"Steve W. Jackson" <stevewjackson@knology.net> wrote: > So what the OP seeks is a genealogy/family history program that uses XML > as the basis for its information content. I know that there was Well, at least one that could read a schema and fit the data into it's own "slots" and/or ask the user how to map it to do so or discard it. Then be able to export the native data to an XML compliant file & schema. I just keep thinking that now the actual data is muddled in with relationship logic and categorization labels due either to software or user preferences, and that XML could help start to clear some of that up. Even if the schema was a direct match for GEDCOM 5.5 or something even more crude as a base minimum, XML would allow for more granular data but at the same time backward compatability. > supposed to be an effort underway to promote a new GEDCOM standard (6.0, > whereas the current one is 5.5) that uses XML, but I'm not aware of its > current status. Nor am I aware of any software to date that uses XML > for its own "proprietary" data format. > > But I will agree with the OP that using XML as the basis for the data > managed by any app (whether or not it's genealogy-related) greatly > improves the ability of third parties to see what's contained therein, > and perhaps even to offer some extensibility for many software packages > as a result. After more than seven years as a user of XML, I too have > become an advocate. > Funny how that works & is so hard to explain, eh? :-) > = Steve =