Hey folks,
So for those of you who are interested in some of the stuff that we each do outside of Adium, take a look at this link to Family.
Evan and I have been working on Family for a while now, and we just released version 2.0. If you're interested in Genealogy (family tree stuff) then definitely give it a gander.
- Chris
Do not post bugs or requests to the comments! Use Trac.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Comments:
Very nice application. It isn't quite a Renunion killer yet, but if the interface for modification can get another layout otherr than the tree/flow layout, then it'd be well on its way.
# posted by 
: 1:53 PM
: 1:53 PM
Sorry if this is a wrong place to ask but is msn having server problems again?
Adium acts just like it did on November 15, 2006...
Do you have some kind of information about this?
Adium acts just like it did on November 15, 2006...
Do you have some kind of information about this?
# posted by : 1:54 PM
: 1:54 PM
Anonymous 1: Thanks. I don't know that we meant for it to be a "Reunion killer" but suggestions are definitely welcome.
Anonymous 2: Aye, they have been. Check the forums.
Anonymous 2: Aye, they have been. Check the forums.
Cool! I've been playing around with trying to write something like this, so it's interesting to see. Offhand:
Same-gender relationships get drawn badly (two hearts, one half-cut-off). It's very easy to mess up the graph - a 'regraph' option (while algorithmically a big bite) would be handy, next to 'shrink to fit'. And, I'd be intersted to know if/how you deal with multiple relationships (divorce, re-marriage, &c).
Same-gender relationships get drawn badly (two hearts, one half-cut-off). It's very easy to mess up the graph - a 'regraph' option (while algorithmically a big bite) would be handy, next to 'shrink to fit'. And, I'd be intersted to know if/how you deal with multiple relationships (divorce, re-marriage, &c).
# posted by : 11:48 PM
: 11:48 PM
Encouraging beginning! I'm a cocoa programmer myself and I like the way this feels. It could be a pay-for program but not quite yet in my opinion. A few comments if you want them:
When fit to grid is selected, adding space to the sides should do it in appropriately sized blocks. Also using the arrow keys to move people ruins the alignment. Shrink to fit also throws the alignment off grid. I appreciate there's a lot of work in terms of algorithms but this point was infuriating for me.
It is hard to show divorces and remarrages as a previous person said. I realise this is inimplemented but I think it's one of the next priorities 'cos who doesn'y have a broken marriage somewhere in their family!! Also consider gay marriages; as previous mentioned these are buggy.
I realise the whole GUI is designed to map generations horizontally. However, mapping it vertically produces very poor results and this, I feel, is a big limitation. Perhaps a preference pane with check box or radio group?
Further down the line, how about some sort or option to spread the selected people evenly and maybe some auto align options. Same generations should auto-align horizontally with an equal horizontal distance between them. Also, an equal vertical distance between people.
Lastly, how about an add child and add partner option in the edit window. This could open a new edit window and populate some expected defaults (gender, surname etc.) and users could still change them in special circumstances. For maximum kudos how about shifting the existing layout to create some space for them? All these things remove customisation option make the program more usable but less customisable so it should be an option which can be disabled, but on by default, I think.
When fit to grid is selected, adding space to the sides should do it in appropriately sized blocks. Also using the arrow keys to move people ruins the alignment. Shrink to fit also throws the alignment off grid. I appreciate there's a lot of work in terms of algorithms but this point was infuriating for me.
It is hard to show divorces and remarrages as a previous person said. I realise this is inimplemented but I think it's one of the next priorities 'cos who doesn'y have a broken marriage somewhere in their family!! Also consider gay marriages; as previous mentioned these are buggy.
I realise the whole GUI is designed to map generations horizontally. However, mapping it vertically produces very poor results and this, I feel, is a big limitation. Perhaps a preference pane with check box or radio group?
Further down the line, how about some sort or option to spread the selected people evenly and maybe some auto align options. Same generations should auto-align horizontally with an equal horizontal distance between them. Also, an equal vertical distance between people.
Lastly, how about an add child and add partner option in the edit window. This could open a new edit window and populate some expected defaults (gender, surname etc.) and users could still change them in special circumstances. For maximum kudos how about shifting the existing layout to create some space for them? All these things remove customisation option make the program more usable but less customisable so it should be an option which can be disabled, but on by default, I think.
# posted by : 1:12 PM
: 1:12 PM
the new beta version of adium isnt working well for QQ, it will be going crash while sign in QQ. i just aware that a problem among so many ppl from other discussion board.
"Anonymous 1: Thanks. I don't know that we meant for it to be a "Reunion killer" but suggestions are definitely welcome."
(not the original poster, but i know what they are getting at)
Reunion is considerd the de facto standard in OS X genealogy, some PC users i know just use a mac to use this software. The poster was inferring that Family is not quite up to a caliber to beat out Reunion.
http://www.leisterpro.com/
(not the original poster, but i know what they are getting at)
Reunion is considerd the de facto standard in OS X genealogy, some PC users i know just use a mac to use this software. The poster was inferring that Family is not quite up to a caliber to beat out Reunion.
http://www.leisterpro.com/
# posted by : 11:50 AM
: 11:50 AM
sam, those are some great suggestions, thanks -- look for at least fixes for some of the gridding options to be in the next version, and hopefully some of the other items in the not-too-distant future :)
While acknowledging the previous comments, I think the interface lets you draw a pretty picture. But this app does what so many others do, lock up your hard work. I was very disappointed to not see any options for exporting. I know there is an Export... menu item, but I'm sorry, producing an image from all this data is not "export", it's "print".
If I had gone through the effort of putting in a substantial number of persons, I would've been pretty irritated to find that I can't reuse my data.
Here's a page with some of the export format options ...
http://xml.coverpages.org/genealogy.html
Yes, there are many options, but picking one or two of them would allow my hard work to live beyond the lifetime of this application. I hope you'll consider it.
Post a Comment
If I had gone through the effort of putting in a substantial number of persons, I would've been pretty irritated to find that I can't reuse my data.
Here's a page with some of the export format options ...
http://xml.coverpages.org/genealogy.html
Yes, there are many options, but picking one or two of them would allow my hard work to live beyond the lifetime of this application. I hope you'll consider it.
