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* help: add new dir with new gnome-doc-utils infrastructure.

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svn: r6163
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Alex Roitman
2006-03-17 20:41:14 +00:00
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<!--
User Manual for Gramps - a GTK+/GNOME based genealogy program
Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Alexander Roitman
This document is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
-->
<!-- $Id$ -->
<appendix id="faq">
<title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
<para>
This appendix contains the list of questions that frequently come
up in mailing list discussions and forums. This list is by no
means complete. If you would like to add questions/answers to this
list, please email your suggestions to <ulink
url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink>
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>What is &app;?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
&app; is the Genealogical Research and Analysis Management
Program System. In other words, it is a personal genealogy
program letting you store, edit, and research genealogical
data using the powers of your computer.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Where do I get it and how much does it cost?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
&app; can be downloaded from <ulink
url="http://sf.net/projects/gramps"
type="http">http://sf.net/projects/gramps</ulink> at no
charge. &app; is an Open Source project covered by the GNU
General Public License. You have full access to the source
code and are allowed to distribute the program and source
code freely.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Does it work with Windows (tm)?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
No. &app; uses the GTK and GNOME libraries. While the GTK
libraries have been ported to Windows, the GNOME libraries
have not. This, however, may change in the future.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Does it work with the Mac?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="http://fink.sourceforge.net" type="http">
The Fink project</ulink> has ported
<ulink url="http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/gramps"
type="http"> some older versions</ulink> of
&app; to OSX (tm). The Mac OSX port is not directly supported by
the &app; project, primarily because none of the &app; developers
have access to Mac OSX and because OSX is not Free Software.
</para><para>
This version of &app; (&appversion;) does not appear to have been
ported by the Fink project. Please contact the Fink project for
more information.
</para><para>
Some people have had success using the DarwinPorts instead of the
Fink project.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Does it work with KDE?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Yes, as long as the required GNOME libraries are installed.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Do I really have to have GNOME installed?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Yes, but you do not have to be running the GNOME desktop.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>What version of GNOME do I need?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This version of gramps requires GNOME 2.8.0 or higher.
Previous versions in 1.0.x series required GNOME 2.0.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Is &app; compatible with other genealogical software?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
&app; makes every effort to maintain compatibility with
GEDCOM, the general standard of recording genealogical
information. We have import and export filters that enable
&app; to read and write GEDCOM files.
</para><para>
It is important to understand that the GEDCOM standard is
poorly implemented -- virtually every genealogical software
has its own "flavor" of GEDCOM. As we learn about new
flavor, the import/export filters can be created very
quickly. However, finding out about the unknown flavors
requires user feedback. Please feel free to inform us about
any GEDCOM flavor not supported by &app;, and we will do our
best to support it!
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Can &app; read files created by other genealogy programs?</term>
<listitem>
<para>See above.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Can &app; write files readable by other genealogy programs?</term>
<listitem>
<para>See above.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Can &app; print a genealogical tree for my family?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Yes. Different people have different ideas of what a
genealogical tree is. Some think of it as a chart going
from the distant ancestor and listing all his/her
descendants and their families. Others think it should be a
chart going from the person back in time, listing the
ancestors and their families. Yet other people think of a
table, text report, etc.
</para><para>
&app; can produce any of the above, and many more different
charts and reports. Moreover, the plugin architecture
enables users (you) to create their own plugins which could
be new reports, charts, or research tools.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>In what formats can &app; output its reports?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Text reports are available in HTML, PDF, AbiWord, KWord,
LaTeX, RTF, and OpenOffice formats. Graphical reports
(charts and diagrams) are available in PostScript, PDF, SVG,
OpenOffice, and GraphViz formats.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Is &app; compatible with the Internet?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
&app; can store web addresses and direct your browser to
them. It can import data that you download from the
Internet. It can export data that you could send over the
Internet. &app; is familiar with the standard file formats
widely used on the Internet (e.g. JPEG, PNG, and GIF images,
MP3, OGG, and WAV sound files, QuickTime, MPEG, and AVI
movie files, etc). Other than that, there is little that a
genealogical program can do with the Internet.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Can I create custom reports/filters/whatever?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Yes. There are many levels of customization. One is creating
or modifying the templates used for the reports. This gives
you some control over the fonts, colors, and some layout of
the reports. You can also use &app; controls in the report
dialogs to tell what contents should be used for a
particular report. In addition to this, you have an ability
to create your own filters -- this is useful in selecting
people based on criteria set by you. You can combine these
filters to create new, more complex filters. Finally, you
have an option to create your own plugins. These may be new
reports, research tools, import/export filters, etc. This
assumes some knowledge of programming in Python.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>What standards does &app; support?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The nice thing about standards is that there never is a
shortage of them. &app; is tested to support the following
flavors of GEDCOM: GEDCOM5.5, Brother's Keeper, Family
Origins, Family Tree Maker, Ftree, GeneWeb, Legacy, Personal
Ancestral File, Pro-Gen, Reunion, and Visual Genealogie.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>What is the maximum database size (bytes) &app; can handle?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
&app; has no hard limits on the size of a database that it
can handle. Starting with this release, &app; no longer
loads all data into memory, which allows it to work with a
much larger database than before. In reality, however,
there are practical limits. The main limiting factors are
the available memory on the system and the cache size used
for BSDDB database access. With common memory sizes these
days, &app; should have no problem using databases with tens
of thousands of people.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>How many people can &app; database handle?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
We have found that on a typical system, &app; tends to bog
down after the database has around 150,000 people. Again,
this is dependent on how much memory you have.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Why is &app; running so slowly?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
It does not anymore! Just try out the current
version, &appversion;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
My database is really big. Is there a way around loading
all the data into memory?
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Starting with this release, &app; no longer loads all data
into memory, which allows it to work with a much larger
database than before.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>I want to rerun the Startup dialog. How do I do this?</term>
<listitem>
<para>
&app; keeps a flag in the GNOME configuration database to
indicate that the startup dialog has been run. To cause
&app; to rerun this, the flag needs to be reset. This can be
done with the following command:
</para>
<para>
<command>gconftool-2 -u /apps/gramps/behavior/startup</command>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Why are non-latin characters displayed as garbage in PDF/PS
reports?
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This is a limitation of the builtin fonts of PS and PDF
formats. To print non-latin text, use the Print... in the
format selection menu of the report dialog. This will use
the gnome-print backend, which supports PS and PDF creation,
as well as direct printing.
</para>
<para>
If you only have latin text, the PDF option will produce a
smalled PDF compared to that created by gnome-print, simply
because no font information will be embedded.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
Why can I not add/remove/edit columns to the lists in People
View and Family View?
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Now you can! Just try out the current version, &appversion;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
I would like to contribute to &app; by writing my favorite
report. How do I do that?
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The easiest way to contribute to reports, filters, tools,
etc. is to copy an existing &app; report, filter, or
tool. If you can create what you want by modifying existing
code -- great! If your idea does not fit into the logic of
any existing &app; tool, the <ulink
url="http://gramps.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/GrampsDevelopersPage"
type="http">following page</ulink> may provide some help in
writing your own plugin from scratch.
</para>
<para>
If you need more help or would like to discuss your idea
with us, please do not hesitate to contact us at <ulink
url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink>
</para>
<para>
To test your work in progress, you may save your plugin
under <replaceable>$HOME/.gramps/plugins</replaceable>
directory and it should be found and imported on startup.
The correctly written plugin will register itself with
&app;, create menu item, and so on.
</para>
<para>
If you are happy with your plugin and would like to
contribute your code back to the &app; project, you are very
welcome to do so by contacting us at <ulink
url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
I found a bug and I want it fixed right now! What do I do?
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The best thing you can do is to fix the bug and send the
patch to <ulink url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink> :-)
</para>
<para>A good bug report would include:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Version of gramps you were using when you encountered
the bug (available through
<menuchoice><guisubmenu>Help</guisubmenu>
<guimenuitem>About</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu
item).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Language under which gramps was run (available by executing
</para>
<para><command>echo $LANG</command></para>
<para>in your terminal).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Symptoms indicating that this is indeed a bug.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Any Traceback messages, error messages, warnings, etc,
that showed up in your terminal or a in separate
traceback window.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Most problems can be fixed quickly provided there is enough
information. To ensure this, please follow up on your bug
reports. In particular, if you file a bug report with sf.net
bug tracker, PLEASE log in to sf.net before filing (register
your free account if you don't have one). Then we will have
a way of contacting you should we need more information. If
you choose to file your report anonymously, at least check
every so often whether your report page has something new
posted, as it probably would.
</para>
<para>
If the above explanations seem vague, please follow <ulink
url="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html"
type="http">this link.</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
It is obvious that &app; absolutely needs to become a
(client-server/web-based/PHP/weblog/Javascript/C++/distributed/KDE/Motif/Tcl/Win32/C#/You-name-it)
application. When is this going to happen?
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The surest way to see it happen is to get it done by
yourself. Since &app; is free/open source, nobody prevents
you from taking all of the code and continuing its
development in whatever direction you see fit. In doing so,
you may consider giving your new project another name to
avoid confusion with the continuing &app; development. If
you would like the &app; project to provide advice,
expertise, filters, etc., we will gladly cooperate with your
new project, to ensure compatibility or import/export
options to your new format of a project.
</para>
<para>
If, however, you would like the &app; project to to adopt
your strategy, you would need to convince &app; developers
that your strategy is good for &app; and superior to the
present development strategy.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</appendix>