Genbox software review
Dec 11, 2021 6:04:32 GMT -8
Post by Uncle Buddy on Dec 11, 2021 6:04:32 GMT -8
Unlike previous reviews, I will use this genieware's real name (Genbox by William Flight). I liked using Genbox for a few years before I decided to hoard my research findings in a big pile on my hard drive till I could find something even better. I haven't been able to find anything better, not even close, so the urge to create my own genieware began in 2015 and became a full-time pursuit in mid-2018.
Genbox hasn't been updated or supported in years. There was an online users' group for a long time, but it was archived and then finally taken down. I hear that it's possible to purchase Genbox if you keep trying to contact Mr. Flight, but I don't know which of his contact information is functioning. The website still exists but not all of it works. I own a copy of Genbox and it still runs fine on Windows 10. I've used it on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 10.
I don't try to do comprehensive reviews, as you may have noticed. I just rant till I run out of steam. In this case I will use my head of steam to acknowledge Genbox and its creator for inspiring certain portions of the Treebard design. I have no idea how his database is structured except that it's coded to be compatible with MS Access, which sounds like a bad idea to me after all I've gone through to keep Microsoft from making my decisions for me. I also have found that learning to write SQL is way easier than using Access. A GUI like Access for creating database tables and relationships doesn't make sense to me, because it tempts you to learn as little as possible about SQL, and how can you understand what Access wants you to do if you don't know what SQL does? Anyway, I have no inkling of how any of Mr. Flight's features are coded, I just know how they work from using the program, and I haven't used it in years.
Genbox is cluttered with ugly little icons, too many nitpicky features, multiple ways of doing the same thing, and it has a few weird glitches. Like every other genieware I've tried, you can't change the color of the font so why bother changing the color of the backgrounds? The events table has resizable columns and they don't work very well. Tab traversal is anti-intuitive. The color-scheme-creation is too detailed. The search function is scary and geeky. Etc., etc. But instead of dwelling on the little annoyances, I will discuss the parts I liked well enough to be influenced by.
The events table was my favorite part of using Genbox. It is a central and visible element. It has some annoying parts too, but a comparison with Treebard will show obvious influence coming my way.
The autofill nested places input was an inspiration. I've improved on it, for example you don't have to type place names with capital letters in Treebard to get them to autofill. From Genbox I got the idea of having the last-used place fill in first when I start typing, and I've extended this to a person autofill too. I think Treebard's autofill works better, but Genbox is where I got the idea. I don't like Genbox' way of making you assign jurisdiction levels to nested places, but this is standard poor judgment, nothing new on Genbox' part. I can't see how developers fool themselves into thinking that these jurisdiction levels can be handled by a reasonable amount of juggling.
The current person system is simple and works well. Treebard works similarly. Unlike the program I reviewed last, the data shown on the main tab is from the viewpoint of the current person, not his spouse or his parents, so you know what you're saying and who you're saying it about when you input data. There's not a lot of redundantly repeated data to visually filter out or sift through, on the main view, but a lot of wasted space and redundancy in the program in general.
There are many features in Genbox which don't resemble Treebard features at all, which proves that Mr. Flight did not get in his time machine, go into the future, and copy Genbox from Treebard. Nor is Treebard copied from Genbox, but some of the layout you see when you open Treebard will remind you of Genbox. On the inside, the two programs are completely different and I have made improvements on every Genbox feature that inspired me.
If you can't find any software you like for entering genealogy data, I suggest you try to get Mr. Flight to sell you a copy of Genbox. It is far superior to any other program I've tried.
Genbox hasn't been updated or supported in years. There was an online users' group for a long time, but it was archived and then finally taken down. I hear that it's possible to purchase Genbox if you keep trying to contact Mr. Flight, but I don't know which of his contact information is functioning. The website still exists but not all of it works. I own a copy of Genbox and it still runs fine on Windows 10. I've used it on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 10.
I don't try to do comprehensive reviews, as you may have noticed. I just rant till I run out of steam. In this case I will use my head of steam to acknowledge Genbox and its creator for inspiring certain portions of the Treebard design. I have no idea how his database is structured except that it's coded to be compatible with MS Access, which sounds like a bad idea to me after all I've gone through to keep Microsoft from making my decisions for me. I also have found that learning to write SQL is way easier than using Access. A GUI like Access for creating database tables and relationships doesn't make sense to me, because it tempts you to learn as little as possible about SQL, and how can you understand what Access wants you to do if you don't know what SQL does? Anyway, I have no inkling of how any of Mr. Flight's features are coded, I just know how they work from using the program, and I haven't used it in years.
Genbox is cluttered with ugly little icons, too many nitpicky features, multiple ways of doing the same thing, and it has a few weird glitches. Like every other genieware I've tried, you can't change the color of the font so why bother changing the color of the backgrounds? The events table has resizable columns and they don't work very well. Tab traversal is anti-intuitive. The color-scheme-creation is too detailed. The search function is scary and geeky. Etc., etc. But instead of dwelling on the little annoyances, I will discuss the parts I liked well enough to be influenced by.
The events table was my favorite part of using Genbox. It is a central and visible element. It has some annoying parts too, but a comparison with Treebard will show obvious influence coming my way.
The autofill nested places input was an inspiration. I've improved on it, for example you don't have to type place names with capital letters in Treebard to get them to autofill. From Genbox I got the idea of having the last-used place fill in first when I start typing, and I've extended this to a person autofill too. I think Treebard's autofill works better, but Genbox is where I got the idea. I don't like Genbox' way of making you assign jurisdiction levels to nested places, but this is standard poor judgment, nothing new on Genbox' part. I can't see how developers fool themselves into thinking that these jurisdiction levels can be handled by a reasonable amount of juggling.
The current person system is simple and works well. Treebard works similarly. Unlike the program I reviewed last, the data shown on the main tab is from the viewpoint of the current person, not his spouse or his parents, so you know what you're saying and who you're saying it about when you input data. There's not a lot of redundantly repeated data to visually filter out or sift through, on the main view, but a lot of wasted space and redundancy in the program in general.
There are many features in Genbox which don't resemble Treebard features at all, which proves that Mr. Flight did not get in his time machine, go into the future, and copy Genbox from Treebard. Nor is Treebard copied from Genbox, but some of the layout you see when you open Treebard will remind you of Genbox. On the inside, the two programs are completely different and I have made improvements on every Genbox feature that inspired me.
If you can't find any software you like for entering genealogy data, I suggest you try to get Mr. Flight to sell you a copy of Genbox. It is far superior to any other program I've tried.