My rationale Bob (rightly or wrongly) was that if the free viewer was produced by the Gentech project, and endorsed by the Gentech backers, then people would feel safer distributing it to their families & friends. Hence, although it would not present any immediate advantage over the current free downloads from the Web, it would have a lot of hidden potential in being future-proof and being supported. If such a viewer were free then who's going to try to compete with it. Also, if the converter for GEDCOM-to-new_format is _not_ distributable then it would mean there's less prospect of the viewer being used simply as a free GEDCOM viewer. Once the new file format is used by enough people, I'm sure vendors would consider native support for it - especially if it solves issues they would otherwise have had with GEDCOM. Tony Proctor "Bob Velke" <bvelke@whollygenes.com> wrote in message news:mailman.584.1195147237.7651.gencmp@rootsweb.com... > Tony said: > > >I know that Bob, which is why I said "dumbed-down". :-) > > > >I was just trying to make a case for getting a new file format on as many > >desktops as possible. It would be some time before anything really took > >advantage of its full potential, but it's "numbers" that count > > I think that the last 10+ years proves what drives the genealogy > software market - and it isn't a overriding interest to transfer data > between researchers while maintaining data integrity. > > So if a reader application was capable of displaying those > "dumbed-down GEDCOM files" in the context of a more comprehensive > data model, then wouldn't that just discourage software developer's > from producing anything else? Going out of your way to accommodate > weakness doesn't hasten its demise. > > >then it wouldn't be long before that new format was all-pervasive, and not > >long after that before other products would support it natively. > > I don't think so but go for it! I'd even pay for a copy. > > Bob Velke > Wholly Genes, Inc. > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.32/1131 - Release Date: 11/14/2007 4:54 PM > >