singhals <singhals@erols.com> schrieb: >Nicholas Adams wrote: > >> Ian Goddard <goddai01@hotmail.co.uk> schrieb: >> >> >>>Nicholas Adams wrote: >>> >>>>David Harper <devnull@obliquity.u-net.com> schrieb: >>>> >>>> >>>>>Nicholas Adams wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>Test >>>>> >>>>>Sorry, you failed :-p >>>>> >>>>>You should have posted to the alt.test newsgroup. That's what it's >>>>>there for. >>>>> >>>>>David Harper >>>>>Cambridge, England >>>> >>>> >>>>just wanted to make a bit of traffic :-)) >>>> >>>>Nick >>> >>>Yup. Apart from the spammers it's getting lonely here. Shall we start >>>another thread about the merits and demerits of GEDCOM? >> >> >> >> Wouldn't know what you are talking (writing) about. >> >> Nick > > >ROTFL! Then you'd be a fresh voice to the discussion. > >Cheryl GEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an aid to genealogical research. A GEDCOM file is plain text (usually either ANSEL or ASCII) containing genealogical information about individuals, and meta data linking these records together. Most genealogy software supports importing from and/or exporting to GEDCOM format. However, some genealogy software programs incorporate the use of proprietary extensions to the GEDCOM format, which are not always recognized by other genealogy programs. The GEDCOM TestBook Project evaluates how well popular genealogy programs conform to the GEDCOM 5.5 standard. Additionally, many tools exist to convert GEDCOM files to HTML pages. Contents [hide] * 1 GEDCOM model * 2 GEDCOM file structure o 2.1 Example * 3 Versions * 4 Limitations * 5 See also * 6 External links GEDCOM model GEDCOM uses a lineage-linked data model. This data model is based on the nuclear family and the individual. This contrasts with evidence models, where data is structured to reflect the discovered and supporting evidence. In the GEDCOM lineage-linked data model, all data is structured to reflect the believed reality, that is, actual (or hypothesized) nuclear families and individuals. Commsoft[1], the authors of the Roots series of genealogy software and Ultimate Family Tree, defined a version called Event GEDCOM[2]. Although it is event based it is still a model built on assumed reality rather than evidence. Event GEDCOM was more flexibile as it allowed some separation between believed events and the participants. Roots and Ultimate Family Tree are no longer available, so now very few people are using Event GEDCOM. [edit] GEDCOM file structure GEDCOM files are somewhat similar to MARC, an interchange format for bibliographic data. A GEDCOM file consists of a header section, records, and a trailer section. Records represent people (INDI record), families (FAM records), sources of information (SOUR records), and other miscellaneous records, including notes. Every line of a GEDCOM file begins with a level number. All top-level records (HEAD, TRLR, SUBN, and each INDI, FAM, OBJE, NOTE, REPO, SOUR, and SUBM) begin with a line with level 0. All other level numbers are positive integers. Although it is theoretically possible to write a GEDCOM file by hand, the format was designed to be used with software and thus is not especially human-friendly. A GEDCOM validator that can be used to validate the structure of a GEDCOM file is included as part of PhpGedView project, though it is not meant to be a standalone validator. Example The following is a sample GEDCOM file. The first column indicates an indentation level. The header (HEAD) includes the source program and version (Reunion, V8.0), the GEDCOM version (5.5), and the character encoding (MACINTOSH). The individual records (INDI) define Bob Cox(ID 1—@I1@), Joann Para (ID 2), and Bobby Jo Cox (ID 3). The family record (FAM) links the husband (HUSB), wife (WIFE), and child (CHIL) by their ID numbers. WiKi's real nice..... Nick