On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:45:07 PST,
mojaveg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Everett M. Greene) wrote in
soc.genealogy.computing:
>Denis Beauregard <denis.b-at-francogene.com@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>> There is no semantic difference between
>>
>> 0 FAM
>> 1 HUSB
>> 1 WIFE
>> 1 MARR
>> 2 DATE
>>
>> and
>>
>> <fam>
>> <husb> </husb>
>> <wife> </wife>
>> <marr>
>> <date> </date>
>> </marr>
>> </fam>
>>
>> or
>>
>> <tribe>
>> <head> </head>
>> <staff> </staff>
>> <union>
>> <jour> </jour>
>> </union>
>> </tribe>
>
>Not having looked at the XML-based proposals, I'm not familiar
>with what's being proposed, but if the preceding is a valid
>example, I don't see any significant benefit. As you say,
>there's not semantic difference and clutter is being added for
>no obvious reason.
While not exactly the same, XML and HTML are somewhat similar.
You can look at any HTML page to get an idea about what XML
looks like. Keep in mind the exact syntax is different.
The gain is because there are more and more tools to read XML
files and to handle this kind of data, event if it is not the
same as you use in genealogy.
For example, a family is a set of persons where 2 persons have
a special role (dad and mom), and the other persons a more
general role (kids). You can say a car is a of pieces, or an
army regiment is a set of persons, etc. Then you can define
database operations like putting someone in the right box by
dragging that person, i.e. drag John to the dad's box or to the
captain's box, or drag the name of the cathedral to the relevant
box, etc. So, in theory, you could achieve many predefined
operations with the same code and getting some universal
genealogy software that will process the persons, but also the
events, the places, the groups (army, state employees, churchmen,
town elected, trades), the sources, etc. Then you get some kind
of very powerful genealogy system.
The drawback is if it is too easy, you will get 1000 standards
because everybody will create his/her own universal genealogy
package. Another drawback is the freedom you get will cut you
from getting back to any lineage-oriented databases i.e. from
almost any existing genealogy software.
Denis
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