Hi Folks I've been thinking about how to develop our software libraries, and I'm thinking of formally requesting Gedcom2 as the parent namespace.
The aim is to support genealogical data first, with the old Gedcom being the most likely way data would be imported into the new db(s). Hence the requirements of g. data support will drive the design, and the Gedcom spec will not, although it does have a lot to offer. Then, Gedcom2 would become the module name and the id to reference any work in this field, and Gedcom2::Gedcom::* would be for modules importing or exporting data in the original Gedcom format. To make things clear, I'll try to always refer to the Perl Gedcom as Gedcom.pm. Also, I have a plan to collect the tags used by the major Open Source and free programs. I've downloaded: o Gedcom o Gramps o Webtrees after getting their names from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy_software My idea is to put these tags into an SQLite db, with an indicator of which programs support which tags. Then they can be displayed, in HTML say, with the tags (and explanations) down the left, and program names across, so the intersection could be green (background) perhaps to indicate support. This does not show if the support is just import or just output. Nevertheless, I feel this could be a useful start to Gedcom2. Of course, the tag db will be on CPAN under Gedcom2, so anyone can play with it. I do realize some programs, e.g. Gedcom.pm, don't add tags (at least I don't think it does) over and above Gedcom, they just manipulate what's provided in the data. As I said, I'll do the above-mentioned, and the HTML display part, to get started. So, if you'd like to volunteer to attack a program I haven't mentioned - to extract it's tag list - just co-ordinate with others via this list. Ideally, the code will be incorporated into the Gedcom2 namespace, e.g. as Gedcom2::Gedcom::Import::Tags::Gramps, or some such, so it can be easily re-run against future releases of that other software. Standalone scripts, and the file from the other software which is the input file, would suffice at the start, and we can get more organized later. What do people think of all this? Lastly, I'm also thinking of developing a TiddlyWiki http://tiddlywiki.org/ to record any info, e.g. suggestions for new tags. I'll start off with some ideas from recent posts to this list. I would make it publicly accessible, too, perhaps in the Gedcom2 distro. I'm a great believer in TiddlyWikis... However I could also use http://tiddlyspot.com/ to have an on-line wiki, although then passwords are sent in the clear. Or does anyone have a suggestion about simple but password-protected wikis? And yes, I know there a whole set of them on CPAN. None have yet appealed to me. -- Ron Savage http://savage.net.au/ Ph: 0421 920 622
