An open source system for processing taxonomic descriptions based on the DELTA (DEscription Language for TAxonomy) format.
The Free Delta Editor (FDE) is a cross-platform software package for editing DELTA data files and running DELTA based programs (CONFOR, KEY, DIST, INTKEY).
This tool provides an interactive, user-friendly interface to DELTA-format files as a real DELTA data entry/maintenance program. It is possible to insert or delete items, characters, and states, without having to worry about the consistency of the DELTA files. A database-like interface makes it easy to setup and maintain the main DELTA data files (ITEMS, CHARS and SPECS), as well as several of the DELTA directives files (TONAT, TOKEY, TODIS). A spreadsheet-like visualization facility for item and character data is also available.
It also makes possible to start all DELTA programs and create dichotomous keys for identification, natural-language descriptions, statistical reports, distance matrices, cluster and ordination analysis, etc., providing a viewer to look at and print the results (output files).
The Free Delta Editor is written in FreePascal/Lazarus, a free, cross-platform object-oriented programming language for Rapid Application Development. Therefore, the program is platform-independent, and can run without modifications on any PC compatible with the x86 architecture, under GNU/Linux, MacOSX, and MS-Windows.
The Free Delta Editor is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).