On 2010/05/28 21:39, Ward Walker wrote: > I see your point. Although, I'll have to take your word for it that the > standardization process is truly dead for this standard. I seem to recall > someone questioning that when we last discussed this problem.
It's my understanding that the GEDCOM standard was devised and then developed by the LDS as a means of storing data for their, by now, ancient PAF software. It would seem that they took PAF as far as they could before it was overhauled by better products some of which continued to use GEDCOM to store data. For a while, the GEDCOM standard continued to evolve as a result of pressure(?) from the software manufacturers who by now were adopting propriety storage formats and needed GEDCOM in order to entice users of other programs, over to their way of doing things. I think the LDS got fed up with this, and dropped any ongoing support for the GEDCOM standard. This was in 1996 just about the time that GEDCOM 5.5 was published. There has been no real movement in the standard since then, apart from a tentative draft of 5.5.1 which introduced little else other then allowing for the use of UTF-8. So, we're left with a group of software manufacturers who are caught in a cleft stick: They need GEDCOM to be able to attract new users away from other products; BUT: they dislike it because it permits their customers to migrate away to another product. Any changes that Legacy wants to make to their particular interpretation of the standard really needs general acceptance from the other software developers before the changes become really useful. Hence my statement: GEDCOM is dead! (Well, brain-dead at least). -- Regards, Mike Fry Johannesburg Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
