gramps/FAQ

$Id$

*** This is GRAMPS Frequently Asked Questions ***

The questions below 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 gramps-devel@lists.sourceforge.net


*** Index ***

 1. What is GRAMPS?

 2. Where do I get it and how much does it cost?

 3. Does it work with Windows?

 4. Does it work with the Mac?

 5. Do I really have to have GNOME installed?

 6. Does it work with KDE?

 7. What version of GNOME do I need?

 8. Is GRAMPS compatible with other genealogical software?

 9. Can GRAMPS read files created by GenApp X?

10. Can GRAMPS write files readable by GenApp X?

11. Can GRAMPS print Genealogical tree for my family?

12. In what formats can GRAMPS output its reports?

13. Is GRAMPS compatible with the Internet?

14. What standards does GRAMPS support?

15. What is the maximum database size (bytes) GRAMPS can handle?

16. How many people can GRAMPS database handle?

17. How fast is GRAMPS?

18. My database is really big. 
    Is there a way around loading all the data into memory? 

19. Can I create custom reports/filters/whatever?

20. Why is GRAMPS running so slowly?

21. Why are non-latin characters displayed as garbage in PDF/PS reports?


*** Questions and answers ***


1. What is GRAMPS?

GRAMPS is the Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Program System. 
In other words, it a personal genealogy program letting you store, edit, 
and research genealogical data using the powers of your computer. 


2. Where do I get it and how much does it cost?

GRAMPS can be downloaded from http://sf.net/projects/gramps at no charge. 
GRAMPS 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. 


3. Does it work with Windows?

In principle, it could. GRAMPS depends on Python (http://www.python.org) 
and GNOME (http://www.gnome.org), so as long as these two are available, 
GRAMPS will work. Currently, we are not aware of working GNOME2 port to 
Windows platform. This, however, may change in the future. 

GRAMPS is being developed and tested on Linux, and virtually all Linux
distributions satisfy the requirements for GRAMPS. 


4. Does it work with the Mac?

A port of GRAMPS to Mac OS X exists from the Fink project
(http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/gramps). It is not unusual 
for this version to lag behind the Linux version. The port is not supported 
by the GRAMPS project (since few if any of us have Macs), but we try to 
help out where we can. 

If you have problems installing the Mac port, you will need to contact 
the Fink project. If you encounter a run time bug or have issues not 
specifically related to the Mac, contact the GRAMPS project. 


5. Do I really have to have GNOME installed?

Yes, but you do not have to be running the GNOME desktop.


6. Does it work with KDE?

Yes, as long as the required GNOME libraries are installed.


7. What version of GNOME do I need?

The latest versions of gramps (0.9.0 and higher) require GNOME 2.0 or higher.
Previous versions required GNOME 1.X. 


8. Is GRAMPS compatible with other genealogical software?

GRAMPS makes every effort to maintain compatibility with GEDCOM, the general
standard of recording genealogical information. We have import and export
filters that enable GRAMPS to read and write GEDCOM files. 

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's feedback. 
Please feel free to inform us about any GEDCOM flavor not supported by GRAMPS, 
and we will support it! 


9. Can GRAMPS read files created by GenApp X?

See above.


10. Can GRAMPS write files readable by GenApp X?

See above.


11. Can GRAMPS print Genealogical tree for my family?

Yes. Different people have different ideas of what 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. 

GRAMPS can produce any of the above, and many more different charts and 
reports. Moreover, the plugin architechture enables a user (you) to create 
his own plugins which could be new reports, charts, or research tools. 


12. In what formats can GRAMPS output its reports?

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. 


13. Is GRAMPS compatible with the Internet?

GRAMPS 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. GRAMPS is familiar with the standard file formats 
widely used on the Internet (e.g. JPEG and GIF images, MP3, OGG, and WAV sound 
files, QuickTime, MPEG, and AVI movie files, etc). Other than that, there is 
little that genealogical program can do with the Internet :-) 


14. What standards does GRAMPS support?

The nice thing about the standards is that there never is a shortage of 
them :-). GRAMPS is tested to support the following flavors of GEDCOM: 
GEDCOM5.5, Borther's Keeper, Family Origins, Familty Tree Maker, Ftree, 
GeneWeb, Legacy, Personal Ancestral File, Pro-Gen, Reunion, and 
Visual Genealogie. 


15. What is the maximum database size (bytes) GRAMPS can handle?

GRAMPS has no hard limits on the size of a database that it can handle. 
In reality, however, there are practical limits. Currently GRAMPS loads all 
data into memory, so the limiting factor tends to be the available memory 
on the system. 


16. How many people can GRAMPS database handle?

We have found that on a typical system, GRAMPS tends to bog down after around
15,000 users. Again, this is dependant on how much memory you have. 


17. My database is really big. 
    Is there a way around loading all the data into memory?

Currently, there is no way around it. However, this is our biggest priority
after releasing 1.0 version. The real database backend will be incorporated 
in the next stable release (1.2) which will dramatically improve performance 
in both speed and memory usage.


18. Can I create custom reports/filters/whatever?

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 GRAMPS 
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. 


19. Why is GRAMPS running so slowly?

If GRAMPS seems too slow to you, it is most likely that you have a large
database. Currently, GRAMPS loads all the database into memory, therefore 
large databases lead to be less than responsive. Specifically, the system 
can be virtually brought to its knees if swapping is needed for GRAMPS' data.

This will be addressed in the stable release following 1.0 version. 
Temporarily, adding more memory could make a huge difference, but we realize
that this is a poor way of treating the problem. If you would like to help 
with the implementation of the real database backend, please don't hesitate 
to email us at gramps-devel@lists.sourceforge.net


20. Why are non-latin characters displayed as garbage in PDF/PS reports?

This is a known problem -- PS (and PDF) have builtin fonts which pretty much 
reflect the latin-1 charset. Any font in principle could be used with PS/PDF 
but then it would have to be embedded in the file. This is problematic since 
every system has different idea about fonts and their setup.

This should be resolved as we move to gnome-print. In the meantime, a useable 
workaround is to generate reports in OOo format and the export to PDF from OOo.

*** End of GRAMPS Frequently Asked Questions ***