re: GEDCOM to XML?

Craig_Gingell@Dell.com
Fri, 30 Oct 1998 03:35:07 -0600


Should we just mirror the functionality of GEDCOM in XML ?

The GEDCOM standard does not exploit the power of publishing genealogical
information to the web.

Routines like GED2HTML do not generate good looking pages.

I understand the dangers of veering from the spec, but I have found to my
own experience that GEDCOM is kind of lacking in several areas.

To this end, I prefer to maintain my ever growing genealogical database in
XML and not GEDCOM. I can still import from, and export to the GEDCOM
format. I have richer content, and can easily manage features like image
galleries, email, hypertext links, and especially the geography aspect of
the relationship between villages, towns, countries and people.

I have encompassed pedigree charts to a certain extent using HTML tables,
but I would be the first to admit it is a bit of a cludge.
http://www.gingell.com/ancframe.html

I would like to see GedML add value to GEDCOM, especially in the areas of
web publishing.

Regards

Craig Gingell
http://www.gingell.com - a website dedicated to anything and everything
Gingell
http://www.gingell.com/data/gingell.txt - my XML genealogy file