======================================================================
                       Ordinary and Armorial (OandA)
                              Version 3.0
                             February, 1998
                       Hirsch von Henford (Ken Mayer)
======================================================================

**********************************************************************
***** See INSTALLATION Instructions below -- particularly if you *****
***** downloaded this from Compuserve or the Internet ...        *****
**********************************************************************

**********************************************************************
*** NOTE:
*** I would appreciate feedback on this system. What do you like?
*** What don't you like? How can I improve it? Are you using it at
*** all? Not hearing anything from users at all is a bit
*** discouraging, and I'd like to know if it's worth the effort
*** I am putting into this software.
***
*** VERY IMPORTANT: I would like to know if you use the Soundex option
*** at _all_. If not, I may change this system to just allow the
*** "Name Equivalents" ...
***
*** See Contact info toward the end of this file ...
**********************************************************************


The Ordinary and Armorial system before you is a Visual dBASE
application designed for use specifically by Heralds, but anyone
who wants to can actually work with it. Just keep in mind that it
was aimed at those anal retentive paper-pushers (meant as a joke, 
since I am one) -- the SCA College of Heralds.

One of the hardest things to do in the College, is heraldic research,
specifically conflict checking, both for armory and to a lesser
degree, for names (names you can just look up (although there is a
completely different form of research involved, much of which cannot
be done using a system like this one) -- armory takes a lot
of cross-checking in the books).

The idea is to make it easier.


======================================================================
                            REQUIREMENTS
======================================================================
80386 or faster processor (preferably an 80486 or faster).
6-8 Megabytes of RAM (more suggested)
35 megabytes or more of available hard disk space
Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 (Probably will work under OS/2 and/or NT)

  Unfortunately, this system does take a bit of resources. If you 
  have ever received the OANDA.DB files from the Morsulus Herald in 
  ASCII format, they combine to about 5 meg of data. For the system 
  to function in dBASE, which uses "Fixed-Length Records" (as opposed 
  to the work done by Morsulus, which can use "Random-Length Records"), 
  the tables take approximately 26.5 Megabytes (closer to 36 if you 
  choose to use the SOUNDEX/NAME routines for name searches -- this is 
  optional, however). The software takes another 2 or so meg of data 
  (database engine and such).


======================================================================
                 CHANGES IN THIS VERSION FROM PREVIOUS

Version 3.0 (this one): 

Not necessarily noticeable, but this version was done with Visual
dBASE 5.6 (as opposed to 5.5) -- changes made are all internal
software upgrades, but -- if you use the software a lot -- leaving
it onscreen and such -- in previous versions there were difficult-
to-avoid memory leaks, and eventually it might have been necessary
to reboot. This should not occur now. 

Anyway, the chances are you won't notice any difference in this
version of the software (as opposed to 2.11). The re-compile under 
5.6 was for my own sanity-check. Hirsch
======================================================================

======================================================================
      INSTALLING UPDATED SYSTEM, BUT WANT TO KEEP CURRENT DATA
      
The system is a bit stupid when it installs -- it overwrites the data
if you had a version previously. What this means is, you have to 
re-do the translation process, which on a slower machine can take
some time.

Suggestion: 
If you have the disk space, before installing this version, slip 
out to DOS (or use the File Manager or Explorer ...) and copy all 
files with .DBF and .MDX extensions to another directory. These are 
the data files.

Then, install the software, and when the install is done, copy the
.DBF and .MDX files back. Run the program and make sure the data works
(it should), and then you can delete the backups you made.
======================================================================

======================================================================
                TO USE THE SOFTWARE -- INSTALLATION
======================================================================
There are three steps necessary to use this software:

   1) You must install it.
   2) You must get the 'base' data and install it.
   3) You must translate the 'base' data in the OANDA software.

These three steps are described in detail below.


---------------
1) INSTALLATION
---------------

   GETTING THE SOFTWARE ON FLOPPY DISK
   -----------------------------------
   One option is to obtain this software from the author
   (details below) on floppies. You will get 3 (3 1/2") disks for this
   system, and one assumes, you will also be getting the OANDA 
   data -- this is currently on 4 - 3 1/2" disks if obtained from
   Morsulus, or two 3 1/2" disk2 if obtained from myself (Hirsch).

   Install the OANDA system by using the SETUP program on the
   floppy. 

      Windows 3.1: In the program manager, use
        File
          Run
          A:SETUP     (or use B:SETUP if your 3 1/2" drive is
                       disk B:)

      Windows 95:  Use the START button on the task bar, and
        select RUN. In the dialog box, enter:
           A:SETUP    (or B:SETUP if your 3 1/2" drive is disk B:)


      OS/2 (and anything else that claims to be Windows 
        compatible) use the normal methods associated with that
        operating system.

   In any case, the software will install if you follow the
   directions. 

   GETTING THE SOFTWARE IN .ZIP FORMAT
   -----------------------------------
   It is possible to download a copy of this software from 
   Compuserve's Living History forum (Section 17 -- SCA) as
   OANDA1.ZIP. (Eventually you may be able to get it elsewhere,
   -- this is freeware! If so, it may have a slightly different
   name.)
   
   Unzip the file to a temporary directory (from the DOS prompt):

   MD INSTALL
   PKUNZIP OANDA1 \INSTALL
   
   From the INSTALL directory, run the file:  SETUP.EXE
   
   (In Windows 3.1 or NT, FILE | RUN ... , or in Windows 95 use the 
    START button and select "Run" from the menu ...)
   
   This will install the software from your temporary directory 
   to the directory:  C:\OANDA  (unless you change it -- if so,
   please make sure you change it in any location you are asked
   about, so everything is in the same directory).

   There may be a question asked about merging the BDE Configuration -
   please do so! If you do not, you may not be using the correct
   driver ...

   When complete, delete the contents of the INSTALL directory.

--------------------------
2) GETTING THE 'BASE' DATA
--------------------------

Once you have installed the software, you will need to follow
the instructions for the copy of the OANDA data that you have.

   GETTING THE OANDA DATA FROM DISKS (FROM THE MORSULUS HERALD
   BY MAIL, OR FROM HIRSCH DIRECTLY)
   ------------------------------------------------------------
   If you have disks from Morsulus, follow the installation routines to
   combine the files into one table (OANDA.DB) -- do _not_ use the 
   SDF option -- that takes close to 52 megabytes and this system isn't
   designed to read that format ... copy (or move) this file (or 
   install it) into the OANDA directory.

   In addition, on the last disk of the set, there is a file called 
   MY.CAT -- make sure you copy that file to the directory that the 
   OANDA system is in.
  
   Make sure you let Morsulus know that you are using this system --
   the data may be in a different format otherwise.
   
   If you get the disks from Hirsch, there should be two floppies --
   run PKUNZIP to install the files to the OANDA directory -- the
   command may look like:
    
       PKUNZIP A:OANDA C:\OANDA
       
   The PKUNZIP program should be on disk 1 of the disk set for
   the data, so if you do not have it on your hard drive somewhere,
   you can use it this way:
   
       A:PKUNZIP A:OANDA C:\OANDA
   
   (You'll be asked for the "last disk in the backup set" a moment, 
   and then the first one again ... follow the prompts)
  

   GETTING THE DATA FROM A .ZIP FILE 
   ---------------------------------
   You can download the file OANDA.ZIP from Compuserve's Living 
   History Forum (Section 17 -- SCA) and also from some SCA sites. 

   Unzip the tables directly into the OANDA directory. You should get
   both OANDA.DB and MY.CAT. If not, check the instructions (probably
   named "README.TXT"). If you got the file from Compuserve, and 
   both files are not there, contact me. Otherwise, contact the 
   Morsulus Herald (info below).
  
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
   Previously (before version 2.1) there was a warning here about the
   data -- if you got in in UNIX format, there would be problems.
   This should be fixed -- the translate routines will automatically
   place the "missing" characters into the file, so that they can
   read the data. 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
   

   GETTING THE DATA FROM THE INTERNET/WORLD-WIDE-WEB
   -------------------------------------------------
   Download it from the web at a special location set up especially
   by the Morsulus Herald with the folk running the SCA Web site:

      http://www.sca.org/heraldry/OandA/oanda

   (If you download it from here, select "File | Save As ..." in the
    file menu of your browser, and enter "OANDA.DB" as the filename -
    if you do not, it will end up as "OANDA" or "OANDA.HTM".
    The file extension is necessary for it to be recognized by the
    software ... Also note where it gets saved to ...)
    
    You should download MY.CAT from this page as well:
   
       http://www.sca.org/heraldry/OandA/my.cat
   
    Save it as 'my.cat' to the same place you saved 'oanda.db'.
   
    Sometimes the categories get changed a bit, and this file is 
    what contains that information. If you get the data from Compuserve,
    the most recent version of MY.CAT that I had when I uploaded the 
    .zip file will be contained there.
   
    Note that if you are using Compuserve as your Internet front-end,
    you will be better served by downloading the file OANDA.ZIP from
    the Living History forum, rather than through the internet -- it
    will be much faster (Compuserve's Internet connections are slow
    and overloaded -- it took over 2 hours to download the file on
    my 14,400 connection ...).


--------------------- 
3) TRANSLATE THE DATA
---------------------
Run the software -- this is done by double clicking on the icon
(in Windows 3.1) or the short-cut, or however you have it set up
to run in Windows 95.

   ====================================================================
   NOTE: With build 2.7 and later versions, if you select the File
   Menu, Preferences, Translation Routines, you can create a preference
   to perform the translation of the OANDA.DB followed immediately by
   the category table, without any interference by you ... (If you
   use the 'names' table, you should select the option for that as well 
   ...) You also have an option to automatically delete the OANDA.DB
   and MY.CAT data (as of version 2.8) -- this is handy if you just
   want to run the translation routines and "do dinner" or something,
   and when done just start right in on using the system. 
   ====================================================================

Run the TRANSLATE routines from the menu of this system. You _need_ 
to run the first two routines (Translate OANDA.DB and Translate 
Category Table). I would recommend not doing the third (Create 
Name Table) until after you have ensured everything else works, and
only if you really want to use that option (it adds to disk space used,
and is really only useful for name research, although it is makes name
searches much faster).

For the first two translation routines, you may see a DOS window
appear for a short bit of time -- it's supposed to do that, and
everything's ok. It will return to the program and the translation
will continue ... (This is new to version 2.1)

Both of these routines will take some time -- on my 486/DX4, 
16 Meg (RAM) computer, running Win 95: the first runs about 1/2 hour or 
so, the second is a bit shorter (20+ minutes minutes, maybe more).
(Of course, the faster the computer, the less time -- since my
upgrade to a 200Mhz computer with 32 meg of RAM, it takes about 20
minutes total for all three translation routines ...)

The first routine is the one to translate OANDA.DB - this creates
the armorial and ordinary tables -- splitting the data out into
several tables. 

The second routine "translate categories" now takes longer than before,
but this is due to added functionality and flexibility. (If you set
the preferences, you won't need to worry about this option ... it will
happen automatically)

When done, you will be asked about deleting the original files -- 
if you are low on disk space, this is a good idea. If you have 
lots of disk space, and aren't worried about it, it doesn't hurt 
to leave it on the drive, but the software doesn't come back to it   
unless you need to re-translate the data. (If you set the preference
for it, these files will be automatically removed from your hard
drive ...)

As noted elsewhere in this document, if you have the disk space and
perform a lot of name searches in the data, creating the Name
table is a good idea -- it takes some more time (another 15 minutes 
on my Pentium) but the speed difference in name searches, not to mention
the ability to get language equivalents faster, is well worth
it ... (If you set the preference for this, it will be set up 
automatically for you ...)

(Backup the files OANDA.DB and MY.CAT in case you need to 
re-install or re-translate the data ...)

REGARDING THE NAME TABLE:
If you are a Scribe, or you do a lot of looking in the system for names
you will want to run the routine to translate the NAME table. This gives
some nice options for searches, which speed up searches, and give you
language equivalent options (such as searching for Mike, and getting
Michael, Mikael, and all variations!).


======================================================================
                     OBTAINING UPDATES/NEW RELEASES
                     OF THIS SYSTEM AND/OR THE DATA
======================================================================

As you might imagine, the data gets updated regularly (Morsulus
puts out quarterly updates - lately he's been doing MONTHLY updates
to the data, but official updates are still quarterly), and this 
system itself has been evolving over time. 

Regular updates to the program can be obtained from one of two 
sources:

1) Contact Hirsch (contact information toward the end of this
   document);
   * OR *
2) Download it from the Living History forum of Compuserve
     (this would be in Library 17 - SCA, filename is OANDA1.ZIP); 
       
You can also get updates to the data from:
1) Contact Morsulus (contact information toward the end of this
   document);
2) Download it from the Living History forum of Compuserve (Hirsch
   puts updates there ...) (This will be in Library 17, filename
   is OANDA.ZIP); 
   or
3) Download it from the web at a special location set up especially
   by the Morsulus Herald with the folk running the SCA Web site:

      http://www.sca.org/heraldry/OandA/oanda
      
   To see if the data is more recent than what you currently have,
   check the ABOUT option in the OANDA menu: This will show you
   what the copyright date is on the data, and the LoAR most
   recently added to the data (just above the "Ok" button). When
   you go to the web site, scan down to the "End of Notice" bit,
   and there will be some "Copyright" lines -- check the dates
   there against those in the "About" dialog. Only spend the
   time to download data if the Copyright and LoAR dates for the
   data on the web site are more recent than those in the "About"
   dialog. These lines look like:
   
    ||C|This is an on-line Ordinary and Armorial for the SCA.|
    ||C|Version control:  LoARs thru 9711|
    ||C|Last update:  971208 by Morsulus|
   

   (If you download it from here, select "File | Save As ..." in the
    file menu of your browser, and enter "OANDA.DB" as the filename -
    if you do not, it will end up as "OANDA", with no file extension.
    The file extension is necessary for it to be recognized by the
    software ... Also note where it gets saved to ... if you're being
    efficient, you will save it directly to the same directory the 
    OANDA system is in (i.e.,   C:\OANDA\OANDA.DB   ), otherwise
    you will need to move it (copy or DOS 'Move' command ...) to the
    directory the OANDA system is in. )

   You should download MY.CAT from this page as well:
   
      http://www.sca.org/heraldry/OandA/my.cat
   
   Save it as 'my.cat' to the same place you saved 'oanda.db'.
   
   Sometimes the categories get changed a bit, and this file is 
   what contains that information. If you get the data from Compuserve,
   the most recent version of MY.CAT that I had when I uploaded the 
   .zip file will be contained there.
   
Note that if you are using Compuserve as your Internet front-end, you
will be better served by downloading the file OANDA.ZIP from the Living
History forum, rather than through the internet -- it will be much 
faster (Compuserve's Internet connections are sometimes slow and 
overloaded it's getting better though -- it took over 2 hours to 
download the file on my 14,400 connection, and with the 34.6 
connection I know have it would still take a longer time
than just downloading it directly from CIS ...).

If you use either options 2 or 3 to obtain the data, check 
periodically - Morsulus has been updating the data approximately once
a month or once every two months in the recent past. This may 
change, but for now, this means the data is very current. 


======================================================================
                           PRINT TO A FILE??
======================================================================
This option has been requested by a couple of folk. See the file
that should be in the directory you install this system to:
   PRNTFILE.TXT
And follow the instructions closely. It works! Really!


======================================================================
                             MORE DOCS
======================================================================
  See CATEGORY.TXT for some details on the categories used in the
    'search by category' routine.
  FEATURES.TXT goes into detail of the features used to modify
    the search categories mentioned above (and is used by the
    info buttons on the features selection form ...).
  See HOWUSE.TXT for some step-by-step instructions for doing 
    searches.
  CODE.TXT describes the "Type of Registration" information that
    appears on some of the forms.
  HISTORY.TXT -- the history information that used to be at the
    end of this file -- moved to shorten this one ...

======================================================================
         IT'S INSTALLED, YOU HAVE THE DATA, WHAT DO YOU DO?
======================================================================
Use it! In the FILE menu, you have the options to do a name search
(Armorial (By Name)), and a search for heraldry (Ordinary (by
Category)) as well as the exit option. 

If you are completely befuddled how to use the software, check the file:
HOWUSE.TXT -- this file contains some details on doing either of the
searches ...

If you need assistance in either of these routines, there is a small
"info" button in the upper right corner of most of the dialog boxes. 

If you are a herald, you will have a pretty good idea how to
use the software. If you aren't, well ... you may learn something
about heraldry this way. 

Enjoy, please let me know of any problems you have encountered.


======================================================================
                     FIND AN ERROR IN THE DATA???
======================================================================
If there is a problem in the data, whether it's a case of spelling, 
indexing problems (i.e., something comes up strangely that you 
didn't expect -- please check out HOWUSE.TXT first, though -- there's
a bit at the end that deals with indexing and searching and the hows
and whys ...), or some other error in the data, please let the 
Morsulus Herald know. His postal and EMail addresses are given below 
(closer the end of this document).


======================================================================
              ERROR: PRODUCTION INDEX MISSING OR DAMAGED
======================================================================
If you get an error of this nature, there is a routine under "Utility"
that will rebuild the indexes from scratch. Take a moment and run it,
and everything should be ok. I have no idea why this might occur,
unless you turn off the computer with one of the tables open --
this is a bad idea! Always exit this system first, and let dBASE
clean up any temporary files it may have created, _and_ avoid
corrupting the indexes. (Of course, power outages, things of that
nature are impossible to avoid, and these would cause the same
sort of problem ...)


======================================================================
                    Tables Doing Weird Things
======================================================================
While I don't anticipate the tables getting farkled by this system,
cosmic rays are weird things. (Well, basically sometimes things happen
that are completely out of my control ...)

There is an option in the menu to rebuild the tables (under
the utility menu). This should be used only if everything's
gone totally screwy, and the option to rebuild the indexes doesn't
do any good. This will completely erase your tables from the hard
drive, and re-create them from scratch. It will then create the
indexes for the tables that have them.

Once done (and this is quick) you will need to re-run the translation
routines to get the data back into the system. In addition, this
will erase the save query table ...

If you have used the "save query" option, you might want to copy the
table SAVEQRY.DBF to another location temporarily, and copy it back,
assuming that this table doesn't have any corruption/problems. If
it doesn't, you're fine. If it does, and you've already re-translated
the data, and spent all that time, just delete the table. The system
will build it if needed ...

Note -- you should never (EVER) turn off your computer while you have
a file open (whether it is a database file, a word-processing file,
a spreadsheet ...) -- you can cause damage to the file. In the case
of data files, they are particularly touchy about this in a lot of
cases, largely because you generally do not load the whole file into
memory at any one time, but view parts of it ... this means that the
computer has to track where it is -- if you turn off the computer
while one of these files is open, that marker it uses may become
an "end of file" mark and your data will be useless ...

   --------------------------------------------------------------------
   NOTE: If the EQUIV.DBF table gets farkled, reinstall the software. 
   If the other tables are ok (at least far as you can see), and
   you have the disk space, copy them to another directory with the 
   .MDX files as well. (COPY *.DBF C:\TEMP  and do the same for
   the .MDX file). Then, when done re-installing the software, copy 
   the tables back, except for the EQUIV.DBF and EQUIV.MDX files ...
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
   

======================================================================
         CONTACTING THE AUTHORS OF THE DATA AND THIS SYSTEM
======================================================================
You can obtain the OANDA data, and/or updates to this software
by contacting either the Morsulus Herald, or the author, or via 
sources given above (online sources).

At this time, the Morsulus Herald is:

             Master Iulstan Sigwealding, OP
             (aka Steve Goldschmidt)
             877 San Lucas Ave.
             Mountain View, CA, 94043 (USA)
             (415) 969-8237
             Internet: sgold@best.com

The author is:

             Master Hirsch von Henford, OL, OP
             (aka Ken Mayer)
             2308 Alva Avenue
             El Cerrito, CA 94530
             (510) 215-5879
             CIS: 103721,3257
             Internet: 103721.3257@compuserve.com
             Web Site: 
                http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/KMayer
   
The information about this system will be under the information about 
Hirsch (it's a multi-faceted site ...).

======================================================================
                    OBTAINING THE SOURCE CODE
======================================================================
If you are truly interested in the source code for this software (it 
is Visual dBASE 5.6 code), you can obtain it from the author as listed 
above. This is some fairly complex stuff ... However, I am perfectly 
willing to share, otherwise I'd be charging for it! <grin>


======================================================================
                        End of File: README.TXT
======================================================================
