Gedcom
Q. Does anyone out there have good things to say about GEDCOM? I have been looking at for a while and still don't see the beauty.
A. Are you trying to do something with the GEDCOM directly? The only use I put the GEDCOM to is to transport information from one program to anther. Although not perfect (plenty of other people will give you detailed reasons why) it is at this time to my knowledge the world standard for exchanging information. I hear that there is going to be some new thing called XML (not that I know about the details), however at this time GEDCOMs are normally generated automatically by programs which contain the source information. I have the feeling that your question reflects some sort of misunderstanding about GEDCOM, so I'll give just a bit of background. First of all, GEDCOM is derived from GEnealogical Data COMmunications. It is another contribution to genealogy from the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. GEDCOM is not a program, it is a standard - a set of specifications that allows programmers to create utilities that will export data in a universal format. This exported data then can be imported into other programs through the use of a similar utility within the importing program. That is the purpose of the GEDCOM standard - to allow data to be expressed in a format that is more or less universal to genealogy programs. The only GEDCOM there is is the GEDCOM standard. It exists in verbal form on line. When printed out is perhaps a quarter-inch thick and of no particular interest to anyone except a programmer. What some people incorrectly call a GEDCOM is actually a GEDCOM _file_ - a tagged set of information in ASCII (plain text) format that describes what is in a genealogical database. I'm not sure what sort of beauty you are looking for, but I doubt you will find any in GEDCOM, for it exists only as written information. It does nothing other than provide guidance to programmers. As for saying "good" things about GEDCOM, again I am not sure what you are looking for. It's simply a standard and, according to some, it has shortcomings. However, it is the only game in town when it comes to transferring data between most programs. If you want to see the latest set of GEDCOM specifications, go to http://www.gendex.com/gedcom55/55gctoc.htm where you will find "GEDCOM Standard 5.5." If you want to see more detailed information on GEDCOM, try a Google search for GEDCOM Standard." BE CAREFUL. There are a quite a number of explanations of GEDCOM on the web that are not accurate. If, for example, one of them says "you can send a GEDCOM to another genealogist," be wary. Whoever writes a sentence like like that may not understand the difference between GEDCOM, the standard, and a GEDCOM _file_. I just noticed this sentence at a site purporting to explain "GEDCOM Files": "Gedcom has become the 'standard' file format for storing and exchanging genealogy data." Program don't "store" data in GEDCOM format (with the possible exception of a program for a hand-held computer, which purports to do this, although I couldn't guess how or why). Data is stored within a genealogy program in whatever manner decided by the programmers. A utility within the genealogy program then takes that data, tags it according to the specifications set forth in the GEDCOM Standard and creates a GEDCOM file. This file is in plain text and you can look at it with any text editor - but it won't make sense to most users.
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