In October of 1992, Mark Heiman discovered The Digital Tradition project. He thought is was a fantastic accomplishment, but being a dyed-in-the-wool Mac enthusiast, he shuddered at the idea of having to use a DOS machine to access the Tradition's text and tune files. The result was a Hypercard stack based on the ASCII version of the Digital Tradition database (converted by Steve Putz from the original DOS files). Eventually Hypercard's speed and other limitations became too frustrating, and this application was born.

The current version was built with REALBasic, which offers the option of easily cross-compiling for Windows, so folks stuck with that operating system can now enjoy graphical access to the database as well.

You're looking at version 3.1 of this project. It's come a long way from the humble Hypercard beginnings, but it's certainly not a finished product -- there are always improvements I hope to make as time goes by. It's been completely rewritten three separate times as I've discovered new tools for simplifying the life of the hobbyist programmer.

Please send comments and bug reports -- The Digital Tradition is a collaborative project. If you like this application at all, send me a note. I'll let you know about future improvements.

You can reach me at:

Mark F. Heiman
503 Washington St
Northfield, MN 55057

(Note: this is not the address for updates to the database)

or via email, mheiman@loomis-house.com