Although jimmc.roots is a few years old, it has only been released recently, so expect a lot of rough edges and a few bugs and tracebacks.
jimmc.roots is 100% Java, so should run on any machine that runs Java 1.3.
Before running jimmc.roots, you must set up your
machine with JRE1.3.
After doing this on Windows (or on Solaris 2.6 or later), you
can directly execute the roots.jar file. On a Unix system, you must
enter the command "java -jar roots.jar".
See the file README.html for more information
on setting up and running jimmc.roots.
The User Interface
jimmc.roots uses a pretty standard point-and-click user interface. Each window includes a menu bar at the top, with standard pull-down and pull-right menus.
There are three types of windows:
Hopefully the UI is mostly obvious, but here are a few tips about things that are not obvious.
A sample data file has been included in the standard distribution.
This file can be found in the dat
directory, and is called
kingmacbeth.dat.
It contains a genealogy of MacBeth mac Finlay, King of the Scots in 1040.
From the main jimmc.roots directory, start jimmc.roots with the following command:
java -jar roots.jar dat/kingmacbeth.datThis will open the main roots window, which (after the program finishes reading the file) will list the number of records found in the file.
To get a list of all people named John, enter that name into the text box in the main window and press Enter. The ID line of all matching records will be printed in the main window, and a new List window with the lst of matching records will open. To see a list of the ID values for these records, click on the "Include Keys" toggle to turn it on. The list will now disply the ID values in sqaure brackets for all records.
To display a single record from this list, right-click on the ID number and select Single View. This will open a new Single View window with data from the selected record.
You can move around to direct relatives in a Single View by clicking on the Select buttons.
When a new Single View opens, it displays in list format. You can change the format by changing the Display selection in the Output section. You can choose from the following display formats:
When viewing data in a single view, you can display the database ID values by clicking on the "Include Keys" toggle button. You can then right-click on any displayed ID and select the Select command to make that person the selected person for that Single View window.
You can save any displayed information from a List or Single View window
by selecting "Save Output As" from the File menu.
Other Documentation
More information can be found in these documents: