Ian, > And how do you deal with: > > John, son of William Goddard bapt 30 Jun 1753 > John, son of Jonathan Goddard bapt 16 Sep 1753 > John Goddard, aged 61 buried 24 Dec 1814 > > Clearly the John in the burial (and various other records) could be > either of the first two. It took me years to gather various bits of > circumstantial evidence which, taken together, helped me decide which. > In the interim there is no S/W that I know of which would allow me to > record that I had an adult which could with 50/50 probability be either > of two infants because what's there follows alternative 1 which assumes > I will know who's who & merge the John of one of the baptisms with the > John of the burial with no error - because picking apart erroneous > merges is a complete pain. I have thought about this problem a little bit. First the obvious: In my model I would create 3 persona (evidence person) records for the 3 Johns (and also for the 2 other persons mentioned). Normally I would want to decide which of the first 2 Johns was the same as the 3rd and create a person record that bound those 2 together (in a 2-level record tree). But, if faced with your example, that is, no way to decide, possibly forever, what could you do? One obvious answer would be to put a note in the 3rd John saying that one of the first 2 is the same person but it can't be determined which. Another approach I have considered, and will likely implement in DeadEnds, is to allow the user to create 2 2-tier persons, one joining the 1st and 3rd, and the second joining the 2nd and 3rd, that is allow 1 persona record (the old John) to be joined and appear in TWO person/persona trees. Controversial? Sure, but the software could keep track of the ambiguous state of the persona records, even request that you add notes to the two overlapping person trees to describe the situation. I don't think there is much else one can practically do for your example. Have you any other ideas, given that you could define the software any way you wanted? Tom

On Sat, 11 Jun 2011 21:42:00 -0400, singhals <[email protected]> wrote: >If all you've got is a cemetery stone, you have to assume >he's not a stray. If you've got the obituary that says the >man's from Inner Mongolia and buried here -- he's a stray. (g) I've found many gravestones in South African cemetaries that say the person is from somewhere else. -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Kerry Raymond wrote: > The difficulty of finding strays is realising that the person is a stray in > the first place. And then secondly which of all the strays indexes out there > should be consulted. An effective solution to strays must be highly > find-able. > > That means either a solution that ensures that all the people's names can be > found using a search engine like Google or putting the information in a > place that genealogists might be in the habit of routinely searching (e.g. > WorldConnect). > > For example, we have a database of headstone photos for SE Queensland. Sure, > you can come to our site and do searches, but you are probably only going to > do this if you think your ancestor is likely to have died in SE Queensland. > If you are looking for someone you would have expected to have died in New > Zealand (say), you would not think to visit our WWW site (you probably > wouldn't even know about i). However, every photo caption on our site is > accessible to Google. If you do a Google search for Alexander Keir Brown (to > pick an example -- no idea if he's a stray), then Google points you straight > at the relevant page on our WWW site. So, I would only go down the route of > Yahoo databases if they can be made searchable. > > Note, what you don't want is for Google to see 1 page with all your strays' > names on it. Or else when you search for Alexander Keir Brown, you get > returned a page with Alexander Smith, Michael Keir, and Mary Brown. You > really want one name (or one record as appropriate, e.g. one headstone) on > one page to make the searching more effective. > > Something like WorldConnect is another solution. Since you upload a GEDCOM > to it, you can develop your database in whatever family history software you > already use. No need for anything extra. > > The other question I have is how do you decide someone is a stray in the > first place? Having photographed and indexed over 200 cemeteries, frankly > there often isn't any good way to know if a headstone might relate to a > stray. Back to Alexander Keir Brown, his headstone simply gives his date of > birth and date of death. Is he a stray? Honestly I think it would take a lot > of research to determine if someone is a stray in the first place. One of > the reasons that we started photographing whole cemeteries of headstones is > because we discovered that it was actually a whole lot more efficient than > photographing individual headstones on request. So really there is probably > more value in people indexing/transcribing whatever set of records is > available to them and make that very find-able rather than bother about > worrying if the individual folk are strays or not. If everyone did that, all > the strays would eventually turn up! > > Kerry My rule is, if he's where you'd expect to find him/her, she/he's not a stray. The man from Kansas who married a woman from Virginia at her brother's home in Maryland, or the man found dead beside his valise on the porch of the hotel, and so on. When I find those, I tend to go put a post on the appropriate surname board at ancestry.com -- free, and easily findable, and because those boards are for the most part part of the USGenWeb/WorldGenWeb you can look at them without subscribing. Free at both ends, I don't have to keep a database, and the motivated will find it. If all you've got is a cemetery stone, you have to assume he's not a stray. If you've got the obituary that says the man's from Inner Mongolia and buried here -- he's a stray. (g) Cheryl

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:23:47 +0000 (UTC), Todd Carnes <[email protected]> wrote: >On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:55:46 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote: > >> Some people seem to only keep their family history information on such >> sites, and when I ask if we can share and compare information, they >> offer access to their online tree, where there seems to be no >> possibility of sharing GEDCOM files. Is it really as bad as it looks, or >> am I missing something important? > >Ancestry.com has the ability to import and/or export via gedcom files, >but most people don't seem to realize that. Mundia are asking for feedback on thee beta version www.mundia.com Here's what I said: The whole experience of Mundia is a bit like feeling one's way in the dark, and very frustrating. You are directed (in the dark) to a group of objects. You can feel them, and chose one and turn on the light to look at it, but when you put it back on the shelf the light goes off again, and there is no way you can know whether you have picked up the same object, or one of the others. There is no way of comparing two objects to know which is the original or which is the copy. The objects are "trees". You enter a person to search for, and are shown a list of "trees" with that person. About five of them have exactly 10542 people in them. So which is the original and which are the copies? There's no point in contacting the owner if they have just copied everything from somewhere else. There is no identifying informatrion in the list to show which is which, so once you put a "tree" back on the shelf the light goes off, and you might pick up the same one five times. The "home" page for each user is singularly uninformative. There's nothing to say which families you are interested in and how you connect to them. There isn't even a list of links to web pages where the person can give more details. The whole thing seems to be designed to encourage bad "copy and paste" genealogy. As a bare minimum of improvements I suggest the following: 1. On the user profile, allow an explanation of the main familties being researched, or that the person links to, and a space for a link to the person's web page or blog. 2. When a list of "trees" is shown, provide enough identifying information so that you can know whether you have already looked at it -- even the owner's user name. 3. Provide an easy way of GEDCOM import and export, with the export clearly showing which "tree" the information came from in the source tag. -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:23:47 +0000 (UTC), Todd Carnes <[email protected]> wrote: >On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:55:46 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote: > >> Some people seem to only keep their family history information on such >> sites, and when I ask if we can share and compare information, they >> offer access to their online tree, where there seems to be no >> possibility of sharing GEDCOM files. Is it really as bad as it looks, or >> am I missing something important? > >Ancestry.com has the ability to import and/or export via gedcom files, >but most people don't seem to realize that. > >HOWEVER, having said that, the gedcom you get from Ancestry.com when you >do an export is NOT clean. By that, I mean it has a lot of non-standard >junk in it that either gets thrown away or ends up polluting your notes >when you import it into a "real" genealogy program. > >But gedcoms CAN be done on Ancestry.com. Do you know how? Would you care to share your knowledge? It seems that, for the moment, Mundia lets you look at trees on Ancestry.com, but the experience is a bit like feeling your way in the dark. You enter the name of a person and it shows you a list of trees, with nothing further to identify them. If you want to compare one with another, you can not find the first one again, or if you do find it by chance, you have no idea that you've found it. You can't even find whether the person who compiled the tree is actually related to the family you are looking for, or whether that have compiled the material from their own research, or just copied and pasted from someone else's tree. You see this list of trees that all have things like "10472 individuals" - so which one is the original and which ones are the copies? There is no point in trying to make contact with the "owner" of a tree that is apparently exactly the same as five or six others if they have just copied the whole thing and havent done the research. -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:55:46 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote: > Some people seem to only keep their family history information on such > sites, and when I ask if we can share and compare information, they > offer access to their online tree, where there seems to be no > possibility of sharing GEDCOM files. Is it really as bad as it looks, or > am I missing something important? Ancestry.com has the ability to import and/or export via gedcom files, but most people don't seem to realize that. HOWEVER, having said that, the gedcom you get from Ancestry.com when you do an export is NOT clean. By that, I mean it has a lot of non-standard junk in it that either gets thrown away or ends up polluting your notes when you import it into a "real" genealogy program. But gedcoms CAN be done on Ancestry.com. Todd

I recently discovered "Mundia", a service of Ancestry.com. It seems at first sight, to be similar to semi-scam sites like MyHeritage and Geni..com, where people are encouraged to goin (or coopted without consultation, in the case of MyHeritage, and then told that they must pay in order to be able to use their annexed data, Has anyone used it, and how does it differ from the existing Ancestry.com online family trees? A few people have given me access to their family trees on Ancestry,com and it seems a remarkably cumbersome way of organising one's family history. Some people seem to only keep their family history information on such sites, and when I ask if we can share and compare information, they offer access to their online tree, where there seems to be no possibility of sharing GEDCOM files. Is it really as bad as it looks, or am I missing something important? -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Steve Hayes wrote: > I'm posting this on a number of newsgroups, but have set follow-ups to > soc.genealogy.computing, where I think it is most relevant. > > In the past I know that some family history societies have collected indexes > of "strays" - people whose records are found in unexpected places, without any > local links. So, for example, someone who died or was buried far from home, or > a family that stayed in a place for only a short time and then moved on, would > be listed as a stray, and the index might help people in other places with > "missing" family members. > > I am involved in a number of genealogy mailing lists hosted by Yahoogroups, > and one of the facilities they offer is the creation of databases by members. > > I am thinking of creating a database for people to record strays on these > sites, and thought I would ask for advice on what to include in such a > database, especially from those who may have had some experience of strays > indexes. > > The Yahoogroups databases are limited to 10 fields, so one needs to give some > thought to what should go in them. I am thinking of the following: > > 1. Name of the principal person (Surname, Firstnames) > 2. Date (of record or event, in YYYY-MM-DD format) > 3. Place (of record or event) > 5. Place of origin of the person (if mentioned) > 6. Relations of the person (if mentioned) > 7. Source (newspaper, tombstone, church record etc.) > 8. Notes (any other information about the person or record) > 9. Informant (name of person who entered record, and contact info) > 10. Date record entered. > > But people who have more experience of strays indexes might have better ideas, > and that is what I am soliciting now. > > The data from Yahoogroups databases can be downloaded in comma-delimited > format, for importing into other databases, spreadsheets etc. It can also be > filtered, so that only records meeting certain criteria can be downloaded. > This would make it possible to combine data from strays lists in different > Yahoo groups into a central database, or to be sent to strays coordinators in > various places. It seems worthwhile. An additional category would be baptisms with no obvious connection with other baptisms. For the most part they're probably in the bride's original parish. -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk

I'm posting this on a number of newsgroups, but have set follow-ups to soc.genealogy.computing, where I think it is most relevant. In the past I know that some family history societies have collected indexes of "strays" - people whose records are found in unexpected places, without any local links. So, for example, someone who died or was buried far from home, or a family that stayed in a place for only a short time and then moved on, would be listed as a stray, and the index might help people in other places with "missing" family members. I am involved in a number of genealogy mailing lists hosted by Yahoogroups, and one of the facilities they offer is the creation of databases by members. I am thinking of creating a database for people to record strays on these sites, and thought I would ask for advice on what to include in such a database, especially from those who may have had some experience of strays indexes. The Yahoogroups databases are limited to 10 fields, so one needs to give some thought to what should go in them. I am thinking of the following: 1. Name of the principal person (Surname, Firstnames) 2. Date (of record or event, in YYYY-MM-DD format) 3. Place (of record or event) 5. Place of origin of the person (if mentioned) 6. Relations of the person (if mentioned) 7. Source (newspaper, tombstone, church record etc.) 8. Notes (any other information about the person or record) 9. Informant (name of person who entered record, and contact info) 10. Date record entered. But people who have more experience of strays indexes might have better ideas, and that is what I am soliciting now. The data from Yahoogroups databases can be downloaded in comma-delimited format, for importing into other databases, spreadsheets etc. It can also be filtered, so that only records meeting certain criteria can be downloaded. This would make it possible to combine data from strays lists in different Yahoo groups into a central database, or to be sent to strays coordinators in various places. Comments and suggestions welcome. -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Jun 8, 10:42 am, Ian Goddard <[email protected]> wrote: > Does anyone have experience of converting scanned images of maps, e.g. > GIF, to a GIS format. > > The objective is to take a map image and then overlay additional > information from other sources onto it. When I did this, I used OpenLayers for the scanned images (which I had to cut up into suitable sized tiles, but that process was easily automated; I think I also converted to png which may or may not have been necessary), and then used OpenLayers.Format.GML to read/write GIS objects expressed in GML. That's given me a nice Google-like "slippy" map with a choice of base layers, including Open Street Map, the old (and out of copyright) OS NPE maps, and modern (and very definitely copyright) OS maps. On top of that I can render things like county or parish boundaries. This is part of a project I'm working -- quite gradually, must be admitted, but I do have a paid job to do too! -- to provide open source vector data for the historical boundaries of the parishes, districts, hundreds, dioceses and counties of England. Richard

Does anyone have experience of converting scanned images of maps, e.g. GIF, to a GIS format. The objective is to take a map image and then overlay additional information from other sources onto it. -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk

On 5 Jun 2011 03:33:29 GMT, Robert Riches <[email protected]> wrote: >On 2011-06-05, Steve Hayes <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I have Linux installed on my computer, after battling for 11 years, it now >> seems to be running. But I haven't learnt how to do much with it yet -- I >> can't even get it to boot in text mode and load a GUI afterwards. And I'm >> still not sure how to install Gramps. But one day I'll get round to trying >> WINE. > >Booting Linux in text mode and loading X afterwards has been >easy, in my 11 years experience of doing exactly that. I'd be >happy to help by email, or you could post to comp.os.linux.misc >or a distribution-specific newsgroup. Thanks very much for the offer. I'm posting it there. >> But I've noticed something ominous - not the LDS census CD, but something far >> newer. >> >> It's a "magazine I bought (actually as book in magazine format) called >> "Essential OpenOffice.org" >> >> It came with a CD to install OpenOffice 3.3 for Windows or Mac, which is >> higher than any version I have. >> >> But whe n I tried to install it, it said that they installer was corrupt, and >> when I tried to install a Java update I got a similar message. It appears that >> that is one of the most commonly-reported problem (on teh Java web site) and I >> wonder if it is caused by a new weapon in Microsoft's war against open-source >> software. > >That does sound a little suspicious. If true, a valid solution >would be to avoid Microsoft except for maybe as a guest OS in a >virtual machine cage. > >> I wanted to use OpenOffice because it is platform independent, and therefore >> one hopes that computers will still be albe to us the data in 20 or 50 myears >> time. >> >> But if Microsoft went bung, therte would be no one to phone for those numbers >> you need to make the software work, and what people feared would happen with >> Y2K might really happen - many computers would become unusabe, and the data >> inaccessible. > >If that were to happen, solutions would happen--open-source >solutions. I hope so! -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:11:24 -0600, Bob Melson <[email protected]> wrote: >On Friday 03 June 2011 22:40, Steve Hayes ([email protected]) opined: > >> On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:48:58 -0600, Bob Melson <[email protected]> >> wrote: ><snip> >>>The other shoe that Robert hasn't mentioned is that WINE runs under >>>Unix, Linux and Mac/OS-X operating systems. It will normally run "well >>>behaved" Windows programs but seems to have problems with the bleeding >>>edge stuff. See http://www.winehq.org for more details. >> >> It's not the bleeding edge stuff I'm concerned about. It's what Microsoft >> is pleased to call "legacy" programs. In my case, many of them run under >> MS DOS. > >Understood. My point was - if point I had - that WINE is not the answer to >every maiden's prayer. IF you run an appropriate o/s (see above) it'll do >a workmanlike job for most programs but by no means all, which includes >not only the bleeding edge stuff but the moldy-oldies, as well. The >problem is that you won't know in advance which programs will run and >which won't. > >WINE is free, as are many versions of Linux and all versions of BSD Unix. >There was a free version of x86 Solaris - dunno if it still exists now >that Oracle has bought Sun - and, of course, OS-X has never been free. >You _might_ be able to run WINE under a live-CD linux distro and be able >to test things in that manner; I'm unable to say as I've had no occasion >to do so myself. I'd suggest you look at the web-site I mentioned above >for more details and answers to your questions. I have Linux installed on my computer, after battling for 11 years, it now seems to be running. But I haven't learnt how to do much with it yet -- I can't even get it to boot in text mode and load a GUI afterwards. And I'm still not sure how to install Gramps. But one day I'll get round to trying WINE. But I've noticed something ominous - not the LDS census CD, but something far newer. It's a "magazine I bought (actually as book in magazine format) called "Essential OpenOffice.org" It came with a CD to install OpenOffice 3.3 for Windows or Mac, which is higher than any version I have. But whe n I tried to install it, it said that they installer was corrupt, and when I tried to install a Java update I got a similar message. It appears that that is one of the most commonly-reported problem (on teh Java web site) and I wonder if it is caused by a new weapon in Microsoft's war against open-source software. I wanted to use OpenOffice because it is platform independent, and therefore one hopes that computers will still be albe to us the data in 20 or 50 myears time. But if Microsoft went bung, therte would be no one to phone for those numbers you need to make the software work, and what people feared would happen with Y2K might really happen - many computers would become unusabe, and the data inaccessible. -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On 2011-06-05, Steve Hayes <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have Linux installed on my computer, after battling for 11 years, it now > seems to be running. But I haven't learnt how to do much with it yet -- I > can't even get it to boot in text mode and load a GUI afterwards. And I'm > still not sure how to install Gramps. But one day I'll get round to trying > WINE. Booting Linux in text mode and loading X afterwards has been easy, in my 11 years experience of doing exactly that. I'd be happy to help by email, or you could post to comp.os.linux.misc or a distribution-specific newsgroup. > But I've noticed something ominous - not the LDS census CD, but something far > newer. > > It's a "magazine I bought (actually as book in magazine format) called > "Essential OpenOffice.org" > > It came with a CD to install OpenOffice 3.3 for Windows or Mac, which is > higher than any version I have. > > But whe n I tried to install it, it said that they installer was corrupt, and > when I tried to install a Java update I got a similar message. It appears that > that is one of the most commonly-reported problem (on teh Java web site) and I > wonder if it is caused by a new weapon in Microsoft's war against open-source > software. That does sound a little suspicious. If true, a valid solution would be to avoid Microsoft except for maybe as a guest OS in a virtual machine cage. > I wanted to use OpenOffice because it is platform independent, and therefore > one hopes that computers will still be albe to us the data in 20 or 50 myears > time. > > But if Microsoft went bung, therte would be no one to phone for those numbers > you need to make the software work, and what people feared would happen with > Y2K might really happen - many computers would become unusabe, and the data > inaccessible. If that were to happen, solutions would happen--open-source solutions. -- Robert Riches [email protected] (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

On Saturday 04 June 2011 20:43, Steve Hayes ([email protected]) opined: <snip> > I have Linux installed on my computer, after battling for 11 years, it > now seems to be running. But I haven't learnt how to do much with it yet > -- I can't even get it to boot in text mode and load a GUI afterwards. > And I'm still not sure how to install Gramps. But one day I'll get round > to trying WINE. I'm not a great fan of Linux and have limited experience with it - my o/s of choice is FreeBSD and has been for the last 15 or so years. Given there are a round dozen or so linux distros out in the wild, I won't presume to guess what your configuration problem might be. > > But I've noticed something ominous - not the LDS census CD, but something > far newer. > > It's a "magazine I bought (actually as book in magazine format) called > "Essential OpenOffice.org" > > It came with a CD to install OpenOffice 3.3 for Windows or Mac, which is > higher than any version I have. I assume you're trying to install OO on your windows box. What I'd suggest is that you go to the OO web-site and download a fresh copy of the windows package and install from that. The other alternative is to look into the LibreOffice suite that seems to be replacing OO, now that OO is owned by Oracle (they got it and MySQL when they purchased Sun). Larry Ellison is one of the sharks of the computer world, IMO, and is not unlike Bill Gates when it comes to acquisitiveness and "protecting" his money tree. > > But whe n I tried to install it, it said that they installer was corrupt, > and when I tried to install a Java update I got a similar message. It > appears that that is one of the most commonly-reported problem (on teh > Java web site) and I wonder if it is caused by a new weapon in > Microsoft's war against open-source software. > > I wanted to use OpenOffice because it is platform independent, and > therefore one hopes that computers will still be albe to us the data in > 20 or 50 myears time. I'm not sure the open document standard will last that long, even with backward compatibility. M$, as you know, introduced a competing standard that was accepted by the ISO a couple of years back. I don't think it's made much headway, but the move is typical M$. If I were a betting man, I'd bet on postscript/pdf lasting at least 20 more years, if not longer. > > But if Microsoft went bung, therte would be no one to phone for those > numbers you need to make the software work, and what people feared would > happen with Y2K might really happen - many computers would become > unusabe, and the data inaccessible. If M$ were go go bung, there'd be a whole helluva lot of folks cheering in the streets. I've called Windows "Gates Universal Computer Virus" for some time now and with malice aforethought. One would expect a product as pricey as windows to be more than late alpha/early beta quality on release and to be a lot more stable and secure, as well. But M$ has fallen prey to the "shove it out the door, we can fix it later" school of marketing and a lot of folks out there who are willing or gullible enough to shell out big bucks for the privilege of being beta testers. Enough of that, though, nobody's really interested in what I think about Gatesware or the 800 lb gorilla in Redmond, Washington, that is M$. > > > -- > Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa > Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm > Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com > E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop > uk -- Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas ----- The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes -- Thomas Paine

On Sat, 04 Jun 2011 10:37:27 -0400, singhals wrote: > I know people who wrote an awful lot of "utilities" for > genealogy-related programs, back in DOS-3 days. I've written "trivial > pursuit" type programs in Basic myself. I would doubt that "BumpEmUp" > or "IndiaTrivia" is on wine's list of workables. In fact, I'd doubt 99% > of readers here ever heard of either of 'em. > > Cheryl You make a valid point, but I think most people interested in using Wine would find the AppDatabase quite useful. :) Todd

On Friday 03 June 2011 23:16, Todd Carnes ([email protected]) opined: > On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:11:24 -0600, Bob Melson wrote: > >> The problem is that you won't know in advance which programs will run >> and which won't. > > Well, actually, most of the time you can just look in Wine's AppDatabase > (http://appdb.winehq.org/) to see if your particular program will work. > > Todd The problem is that the database is not exhaustive - it merely reflects for the most part what the user community reports as working under WINE. Good as far as it goes, but that isn't terribly far. Swell Ol' Bob -- Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas ----- The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes -- Thomas Paine

Todd Carnes wrote: > On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:11:24 -0600, Bob Melson wrote: > >> The problem is that you won't know in advance which programs will run >> and which won't. > > Well, actually, most of the time you can just look in Wine's AppDatabase > (http://appdb.winehq.org/) to see if your particular program will work. I know people who wrote an awful lot of "utilities" for genealogy-related programs, back in DOS-3 days. I've written "trivial pursuit" type programs in Basic myself. I would doubt that "BumpEmUp" or "IndiaTrivia" is on wine's list of workables. In fact, I'd doubt 99% of readers here ever heard of either of 'em. Cheryl

Bob Melson wrote: > The other shoe that Robert hasn't mentioned is that WINE runs under > Unix, Linux and Mac/OS-X operating systems. It will normally run "well > behaved" Windows programs but seems to have problems with the bleeding > edge stuff. See http://www.winehq.org for more details. The intersect is, unfortunately, even narrower than that. It can be fussy as to hardware. It assumes (or at least it did on any version I tested & I used to run its test suite on the development builds every 2 or 3 weeks) that if your graphics driver reports it only handles 24 bits (e.g. my Intel-graphics-based laptop, my Via-based thin-client, etc) it will really handle 32. This trips up any S/W, bleeding-edge or otherwise that then tries to send 32-bit bitmaps including Enterprise Architect in my case and Visual Basic in another report I read. Bug reports were dismissed on the basis that it's not a bug, it's a feature - AIUI some drivers behave like that and deliver better performance, presumably for gaming. In the end I just went back to the 1.1 stable source, applied my one word bugfix and have stuck with that since. -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk

On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:48:58 -0600, Bob Melson <[email protected]> wrote: >On Friday 03 June 2011 21:36, Robert Riches ([email protected]) >opined: > >> On 2011-06-03, Steve Hayes <[email protected]> wrote: >>> On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:59:46 -0700, Dennis Lee Bieber >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>>On Thu, 2 Jun 2011 11:49:10 +0100, "Roger Donne" >>>><[email protected]> declaimed the following in >>>>soc.genealogy.computing: >>>> >>>>> I've just got a new computer running Windows 7 64 bit and I am >>>>> migrating all >>>>> my genealogy data and programs from my old Windows XP machine. All is >>>>> going >>>>> well except for the LDS 1851 census CD - I can't even get SETUP to >>>>> run. The CD was produced some time ago (1997) but I still find this >>>>> to be a very >>>>> useful resource for my Devon families research. Can anyone help? >>>>> Roger >>>> >>>>1997 is still possibly in the time frame of 16-bit applications. >>>>Such applications could be run on 32-bit Windows 9x/XP... I do not >>>>believe any 64-bit processor can support 16-bit applications. >>> >>> My laptop came with Windows 7 64-bit installed, but with a DVD with the >>> 32-bit version. When it wouldn't run most of my most frequently-used >>> programs, I installed the 32-bit version PDQ. >>> >>> But it bodes ill for the preservation of information collected on >>> computers in the last 60 years or so. So much of it will become >>> inaccessible. >> >> Not necessarily. Lots of newer and older software works quite >> well under WINE, including Ohana's GetMyAncestors, PAF4, PAF5, >> and two versions of the (LDS) Scriptures on CDROM. PAF5 has the >> most difficulties, but it's easy to find a WINE version that runs >> it at least well enough to convert the data to some other format >> (like GEDCOM). >> >The other shoe that Robert hasn't mentioned is that WINE runs under >Unix, Linux and Mac/OS-X operating systems. It will normally run "well >behaved" Windows programs but seems to have problems with the bleeding >edge stuff. See http://www.winehq.org for more details. It's not the bleeding edge stuff I'm concerned about. It's what Microsoft is pleased to call "legacy" programs. In my case, many of them run under MS DOS. -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk