might be confusing at first, but it provides
more control over the way the list is printed, and it extends the
usefulness of the report. You can resort the picklist any of
several ways and print a list using that sequence. Sort the
picklist alphabetically, and you'll print an alphabetically
ordered report; sort the picklist by GEDCOM number, and you get a
GEDCOM number sequenced report.
3. Surname Index
The "Surname Index" report is activated by the command <Alt I>
while the picklist is displayed. You DO NOT need to mark anyone
on the list because PEDIGREE reports the entire GEDCOM database.
The report is sorted into ascending sequence by surname.
Like every report produced from the picklist, the "Surname Index"
report reflects the sort sequence of the picklist. Even though
the surnames are list in ascending alphabetic sequence, the order
of names or GEDCOM number is determined by the order of the
picklist. If you want a strictly alphabetized Surname Index,
first sort the picklist in ascending alphabetic sequence before
you print it. As above, you can use the sort sequence of the
picklist to control how the report is printed. You may, for
example, have a use for a "Surname Index" report where persons
are listed under their surname in GEDCOM number sequence rather
than alpha first name sequence. Again, the controls are yours.
The report prints each unique surname in the GEDCOM file and it's
Soundex code. The surname and the Soundex code are printed in
BOLD so they stand out better, and they're printed on a line by
themselves.
Printed two to a line on subsequent lines are the GEDCOM number
and FIRST NAME of everyone with the preceding surname. At a
glance you can tell everyone that has a specific last name, and
you have their GEDCOM numbers to index them with another report
or database.
If the lines on the report look a little closer than usual,
you're right. I alter the intra-line spacing so I can print over
75 lines to a page to minimize the size of the report. It's
printed in letter quality, pitch 10 Roman font with enough
52
leading spacing so you can 3-hole punch it. Each page has a
header listing the report title, the GEDCOM filename from which
it was produced, and the current date.
This is the kind of index report you often find in the back of
published genealogies. Depending on how large your GEDCOM file
is, this report can take a few minutes and will certainly take
longer than the "Surname Cross Reference."
4. Surname Cross Reference
The "Surname Cross Reference" report is very similar to the Index
report, but it's more condensed and, therefore, takes less time
to print. It, also, prints every unique surname in the GEDCOM
database and it's Soundex code. The surname and Soundex code are
printed in BOLD type on a line by themselves so they stand out.
The entire report is sorted in ascending sequence by surname.
Like every report produced from the picklist, the Surname Index
report reflects the sort sequence of the picklist. Even though
the surnames are list in ascending alphabetic sequence, the order
of names or GEDCOM number is determined by the order of the
picklist. If you want a strictly alphabetized Surname Index,
first sort the picklist in ascending alphabetic sequence before
you print it. As above, you can use the sort sequence of the
picklist to control how the report is printed. You may, for
example, have a use for a "Surname Index" report where persons
are listed under their surname in GEDCOM number sequence rather
than alpha first name sequence. Again, the controls are yours.
On separate lines under their surname are listed all the GEDCOM
numbers of persons with that surname, and they're printed 13 to a
line. You can understand how this report would be much shorter
and quicker to print than the "Surname Index" report. Everything
else about this report like page titles, lines per page, etc. is
the same as the Surname Index report.
5. Surname Summary
This is the most condensed of the three surname reports. Unlike
the others, it prints only one line per unique surname, and does
not display any details about individuals having the surname.
Rather, it lists "counts" of persons with the surname. The
specific counts reported along with the surname and it's Soundex
code are:
a. Total persons with the surname
b. Number of males with the surname
c. Number of females with the surname
d. Number of persons with the surname whose sex was not
specified.
If all persons are accounted for as either male or female, the
count of "unspecified" will not appear. The report is printed in
ascending alphabetic sequence by surname.
53
H. Managing The List With The Pedigree
If you haven't read the preceding sections on the Starting Person
Selection Screen and the On-screen Scrolling Pedigree, please do
that before reading this section. I'm assuming you understand how
to control each display. This section describes how to effectively
use the interaction between the two.
You can move back and forth between the list of persons and the
pedigree. Pressing <Enter> from the list will show the pedigree of
the person under the highlight cursor bar, and pressing <F10> from
the pedigree returns you to the list.
The significant point to remember is that, when PEDIGREE redisplays
the list, it always highlights whatever person is the central person
of the pedigree. In other words, you can locate in the list a
father or mother by using the pedigree display. The two displays
always track the central (starting) person. When PEDIGREE
redisplays the list of persons after you <F10> out of a pedigree
display, it may not return the cursor bar to the person you
originally picked for a pedigree display. If you've scrolled the
pedigree, the list will be repositioned so that whomever was the
central person of the pedigree will be highlighted in the list.
Using this ability can be very useful when managing a large list of
persons where direct ancestors are spread out far apart in the
GEDCOM data. This is a particularly useful feature when a direct
ancestor has a surname different than a child.
The "tracking" ability of the Starting Person Selection display is
also true if you sort the list. That is, after you've sorted the
list, PEDIGREE returns the highlight cursor bar to whatever person
was the designated "central person" wherever in the list that person
may be.
Therefore, if your intention is to collect together all persons with
a common surname, try the following. First put the highlight cursor
bar over one of the persons with the target surname. Use either
scrolling or name search to position the cursor. Press <Enter> to
display the pedigree for that person. This is a preliminary and
necessary step to registering a Starting Person (a "central
person"). Press <F10> to exit the pedigree and return to the list.
Now sort the list using <F6>. After the list is sorted, PEDIGREE
redisplays the list, and the cursor bar is highlighting the person
with whom you started and that person will be amidst others with the
same surname.
Following is an example of locating the Father for a specific person
so you can print his pedigree. Let's assume you know only the name
of the person, and it's MARY SZABO. PEDIGREE provides several
alternative ways to move amongst the data of your family members,
but we'll use just one as illustration.
The Starting Person Selection display is on-screen. You have no
idea what the GEDCOM number of MARY SZABO is or where in the list
54
she might be, so you don't know what her relative position is
amongst the list of 1200 persons. We'll start by searching for Mary
by entering "S", the first letter of her surname. PEDIGREE searches
the list forward and stops at JOHN SARNAK. That's not our person.
You key in the next letter of the surname "Z". PEDIGREE moves
forward to JOHN SZABO. Close, but no cigar. And MARY SZABO is
still nowhere in sight in this list of 1200 persons. OK, let's try
a different tack. You press <F6> to sort the list alphabetically by
name. PEDIGREE does so, and it redisplays the sorted list with the
highlight cursor still on JOHN SZABO. Well, there are bunches of
SZABO's listed but MARY is still not seen. She can't be far. You
press <PgDn> and, sure enough, there's MARY. You use the down arrow
to move the highlight bar over the MARY SZABO entry. Looking to the
far right of the line, you see she indeed has both a Father and a
Mother GEDCOM number recorded. Great! You press <Alt F>, and
PEDIGREE immediately moves the highlight bar to her father, JOHN
SZABO. Oh, that's who he is! Now you press <Enter>, and PEDIGREE
displays the pedigree chart for JOHN SZABO. You press <p>, and
PEDIGREE prints the pedigree chart.
I. Errors
Things can go wrong. For this reason PEDIGREE has a bunch of error
detecting instrumentation. The error messages PEDIGREE can display
on the screen and their meanings are:
MESSAGE: Maximum number of persons exceeded.
MEANING: You've exceeded the maximum number of persons the
program or your computer resources allow. This could be
a common event with the unregistered version of the
program. With the registered version it should happen
only if PEDIGREE runs out of main memory (RAM) on your
system.
MESSAGE: Maximum number of families exceeded.
MEANING: Same as above but for families.
MESSAGE: The Printer is on but not ready.
MEANING: PEDIGREE can't talk to the printer even though it's
turned on. Press the "ON LINE" button on the printer.
MESSAGE: The Printer is out of paper.
MEANING: You know what this means ... put some paper in the
printer. NOTE: some Epson compatible printers do not
allow printing as close to the paper edge as a true
Epson. You might run into this problem if you're using
single sheets in a "compatible" printer. Try defeating
the "paper out" switch.
MESSAGE: The Printer is turned off.
MEANING: I think you know what this means, too.
MESSAGE: Pick Window Initialization Error.
MEANING: Internal error or insufficient memory - tell Ken.
MESSAGE: Error initializing command processor.
55
MEANING: Another "tell Ken" error.
MESSAGE: "filename" is not a valid GEDCOM file.
MEANING: PEDIGREE doesn't see GEDCOM standard data in the front
of your "GEDCOM" file. Make sure you've entered the
file name correctly and that the file you're using
conforms to specs as I've described them.
MESSAGE: The box/border image file cannot be found.
MEANING: A compressed box or border file is not in the same
subdirectory as the PEDIGREE program. Where did you
move it? Find it and put it back. All border files have
a .BOR suffix and all box file have a .BOX suffix.
MESSAGE: The path "GEDCOM-path" cannot be opened.
MEANING: Although the filename in the "GEDCOM-path" exists, DOS
will not let PEDIGREE open the file for reading. This
message should never appear.
MESSAGE: Font file "font-file-name" cannot be opened.
MEANING: PEDIGREE can't find the alternate font you asked it to
use. The fonts must be in the same subdirectory as the
PEDIGREE program. Check the contents of PEDIGREE's
subdirectory. If you've deleted the font file, put it
back or don't use it.
MESSAGE: Error initializing the data entry screen.
MEANING: Another internal or system error or insufficient memory.
Tell Ken.
MESSAGE: Help initialization error.
MEANING: PEDIGREE was unable to initialize the data supporting
the context-sensitive help. Another system error or
insufficient memory. Tell Ken.
MESSAGE: Insufficient Memory
MEANING: PEDIGREE has exhausted all memory available to it. Try
running with no TSR's or menus to free more RAM. Use a
memory manager such as QEMM or EMM386 to move programs
from memory below 640K to high memory above 640K.
The only errors you can reasonably expect regard the operation of
the printer or the amount of free RAM available to PEDIGREE. If the
error message is not printer related, check whether you're running a
menu system or TSR's that use main memory. If you have an AT-class
machine (80286/80386 etc.), there are memory managers available to
relocate TSRs (and DOS) freeing up more main memory.
Since the program was written in Pascal, it's conceivable that other
circumstances will arise causing the Pascal environment code to
complain. These are impossible circumstances to predict; far too
numerous to document here; and highly unlikely to occur. If any
other kind of "Error" message appears, please contact me so I can
exorcise the problem.
56
J. Key Commands Summary
1. Parameter Specification Screen
<Tab> - moves the cursor forward one field
<Shift Tab> - moves the cursor back on field
<Ctrl Enter> - accept all the screen data and proceed with
processing
<Enter> - accept the data in the current field
Arrow Keys - control cursor movement within a field
<Backspace> - delete the character immediately to the left of
the cursor
<Del> - delete the character under the cursor
<Home> - move cursor to the start of the field
<End> - move cursor to the end of the field
<+> - change a multiple choice selection to the next
<-> - change a multiple choice selection to the previous
All other keyboard keys act normally including.
2. Select Starting Person Screen
< > Up Arrow - move the highlight (selector) bar up one person
< > Down Arrow - move the highlight bar down one person
<PgDn> - scroll the Starting Person Selection list of persons
down one screen full
<PgUp> - scroll the Starting Person Selection list of persons
up one screen full
<Home> - scroll the Starting Person Selection list of persons
to the top of the list (first person)
<End> - scroll the Starting Person Selection list of persons
to the bottom of the list (last person)
<Esc> - Exit the Starting Person Selection list and return to
the Parameter Selection screen
<Enter> - display the pedigree using the person highlighted
(under the cursor) as the starting person.
<F1> - display a scrolling window with help information about
using the Starting Person Selection picklist.
57
<Space> - Select/de-select (mark/unmark) an person
<Ctrl K><B> - Mark the start of a block of persons
<Ctrl K><K> - Mark the end of a block of persons
<Ctrl Enter> - If any persons are selected (marked), clear all
selections. If no persons are selected, mark all persons.
This key sequence is a toggle. You can use this to print the
entire GEDCOM list by selecting all and then <Enter>.
<Ctrl K><H> - Deselect all. Clear any selections.
<Alt L> - Print a list with those persons marked.
<Alt X> - Print the Surname Cross Reference report.
<Alt I> - Print the Surname Index Report
<Alt R> - Print the Surname Summary Report
<F5> - Sort the list in ascending person GEDCOM number
sequence.
<F6> - Sort the list in ascending name sequence based on the
key last name; first name in that order.
<F7> - Sort the list in descending name sequence based on the
key last name; first name in that order.
<F8> - Sort the list in ascending sequence based on the
Father's GEDCOM number.
<F9> - Sort the list in ascending sequence based on CVector.
<Alt F> - Move to the Father of the person.
<Alt M> - Move to the Mother of the person.
3. Pedigree Chart Screen
<F> Up Arrow - move to the Father of the starting person
<M> Down Arrow - move to the Mother of the starting person
<C> Left Arrow - move to the Child of the starting person
<Esc> - Exit the program
<F10> - Leave the pedigree and return to the "Starting Person
Selection" screen.
<F1> - Help - Display the meaning of all the keys.
4. Other
58
<Ctrl Break> can be used to stop the program at any time.
Recognition of <Ctrl Break> by the computer can occur whenever
PEDIGREE is doing input or output to any device. You may have to
enter <Ctrl Break> a few times in rapid succession to get
PEDIGREE's attention.
VII. REGISTERING PEDIGREE
PEDIGREE is not free. It's Shareware. I've spent a considerable
amount of time and computer supplies developing this program, and I
expect to be recompensed for my efforts.
Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should
find software that suits your needs and budget, whether it's commercial
or shareware. The shareware system makes fitting your needs easier,
because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low,
prices are also low. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -
if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it.
Shareware is a brave concept in software marketing that allows you to
"try before you buy". Shareware authors retain all rights under their
copyright, but allow you free distribution of their programs.
Distributors of shareware - including on-line BBS and catalog outlets -
usually do not charge for the shareware software itself. The
distributors are charging for their own services such as reproduction
and postage. Registration payment directly to the author entitles the
user to additional services, information, and newer products. It's a
great deal for users, authors, and distributors alike. Please support
this honor marketing technique so that more programs of increasingly
professional quality can reasonably be provided via this system.
This program along with its associated documentation and accessories
("the software") is the copyrighted work of its author. All rights
under U.S. and International copyright law are reserved. The software
may not be reverse-engineered.
Copyright laws apply to both shareware and commercial software, and the
copyright holder retains all rights, with a few exceptions clearly
stated by the author. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers
much like commercial programmers, and the programs are usually of
comparable quality. The main difference is the software distribution
method. The shareware author specifically grants the right to copy and
distribute the software to all except that written permission must be
obtained from the author before a commercial disk vendor may copy or
distribute his/her products.
You are hereby granted a license to use the software free of charge for
test and evaluation purposes for a period not to exceed 30 days from
the date on which you acquired the software. After that evaluation
period, you are legally and honor-bound to either send me the specified
registration fee, or cease using the software. If you decide to not
register after the trial period, erase the software in all it's forms
from your system, and accept my sincere congratulations and admiration
for your personal integrity. Once you have registered the software,
you are free to make archival backup copies for your security, and to
59
use the software on as many computers as you own or use subject to the
following restrictions:
A. Your use of the software is for personal benefit only. Any
business or commercial use of the software requires a commercial
license and payment of the commercial license fee. Contact me
for details on commercial use. Use of the software by CompuServe
employees, and forum SysOps and assistants, does not constitute
commercial use.
B. You may distribute the software as long as the material you
distribute are the original ZIP files as released by myself. You
may not charge a fee for profit for the software without my
express written consent. Non-profit organizations such as users
groups, Bulletin Board Systems and Shareware Distributors may
distribute the unregistered software to its members and/or
customers and may charge a nominal disk duplication and/or media
fee.
One final comment on shareware. It's a rare shareware program that
recoups the money spent on it's development. Support shareware authors
by sending the reasonable fee requested.
The registered version of PEDIGREE is $20.00. Registered users can
upgrade to the latest version for half of that, i.e. $10.00.
Send the registration fee to:
Ken Murphy
1704 West Lindner Ave
Mesa, AZ 85202 <---the town with the best darn Family History
Center outside of Salt Lake City!
Use the registration form attached to this document. If it's lost,
include a note with the name and address where you want the registered
version mailed, and the "Registered To" name you want. Also, tell me
what type of IBM compatible processor you're using (286, 386, etc.)
Indicate whether you prefer 5.25 inch or 3.5 inch floppy disks AND
which density. You'll get the latest version with whatever changes
and/or corrections have been made since the last release. The
registered version will be optimized for an 80x86 class computer. Be
sure to note whatever "Registered to" name you want on the banner
screen if it's different from your mailing name.
VIII. THE REGISTERED VERSION
The registered version has very high limits on numbers of persons and
families. They're set so high that the actual limit will be the amount
of main memory available to PEDIGREE. The limits are present in the
registered version as a "safety net" for the program should something
bizarre happen while it's running. The more RAM available, the more
persons that can be loaded from your GEDCOM data. PEDIGREE will always
display an error message if it runs out of system resources, but it
will continue to process whatever has been loaded up to that point.
60
The registered version displays your name on the banner screen and the
GEDCOM loading screen - a permanent reminder of your ownership and
personal integrity.
The registered version includes an automatic installation program and a
README.NOW file on how to use it. The registered version also comes
with the WordPerfect version of the manual. The WordPerfect version
contains graphics and tables not translatable to the ASCII text
version. If you have WordPerfect or some way to convert a WordPerfect
5.1 file to another word processor, use it as the preferred way to
print the manual.
Owners of the registered version get notices of upgrades to the
program, and they're offered the opportunity to acquire the most recent
version at half the cost of a new registration. Upgrades are usually
made available to registered owners first. A new version is released
to normal distribution channels after registered owners get their
copies. If a registered owner reports a problem or offers an
improvement suggestion I accept, the change is returned with the latest
version of PEDIGREE irregardless of what version the user owns.
Finally, the registered version includes the bonus program PEDFONT. I
wrote PEDFONT as a development aid for PEDIGREE. PEDFONT is the
program I used to build the 10 special print fonts shipped with
PEDIGREE. PEDFONT is also the most complete Epson font aid and printer
manager available all in one program. It's completely menu driven and
allows access to virtually every Epson LQ feature using simple menu
selections. PEDFONT is available separately as Shareware to
non-PEDIGREE users.
IX. PEDIGREE TECHNICAL SPECS
PEDIGREE was written in Borland's Turbo Pascal version 7.0. I
extensively use the Object Professional package from Turbo Power
version 1.21 including their Turbo Analyst version 6.03 to tune the
code.
PEDIGREE was developed on a 32 KB cache, 20 MHz 386SX running MS-DOS
5.0 over an AMI BIOS. My system uses a NEC VGA MultiSync 3D display
driven by an ATI VGA Wonder+ display card. Initial print testing was
done on my Epson LQ-850 printer hooked to the LPT1 parallel port.
Versions of PEDIGREE 2.1 and greater were developed on a 128KB cache,
33 MHz 486DX with MS-DOS 5.0.
The pedigree chart graphics were prepared with Spinnaker Software's
PFS:1st Publisher version 3.0 using 180 DPI smoothed and scaled
printing.
The optional fonts were prepared by me with software I wrote. That
program is called "PEDFONT", and it's available for distribution.
PEDFONT has been developed into a complete printer management tool, and
has been released as a separate shareware product. It not only allows
design and editing of any user-defined character sets, but it provides
total control of and access to virtually every feature of the printer.
It's completely window oriented and menu driven, and it provides over
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200 logically arranged menu choices to manage every feature of any
printer that recognizes the Epson ESC/P printer language.
This manual was prepared with WordPerfect 5.1.
PEDIGREE was originally tested on GEDCOM files created by Carl York's
genealogical database program "The Family Edge Plus". Of all the
GEDCOM files I've seen, Carl's are the "cleanest". PEDIGREE was also
tested on several of the GEDCOM files available in the LIB's of the
ROOTS Forum on CompuServe, and those generated by the Beta testers.
PEDIGREE employs a memory extending technique that uses the Upper
Memory Blocks (UMB) to extend Borland Pascal's Heap. This doesn't mean
much to non-Pascal folks, but it allows PEDIGREE to "get it's hands" on
memory not normally available. This means PEDIGREE can process really
big GEDCOM files with thousands of persons. The memory technique is
compatible with other memory managers such as QEMM. It's safe to load
anything else you want into UMB's. PEDIGREE will only use that Upper
Memory that's unused. When it terminates execution, any UMB space used
will be returned to the system.
X. USER SUPPORT
You don't need any. Seriously, if you find any flaw in the program,
please don't trash it and then keep quiet. I'll promptly fix any error
(as I've done in the past) so that we all can benefit from a sound
program. Got an idea for improving PEDIGREE? Great, let's hear it!
Constructive criticisms and suggestions are equally welcome and
appreciated.
You can reach me on CompuServe at 74025,731. Leave me a message in the
Software section of the ROOTS forum or send me an EMAIL. Tell me what
else you'd like PEDIGREE to do. If there's a problem, describe the
problem, any PEDIGREE error messages and the PEDIGREE parameters you
were using. I also need to know what flavor of computer you have; what
DOS you use; the types of disk drives you were using; your monitor
type; your printer make and model, and the breed of your dog.
XI. DISCLAIMER
Yes, the ubiquitous disclaimer. This program has been carefully tested
by me and a small community of very thorough BETA testers. There are
no known bugs. You, however, bear sole responsibility for what
PEDIGREE does on your computer.
The program does some fairly fancy RAM management (computer resources -
not the animal). If, in the unlikely event your system locks when
running PEDIGREE, reboot your system. Then let me know so I can
determine if it's PEDIGREE's fault and, if so, do something about it.
If you're a very cautious type, then play it safe and back up the files
you intend to use with PEDIGREE.
XII. REVISION HISTORY / WHAT'S NEW
v 1. Initial release only to BETA testers.
62
v 1.1 First "official" release with fixes and suggestions from BETA
testing.
v 1.2 Fix a few bugs having to do with the picklist display of
persons' mother/father GEDCOM numbers.
v 1.3 Increase the size of the counter of GEDCOM records to
accommodate very large GEDCOM files.
v 1.4 Recompile eliminating unused window and mouse code - makes it
smaller and faster.
v 2.0 Recompiled with Borland Pascal 7.0 for REAL mode execution.
Smaller and faster program. Included Object Professional v1.20
for REAL mode execution.
Added ability to select chart style using 7 different chart
designs.
Fixed problem - last chart line was not printing on some types
of printers. Also, reinitialized printer when finished.
Miscellaneous code cleanup and bug-fixing.
Added calculation for age at death for both Starting Person
Selection display and pedigree chart printing.
Option to print marriage dates on chart.
Help screen for the Starting Person Selection picklist
display.
Use UMB's to extend Pascal's Heap to permit processing more
persons in large GEDCOM files.
Picklist for standard report chart styles.
Feature to mark selected/all persons on the Starting Person
Selection screen and the "standard" report from that list.
v 2.1 Epson built-in international character set selection
Changed chart style selection to full-view picklist
v 2.2 5 generation chart - the 8th design choice.
PREPRINT chart mode option.
Improved parameter screen field editing.
Emphasized printing option.
Minor bug fixes.
Increased person/family capacities.
v 2.3 RLE compressed chart design files to save disk space.
Printer quality option to control both emphasized printing and
unidirectional printing.
v 2.4 Program was split into three modules.
v 2.5 Remove unregistered version restrictions.
Improved user interface.
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Compiled for only 80x86. 80xx support dropped but can be
reinstated on specific individual request basis.
v 3.0 Change the single parameter that controls Epson print quality
into two individually selectable features.
Allow the user to customize the 4 generation chart appearance
by selecting the chart border design and the chart box style
individually. Add several new border designs and a new box
style. Provided a single sheet printout of all border/box
choices which is executed as part of the installation printer
test. Add two fields to the parameter screen to permit border
and box style selection. Based on the Chart Type
automatically skip the cursor over nonapplicable data entry
fields.
Provide three sort sequences activated by <F5>, <F6> and <F7>
to allow user control of the sequence of the Starting Person
picklist. The name sorts are based on last name, first name.
Split some of the code into overlays to permit a larger GEDCOM
population even though the program is significantly larger.
Use EMS for overlays if it's available. Use RamDisk for chart
construction.
Changed the exploding help window for the parameter screen
from a paged window to a scrolling window so the user can use
the arrow keys to scroll by line as well as by page.
Minor bug fixes, code streamlining and improved use of system
resources. Support TEMP and TMP variables for work space to
improve performance.
Removed some of the "beeping" PEDIGREE does when things go
wrong.
Added a box to the screen PEDIGREE displays when printing a
chart. The box contains the name of the person currently
being processed.
Improved the appearance of the 4 generation charts by moving
the rightmost column of boxes slightly to the left to provide
more clearance between them and the border.
Made the Starting Person Selection list track the "central
person" along with the Pedigree display.
Changed the on-screen pedigree scrolling keys from cursor
arrows to the more meaningful <F>, <M> and <C> for Father,
Mother and Child.
Implemented <Alt F>, <Alt M> and <Alt S> for the Starting
Person Selection screen to allow the user to automatically
move to the Father, Mother or Spouse of a person if those
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GEDCOM numbers are present.
Changed the "more ancestors" indication from a blue plus sign
to a white arrow for better meaning and visibility. Added
another arrow at the left of the on-screen pedigree to
indicate data for a child is available but not currently
displayed.
Provide an automatic installation program for registered
users.
Add the same border and box selection ability for 5 generation
charts as exists with 4 generation charts. Previously, there
was only one 5-generation design. Improved the appearance of
the 5 generation boxes by repositioning them on the page.
Provided a GEDCOM counter display for unique surnames.
Changed the 3 second delay at the end of GEDCOM processing to
a "Press any key to continue" pause to allow users more time
to digest the counter info.
Changed the manner in which PEDIGREE determines whether or not
to print a list report from "multiple persons selected" to the
keystroke <Alt L>.
v3.5 NOTE: PEDIGREE evolved from v3.0 to v3.5 without release of
any of the intermediate versions. All changes are listed
under v3.5.
Added a Starting Person picklist sort based on the Father's
GEDCOM number to collect family siblings irregardless of their
surname.
Display surname Soundex code for person highlighted in the
Starting Person Selection picklist.
Added a Surname Cross Reference report printable when the
Starting Person Selection list is displayed.
Added support for a research/audit tool called "CVectors".
Also provide a CVector equality test in the register report.
Added a new feature to audit the ages of the parents and
grandparents for minimums and maximums. Provided a new data
entry screen so the user can provide the min/max ages and
enable/disable the tests.
Improved the colors of the data entry screen picklists and
added shadows for their windows.
Added tests to assure a selected custom printer font file
existed and was visible to the code. Also added tests to make
sure the display mode selected was compatible with the user's
display equipment.
65
Improved and reworded most of the context-sensitive help.
Added a Surname Index report.
Repaired 3 damaged custom fonts which had been shipping with
some earlier registered versions.
Added audit tests for the sex of a parent.
Allowed use of a special font on 5 generation charts for the
Prepared For: data.
v3.6 Skip reconstruction of the chart if the user changes other
parameters but not the chart design. If it hasn't changed,
there's no need to rebuild it - save the time.
Skip processing of the GEDCOM file if the user changes other
parameters but not the original GEDCOM filename. If it hasn't
changed, there's no need to reprocess it - save the time.
Also, improve PEDIGREE's I/O performance processing the GEDCOM
file through better buffering.
Made the picklist and report header reflect the sort sequence
of the list.
Split the main program into two so the first can use RamDisk
to pre-process the GEDCOM file.
Made CVector sort faster.
Added audit check for a parent's date of death to determine if
the parent died too soon before the birth of the child to be
the "real" parent.
Added a display of the characters used to search for a name in
the Starting Person picklist if the user starts a name search.
Add <Alt C> command in the Starting Person picklist to allow
cursor movement back to a child from which the cursor was
originally moved with <Alt F> or <Alt M>.
Added an option to suppress the stylized title "PEDIGREE" on
the charts and, if the option is selected, print an unbroken
border at the top of the chart.
Fixed bug that limited chart data lines to 23 rather than 29
characters.
When processing the person's name from the GEDCOM data, if the
full name wont fit, attempt to build "LAST NAME, FIRST NAME,
MIDDLE NAME" as the second try. Middle names used to be
entirely discarded if the name was too long to fit within the
chart box space. If that won't fit, try "LAST NAME, FIRST
NAME, MIDDLE NAME INIT".
66
v3.7 Changed some ways in which PEDIGREE communicates with the
printer in order to support some non-Epson compatibles that
recognize the Epson ESC/P printer language.
Changed the color specifications so that PEDIGREE looks better
on a monochrome monitor such as a laptop.
Added the "Surname Summary Report".
XIII. EPSON BUILT-IN CHARACTER SETS
Selection of an international character set provides you special
characters used in foreign languages. There are 13 sets from which to
choose. Use of any of the 13 sets is mutually exclusive with a special
font. The sets define which ASCII codes will print such symbols as
Circumflex, Diaeresis, O Slash, Acute, etc.
The standard Epson Extended Graphics character table (the default used
by PEDIGREE) already has international symbols defined for ASCII codes
$80 and up. If your GEDCOM data file use those ASCII codes for non-USA
symbols, you can print a PEDIGREE chart with them using the default USA
character set. If, however, your GEDCOM originated from a non-USA
source, you may have these special symbols represented by other ASCII
codes.
Ordinarily, you won't have need of these foreign language symbols.
Most of the foreign language symbols such as Umlauts, Grave and
Diaeresis used in GEDCOM data are represented by the higher value ASCII
codes, and they'll print just fine on your Epson if you use the default
font with the USA character set selected. If, however, you know these
foreign language codes are present in your GEDCOM data, PEDIGREE is
prepared to print them.
The table on the next page describes the ASCII codes affected, the
country and the character symbols generated. The table prints
perfectly on an Epson compatible printer if you print this document
using WordPerfect 5.1. If you copy the PEDIGREE.TXT version of the DOC
to the printer, this table will not print completely correct - a few of
the symbols may be blank.
67
A S C I I C O D E H E X
23 24 40 5B 5C 5D 5E 60 7B 7C 7D 7E
USA # $ @ [ \ ] ^ ` { | } ~
FRANCE # $ á ç ^ ` é ù è
GERMANY # $ Ä Ö Ü ^ ` ä ö ü ß
ENGLAND £ $ @ [ \ ] ^ ` { | } ~
DENMARK1 # $ @ Æ Å ^ ` æ φ å ~
DENMARK2 # $ $ É Å Ü é æ φ å ü
SWEDEN # É Ä Ö Å Ü é ä ö å ü
ITALY # $ @ \ é ^ ù à ò è Ä
SPAIN1 ₧ $ @ ¡ Ñ ¿ ^ ` ñ } ~
SPAIN2 # $ á ¡ Ñ ¿ é ` í ñ ó ú
JAPAN # $ @ [ ¥ ] ^ ` { | } ~
NORWAY # É Æ Å Ü é æ φ å ü
LATINO # $ á ¡ Ñ ¿ é ü í ñ ó ú
The default Epson Extended Graphics character table includes many
foreign language symbols. If you examine a chart of either an Epson
Extended Graphics character table or an MS-DOS code page table for
English, you'll see the foreign symbol codes starting at ASCII 128
decimal (80 hex). If your GEDCOM data contains foreign language
symbols and their ASCII codes are standard Epson, you don't want to use
a special character set.
XIV. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A. Q: Why does the pedigree chart print so slowly?
A: Speed of printing depends on several things some which are
under your control, i.e.,:
(1) The speed of your printer.
(2) Whether or not you're using emphasized or
unidirectional printing.
(3) Whether or not you're using the PREPRINTed form
option.
Basically, printing of triple density graphics is a time
consuming process. Remember that it requires the most from
your printer, and it's done in the "Letter Quality" mode and
not in the "draft" mode. Neither the complexity of chart nor
the use of alternate characters sets or fonts will effect
printing speed.
B. Q: Will PEDIGREE work on my printer?
A: I don't know. PEDIGREE uses only Epson-standardized commands
68
which are supported by many printers. If your printer is
among them, give PEDIGREE a try - it'll probably work. For
example, I know of at least one Epson 9-pin dot matrix printer
capable of triple density graphics, and it works fine with
PEDIGREE although the quality of the printed result is not as
good as with a 24-pin printer. Some printers will print a
chart fine, but they won't support the use of alternate
character sets or special fonts so you might have to sacrifice
a feature of the program to use it.
C. Q: Why does PEDIGREE need to "construct" a chart?
A: It was a design tradeoff. Either I build all the possible
pedigree chart varieties, or the software did it dynamically.
To supply all possible combinations of borders and boxes would
require substantial disk space. I chose this technique to
minimize both the amount of disk space required to install
PEDIGREE and to facilitate the creation of new varieties of
chart appearances. The tradeoff is the few seconds it takes
PEDIGREE to merge the border and box selections into a
complete chart design.
D. Q: I have an idea for a chart. Can I get PEDIGREE to do that?
A: PEDIGREE is limited to those borders and box styles I've
provided. The answer is a qualified "yes" if you send me an
illustration of what you want. If your idea is suitable to
PEDIGREE's architecture, I'll incorporate your design and send
you back a new version of the software.
E. Q: Will PEDIGREE work with my laser printer?
A: Probably not, but see question A. Laser printers use a
language called PCL (Printer Control Language). Although PCL
uses Escape Sequences like an Epson, PCL Escape Sequences are
quite different. I am, however, investigating adapting
PEDIGREE to a common denominator form of Hewlett Packard laser
printers. Stay tuned.
F. Q: Are you going to continue to improve PEDIGREE?
A: Absolutely "yes". Upgrading for registered users to a newer
version is half the normal fee, i.e., $10 to upgrade.
69
XV. REGISTRATION FORM
Mail with the $20.00 to: Ken Murphy
1704 West Lindner Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85202
Please print the following:
Name: __________________________________________________________
Street Address: ________________________________________________
City: ___________________________________ State: __ Zip: _____
"Registered to" name: __________________________________________
Disk Size Desired: 5.25" 3.5" Density:____________
Printer Make and Model: ________________________________________
Comments: ______________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Suggestions to improve PEDIGREE: _______________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
70
XVI. INDEX
4 Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 9, 26-30, 36, 64, 65
5 Generation . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10, 27-29, 34, 36, 51, 63, 65, 66
Age . . . . . . 5-7, 21-23, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39-41, 44-48, 51, 52, 63
Audit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7, 22, 36, 37, 44, 47, 48, 65, 66
Birth. . . . . . . 5, 7, 18, 20, 22, 23, 33, 36, 39-41, 45-49, 51, 66
BLANK Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 24, 29, 31, 38, 50
Border . . . 5, 6, 8-10, 12-16, 25, 26, 29-31, 37, 42, 43, 50, 51, 56,
64-66, 69
Box . 5, 6, 8-10, 12-15, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 34, 37, 40, 50, 51, 56,
64, 65, 66, 69
Character Set . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 15, 19, 32, 34, 35, 63, 67, 68
Cross Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46, 53, 58, 65
CVector . . . . 7, 22, 23, 36, 37, 40, 44, 45, 47-49, 52, 58, 65, 66
Death. . . . . . . 5, 6, 18, 20-23, 33, 34, 39-41, 48, 49, 51, 63, 66
Double Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 24, 32, 33
Emphasized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 32, 33, 63, 68
EMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 10, 64
Error. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 28, 29, 47, 55, 56, 60, 62
Family . . . . 6-8, 10, 17-20, 41, 42, 44, 47, 50, 54, 60, 62, 63, 65
Font . . 5, 8, 9, 14, 16, 17, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34-36, 52, 56, 61, 65-67
GEDCOM . 5-10, 17-23, 25-27, 29, 31, 36, 38-41, 43-46, 48, 49, 51-56,
58, 60, 61-68
Hard disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-14, 24, 25
Help . 6, 7, 25, 26, 28-30, 37, 39, 43, 47, 48, 50, 56-58, 63, 64, 66
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46, 52, 53, 58, 66, 71
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 10-13, 61, 64, 65
International . . . . . . . . . 6, 9, 15, 28, 32, 34, 35, 59, 63, 67
Irregular Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 22
Julian Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Keyword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7, 18, 39, 45, 49
Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 24, 27, 37, 38, 44, 45, 52, 58, 63
Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 6, 18, 34, 63
Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 63
PAF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 22
Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 28, 29, 37, 38, 41, 62, 66
Pedigree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 5-52, 54-70
Picklist . . . . . 6-8, 26, 27, 30, 31, 34-44, 46-49, 51-53, 57, 63-66
PREPRINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 24, 25, 29-31, 63
Print Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 32, 50, 64
Printer 5-10, 12-17, 19, 24, 28, 30, 33-37, 50, 55, 56, 61-65, 67-70
RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 15, 16, 55, 56, 60, 62
Register Report . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 37, 40, 44, 45, 48, 49, 65
Regular Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 22
Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7, 46, 47, 51-53, 61
Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27, 42, 55
Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 18, 36, 39, 40, 53, 66
Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 8, 43, 44
Soundex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 39, 40, 46, 47, 52, 53, 65
Speed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 9, 23, 24, 32, 33, 36, 68
Surname . . . . . . . . 6-9, 39, 40, 42-44, 46, 47, 51-55, 58, 65-67
Upper Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 26, 31, 36
71