"Windows in Time" User Instructions.
Revised: 8 Dec 1994
Copyright 1990-1995 Steve Estvanik / Cascoly Software /
All rights reserved.
Contents:
INTRODUCTION
INTERACTIVE HISTORY
DISPLAY
REPORTS
TIME CHANGES
PEOPLE
EVENTS
EDITING
EDITING OUTSIDE "Windows in Time"
REQUIREMENTS
SHAREWARE
REFERENCES
1. INTRODUCTION
How old was Paul Revere when he rode into history? When were the
gospels written? How old was Napoleon when the Declaration of
Independence was signed? How many years separated Cortez and
Michelangelo? In War & Peace, how old is Natasha when Napoleon captures
Moscow? Cascoly's "Windows in Time" historical timelines programs
examine these questions and many more. Unlike conventional paper
chronologies, "Windows in Time" lets you decide which people and events
to include, developing new insights and tracing patterns across different
eras and cultures. "Windows in Time" is used by history and art
students, Bible scholars, genealogists, teachers, writers and others
interested in exploring historical relations or cultural events. It's
also helpful to lawyers and other profressionals who need to establish
and demonstrate chronological or complex events.
"Windows in Time" is also distributed under the title "BIBLE-TIMELINE for
Windows". The same program is used for each, but the datasets provided
are different. In the discussions that follow, the term "Windows in
Time" applies to both programs. Registered users receive the complete
set of datasets for BOTH programs, so you need register only one or the
other program.
Cascoly also offers a DOS version of CHRONOS. All programs use the same
CH1 datafiles, so you can switch between DOS and windows versions.
2. INTERACTIVE HISTORY
You can begin your explorations immediately using the Timeline and
Reports options and the sample datasets that come with WIT. More are
provided when you register.
Some of the additional datasets include:
MILLENUM covers the period of the first millenium, from about 900 to 1200.
It concentrates on the evolving struggle between Christian and Muslim worlds
and beginnings of nations.
RENAISS covers the Renaissance period in Europe from about 1450 to the end
of the 30 Years War in 1648. It emphasizes the interaction and ferment
among political, religious and cultural events.
REVOLT covers the historical period from the American Revolution thru the
French Revolution and Napoleonic era to the Civil War (1750-1860). It
concentrates on the course of political and technical revolutions.
TWENTY covers the twentieth century. An eclectic collection of people and
events from our century.
CINEMA traces directors, actors, pictures and events from Intolerance,
Potemkin and Gold Rush to Goodfellas and Dances with Wolves.
WW2EUR contains a dataset of the European theatre of WWII.
WW2PAC contains a dataset of the Pacific theatre of WWII.
(Thanks to David Shideler for the WWII datasets.)
BIBLE-1
These datasets cover the Biblical & Classical eras.
GENESIS Abraham - Joseph (approximately 2000 BC - 1600 BC)
EXODUS Moses - Saul (approximately 1400 BC - 1100 BC)
KINGS Saul - Daniel (approximately 1100 BC - 800 BC)
BABYLON Daniel- Esther (approximately 800 BC - 500 BC)
GREECE The Hellenistic Age (approximately 500 BC - 200 BC )
ROME Roman Republic & early Empire (approximately 200 BC - 200 AD)
Note that for any of the times before about 800 BC, the dates for Bible
characters is traditional or speculative at best, since there is no
corroborating historical material. Many of the dates given for subsequent
Bible events is also subject to debate. But that's the beauty of an
interactive program -- you can modify the datasets as you wish, based on
your own research or beliefs. Cascoly Software is always interested in
receiving updated or alternate datasets created by users, and we will make
them available to other users.
Any of these can be used as the basis for a new dataset. Open the dataset,
then use the SaveAs option to save it under a different name. You can then
delete, edit or add other people and events to form a new dataset.
3.1 TIMELINE
Timeline from the menu to display the data. You can scroll thru the
timelines, switching back & forth from People and Events. The two
timelines are independent, so you can resize each of them -- perhaps
choosing a narrow people timeline and a wider events timeline. You can
also fill the screen with one of the timelines.
Click on any item and the details will appear. You can use this as an
additional way to edit or delete data.
Printing
--------
Click on the menu item Print when you want a hardcopy. Setup lets you
choose Portrait or Landscape for printouts. On standard pages, Portrait
gives you 80 characters across, while Landscape gives 102. You can give
less than these numbers, and the printout will still be accurate. This
can be useful if you'd like wider margins, for example. However, if you
enter a larger number (eg, 90 for a Portrait), then some of the
characters will be missing from each line.
The Timeline is printed so that it can be reassembled into a rectangular
wall chart. In some cases, there will be blank pages, but these are
provided to make it easier to reconstruct the chart. The program prints
the first X years (for example, 1-80 in standard Portrait mode), then the
next X (eg, 81-160), until the entire span is covered.
REPORTS
-------
Several reports are possible. Either the People or Events file can be
listed. You can choose which items to include on the report in the setup
form.
Factions, Occupations, Groups and Nations can also be printed
for reference.
3. TIME CHANGES
"Windows in Time" combines people and events into files called datasets.
These are the two basic elements of "Windows in Time". This section
describes how to use the People & Events portions of the program.
Examples can be found in the datasets provided with the program.
3.1 PEOPLE
"Windows in Time" considers 2 main types of information -- People and
Events. As you might expect, People records store information about
historical persons or fictional characters. Of course, you can also use
the People records to store information about companies, agencies or
other entities with lifespans. You can add or edit these records using
the People entry window. If you don't know the exact birth or death
years, you can enter an approximate one. (Note that, since the month and
day are left out, age calculations can only be accurate to within a year.
For years before 1700, there are additional discrepancies, since the
acceptance of the Gregorian calendar reform did not occur everywhere at
the same time. English speaking countries did not start using the new
calendar until the mid 1700's and Russia accepted the reform only after
the 1917 Revolution.) Also, if you decide to create a current dataset,
containing living persons, you could set the 'death' year to some
arbitrarily high value, such as 2030 or 2050, so that future ages can be
calculated.
You can assign people to factions that you define using the Faction
option of the People entry form. This lets you group people into logical
categories of your choosing. These might be national or political, such
as Union, Confederate, British or French. You can also define
occupations, such as artist, musician, statesman and poet. (Note, in the
shareware version, you need to change these groups outside the program.
Use Notepad or other text editor to edit the lists at the end of each CH1
file).
3.2 EVENTS
The second main data element is the event. This is a specific historical
happening. It could be a battle, a political act, or the publication
date of a famous novel. You can append a 2 line description, along with
time of the event (a starting and ending year). Events use groups and
nations in a similar fashion to factions and occupations for people. Two
nations are allowed for each event.
Events may be either specific years or of longer duration (eg, The French
Revolution or the Han Dynastry). For the former case, just enter the
same date for both starting and ending years.
3.3 EDITING
People and Event items are added, edited and deleted in a similar
fashion. From the Main menu choose either the People or Events. The
appropriate entry form appears. Use the combo box to select a particular
person or event. (These are sorted by date.) Use the Next and Prev
buttons to move forward or backwards within the list. Use the Delete
and New keys to remove or add people.
To change information, enter new dates, or names, and use the list boxes
to select groups, and factions. You can enter up to 2 lines of
descriptive material. When you finish, the program will prompt you if
there were changes. These changes remain while you're running the
program. To make the changes permanent, you'll also need to do a Save of
the file. (The program ask you later if you forget and try to exit
without saving.)
3.4 LIMITS
"Windows in Time" can handle any number of people and events (actually
there is a limit of about 30,000 of each, but that's a bit more than most
users will need.) However, the timeline does have a Windows imposed
limit of 32,000 characters. A rough estimate of number of people that
can be displayed is the range of years times the number of people. Thus
a 500 year range will hold 60 people, a 100 year range will hold up to
300 people. In practice, the capacity is actually larger. If the entire
timeline does not fit on the screen, you can select a smaller subset to
show.
3.5 EDITING OUTSIDE "Windows in Time"
The WIT/Chronos files are standard ascii, so you can edit them in any word
processor that handles ascii files. Be careful, though, that you keep the
number of lines exactly the same. Thus you can change the text of a line,
but do not add or delete lines. The files include some headers to help you
locate position.
Several users have information in other databases that might be interesting
to convert to "Windows in Time" format. You could do this manually,
reentering all the data. You could also write a basic program that handles
the conversion for you. We can do the conversion, if you want. Contact
Cascoly Software for details. Successful conversions have been done from
spreadsheets, Advanced Revelation, xBase and Paradox format.
If you want to try to experiment or edit these files, be sure to make
backups first.
The format of the files is:
CH1 format:
# of people
# of events
{ person #
name of person
startyr, type
endyr, type
Desc1
Desc2
faction #
occupation #
{ event #
name of event
startyr, type
endyr, type
desc1
desc2
group #
nation1
nation2 }
{ faction #
description
color }
{ occupation #
description
color }
{ group #
description
color }
{ nation #
description
color }
Thus, if you are careful, you can add or delete information outside of the
program. For example, to add a person, increase the first line by 1, then
insert the appropriate lines for that person in the file. People and events
are stored in order of birth year or event year. You can leave a blank line
if you want to skip, eg, the description line.
The "Windows in Time" file format was purposely designed so that it could be
easily edited outside of "Windows in Time". This is useful for mass updates
or adding large blocks of information.
Note that the Windows version doesnt use the color designators, but these
are still necessary for compatibility.
4. REQUIREMENTS
"Windows in Time" requires Windows version 3.x. You must also have a
copy of VBRUN300.DLL in your WIT or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. You will
have received a copy of VBRUN300 if you got WIT from Cascoly. If you
downloaded it, check with the BBS or Online service, since this file is
commonly kept separately to save download time.
5. SHAREWARE & THE ASP
This program is shareware, which is a means of distributing software. Under
the shareware concept, software may be freely copied and passed along to
others, or distributed through bulletin board systems or national networks.
Shareware is a means of distributing software. Under the shareware concept,
software may be freely copied and passed along to others, or distributed
through bulletin board systems or national networks.
As a recipient of a shareware program, you may use the software for up
to 30 days to determine if it meets your needs. If you want to continue
to use the program after that period, you must register it. When you
register "Windows in Time", you receive:
* A copy of the latest version of the program
* Additional bonus datasets
* Bonus Cascoly program
* A free introductory account on CompuServe including a private User
ID number and password, $15 introductory usage credit, and a
complimentary subscription to CompuServe Magazine, - a $30 value!
* A minimum of 90 days online support via CompuServe or by
telephone. Support by mail is also available, if accompanied
by a SASE.
A deluxe version of WIT is also available. To register a program, choose
the Register item from the main menu. You can then enter your ordering
information and print out an order form.
Cascoly Software is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals
(ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you.
If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member
by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP
Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
does not provide technical support for members' products. You can contact
the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a message
via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536 .
6. REFERENCES
Several example datasets are included to illustrate the range of studies
possible using "Windows in Time". Users are encouraged to send interesting
datasets to Cascoly, and we will include them in future updates. The
example datasets were compiled from a variety of sources. Some good
starting points would include the 'Who Was Who' books that can be found in
the reference section of libraries. Another good source is an unabridged
dictionary. They often have a section on famous people. Some historical
periods have special dictionaries that are useful.
GENERAL:
"Book of Chronologies", The NY Public Library, (Prentice Hall: 1990).
"Chronicle of the World", Jerome Burne, ed, (Ecam, 1989).
"The Timetables of History", Bernard Grun, (Touchstone: 1982).
"The Timetables of Science", Alexander Hellemans & Bryan Bunch, (1988).
BIBLE ERA:
"Archaeology of the Bible", Gaalyeh Cornfeld, (1976).
"The Bible Timeline", Thomas Robinson, (1992).
"The Book of J", Harold Bloom, (1990).
"The Macmillan Bible Atlas", Yohanan Aharoni & Michael Avi-Yonah, 1977.
"The Unauthorized Edition", Robin Lane Fox (1992).
SPECIFIC TOPICS:
"Oxford History of the Classical World", Boardman et al.(Oxford Press,1986).
"The Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars", David Chandler, (MacMillan:1979).
"A History of Narrative Film", David A. Cook (WW Norton, NY: 1981).