DeadEnds

DeadEnds is a C-based genealogical software project.

Introduction

DeadEnds is a collection of static libraries and command line programs that support genealogical operations. It is an eventual goal to provide a genealogical program with a graphical user interface that uses the DeadEnds library.

DeadEnds is based on the UNIX-based LifeLines program, which I wrote in the early 1990s, before there were genealogical programs available for UNIX. Key features of LifeLines include:

A B-Tree based database that stores genealogical records in Gedcom format.
An ncurses-based user interface that provides a terminal-independent, simple windows-based interface.
Capabilities to create, edit, merge and delete records of persons, families, sources and others. Linkages (to spouses, children, and sources) can be created, deleted and edited.
A programming subsystem that allows users to write programs that generate reports from the data in the database, and more general purpose programs for processing the data.

As a followon system from LifeLines, DeadEnds has the following goals:

Replace the LifeLines B-Tree database with an in-RAM system. When a DeadEnds based program starts up it creates a Database "on the fly" by reading a Gedcom file. There is no other persistant form of the genealogical data. There are a number of Gedcom standards, one for syntax, and a variety for semantic variants. DeadEnds enforces only syntax standards.
Embrace Unicode.To fully meet this goal I may eventually port DeadEnds to Go or Swift.
Implement and possibly extend the LifeLines programming subsystem.
Provide a clean API to genealogical operations to provide developers flexibility. I am imagining a SwiftUI interface.

Repository Structure

The home directory of the DeadEnds repository is named, unsurprisingly, DeadEnds. It contains a number of files and sub-directories. The following are most of the important subdirectories.

SubDirectory	Description
GedcomLib	The DeadEnds Gedcom library. See the next table for its contents.
MenuLib	MenuLib is a library that supports simple user interfaces that use stdin and stdout to ask questions and present menus.
RunScript	Command line program that reads a Gedcom file into a Database, reads a script file (program file) and runs the program using the data in the Database.
TestProgram	Command line program used during development as the primary test tool.
MenuTest	Command line program used during development to test the menu library.
PatchSex	One off command line program that reads a Gedcom file and rewrites it after adding or modifying 1 SEX lines in 0 INDI records that don't adhere to standards but can be easily put into standard format.
Gedfiles	Collection of Gedcom files used to test features during development.
Scripts	Collection of DeadEnds scripts (programs) used to test the script subsystem.
Docs	Collection of documentation files that are woefully out of date.

The Gedcom library is currently implemented as eight *.a files, one built in each subdirectory. I will eventually build a single *.a file. Here are the eight subdirectories.

Subdirectory	Description
Utils	Utility functions. Standard stuff.
DataTypes	Common data types, e.g. hash tables, lists, sets. Nothing specific to genealogy. Abstract data types useful in any context.
Database	In-RAM genealogical database. A database consists of record indexes and a name index. A record index maps record keys to Gedcom record roots. A name index maps name keys to lists of record keys.
Parser	The lexer and parser for the report programming language. The lexer is hand-crafted; the parser is yacc generated.
Interp	The interpreter for the report programming language. The parser builds abstract syntax trees whose nodes are PNodes (program nodes). The interpreter runs programs by interpreting PNode trees.
Gedcom	Gedcom library. Functions that deal with Gedcom and genealogical records constructed from trees of Gedcom nodes.
Validate	Functions that validate records in a DeadEnds Database.
Operations	Functions that operate on records in a DeadEnds Database.

TomWetmore / DeadEnds

readme

DeadEnds

Introduction

Repository Structure