TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2002-09 > 1030887586


From: "John Cardinal" <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] Research & Output Solutions [was: She witnessed the death of...ugh!]
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 09:39:46 -0400
In-Reply-To: <3D71B9B4.C0911F44@sbcglobal.net>


Diana Powell wrote:
> Like Rae Jean (who posted the original question) I am reviewing my data
> entry with Second Site in mind. I am assuming two things (please
> correct me if I am wrong)
>
> 1. that PARX refers to the ability to say "so and so" is the son/dau of
> "so and so"

Diana,

Second Site supports a [PARX] variable that produces the same output as [PAR]
eXcept it doesn't include the leading comma and space:

PAR: ", son of John Smith and Mary Jones"
PARX: " son of John Smith and Mary Jones"

Second Site uses [PARX] in the sentence it adds when the user checks the "Add
Parent Sentence" option. (You can see and edit the sentence it uses in the
Strings.People Strings.Parent Sentence property) I don't recommend that people
use PARX in sentences that are defined in the TMG dataset because it won't work
in TMG reports. OTOH, if Andy (who mentioned PARX) is going to set up some
events spdecifically for use with SS, then he is free to use PARX.

> 2. that you want the ability to include this in 2ndSite where entries
> are not linked in the manner of a desc. narrative or a register style
> report, but that you don't want to include it in certain TMG reports.
> Is that correct?

SS has only one narrative format. It is similar to TMG's Individual Narrative
report, but includes both some information before the narrative (name, life
span, TMG ID, etc.) as well as a children section (co-parents and the children
of each such union) after the narrative. There is no guarantee that parents will
appear in the narrative, so SS includes an "Add Parent Sentence" option that was
mentioned above. If checked, SS adds the sentence after the primary birth group
sentence:

"Bill Smith was born 1 September 2002. He was the son of John Smith and Mary
Jones. ..."

In standard SS fashion, the names "John Smith" and "Mary Jones" are links, and
if clicked will navigate to the narrative for John or Mary.

> If so, it would seem to me that it would actually be a useful addition
> in register style reports where a child's narrative might be pages
> removed from his parents', but I can see where it might seem redundant
> in desc. narratives where the children are listed directly under their
> parents. Are there other implications? Other situations where you want
> to differentiate between what goes into TMG and what goes into 2nd
> Site?

Given the overall narrative format, the "Add Parent Sentence" seems like a
requirement unless people have already added a link to the parents some other
way. (Some people make the parents witnesses to the birth group event) Because
it is driven by an SS option, you don't have to do anything to your TMG dataset;
it just works. In general, however, there may be reasons for defining
SS-specific events. The most common example so far is that people want to
include something on their website that they don't want to include in TMG
reports, and vice-versa. Maybe someone with an example of that will respond.

Regarding Andy's enthusiasm for [PARX], there have a few discussions on TMG-L
about how to make TMG omit the leading comma and space when printing parent
names. I suspect he has some other use for [PARX] and is willing to go to the
trouble of making an SS-specific event in order to use it. He'll correct me if I
am wrong, right Andy? <g>

> I am not jumping up and down with enthusiasm at the idea of creating
> more tags (as you can tell from my other posts I have plenty of them
> already) but I also want to make sure I understand what is causing
> someone to want to go to the effort to do so.

I think the average user can ignore the existence of [PARX]. Furthermore, I
don't think there are many cases where SS-specific sentences or events are
appropriate. it's nice that TMG's data model and event structures allows you to
do it if you want, but it is not a requirement.

Hope this helps.

John

This thread: