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Archiver > ROOTS > 1989-01 > 0602117774


From: Alf Christophersen 02 45 41 97 <>
Subject: A letter from SOC.ROOTS on Usenet Netnews
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 89 23:56:14 ECT


Path: ndsuvm1!cunyvm!nyser!njin!rutgers!apple!well!tswift
From: (Theodore John Swift)
Newsgroups: soc.roots
Subject: Review of PAF for the Macintosh (long)
Message-ID: <>
Date: 26 Jan 89 18:39:13 GMT
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Reply-To: (Theodore John Swift)
Lines: 373
Summary: Generally a very good package; a few gripes

PERSONAL ANCESTOR FILE (PAF) FOR THE MACINTOSH
A review by Ted Swift ().

Personal Ancestor File (PAF) is several programs contained on
two 800K disks. 400K disks are also available for those with single-
sided drives. PAF will run on any Mac with 512K or more, and uses
System 3.2 or higher. The PAF package consists of several support
files and main programs which I will describe separately:

* Family Records Program (FR), 358K, The main program for recording
and organizing definately known family information.
* Research Data Filer (RDF), 70K, helps you record (and organize)
information about individuals who you assume -but aren't certain-
are related to your line of research.
* PAFCOM, (terminal emulator), 60K, provides a way of transmitting
and receiving files to other researchers or to the LDS library (or
other libraries).
* FR Convert, 36K, converts files between the PC and Mac versions.
On PCs, a file is (apparently) six files, while on the Mac, the
individual, family, marriage, and note information is all in one.

* Extensive online help, contained in a 212K file.
- "Field Help" is available for a specific field,
- "Continuous Help" remains on the screen and will guide you as
you move from screen to screen,
- "Index and Reference" lists topics, definitions, explanations,
and instructions.
Field and Continuous help are not available in RDF and PAFCOM.

PAF is the first genealogy program I've seen to take advantage of
the Macintosh's programming philosophy, with the exception of the
Hypercard attempts: The program is "event driven" by the user's
actions, rather than prompting the user for specific information at
specific, limited times.
As with any well-designed Macintosh program, the user can click the
mouse in any of the data fields to enter, delete, or change data.
The up and down arrow keys and the Tab, Enter, and Return keys can
also be used to move from field to field. It is easy to take these
design philosophies for granted, but when they are missing, you lose
patience faster than you can say user interface design.

FAMILY RECORDS (FR)
FR is the portion of PAF where you will spend most of your time,
assuming you already have some solid information on paper, as most of
us do.
I suspect the Mac version of FR was developed using Hypercard as a
prototyping tool. Information is "autosaved" as you enter it, and,
like HyperCard, some actions are initiated by double clicks, some by
single clicks. Most actions are very clear and intuitive.

Using FR involves entering data in four specialized screens:
* Pedigree Search Screen- where you climb up and down your family tree,
and add new individuals and families.
* Family Screen- contains the record of one family; here you can add
families for an idividual, edit and add to a family, and record marriage
information.
* Individual Screen- contains the record of information specific to
an individual, e.g., names, birth and death dates and places.
* Notes Screen- you can record any notes at all about an individual.
Entries in the note screen can be tagged to events to be included with
printed reports. The note field can be up to eleven pages(!) of text.

To use FR you move among these screens. There is a certain hierarchy:
Pedigree search <-> Family <-> Individual <-> Notes
Pedigree search <-> Individual <-> Notes
Pedigree search <-> Notes,
but you can also get to a specific one by selecting it from a list.

Given the thorny information and relationships of genealogy, I
think the authors of PAF has selected a very reasonable way of
presenting and organizing the data: basically, as an electronic
Family Group Sheet. Even in this age of individuality, the family is
the most manageable unit to work with for genealogical purposes.
I've never thought of a family as quite as static and formal as a
group sheet seems to make it; a family stretches in all directions.
But after trying to think of a better alternative, I think the
Mormons have found a pretty good compromise. And it's not as though
multiple marriages, divorces, half-siblings, etc are a recent
development.

There is no special treatment for foster family relationships:
Family Records only provides for biological relationships, though
some tags in the Notes screen could provide a bridge between the
biological and adoptive families. This is a mild inconvenience for
adoptive situations, including Single, Gay, or Lesbian parents, where
one or both of the biological parents is out of the picture. I am
sure someone has a good work-around for this problem.

PAF will deal with divorces and as many marriages and as many
children as you like: there are scrolling lists for spouses and
children of the individual. Though you only see one "family group"
per screen sheet (all the children of a couple, but not all the
children of all spouses of an individual), it's very usable.

NAME CHANGES
There are fields for three given names and a surname, which is
enough for nick-names, but there is no direct way of dealing with
name changes per se, other than writing the alternate names in the
individual's note field.
PAF will print pedigree charts, descendant charts (lists), family
summaries, and individual summaries. This is plenty to do "serious"
genealogical work. It would be nice to have radial charts and
"bramble thicket" charts (your cousins as well as ancestors and
descendants- what a mess), but I think that could be developed as a
separate utility that would read either PAF format files or GEDCOM files.
Speaking of other utilities, I gather from talking to users of the
MS-DOS PAF that the PC version has a program called "PAF Util" which
performs functions not directly available in FR or RDF. From what
I've heard, it sounds like many of these features were incorporated
in the Mac version of PAF, so there is no need for PAF Util. Maybe
these more complex printing needs will be met by a future version of
FR, or a Mac "PAF Util"?

PREFERENCES
There are six switches (check boxes) that allow you to set
preferences for program behavior and displays. Three are normally on:
Capitalize SURNAMES, Show LDS Ordinances, and Confirm Names By
Retyping. Others, normally off, are Movable Windows (only a big deal
if you're using Multifinder or otherwise need free access to most of
the screen), Blank Screen On Startup (a shortcut to New Document),
and Prompt for Notes (after adding a new individual).
Two other preferences allow you to enter the beginning RIN (Record
Identification Number) for the first individual in the file and MRIN
(Marriage RIN) for the first marriage (equivalent to "family" in
PAF's view). These are useful in cases where you are continuing a large
file and want to continue consecutive RINs and/or MRINs.

FR CAPABILITIES, RESTRICTIONS AND LIMITS

File size
The PAF folks say (in the manual) that if there are no notes attached to
anyone, they were able to create a file on an 800K disk with 7900
individuals included in 875 marriages, each with eight children (!).
If each person has two notes [the size wasn't specified], they were
able to create a file of 2200 individuals in 250 marriages. This
corresponds to between three and ten persons per K. Your own mileage
(diskage??) will vary. I've thrown together a file of 52 persons in
21 marriages, some with notes; it occupies 17.9K, or about three persons
per K.

You can change the beginning RIN and MRIN, but you cannot change
individual ones. RINs and MRINs are assigned consecutively as you
enter individuals and marriages. An ID number can be different than a RIN,
however, and can take any form your particular organizing scheme requires.

FIELD # of chars
Sex 1

Surname,
given names,
title, each of
four Place levels 16

Dates 23
Temple code 5
ID No. 10
Submitter's name 40
Address 40
Telephone 40
Stake 25
Stake Unit No. 7

The routine that determines whether a date is valid will accept
dates preceded by "before", "after", or "about" (or BEF,AFT, and ABT
respectively), if you don't know the exact date. It will correctly
recognize months spelled out or in slash notation (e.g., 11/5/88) and
convert it to the unambiguous 5 Nov 88. It will always convert dates
to the "standard" format. It will also accept "dual year" dates
(months 13, 14, and 15) for Julian and Gregorian calendars.

Though PAF uses a range of fonts, there is no provision for user
choice of fonts: FR uses Geneva, New York, Monaco, and Courier for
dot matrix printing; Helvetica, Times, and Courier for
Laserprinting. Printing seems flawless; the PAF programs use the
standard printing protocols (via the Mac's Print Manager),
so printing details are transparent. The user selects paper size and
printing orientation (portrait, landscape) with the standard Page Setup
dialog box.

CUT, COPY, PASTE, and MERGING FILES
A marvelous aspect of a well written Macintosh program is the
ability to cut, copy and paste arbitrary information from one file to
another. I was gleefully happy to discover that PAF included these
features for moving information from field to field, and to and from
other applications and desk accessories. However, The question
quickly arises: How do I copy and paste whole individuals or groups
from one PAF file to another? Happily, this has been provided for,
though it's not quite as seamless as it could be. Family Records
will only open one file at a time, so simply cutting and pasting from
one to the other isn't available. To merge two files or portions of
files, you EXPORT one in GEDCOM format, then IMPORT it into the
other. Family Records does quite a bit of thinking and scratching
during the import and export processes (GEDCOM is a spec designed for
transportability and simplicity rather than speed of processing or
compactness), but it does the job. You can also split a large file
into smaller ones using the same basic technique.

PAF BUGS
Believe it or not, I couldn't find any serious ones. The only
problem I found involved entering dates: If you don't type spaces
between elements of a date, the program may display or interpret it
incorrectly. Typing 11aug1988 is displayed as simply "11", but is
not considered an improper date. However, unless you're a real
efficiency maniac, typing a space on either side of the month will not
break your heart, and you'll be able to hold out until the next release.

THE MANUAL
The manual is fantastic. It is very well written, well produced,
and (gasp) has a very good index. It is typeset rather than printed on
one of the 300 dpi printers. Though 300 dpi is nothing to complain about,
the smooth, sharp print is even more pleasing and welcoming to the eye.
I actually read whole sections of the manual. It is separated into Lessons
and Reference sections with tab cards so you can find a given section
quickly. Clearly the Family History folks have some good technical
writers.

NICE TOUCHES
* It's smooth: I was very pleased with the number of annoying faults
that were *not* to be found in PAF. Unlike some other programs, it
allows you to store the program or it's files wherever you please,
rather than requiring you to format a floppy disk in a special way for
exclusive use as a data disk, or requiring the user to store all
files in the same directory as the parent program. When you want to open
or save a file, the standard file dialogs appear, as usual. As a good
Macintosh program should, FR supports Desk Accessories and behaves
in a civilized manner towards them. Editing text is smooth and works the
way it should, allowing the user to select arbitrary strings of text.

* It's cheap: Either the LDS Church is seriously subsidizing PAF, or
someone is working for free: Developing a program like this takes time
and talent, and the quality of the materials themselves (manual, etc)
is worth the $35. Have you priced a 3-ring binder recently? 'course you
have; you're into genealogy. It's not copy protected, and I hope the $35
price will effectively discourage illegal copying.

* A document opens to where you left it last.

* Pressing option-tab jumps through the fields of a subject (e.g.,
birth) to the next subject (e.g., marriage).

* Extra disk labels for your backup disks- no big deal, but a
thoughtful touch.

* A Duplicate Down feature which somewhat alleviates the tedium of
typing in duplicate or similar information. By selecting a field
and selecting Dupe Down, the information from data fields
immediately above are copied into the selected field and as many
subsequent ones as appropriate. For example, if the person was
born and christened, or died and buried, in the same city, county,
and state, Dupe Down will allow you to type city, county, and state
only once.

GRIPES / WISH LIST
* FR limits some fields to too few letters: in some of the Place
fields (namely, 16 characters), I found I needed more than the
number allowed. "Methodist Church" just fits; "1st Methodist
Church" wouldn't. "Mountain View Cemetery" won't fit. So I'll
have to abbreviate- no big deal. FR also won't allow you to Paste
a string that's more than 16 characters into a field limited to such.
It should let you paste, then remove the unwanted part of the longer
string, complaining only if there are still too many characters.
* Also, FR is pretty cavalier about shortening the Place fields when
displaying and printing; if there isn't enough room to print the
whole place (e.g., town, county, state), it simply uses the first
letter of each word. This ranges from mildly inconvenient to
annoying and misleading. I was born in Benton County, which Family
Records shortens to "BC", a province of Canada to the north. My
father died in British Columbia, but it was shortened to "B". The
initials jog the memory if the memory belongs to the person who entered
the data, but it may be better to have a preference switch to allow them
to be left out. Ideally it should just print the whole place.
* If there isn't enough space for the full name in the child's field, PAF
prints the first and last names. This is fine, except that I have
two folks way back who's names were both Johann Wrampelmeier,
with only their middle names, Heinrich and Friedrich, to
distinguish them. Maybe there's a software switch for this, but I
haven't found it yet.
* It would be nice if Family Records "remembered" that you had just
added notes on an individual in the Individual screen; you can turn
on and off the prompt to add notes, which is great, but if you have
the prompt "on", it will ask you if you want to change notes even
if you've just returned to the Individual screen from the Notes screen.
* FR gets somewhat confused about which window or screen is uppermost
when using desk accessories. For instance, it wants the Pedigree
search screen to be behind the DA after you return from an
Individual or Marriage screen, when the DA should be behind any
application windows or screens.
* PAF is slightly modal, in that to enter certain kinds of
information (e.g., divorced status in the Family screen) you must
be in the correct screen. But until I can think of a better way to
do it, I'll hold my criticism. Some menu items (such as Preferences
in the File menu) are only available in the main family group screen.
These "modalities" could probably be removed without radical rewriting.
* Since data entry is such a keyboard-intensive task, there should be
keyboard equivalents for every control that's likely to come up.
In dialog boxes, for instance, hitting Enter or Return will select
the highlighted option (usually "yes"). But there is no Command-
key equivalent for the *un*highlighted option. This would be good
especially for the "Do you want to add notes" dialog; "Yes" can be
selected with Return or Enter, but a Command-N for "No" would be nice.

RESEARCH DATA FILER
RDF helps you record (and organize) information about individuals
who you assume -but aren't certain- are related to your line of
research.

Quoting from the manual: "With RDF you can
* Document each source of information.
* Sort your information by event (birth, marriage, death, burial,
military service, etc.), place, date, name, or relationship.

RDF can also
* Serve as an index to your notes, and
* Organize and rearrange your notes."

So RDF is a specialized database manager to organize random notes
and bits of information, information you are likely to come across in
the course of your research. It would be tedious to type all this in when
you're not sure if it will ever bear fruit, but once it's in, you can
search it rapidly and sort it by any field.

Research Data Filer allows the user to quickly sort and search
genealogical information. However, it's power and convenience could
be improved by making the editing screen a "screen" rather than a
modal dialog: As a dialog, it will not allow information to be cut
or pasted from another application or desk accessory. An important reason
for using a computer is that data should only have to be entered once,
both to reduce entry errors and to save the user's patience. While FR is
very well thought out, RDF is useful but should be rethought in
parts of it's design. It seems to be a holdover from earlier
versions, and could be better integrated. Information about data and
about documents are stored in separate files: Document files store
information *about* source documents (books, certificates, microfilms)
that contain information about people who might be of interest. Data
files store any information you find *in* a document.
Storing the two kinds of data separately seems foreign to me, but others
may have found that it's the way to go.

BUGS
There seems to be a bug, either in RDF or the System, that causes
command key events to occur twice under System 4.2. I was using Acta
(a wonderful outlining DA by David Dunham) to prepare this review and
found this strange phenomenon immediately upon pasting some text: I
got two two copies. It didn't show up using System 6.0.2 or under
System 4.1.

PAFCOM TERMINAL EMULATOR

The PAFCOM program is very nicely thought out. You can:
* transfer files using MacBinary, Xmodem protocols, as well as straight text
* save modem settings, phone number, etc as a document.

* Will set Macintosh TYPE and CREATOR file header attributes when
receiving files. This preserves the information the Mac needs to
automatically open a FR or RDF file.
* It will transmit and receive at speeds from 300 to 9600 baud,
though I've only tried it at 1200 baud. Other than remarking that
it is very considerate of the producers to include a terminal
emulator, There's not much more to say: it works just fine.

CONCLUSIONS
All my criticisms aside, I think PAF is a fantastic program. If
you are interested in genealogy and own or plan to own a Mac, buy a
copy of PAF. At $35.00, you could just buy a copy for your friend
who has a Mac, then go use theirs :-). My remaining gripes might be
ideas for the next version, but they're not going to slow me down in
using the program for now.
--
Ted Swift "Why is there a watermelon there?"
{hplabs,lll-crg/lcc, pacbell} "I'll explain later"
!well!tswift - from "Buckaroo Banzaii"

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