content.txt

Emdros is a text database middleware-layer aimed at storage and retrieval of "text plus information

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
<IMG SRC="new.png" ALT="New">.</P>

<h2>Open</h2>

<P>The "Open" menu item opens a file and reads it into the
<page_anchor ID="1200">input area</page_anchor>.</P>

<P>The file can be either an MQL query or a configuration file.</P>
<index term="configuration file">

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
<IMG SRC="open.png" ALT="Open">.</P>

<h2>Save</h2>

<P>The "Save" menu item saves the current contents of the <page_anchor
ID="1200">input area</page_anchor>.  If no filename has been given
previously, the "Save As" dialog box will appear so you can give the
file a name.

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
<IMG SRC="save.png" ALT="Save">.</P>

<h2>Save as</h2>

<P>The "Save as" menu item saves the current contents of the input
area, giving it a (new) name.</P>

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
None.</P>

<h2>Exit</h2>

<P>The "Exit" menu item quits the program.</P>

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
None.</P>

</page>



<page ID="1150">

<h2>Copy</h2>

<P>The "Copy" menu item copies the current selection to the
clipboard.</P>

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
<IMG SRC="copy.png" ALT="Copy">.</P>

<h2>Cut</h2>

<P>The "Cut" menu item cuts the current selection to the
clipboard.</P>

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
<IMG SRC="cut.png" ALT="Cut">.</P>

<h2>Paste</h2>

<P>The "Paste" menu item pastes the current contents of the
clipboard.</P>

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
<IMG SRC="paste.png" ALT="Paste">.</P>



</page>



<page ID="1155">

<h2>New Connection...</h2>

<index term="Connection settings dialog">
<P>The "New Connection..." menu item closes the current database
connection and brings up the Connection settings dialog (<page_anchor
ID="1115">SQLite</page_anchor> version, <page_anchor
ID="1118">MySQL/PostgreSQL</page_anchor> version).</P><index
term="MySQL"><index term="PostgreSQL">

<P>This allows you to connect to a new database, or to reconnect if
the connection was lost, or to use a different configuration file.</P>
<index term="configuration file">

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
None.</P>

<h2>Execute query</h2>

<P>The "Execute query" menu item attempts to execute the contents of
the <page_anchor ID="1200">input area</page_anchor> as an MQL query
against the backend.  The <page_anchor ID="1300">output
area</page_anchor> will show the results.</P>

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
<IMG SRC="flash.png" ALT="Execute">.</P>

<h2>Configure...</h2>

<P>This menu-item has not been implemented yet.  Sorry.</P>



</page>



<page ID="1160">

<h2>About Emdros Query Tool...</h2>

<P>This brings up the "About box".  Press "OK" to dismiss it
again.</P>

<P>Equivalent <page_anchor ID="1130">toolbar</page_anchor> button:
None.</P>



</page>



<page ID="1200">

<P>The input area is the top left pane:</P>

<IMG SRC="InputArea.png" ALT="Input area">

<P>Use it to write/edit your MQL query, or to write/edit a
configuration file.</P> <index term="configuration file">

<h2>Example</h2>

<P>Here a query has been written in the input area:</P>

<IMG SRC="InputAreaExampleQuery.png" ALT="Input area with example query">


</page>



<page ID="1300">

<P>The output area is the bottom left pane:</P>

<IMG SRC="OutputArea.png" ALT="Output area">

<h2>Example</h2>

<P>Here a query has been executed, and the output area shows the
progress of the query.  Of course, the output itself would also be
shown if one scrolled the window.</P>

<IMG SRC="OutputAreaSampleOutput.png" ALT="Output area with sample output">


</page>



<page ID="1400">

<h2>What is a schema?</h2>

<index term="schema">

<P>The "schema" of an Emdros database consists of the enumerations,
object types, and monad sets created as "meta-data" in the
database.</P>

<P>An object type could be, e.g., "Word", "Phrase", "Clause", "Verse",
"Line", etc., and the designer of the database has determined these
when he or she created the Emdros database.</P>

<P>An enumeration is a set of labels that can be used for easy
mnemonic access to commonly used values.  Examples could include
"noun", "verb", "adjective", etc. for the enumeration
"part_of_speech".</P>

<h2>The schema area</h2>

<P>The pane in the right-hand side shows the database schema of the
current database in a tree.</P>

<IMG SRC="MainScreen.png" ALT="Main screen; the schema area is on the
right.">

<h2>The schema tree</h2>

<P>The schema area consists of a tree which is fully
expandable/collapsible by pressing the "+" and "-" buttons next to a
label.</P>

<P>The "root" of the tree shows the name and/or location of the
current database.</P>

<P>Underneath the root, there are three categories:</P>

<OL>

  <LI><strong><page_anchor ID="1410">Enumerations</page_anchor></strong>

  <LI><strong><page_anchor ID="1420">Object types</page_anchor></strong>

  <LI><strong><page_anchor ID="1430">Monad sets</page_anchor></strong>

</OL>

<P>These will be deal with in turn.</P>

</page>




<page ID="1410">

<P>An enumeration is a set of labels for easy use of mnemonic
values.</P>

<P>The "Enumerations" top-level category can be expanded to show the
enumerations available in the current database.</P>

<P>For example:</P>

<IMG SRC="SchemaEnumerations.png" ALT="Sample enumerations">

<P>The <em>enumerations</em> appear at the level just below the
"Enumerations" label.  That means, in this picture, "boolean",
"book_name_t", and "verbal_stem_t" are all enumerations.</P>

<P>You can expand or collapse each enumeration to show or hide its
enumeration labels.  In the above picture, "true" and "false" are
labels in the "boolean" set, whereas "NA", "imperative", "perfect",
etc. are labels in the "verbal_tense_t" enumeration.</P>

</page>


<page ID="1420">

<h2>Crash course in object types</h2>

<P>An object type groups objects with similar characteristics.  For
example, the database designer may have created the object types
"Word", "Phrase", "Clause", "Book", etc.</P>

<index term="feature"><index term="attribute">
<index term="object feature"><index term="object attribute">

<P>An object type has a number of "attributes", also known as
"features".  The features that an object type has determines the values that can be associated with objects of the given type.</P>

<P>For example, an object of type "Phrase" may have values for
features such as "phrase_type", and "function".  This is up to the
database designer to decide.</P>

<P>A feature always has a type, drawn from the following table:</P>

<UL>

  <LI>integer: A positive or negative integer, or 0.

  <LI>string: An 8-bit string

  <LI>ascii: A 7-bit string

  <LI>id_d: A pointer that points to the "self" feature of another object.

  <LI><em>everything else</em>: An <page_anchor
  ID="1410">enumeration</page_anchor>.

</UL>

<P>All objects have a "self" feature which is a unique ID.  Ohter
objects can refer to a given object by the value of that object's
"self" feature.  Database designers use the "id_d" feature type for
this purpose.</P>

<h2>The schema tree</h2>

<P>Here is a partial schema tree showing the object types of a sample
database:</P>

<IMG SRC="SchemaObjectTypes.png" ALT="Schema tree with sample object
types">

<P>The object types appear directly below the "Object Types" label.
For example, in the above picture, "chapter", "book", "verse", and
"word", are all object types.</P>

<P>You can collapse or expand each object type by pressing the "+" and
"-" buttons next to the object type's name.  When expanded, the
<em>features</em> will appear, along with their type (see the list
above).</P>

<P>If a feature's type is an enumeration, then the feature label can
be expanded to show the enumeration labels.  In the above example, the
object type "chapter" has a feature "book" whose type is the
enumeration "book_name_t".  The enumeration labels are not visible,
but the user could clikc the "+" next to "book" to expand the tree and
see the enumeration labels.</P>

<P>The object type "word" has a feature "gender" which is of the
enumeration type "gender_t".  This has been expanded to reveal the
labels "NA", "masculine", "feminine", and "unknown".</P>


</page>


<page ID="1430">

<P>The user can create "arbitrary, named monad sets" in the database
by using the "CREATE MONAD SET" query.  These can be viewed with the
schema tree:</P>

<IMG SRC="SchemaMonadSets.png" ALT="Sample monad sets in the schema tree">

<P>The names of the monad sets appear just below the "Monad Sets"
label in the tree.</P>

<P>Each monad set name can be exapanded to reveal the monad set in
question.</P>

<P>It is just coincidence that the above sets are all single-range
sets: The monad sets can be quite arbitrary, and may therefore have
gaps.</P>

<h2>Usage</h2>

<P>The main benefit of having arbitrary monad sets is that they can be
used to limit searches, like this:</P>

<PRE class="code">
SELECT ALL OBJECTS
IN Poetry
WHERE
[Clause]
GO
</PRE><!-- widthincm : 12 -->

<P>Here all clauses in the monad set named "Poetry" will be retrieved.</P>

</page>




<page ID="1700">

<P>Normal usage involves:</P>

<OL>

  <LI>Starting the program.

<index term="Connection settings dialog">
  <LI>Filling out the Connection settings dialog (<page_anchor
      ID="1115">SQLite</page_anchor> version, <page_anchor
      ID="1118">MySQL/PostgreSQL</page_anchor> version).  This<index
      term="MySQL"><index term="PostgreSQL"> connects to a database
      using a certain <page_anchor
      ID="1010">configuration</page_anchor>.

  <LI>Opening a query, or or writing a query in the <page_anchor
  ID="1200">input area</page_anchor>.

  <LI>Executing the query with the <IMG SRC="flash.png" ALT="Execute">
  <strong>execute</strong> button.

  <LI>Examining the output in the <page_anchor ID="1300">output
  area</page_anchor>.

  <LI>Repeating from step 3, or quitting the program.

</OL>

</page>



<page ID="2000">

<h2></h2>

<h2>Format of the configuration file</h2>

<P>The configuration file follows many other Unix and Windows
configuration files in that:</P>

<UL> 

<LI>Comments are prefixed by #, and anything from the # to the end of
  the line is ignored.  

<LI>Blank lines are ignored. 

<LI>The rest is a number of "key = value" pairs.  

<LI>The keys are pre-defined (see below).  

<LI>The values are either "quote-enclosed strings" (e.g.,
  "C:\Emdros\mymap.map") or consist of letters, numbers, underscores,
  and/or dots, optionally followed by a "quote-enclosed string" (e.g.,
  'word.surfce', 'word.surface."C:\Documents and
  Settings\Administrator\teckitmap.map"').

</UL>

<P>When a value has dots that are not enclosed in "quotes", then the
strings on either side of the dots are interpreted as subkeys.  For
example, the value "word.surface" represents the subkey "word" with
the value "surface", and the value
"word.surface."/home/myname/Blah.map" represents the subkey "word"
with the subsubkey "surface", followed by the value
"/home/myname/Blah.map".</P>



<P>Here is a sample configuration file, explained bit by bit:</P>

<h3>Database selection</h3>
<PRE class="code">
{PREHASH} database
database = mydb
</PRE><!-- widthincm : 12 -->

<P>You can specify a database that is always to be used with this
configuration file (unless overridden with the -d switch to