             FRAMEWORK FOR PORTABLE DATABASE APPLICATIONS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

by Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>

CONTENTS

* Preface
* Keeping Up To Date
* Dependencies
* Support
* Bugs
* Credits
* Copyright And License

PREFACE

See the file lib/Rosetta/Framework.pod for the main Rosetta documentation.  The
"Rosetta" framework is divided across multiple distributions, and the
distribution you are holding now includes its core modules.  All of the other
*.pod and *.pm files have framework or individual module documentation in POD
format, so you should read those too.  The distribution also includes a
ChangeLog file to say what changes already happened, and a TODO file to say
what changes have yet to happen.  The file INSTALL should help with
installation issues. Read below for how to get support or keep up to date, know
this distribution's dependencies, or read the credits or copyright and license.

KEEPING UP TO DATE

My module set is constantly under development.  You should be able to find the
newest versions at my website, "http://www.DarrenDuncan.net", on the page called
"Perl Libraries I Made" (name subject to change).  They can also be found on CPAN
under the author name of "DUNCAND".  

I am inclined to update the copies on my web site more often, but those
intermediate versions are more likely to have been tested less, and the modules
may be updated day by day without increasing the version numbers.  However, the
copies on CPAN are guaranteed to have unique version numbers when the module has
changed.

DEPENDENCIES

All of my modules require Perl 5.004 or newer, even though only some of them need
it, in the interest of consistency.  That said, Perl 5.004 is more than 3 years 
old, is available as a binary on practically every OS that supports Perl at all, 
and is a very solid release, so I see no reason to support anything older.

The Rosetta core modules, meaning all modules that are in the distribution that 
you hold right now, don't require anything else.  

However, other distributions which hold extensions to the Rosetta core, such as
the almost always used Rosetta-Drivers distributions, do have other
dependencies.  These are specified in said other distributions, and often
include the popular DBI and DBD::* modules, which most Driver modules use.

SUPPORT

Currently I don't have any support arranged with other people, lists, newsgroups,
or otherwise.  Feel free to ask me if you can't figure things out on your own, or
another person whom you know has used this.  I may start a mailing list for 
support issues later, so that users of my modules can help each other with them.

BUGS

It appears that the Pod::Man with Perl 5.6.0 (and perhaps other versions)
doesn't support the "head3" directive.  I would have liked to use this in
lib/Rosetta/SimilarModules.pod, but can't so my level 3 headings there are
one-line paragraphs instead.

CREDITS

... to write ...

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This file is part of the Rosetta database abstraction framework.

Rosetta is Copyright (c) 1999-2003, Darren R. Duncan.  All rights reserved. 
Address comments, suggestions, and bug reports to B<perl@DarrenDuncan.net>, or
visit "http://www.DarrenDuncan.net" for more information.

Rosetta is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 as published by the
Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org/).  You should have received a
copy of the GPL as part of the Rosetta distribution, in the file named
"LICENSE"; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.  

Any versions of Rosetta that you modify and distribute must carry prominent
notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any changes, in
addition to preserving this original copyright notice and other credits. 
Rosetta is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GPL for more details.

Linking Rosetta statically or dynamically with other modules is making a
combined work based on Rosetta.  Thus, the terms and conditions of the GPL
cover the whole combination.

As a special exception, the copyright holders of Rosetta give you permission to
link Rosetta with independent modules that are interfaces to or implementations
of databases, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules, and
to copy and distribute the resulting combined work under terms of your choice,
provided that every copy of the combined work is accompanied by a complete copy
of the source code of Rosetta (the version of Rosetta used to produce the
combined work), being distributed under the terms of the GPL plus this
exception.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from or
based on Rosetta, and which is fully useable when not linked to Rosetta in any
form.

Note that people who make modified versions of Rosetta are not obligated to
grant this special exception for their modified versions; it is their choice
whether to do so.  The GPL gives permission to release a modified version
without this exception; this exception also makes it possible to release a
modified version which carries forward this exception.

While it is by no means required, the copyright holders of Rosetta would
appreciate being informed any time you create a modified version of Rosetta
that you are willing to distribute, because that is a practical way of 
suggesting improvements to the standard version.

FIN

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