TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2000-12 > 0975701101


From: "Gene Stuff" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] ROOTSWEB
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 20:05:01 -0000


I think a wish-list item is in order for a future version of TMG. The
discussion below makes a very good point. Perhaps TMG should allow the
creation of a NOTE for each event from the sentence template and
corresponding data in order to better preserve and export the data contained
within TMG. Another possibility would be to create a single note for each
individual by combining the software-generated text from all or some
user-chosen events.

GEDCOM is in fact a report type and despite its shortcomings has become the
standard method of exchanging data between genealogists. TMG is a nice
program, but it doesn't have the largest share of the market and entering
data in such as way as it cannot be exported in GEDCOM is probably unwise.
All software has a limited lifespan. Data will eventually have to be
exported or be lost. I've been programming for 25 years and the only file
type which has so far survived all the myriad software and hardware changes
over the years is ASCII text. In my mind that makes data in GEDCOM format
much more preservable than data in Foxpro databases or FTM format or
whatever. In fact, there should probably be as many report styles for GEDCOM
export as there are for any type of printed report and the user should have
as much control of how, who, and what gets included.

Also, I think the possibility certainly exists for someone or several
someones to write utilities that could export more of the data in GEDCOM
format.

Gene

>From: Tom Piercy <>
>I was afraid you would say this. I can understand this in software
>where _all_ general information is kept in notes and the "sentence" is
>included in the note (I believe FTM and PAF work like this).
>
>I find it odd in TMG where the "sentence" part of the note has been
>constructed separately.
>
> >>Or is there a way to merge together the Sentence and the Memo in a
> >>GEDCOM as they are designed to be in a normal printed report?
> >>
> >>* Second, if it is true, what have list members done to get round it?
> >
> >If you use the Sentence field as designed -- to set up the way the data
> >will print in reports, then all data will export to a GEDCOM.
>
>Except that a lot of information (even though you don't call it data) is
>in the verb of the sentence. Data can be fairly meaningless, if not
>nonsensical, without a verb. This especially so, as I said, for notes
>with pipes. As would this correspondence be if all the verbs were
>extracted.

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