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I’ve changed the way the GEDCOMs are read in. They used to be loaded into a RichEdit that was shown in the GEDCOMs and Input Log window. Then they would be read from the RichEdit to load the data. Now I load the data directly from the GEDCOM files. This saves about 25% of the file loading time, so another small improvement.
But more importantly, Behold is now loading the file piece by piece, so it can show the progress and allow the Stop button to work during the GEDCOM loading.
I also changed the GEDCOM button to now load the GEDCOMs with a Text Viewer. By default it uses Wordpad which should be available in every version of Windows. Then I added a “Text Viewer” menu item, where you can change the viewer if you want to a text viewer or editor of your choice.
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Joined: Tue, 29 Aug 2006
16 blog comments, 1 forum post
Posted: Tue, 28 Nov 2006
Louis,
I noticed you had set the default for the txt viewer as WordPad.
In the future you plan on adding edit capabilities to Gedcom’s, and based on what I have seen, but may be mistaken, most of the genealogy programs use a simple ascii text editor. If memory serves me right, WordPad does include some embedded characters in their text when saved. If Not I stsnd corrected, but, if they do, then using WordPad as the default could cause havoc where people exchange gedcoms into other programs. I wouldn’t want to see that tarnish your program if it corrupted other programs when imported. Maybe a ascii editor (NotePad) as default and Wordpad as a option with cautions.
Herb…
Joined: Sun, 9 Mar 2003
288 blog comments, 245 forum posts
Posted: Tue, 28 Nov 2006
Herb:
Well, I never planned on adding a capability to edit GEDCOMs directly. Those things are horrible to manually edit. The real purpose is just to view it if there is some reason to. In my case, I look at it all the time to make sure that Behold is displaying the GEDCOM constructs correctly. But I guess 99% of the people may never want to look at it.
Future editing in Behold will be directly done right on the Everything Report in Behold (Version 2). I’ll be adding a number of word-processor-like tools to help make that a snap. Then Behold will be able to save your data (Version 1.5) with edits into a fully valid GEDCOM.
But the text viewer will also be used to view the log file. I picked Wordpad because it is a bit faster for large files, but Notepad is good too. I have added a menu item to allow you to set the text editor to whatever you want.
I’ve never heard of Wordpad having trouble with text files, but I may be wrong. I know you can get in trouble if you use Wordpad to open a Microsoft Word file and then try saving it as text. But GEDCOMs start off as pure text, so I don’t think they’d be a problem if someone wanted to torture themselves and edit one with either Wordpad or Notepad.
Louis
Joined: Sun, 9 Mar 2003
288 blog comments, 245 forum posts
Posted: Tue, 28 Nov 2006
Thinking more about this, it might be best to still make the GEDCOM viewing possible, but make it less obvious. Maybe I’ll move that function to the GEDCOM page of the Organize Window.
I’ll change the GEDCOM icon become a “find files” function, which will be useful to everyone.
Louis
Joined: Sun, 9 Mar 2003
288 blog comments, 245 forum posts
Posted: Tue, 28 Nov 2006
… and I decided to make Notepad the default, as you suggested.
I actually didn’t do it because of possible problems with Wordpad. But I did it because clicking on the Log icon will bring up a new Notepad window with a refreshed log. A new window is not opened for Wordpad, and you have to close the opened window first if you want it refreshed.
Louis
Joined: Tue, 29 Aug 2006
16 blog comments, 1 forum post
Posted: Wed, 29 Nov 2006
Louis,
As I said I could be wrong. I have edited a few Gedcom files, but I was trying to be cautious as I have introduced so many people to computers and some of the things they do just amazes me, and frusterates me at the same time trying to correct all they managed to do.
Thanks for Your Open Mind.. And a Great Program.
Herb…