GENBOX-L Archives

Archiver > GENBOX > 2004-03 > 1078232840


From: "Paul J. Harris" <>
Subject: RE: [GENBOX] Gedcom
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 08:07:20 -0500
In-Reply-To: <005701c40008$cfc29230$3fe7a4cb@davidn7ad1cbsb>


David,

I am no Gedcom expert. In fact, I have only used Gedcom 2 times in 15 years:
PAF -> TMG -> Genbox. One thing I DO know about Gedcom is that it is NOT
capable of transferring the nuances of data items and features that are
proprietary to a specific software program. Once the data has gone to
Gedcom, there are many things that will never be seen again, even if the
Gedcom is re-imported into the original program that generated it. It simply
is not a round-trip ticket.

So when something is missing when a program re-imports its own Gedcom file,
I say, "Yeah, so what did you expect?" Having said that, certainly, if there
are items that SHOULD have translated and didn't, then Bill will need to
take a look at that.

I can't speak for Genbox's policy towards compliance with the Gedcom
standard, but I can tell you that an immense amount of testimonials claim
that Genbox does a better job of dealing with Gedcom than just about any
other program. While there may be problems with interpretive routines in
Genbox, the larger problem is the Gedcom standard itself. It lost its
effectiveness more than ten years ago, and nothing has come along to take
its place.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: David Pritchard [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 10:46 PM
To:
Subject: [GENBOX] Gedcom


In the past week two users have reported that GB has problems importing it's
own gedcom files, with no reply to either post.

It would be nice to know the GB policy towards compliance with the gedcom
standard.

Dave



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