I think the idea of root based tree comparison is a good one and a diff style output likewise excellent. That said I would also implement a 'fuzzy' comparison with particular attention paid to name similarity. Perhaps rolling in some sort of rated value based on the sound of the names as well (name of this kind comparison slipped my mind as soon as I wrote this down...)
--hsm > -----Original Message----- > From: Hans Fugal [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 6:53 AM > To: perl-gedcom@perl.org > Subject: Re: gedcom diff > > Sorry for the quite late reply - you can see how often I wade through > secondary lists when I get busy. :) > > I've thought about a more literal gedcom diff - you give it two gedcoms > and a root pair, and it spits out exactly what the differences are in > some easy-to-digest way. I was thinking regular diff-like output, > actually, which could be interpreted by gedcom-savvy humans or by a > program with a UI. The hard part was deciding which sort order to put > the records in because the greatly influences how the diff looks. > > I remember thinking along the same lines as you about comparing trees, > and I think that's the right approach, especially given a known root > pair. I think you would still want to compare names or some other > identifying characteristics in addition to just tree shape, which would > prevent merging multiple parents/spouses, not to mention children! > > On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 at 06:49 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Has anyone come up with code that can diff two .ged files? I have two > > large files with data missing from each (two sides of the family). All > the > > tools I have looked at seem to use soundex to find matches and my test > > merge has not gone well (I just used the paf5 match/merge). > > > > I was thinking if I wrote code where I would give it a reference person > > from each file "these two are the same", the code could build a tree > from > > there and then compare the trees not the names themselves to tell me > which > > nodes were missing. I am still not sure how I would handle multiple > > spouses, and multiple parents and such.... but I have been mulling it > > around for a while. > > > > Thought I would see if anyone had built anything along these lines. > > > > -- > > Chuck > > > > -- > Hans Fugal ; http://hans.fugal.net > > There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the > right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself. > -- Johann Sebastian Bach
