In article <1184689853.767732.28500@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
"the_verminator@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <the_verminator@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> On Jul 17, 12:34 am, Lars Eighner <use...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Here is the problem: GEDCOM has become the de facto standard for
family
>> history and geneology data. And the problem with that is that the
Mormons
>> own GEDCOM and thus it is rife with built-in religious limitations.
>>
>> As you might expect, GEDCOM does not allow you to enter a family
created by
>> same-*** marriage or civil unions even where they are lawful. But
there are
>> other limitations. For example, in GEDCOM 5.xx, an adopted child does
not
>> belong to his family. When he looks up his family in a
GEDCOM-compliant
>> file, he is not there. How needlessly hurtful is that?
>>
>> If a guy marries his 14-year-old cousin as his fifth wife, GEDCOM has
no
>> problem dealing with that kind of family. But it cannot handle the
Brady
>> Bunch.
>>
>> Now I suppose you could defend GEDCOM by saying it is supposed to
record
>> only genetic --- that is, biological --- relation****ps. And of course,
>> there are im****tant scientific and especially medical uses for that
kind of
>> information. But it is not really true that GEDCOM records biological
>> relation****ps. It presumes that the husband of a woman who bears a
child is
>> the father of the child, and we know since there is now DNA testing
that
>> assumption is untrue in a significant ****tion of cases.
>>
>> Which brings me to my point. I'd like to develop a family history
system
>> that is as compatible with GEDCOM as possible (since it is, as I have
said,
>> the de facto standard with tons of software applications), but with
>> extensions to handle many diverse kinds of families that exist both in
>> modern America and in many traditional cultures.
>>
>> So, I would be grateful for any pointers to existing software that
handles
>> all families or suggestions for extensions.
>>
>> --
>> Lars Eighner <http://larseighner.com/>
<http://myspace.com/larseighner>
>> Countdown: 553 days to go.
>> Owing to massive spam from googlegroups, I do not see most posts from
there.
>
> Check out The Master Genealogist.
>
> As an aside you should note that any program that depends on GEDCOM
> for anything other basic BMD info will have serious shortcomings
> depending on how the ex****ting and im****ting software follow the
> GEDCOM "standard" - which, imho, should be scrapped in its entirety.
>
>
Out of curiosity, what would you suggest replace the gedcom
"standard"? Is the problem so much with the standard or with
the programs that implement it? As Micro$oft and Oracle have
amply proved, a standard exists as a standard only so long as
the players consider themselves bound by it; once the standard
is breached it becomes meaningless.
Bob Melson
--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
"People unfit for freedom---who cannot do much with it---are
hungry for power." ---Eric Hoffer
|
