[Make sure to check out the change_log.txt file to see the most current work being done!]

Currently ScarletDME is a 32 bit-only application - you'll need to compile it using 32 bit libraries on your system. This is pretty easy to do. Check out the dev branch for 64-bit support.

These packages are needed to build ScarletDME for most Linux distributions: libgcc.i686 glibc-devel.i686

For proper terminal operation, you'll need to install: ncurses-devel ncurses-compat-libs

For Debian 11, the following packages may need to be installed: (you need to enable access to the 32 bit repository, this is done via: sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386)

libc6-dev:i386 (required for the 32 bit libcrypt.so) gcc-multilib lib32gcc-10-dev (maybe)

Raspberry Pi users should check out info/raspberry-pi.txt.

If you would like to support remote access to your ScarletDME system via the QMClient API or telnet services, you'll need to install xinetd or systemd.

See README.md in the xinetd.d directory for instructions on the further use of xinetd.

Before you build ScarletDME, you should create a user named "qmsys" and a group named "qmuser". Make sure you add the qmuser group to any user that will be using ScarletDME, /including/ the "root" and "qmsys" users! This is now done for you in the dev branch.

** see info/setup.txt for details on creating the needed users & groups.

You should be able to build the system by just typing "make' in the directory where the Makefile lives. Enter "make install" to install the result of the first "make" command. You'll need to be root do this. "make install" will fail if the qmsys user and qmuser group doesn't exist.

The install portion of the makefile may be tweaked to do additional things like copying the xinetd files to their required locations and a fancy sed edit of the /etc/services file. Again this is now done for you in the dev branch.

Run "make datafiles" to copy the "production" data files to their operating location.

Code formatting notes: I'm using Visual Studio code with the Microsoft C/C++ IntelliSense, debugging, and code browsing extension installed.

Each time I need to edit a code file, it's reformatted using the clang-format feature in the extension. The .clang-format file in this repository is based upon the Chromium format, but it will not reflow comments, nor will it sort includes. The settings can be found in ScarletDME/.clang-format.

Some files have been reformatted, most have not. However, eventually they all will be. There's also instances of K&R-style function parameter declarations and those will be converted to ANSI-style as I discover them.

[26Mar21] I've added a file called "open-mv-projects.txt" that have a list of free resources projects that work with ScarletDME and other Multi-Value databases.

[27Feb20] A Discord server is now available (basically a tarted up version of IRC) at https://discord.gg/H7MPapC2hK - if this link doesn't work for you, please reach out to me (geneb@deltasoft.com) and I'll get you a working link. They do age out periodically. [24Jan22 - the Discord link should now be permanent.]

[26Feb20 gwb]

I resumed work on this project because I had an itch I just had to scratch. That's how most open source software is done apparently. :)

I should note that at the moment, the contents of this git repo builds and works for me. I'm not guaranteeing it'll work for anyone else. :)

I'm not sure what the future holds for this project, but I would like to get a clean, working build of a 64 bit ScarletDME. I had originally thought that this was very difficult due to the pre-compiled p-code that the system depended on. However, after actually doing some research into what was going on, it may be a much less dramatic task than I'd originally thought. My original assumption about the p-code issue was wildly incorrect. That happens when you just glance at an issue without actually digging into it.

This means that a 64 bit version of ScarletDME isn't that far fetched after all. Time well tell I suppose. I know what needs to be done and how to do it, so at least I've got that going for me. :) (Time has told. The dev branch is 64-bit.)

I would also like to finish the "re-branding" of OpenQM to ScarletDME. While some things will forever be "OpenQM-isms" like the names of the binaries, there are other areas that just need to be changed in order to make the re-branding effort complete.

I've got a 66 page document that's all of the release notes I could find for the commercial releases of OpenQM. That's going to act as a starting point for improvements and/or bug fixes. I think. We'll see.

I'm going to end this document by thanking Martin Phillips for the original GPL release of OpenQM. We've not always seen eye to eye on things, but his contributions to the Multi-Value database industry cannot be understated. I will always appreciate the gift he's given us all and the value that OpenQM represents to the Multi-Value database community - regardless of whether or not they realize it. ;)

-Gene Buckle, February 26th, 2020.