ltconvert.exe is a windows executable of a python script ltconvert.py
Send questions or comments to: Chris Hirt chris@hirtfamily.net
Visit http://www.hirtfamily.net/lingtree
for source-code download and a web GUI version

All of the files in the directory along with ltconvert.exe are required for the program to function, so leave all of those files together.

To run the program, ltconvert, use the windows command-line and specify a text file as an argument to the program.  Included with this program is an example.txt file that you can use as a model for creating your own tree definitions.

Example usage on the command line:
ltconvert.exe example.txt

Windows Command-line Copy/Paste Instructions:
It's silly that MS Windows 98/XP/Vista haven't gotten their cut and paste act together, but here's how it works:
1) Open a Command Window: Start ->Run -> cmd
2) Run the program (e.g. ltconvert.exe example.txt)
2) To copy the output, right click anywhere on the command window and choose "mark"
3) LEFT drag the mouse so as to select the portion of text you want to copy.  NOTE: the selection is NOT a line selection, but rather a box/area selection. 
4) RIGHT click to complete the copy
5) open your text editor and PASTE the text.  You may need to delete a portion of the text and/or remove line breaks where necessary.


Program Tips
    * Describe your tree from the top-down. Define nodes only after they have been declared a child of another node.
    * Define tree nodes in terms of their children, left to right, one definition per line. Use '=' to separate node names from child node names ('=>' and '->' work too)
    * the first line defines the top of the tree
    * Use numbers at the end of node names to distinguish nodes that have the same name. The numbers are only used to reference the node in the definitions. The numbers are removed when generating the LingTree syntax. e.g. (NP1 or NP_1 becomes NP in the LingTree syntax)
    * backslash codes are supported, but are only used on the right side of the equals sign. (i.e. they are not used in node names)
    * when defining the lexical entry and/or gloss at the bottom of your tree, just define them all on one line (e.g. N = \L Hund \G dog )
    * blank lines are ignored
    * lines beginning with # are comments; they are also ignored 
