$Id: README 1190 2006-11-22 23:00:13Z flaterco $


Preface
-------

IMPORTANT

Incompatible changes occurred on 2003-03-18, and again on 2003-03-27.

- The order of arguments to build_tide_db changed.
- The encoding of slack offsets changed.
- "Simplified" offset records were abolished.

See ChangeLog for more information.


Intro
-----

tcd-utils are command-line tools for converting Tide Constituent
Database (TCD) files to and from other formats.  They were written by
Jan C. Depner but are now maintained by David Flater.

The tcd-utils distribution is available from
http://www.flaterco.com/xtide/files.html.

The tcd-utils distribution includes:

 * build_tide_db to convert harmonics.txt, offsets.xml, and NAVO
   formats to harmonics.tcd;

 * restore_tide_db to generate harmonics.txt and offsets.xml from
   harmonics.tcd; and

 * rewrite_tide_db to convert a v1 TCD file to a v2 TCD file, or
   similar operation.

tcd-utils are unclassified, distribution unlimited, public domain.
They are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


Requirements
------------

libtcd 2.2 or compatible newer version.  libtcd is available from
http://www.flaterco.com/xtide/files.html#libtcd.


Installation
------------

The normal route:

    bash-3.1$ ./configure
    bash-3.1$ make
    bash-3.1$ su
    bash-3.1# make install

tcd-utils are packaged with the popular and portable GNU automake, so
all usual GNU tricks should work.  Help on configuration options can
be found in the INSTALL file or obtained by entering ./configure
--help.


Converter Usage
---------------

NOTE:  The order of arguments to build_tide_db changed 2003-03-18.

nameless> ./build_tide_db harmonics.tcd harmonics.txt offsets.xml
[... diagnostics ...]
7124 records written

nameless> ./restore_tide_db harmonics.tcd restored
nameless> ls restored*
restored.txt  restored.xml

Note the following fragility in build_tide_db:  between the congen
output and the start of comments for the first data set in
harmonics.txt there is expected to be a block of comments ending with
a line containing the word MERCHANTABILITY.  These comments must be
present or build_tide_db will bomb.  Follow existing examples.

Sorry, that's all the documentation we have at the moment.


See also
--------

TCD documentation:
http://www.flaterco.com/xtide/libtcd.html.

tideEditor, available from
http://www.flaterco.com/xtide/files.html.
