Picalo is an open source application that helps data analysts, fraud
investigators and auditors search through data sets for anomalies, trends, 
and other information. Picalo has much of the functionality of Audit Command 
Language (ACL) and IDEA. In many ways, Picalo goes one step beyond these 
packages because it includes trending and analysis routines and not just 
data manipulation routines.

Please see the following:
  - HOW TO RUN at the bottom of this file for running the source
    distribution or compiling a new bundle.
  
  - CHANGELOG.TXT has good information about what's changed in recent
    versions.

  - LICENSE.TXT for the GNU Public License that Picalo is released under.
    For those who don't want to read the license, here's the higlights:
    
      1. You may use Picalo free of charge.  I hope it is helpful to you.
         Please improve the code and share back with the community.
      
      2. Picalo has NO warrantee.  I don't guarantee it will do anything
         correctly or even incorrectly.  It may do unsightly things to your
         machine.  It may munch your data or even corrupt your hard drive.
         Picalo might fry your computer or ruin your marriage.  You take 
         all risks upon yourself.
   
      3. You must release any additions to Picalo under the GPL.
         
      4. Picalo source code cannot be included or used in any products that 
         are licensed with something other than the GPL.
         
      5. More information on these issues can be found in LICENSES.TXT
    
      
  - doc/PicaloCookbook.pdf has some of the best information right now.
        
      
  - doc/Manual.pdf for installation instructions (see the Installation section)
  
  
  - doc/Manual.pdf for detailed usage instructions, tutorial, etc.
  
Enjoy!  Please report any bugs to me.  I also welcome additions to the toolkit.
  
Dr. Conan C. Albrecht
conan AT warp DOT byu DOT edu


=======================================
     HOW TO RUN/COMPILE THE SOURCE
=======================================

Picalo has several dependencies that you'll need to ensure your Python 
installation has.  These include the following:

NOTE: Don't install eggs on Windows because py2exe chokes on them.  When doing a 
      manual setup, use "python setup.py install_lib" to disable the egg building.
      This only applies to people wanting to compile the Windows exe files.
NOTE: To build on Mac, you need to be using the Framework version of Python.  This
      is the version on python.org, not the one that comes with an Apple.  Be sure
      to explicitly install Python and ensure it is being used.

REQUIRED:
  - Python 2.6+ (http://www.python.org) - It probably runs on version 2.5 and earlier, 
    but all testing is now being done on Python 2.6. 
    We have not made the jump to Python 3 because some libraries aren't there yet
    (especially wxPython).
  - wxPython (http://www.wxpython.org) - We're on version 2.8.x.x right now.  
    We try to keep current with wxPython, so try the most recent version of wxPython.  
    If you hit GUI snags, email Conan and ask what version we're currently on. wxPython
    often changes the API from one version to another, so you'll know right away if
    it says some wx method doesn't exist.  Note that for the command-line version of
    Picalo, wxPython is not required -- the code can run entirely without any dependencies
    here.
  - pyODBC (http://pyodbc.sourceforge.net/) - This allows you to access ODBC databases. 
    Picalo should be able to run without it, although the database GUI dialogs will fail.
  - pysycopg2 - This allows you to access PostgreSQL directly.   
    The Windows build is at Stickpeople.com.
    Picalo should be able to run without it, although the database GUI dialogs will fail.
  - pygresql - An alternative driver to access PostgreSQL directly.
    Picalo should be able to run without it, although the database GUI dialogs will fail.
  - MySQLdb - This allows you to access MySQL directly.
    Picalo should be able to run without it, although the database GUI dialogs will fail.
  - cx_Oracle - Allows you to connect to Oracle 10.
    Picalo should be able to run without it, although the database GUI dialogs will fail.
  - MX Base distribution - I'm not sure if this is still required or not.  Picalo itself
    doesn't use it, but some of the dependencies above might.
  - chardet.universaldetector (http://chardet.feedparser.org/) 
  - Windows Only: py2exe - if you want to compile Picalo on Windows
  - Windows Only: InnoSetup - if you want to compile Picalo on Windows
  - Mac OS X Only: py2app - if you want to compile Picalo on Mac OS X (installs easily 
    with easy_install).
  
Once you are sure the above are running, change to the trunk/ directory.  Run the following:

python Picalo.pyw

Alternatively, to run the command line version, execute the following from within the
Python interpreter:

>>> from picalo import *
  