283 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
283 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
*** 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 (GenApps)?
|
|
|
|
9. Can GRAMPS read files created by GenApp X?
|
|
|
|
10. Can GRAMPS write files readable by GenApp X?
|
|
|
|
11. Can GRAMPS print a genealogical tree for my family?
|
|
|
|
12. In what formats can GRAMPS output its reports?
|
|
|
|
13. Is GRAMPS compatible with the Internet?
|
|
|
|
14. Can I create custom reports/filters/whatever?
|
|
|
|
15. What standards does GRAMPS support?
|
|
|
|
16. What is the maximum database size (bytes) GRAMPS can handle?
|
|
|
|
17. How many people can GRAMPS database handle?
|
|
|
|
18. Why is GRAMPS running so slowly?
|
|
|
|
19. My database is really big.
|
|
Is there a way around loading all the data into memory?
|
|
|
|
20. Why are non-latin characters displayed as garbage in PDF/PS reports?
|
|
|
|
21. Why can I not add/remove/edit columns to the lists in People View
|
|
and Family View?
|
|
|
|
22. I found a bug and I want it fixed right now! What do I do?
|
|
|
|
*** Questions and answers ***
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. What is GRAMPS?
|
|
|
|
GRAMPS 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 (GenApps)?
|
|
|
|
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 feedback.
|
|
Please feel free to inform us about any GEDCOM flavor not supported by GRAMPS,
|
|
and we will do our best to 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 a genealogical tree for my family?
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
GRAMPS can produce any of the above, and many more different charts and
|
|
reports. Moreover, the plugin architechture enables users (you) to create
|
|
their 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, 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 :-)
|
|
|
|
|
|
14. 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
15. 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, Brother's Keeper, Family Origins, Familty Tree Maker, Ftree,
|
|
GeneWeb, Legacy, Personal Ancestral File, Pro-Gen, Reunion, and
|
|
Visual Genealogie.
|
|
|
|
|
|
16. 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
17. How many people can GRAMPS database handle?
|
|
|
|
We have found that on a typical system, GRAMPS tends to bog down after the
|
|
database has around 15,000 people. Again, this is dependant on how much
|
|
memory you have.
|
|
|
|
|
|
18. 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 tend 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 next stable release following version 1.0.
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
19. 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 version 1.0. 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 OpenOffice.org format and then export
|
|
to PDF from the OpenOffice.org application.
|
|
|
|
|
|
21. Why can I not add/remove/edit columns to the lists in People View
|
|
and Family View?
|
|
|
|
This will be addressed after the TreeModelSort bug is fixed in pygtk,
|
|
see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=125172 for the details.
|
|
Once the patch is committed and incorporated into pygtk, we will add the
|
|
ability to add/remove/edit sortable columns.
|
|
|
|
|
|
22. I found a bug and I want it fixed right now! What do I do?
|
|
|
|
The best thing you can do is to fix the bug and send the patch to
|
|
gramps-devel@lists.sf.net :-)
|
|
|
|
The next best thing would be to submit a good bug report. This can be done in
|
|
one of the two ways: (1) send your report to gramps-bugs@lists.sf.net
|
|
or (2) file your report with the bug tracker system at
|
|
http://sf.net/tracker/?group_id=25770&atid=385137 (this function is also
|
|
available by selecting "Help->Report a bug" from gramps main menu).
|
|
|
|
A good bug report would include:
|
|
(1) Version of gramps you were using when you encountered the bug
|
|
(available through Help->About menu item)
|
|
(2) Language under which gramps was run
|
|
(available by executing "echo $LANG" in your terminal)
|
|
(3) Symptomps indicating that this is indeed a bug
|
|
(4) Any Traceback messages, error messages, warnings, etc, that showed up
|
|
in your terminal or a in separate traceback window
|
|
|
|
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 bug report with sf.net bug tracker, PLEASE log into 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.
|
|
|
|
*** End of GRAMPS Frequently Asked Questions ***
|
|
|
|
$Id$
|