$Id: README 8292 2024-02-22 20:33:25Z 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
https://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 a 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
https://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.


See also
--------

TCD format documentation:
https://flaterco.com/xtide/libtcd.html

tideEditor, available from
https://flaterco.com/xtide/files.html#extras
