Treebard project is 6 years old
Jul 15, 2024 1:49:21 GMT -8
Post by Uncle Buddy on Jul 15, 2024 1:49:21 GMT -8
I've been working on Treebard full-time for six years as of today.
I've done quite a bit of testing and it seems that things are working pretty well. I'm quite impressed with myself. Here's my current to-do list:
STOP!
Just kidding, not really... but I probably will stop working on Treebard and move on to other things. I've done some testing, maybe missed a few things, but in general Treebard is in good shape and ready to serve its purpose.
Before I stop for a vacation or forever, I plan to accomplish these things, and it could take a week or two, maybe even longer:
--General cleanup.
--Make an .exe with CXFreeze (previous .exe was made with PyInstaller and one person said it didn't work.)
--Make the .exe and a .zip of all the source code available as downloads from the website.
--Post here all the code including a do list for improvements so casual readers don't have to download the .zip file.
Big changes have been made during this third chapter of Treebard development. Too many to list. I am very impressed with my effort. But I need to stop and take care of my health.
I'm 68 and still going blind, still need to spend less time in a chair, still need more exercise and sunshine. I have done what I set out to do. Treebard is a working model of how I think a genieware app should look. Its back-end UNIGEDS is a SQLite database that could replace GEDCOM for genieware vendors of the future who will want to use the same data structure (the same database schema) for their primary features.
Some genieware vendors of today will not want to rewrite their apps to use a UNIversal GEnealogy Data Structure, but the vendors who think it's OK to keep relying on a broken tool from 1984 will not be the vendors of the future. Any group of forward-thinking genieware vendors who agree to use UNIGEDS or better as a common data back-end will make it possible for their customers to share primary genealogy data among the participating applications without GEDCOM or any other data transfer tool. "Don't share GEDCOM, just share the whole tree."
Vendors will still create their own back-end for storing secondary data, vendor data, user data, etc. But UNIGEDS doesn't store any of that stuff. That's a key point, and unlike GEDCOM it should never add "features" like storing addresses for printing envelopes, it should never have geeky nerdware stuff in it, it should be simple so it's a simple tool to use, and as of today it is simple. A SQLite database that beginning programmers can use as is.
At every step of the way I've avoided doing anything more complicated or technical than I had to. I've watched lots of videos on how to become a "better" or "more advanced" Python developer, and most of this information was not for me. This project is geared more to genealogists who want to improve genieware, as opposed to professional programmers who want to take advantage of the popularity of genealogy by providing another cumbersome package of unnecessary techy "features".
Treebard and its back-end UNIGEDS--as well as UNIGEDS and its front-end Treebard--are still free, open source, public domain, portable programs that any developer can use as working models for anything they want. The Python/Tkinter code can be improved, or translated into a faster language like C++, Rust, etc.
The purpose of this project has been to prove that I can write better genealogy software than I can buy or download from the internet. I proved it to myself and I hope others enjoy this work or find it useful. The .exe and .zip should be along shortly.
Thanks for showing up.
I've done quite a bit of testing and it seems that things are working pretty well. I'm quite impressed with myself. Here's my current to-do list:
STOP!
Just kidding, not really... but I probably will stop working on Treebard and move on to other things. I've done some testing, maybe missed a few things, but in general Treebard is in good shape and ready to serve its purpose.
Before I stop for a vacation or forever, I plan to accomplish these things, and it could take a week or two, maybe even longer:
--General cleanup.
--Make an .exe with CXFreeze (previous .exe was made with PyInstaller and one person said it didn't work.)
--Make the .exe and a .zip of all the source code available as downloads from the website.
--Post here all the code including a do list for improvements so casual readers don't have to download the .zip file.
Big changes have been made during this third chapter of Treebard development. Too many to list. I am very impressed with my effort. But I need to stop and take care of my health.
I'm 68 and still going blind, still need to spend less time in a chair, still need more exercise and sunshine. I have done what I set out to do. Treebard is a working model of how I think a genieware app should look. Its back-end UNIGEDS is a SQLite database that could replace GEDCOM for genieware vendors of the future who will want to use the same data structure (the same database schema) for their primary features.
Some genieware vendors of today will not want to rewrite their apps to use a UNIversal GEnealogy Data Structure, but the vendors who think it's OK to keep relying on a broken tool from 1984 will not be the vendors of the future. Any group of forward-thinking genieware vendors who agree to use UNIGEDS or better as a common data back-end will make it possible for their customers to share primary genealogy data among the participating applications without GEDCOM or any other data transfer tool. "Don't share GEDCOM, just share the whole tree."
Vendors will still create their own back-end for storing secondary data, vendor data, user data, etc. But UNIGEDS doesn't store any of that stuff. That's a key point, and unlike GEDCOM it should never add "features" like storing addresses for printing envelopes, it should never have geeky nerdware stuff in it, it should be simple so it's a simple tool to use, and as of today it is simple. A SQLite database that beginning programmers can use as is.
At every step of the way I've avoided doing anything more complicated or technical than I had to. I've watched lots of videos on how to become a "better" or "more advanced" Python developer, and most of this information was not for me. This project is geared more to genealogists who want to improve genieware, as opposed to professional programmers who want to take advantage of the popularity of genealogy by providing another cumbersome package of unnecessary techy "features".
Treebard and its back-end UNIGEDS--as well as UNIGEDS and its front-end Treebard--are still free, open source, public domain, portable programs that any developer can use as working models for anything they want. The Python/Tkinter code can be improved, or translated into a faster language like C++, Rust, etc.
The purpose of this project has been to prove that I can write better genealogy software than I can buy or download from the internet. I proved it to myself and I hope others enjoy this work or find it useful. The .exe and .zip should be along shortly.
Thanks for showing up.