378 lines
16 KiB
XML
378 lines
16 KiB
XML
<appendix id="faq">
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<!--
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User Manual for Gramps - a GTK+/GNOME based genealogy program
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Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Alexander Roitman
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This document is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
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Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
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-->
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<!-- $Id$ -->
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<title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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<para>This appendix contains the list of questions that frequently come
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up in mailing list discussions and forums. This list is by no means
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complete. If you would like to add questions/answers to this list,
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please email your suggestions to <ulink url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
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type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink>
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</para>
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<variablelist>
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<varlistentry><term>What is &app;?</term>
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<listitem><para> &app; is the Genealogical Research and Analysis
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Management Program System. In other words, it is a personal genealogy
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program letting you store, edit, and research genealogical data using
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the powers of your computer.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Where do I get it and how much does it cost?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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&app; can be downloaded from <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/gramps"
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type="http">http://sf.net/projects/gramps</ulink> at no charge.
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&app; is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License.
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You have full access to the source code and are allowed to distribute the
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program and source code freely.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Does it work with Windows (tm)?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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No. &app; uses the GTK and GNOME libraries. While the GTK libraries
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have been ported to Windows, the GNOME libraries have not.
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This, however, may change in the future.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Does it work with the Mac?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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<ulink url="http://fink.sourceforge.net"
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type="http">The Fink project</ulink> has ported
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<ulink url="http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/gramps"
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type="http">some older versions</ulink> of
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&app; to OSX (tm). The Mac OSX port is not directly supported by
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the &app; project, primarily because none of the &app; developers
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have access to Mac OSX and because OSX is not Free Software.</para>
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<para>This version of &app; (&appversion;) does not appear to have been
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ported by the Fink project. Please contact the Fink project for more
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information.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Does it work with KDE?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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Yes, as long as the required GNOME libraries are installed.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Do I really have to have GNOME installed?</term>
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<listitem><para> Yes, but you do not have to be running the GNOME desktop.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>What version of GNOME do I need?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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This version of gramps requires GNOME 2.8.0 or higher.
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Previous versions in 1.0.x series required GNOME 2.0.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Is &app; compatible with
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other genealogical software (GenApps)?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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&app; makes every effort to maintain compatibility with GEDCOM, the general
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standard of recording genealogical information. We have import and export
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filters that enable &app; to read and write GEDCOM files. </para>
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<para>
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It is important to understand that the GEDCOM standard is poorly implemented --
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virtually every genealogical software has its own "flavor" of GEDCOM. As we
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learn about new flavor, the import/export filters can be created very quickly.
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However, finding out about the unknown flavors requires user feedback.
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Please feel free to inform us about any GEDCOM flavor not supported by &app;,
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and we will do our best to support it!
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Can &app; read files created by GenApp X?</term>
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<listitem><para> See above.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Can &app; write files readable by GenApp X?</term>
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<listitem><para> See above.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Can &app; print a genealogical tree for my family?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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Yes. Different people have different ideas of what a genealogical tree is.
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Some think of it as a chart going from the distant ancestor and listing
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all his/her descendants and their families. Others think it should be a
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chart going from the person back in time, listing the ancestors and their
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families. Yet other people think of a table, text report, etc. </para>
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<para>
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&app; can produce any of the above, and many more different charts and
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reports. Moreover, the plugin architechture enables users (you) to create
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their own plugins which could be new reports, charts, or research tools.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>In what formats can &app; output its reports?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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Text reports are available in HTML, PDF, AbiWord, KWord, LaTeX, RTF, and
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OpenOffice formats. Graphical reports (charts and diagrams) are available in
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PostScript, PDF, SVG, OpenOffice, and GraphViz formats.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Is &app; compatible with the Internet?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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&app; can store web addresses and direct your browser to them. It can import
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data that you download from the Internet. It can export data that you could
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send over the Internet. &app; is familiar with the standard file formats
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widely used on the Internet (e.g. JPEG, PNG, and GIF images, MP3, OGG, and
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WAV sound files, QuickTime, MPEG, and AVI movie files, etc). Other than that,
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there is little that a genealogical program can do with the Internet.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Can I create custom reports/filters/whatever?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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Yes. There are many levels of customization. One is creating or modifying
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the templates used for the reports. This gives you some control over
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the fonts, colors, and some layout of the reports. You can also use &app;
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controls in the report dialogs to tell what contents should be used for a
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particular report. In addition to this, you have an ability to create your
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own filters -- this is useful in selecting people based on criteria set
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by you. You can combine these filters to create new, more complex filters.
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Finally, you have an option to create your own plugins. These may be new
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reports, research tools, import/export filters, etc. This assumes some
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knowledge of programming in Python.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>What standards does &app; support?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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The nice thing about the standards is that there never is a shortage of
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them. &app; is tested to support the following flavors of GEDCOM:
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GEDCOM5.5, Brother's Keeper, Family Origins, Familty Tree Maker, Ftree,
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GeneWeb, Legacy, Personal Ancestral File, Pro-Gen, Reunion, and
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Visual Genealogie.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>What is the maximum database
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size (bytes) &app; can handle?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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&app; has no hard limits on the size of a database that it can handle.
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Starting with this release, &app; no longer loads all data into memory,
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which allows it to work with much larger database than before.
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In reality, however, there are practical limits. The main limiting factors
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are the available memory on the system and the cache size used for BSDDB
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database access. With common memory sizes these days, &app; should have
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no problem using databases with tens of thousands of people.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>How many people can &app; database handle?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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We have found that on a typical system, &app; tends to bog down after the
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database has around 150,000 people. Again, this is dependent on how much
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memory you have.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Why is &app; running so slowly?</term>
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<listitem><para> It does not anymore! Just try out the current
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version, &appversion;.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>My database is really big.
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Is there a way around loading all the data into memory?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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Starting with this release, &app; no longer loads all data into memory,
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which allows it to work with much larger database than before.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>I want to rerun the Startup dialog (druid).
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How do I do this?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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&app; keeps a flag in the GNOME configuration database to indicate
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that the startup dialog has been run. To cause &app; to rerun this,
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the flag needs to be reset. This can be done with the following
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command: </para>
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<para><command>gconftool-2 -u /apps/gramps/behavior/startup</command>
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Why are non-latin characters displayed
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as garbage in PDF/PS reports?</term>
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<listitem><para> This is a limitation of the builtin fonts of PS
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and PDF formats. To print non-latin text, use the Print...
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in the format selection menu of the report dialog. This will use
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the gnome-print backend, which supports PS and PDF creation,
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as well as direct printing.</para>
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<para>If you only have latin text, the PDF option will produce
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a smalled PDF compared to that created by gnome-print, simply because
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no font information will be embedded.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>Why can I not add/remove/edit columns to the lists
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in People View and Family View?</term>
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<listitem><para> Now you can! Just try out the current
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version, &appversion;.
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>I would like to contribute to &app; by writing
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my favorite report. How do I do that?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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The easiest way to contribute to reports, filters, tools, etc. is to copy
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an existing &app; report, filter, or tool. If you can create what you want
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by modifying existing code -- great! If your idea does not fit into the logic
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of any existing &app; tool, the <ulink
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url="http://gramps.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/GrampsDevelopersPage"
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type="http">following page</ulink> may provide some help in writing your
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own plugin from scratch.
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If you need more help or would like to discuss your idea with us,
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please do not hesitate to contact us at <ulink
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url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
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type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink>
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</para>
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<para>
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To test your work in progress, you may save your plugin under
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<replaceable>$HOME/.gramps/plugins</replaceable> directory and it should
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be found and imported on startup.
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The correctly written plugin will register itself with &app;, create menu
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item, and so on.</para>
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<para>
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If you are happy with your plugin and would like to contribute your code
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back to the &app; project, you are very welcome to do so by contacting us
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at <ulink url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
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type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink>
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>I found a bug and I want it fixed right now!
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What do I do?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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The best thing you can do is to fix the bug and send the patch to
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<ulink url="mailto:gramps-devel@lists.sf.net"
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type="mailto">gramps-devel@lists.sf.net</ulink> :-)</para>
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<para>
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The next best thing would be to submit a good bug report. This can be done in
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one of the two ways: (1) send your report to
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<ulink url="mailto:gramps-bugs@lists.sf.net"
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type="mailto">gramps-bugs@lists.sf.net</ulink>
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or (2) file your report with the bug tracker system at
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<ulink url="http://sf.net/tracker/?group_id=25770" type="http">
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http://sf.net/tracker/?group_id=25770&atid=385137</ulink>
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(this function is also available by selecting
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<menuchoice><guisubmenu>Help</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Report a
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bug</guimenuitem></menuchoice> from gramps main menu). </para>
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<para>A good bug report would include: </para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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Version of gramps you were using when you encountered the bug
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(available through <menuchoice><guisubmenu>Help</guisubmenu>
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<guimenuitem>About</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item).
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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Language under which gramps was run
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(available by executing </para>
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<para><command>echo $LANG</command></para>
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<para>in your terminal).
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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Symptoms indicating that this is indeed a bug.
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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Any Traceback messages, error messages, warnings, etc,
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that showed up in your terminal or a in separate traceback window.
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>Most problems can be fixed quickly provided there is enough information.
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To ensure this, please follow up on your bug reports. In particular, if you
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file a bug report with sf.net bug tracker, PLEASE log in to sf.net before
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filing
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(register your free account if you don't have one). Then we will have a way
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of contacting you should we need more information. If you choose to file your
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report anonymously, at least check every so often whether your report page
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has something new posted, as it probably would.</para>
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<para>If the above explanations seem vague, please follow
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<ulink url="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html"
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type="http">this link.</ulink>
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</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry><term>It is obvious that &app; absolutely needs to
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become a (client-server/web-based/PHP/weblog/Javascript/C++/distributed/KDE/Motif/Tcl/Win32/C#/You-name-it)
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application. When is this going to happen?</term>
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<listitem><para>
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The surest way to see it happen is to get it done by yourself. Since
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&app; is free/open source, nobody prevents you from taking all of the
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code and continuing its development in whatever direction you see fit.
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In doing so, you may consider giving your new project another name to
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avoid confusion with the continuing &app; development. If you would
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like the &app; project to provide advice, expertise, filters, etc.,
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we will gladly cooperate with your new project, to ensure compatibility
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or import/export options to your new format of a project.</para>
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<para>
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If, however, you would like the &app; project to to adopt your strategy,
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you would need to convince &app; developers that your strategy is good
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for &app; and superior to the present development strategy.</para>
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<tip><para>
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If &app; developers are still not convinced after about three
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messages sent to gramps-devel, maybe you are better off on your own
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rather than with a company of retards who can't fully realize the
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potential of your great idea :-)
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</para></tip></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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</variablelist>
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</appendix>
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