FUTURE.TXT: Plans for the next version of Geni
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It has been a long time since the release of the last version of 
Geni and the promise of better things to come with version 2.00.
Unfortunately the programmer has been extremely busy with work and
other projects and wasn't able to devote as much time to the next
version of Geni they would have liked.

Since Geni 2.00 was taking a long time to be developed we decided to
release the program as it stood in December 1997 and call it Geni 1.50.
Unfortunately some users found it tricky to install and there were a
few bugs (see BUGS.TXT). As a result Geni 1.51 was written and some new
features added:

 * One version works for Psion 3a, 3c and Siena.
 * Ged2Geni can be paused during the conversion of a GEDCOM file.
 * Family Tree Maker GEDCOM is processed much quicker.
 * PAF 3.0 GEDCOM is handled properly.
 * Geni extras: "P" and "N" jump to the previous and next entry.


Features planned for Geni 2.00:

 * Powerful "plug-in" and report program support.
 * Editing of notes attached to individuals.
 * Hot-list of frequently visited individuals.
 * Integrated GEDCOM import for people who with enough disk space.
 * Better documentation and a proper manual (totally rewritten)

The plug-ins concept is quite a new idea for genealogy programs and is
currently only available with the LifeLines package for UNIX. Since
many readers are not aware of the power and flexibility plug-ins
provide a brief explanation is given.

Plug-ins are small programs which can be launched from within Geni to
provide extra features the user wants. Examples include relationship
calculators, date calculators, descendents charts and much, much more.
In fact the plug-ins don't have to be related to genealogy - maybe you
want to play a game instead!

There are so many features that users want from Geni that we cannot
hope to fit them all in without using up all the memory of your Psion.
Plug-ins offer an alternative: the user decides which features they
want and only installs the relevent plug-ins.

In addition to this users can write their own plug-in programs if they
want to. We simply don't have the time to implement all the features
that users want or perhaps we might implement them differently. With
plug-ins the user can write their own or modify existing ones! For
those "in the know" the plug-ins will be written in OPL, the language
built into the Psion and also the language used to implement Geni.

Think about it - have you ever wished that your desktop genealogy
program had a special feature or did things slightly differently? Have
you ever wanted to extend the program and thought "if only"? Perhaps
Geni will go some way towards satisfying this wish!

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  (c) Martin N Dunstan  (mnd@dcs.st-and.ac.uk)  February 17th 1998
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