Added some initial documentation.

[gedcom-parse.git] / README

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+The Gedcom parser library (release @VERSION@)
+-------------------------
+The Gedcom parser library is a C library that provides an API to applications
+to parse and process arbitrary genealogy files in the standard gedcom format.
+
+Its main features are:
+
+ - strict callback-based parser written in C (using lex/yacc)
+
+ - supports the Gedcom 5.5 standard fully
+
+ - supports the standard encoding formats (ASCII, ANSEL, UNICODE), but
+   extensible (via a configuration file) to other encoding formats; by
+   default ANSI is also supported.
+
+ - all strings passed from callbacks to the using program are in UTF-8 format
+
+ - internationalization of the error and warning messages
+
+ - specific parsing of date values to a calendar-neutral date system (Julian
+   days aka serial day numbers); the date parser can be called separately
+
+ - provisions for "compatibility-mode" parsing, to allow for not-exactly-
+   standard syntaxes used by other genealogy programs (only the hooks are
+   in at the moment, not the actual compatibility)
+
+NOTE:
+ - NO BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY is guaranteed for 0.x releases !
+
+To do list:
+ - specific parsing and checking of cross-references
+ - specific parsing of other special values
+ - C++ interface
+ - compatibility with other genealogy programs
+ - older/newer Gedcom standards ?
+ - ...
+
+For more information, refer to the documentation in the doc subdirectory,
+or to the SourceForge project web site and summary page:
+  http://gedcom-parse.sourceforge.net
+  http://sourceforge.net/projects/gedcom-parse
+
+Also, have a look at the 'Genes' program, from which this library is a
+spin-off, and which intends to use this library:
+  http://genes.sourceforge.net
+  http://sourceforge.net/projects/genes
+
+
+Requirements:
+------------
+ - glibc 2.2 or higher
+
+To build from sources, you'll also need:
+ - gcc
+ - autoconf
+ - automake
+ - flex
+ - bison (won't work with plain yacc)
+
+It is possible that it also runs on other platforms than Linux (and that the
+glibc version requirement can be loosened), however, I can only support Linux
+because that is the only platform I have...
+
+
+Installation:
+------------
+This is simply:
+
+  ./configure
+  make
+  make install
+
+You can also run some tests via:
+  make check
+
+
+###############################################################################
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