Sound advice from Joel: Joel> I worked on something like this for a while last year, but Joel> gave up when WeRelate.org seemed to be pulling ahead on its own.
Wasn't Wikipedia's motto "an encyclopedia anyone can edit"? What the world needs is "a Gedcom anyone can edit" - even great-aunt Maude, who needs a simple, Wiki-style interface. I agree 100% with Joel - WeRelate.org has some great stuff. Far better to build on (and contribute to) existing work, rather than reinvent wheels. Joel> All it really takes is a marrying of a SQL GEDCOM equivalent (which Joel> maps pretty well, actually) and some sort of wiki system front-end. Again, I agree - although "all it really takes" seems, umm, a slight understatement. The devil is in the detail: great-aunt Maude may have the best of intentions, but much tearing of hair could result were she let loose on a Wiki-based front end that doesn't "know" just how much havoc great-aunts can cause, especially when they're pepped up and glassy-eyed on their second cup of tea and third digestive biscuit.* Some subscribers to this list may feel that this thread is drifting away from the topic of Paul Johnson's Gedcom module. A humble defence: the code is a superb tool for Gedcom conversions, extractions and translations, and Jim Seymour's original posting has sparked an interesting exchange which highlights its versatility. Mike * American readers should read "tea" as "coffee" and (according to Wikipedia) "digestive biscuit" as "Graham Cracker"; however, Google shed no light on the history of Mr. G. Cracker. -----Original Message----- From: Joel Parker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 16 February 2007 2:02 AM To: Mike Hamilton Cc: perl-gedcom@perl.org Subject: RE: GEDCOM to Wiki, anyone? On Fri, 2007-02-16 at 01:51 +1100, Mike Hamilton wrote: > The Holy Grail - to me, at least - is a Wiki driven by a Gedcom-derived > database, which can't be wrecked by the users, and ends up producing a > standard Gedcom after their edits. The Gedcom format remains, for better or > worse, the lingua franca of genealogical data. I worked on something like this for a while last year, but gave up when WeRelate.org seemed to be pulling ahead on its own. All it really takes is a marrying of a SQL GEDCOM equivalent (which maps pretty well, actually) and some sort of wiki system front-end. I started small and just implemented individuals and dates, but there's nothing about it that prevents you from adding on bit by bit until you get the full GEDCOM spec in there. -- Joel Parker
