GEDitCOM Information
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GEDitCOM Information |
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GEDitCOM Features | GEDitCOM Philosophy | Version History GEDitCOM Genealogy Software Philosophy and GEDCOMThe five guiding principles behind the development of GEDitCOM are:
You can read more about each of these principles on this web page. Maybe they will help you decide if GEDitCOM is the right genealogy application for you. 1. GEDCOM Genealogy StandardThere are many commercially available genealogy programs already available. All serious programs also support the GEDCOM standard by allowing users to import data from GEDCOM files or export data to GEDCOM files (NOTE: GEDCOM is a genealogy file standard that stands for GEnealogy Data COMmunication files). These programs, however, do not normally use GEDCOM as their internal standard. Thus most of them do not allow you to tap all the features of GEDCOM and most cause translation errors when inputing GEDCOM data (where translation errors means input data are lost, force-fit into the data fields of the current program, or shuffled to generic note fields). In contrast, GEDitCOM uses GEDCOM as its internal standard; GEDCOM files are not translated, they are simply read into memory and interpreted. No information is ever lost. GEDitCOM is a registered GEDCOM product. Although GEDCOM is not perfect, and there has been some interest in replacing or improving it, it is very powerful. It has hundreds of options for tracking and documenting genealogy research. The ability of GEDitCOM to tap all these features of GEDCOM, including those that allow extensive documentation or your research with notes and source citations, means GEDitCOM is a powerful genealogy application. GEDitCOM is ideal for anyone interested in serious genealogical research. GEDitCOM, however, is also very intuitive and easy to use. Thus GEDitCOM can be used by anyone interested in genealogy regardless of how seriously they approach their research. You might sometimes see ads or articles talking about "problems" associated GEDCOM files. GEDCOM is just a data base standard. One can argue about whether or not it is a good standard, but there are no such things as "problems" with GEDCOM. All difficulties that occur are problems with the way many programs read and write GEDCOM files. A major goal of GEDitCOM is to define a new standard for support of GEDCOM files. 2. CustomizationA second principle of GEDitCOM, is that everything should be customizable by the user. You should not have to search around for a genealogy application that comes close to matching your needs. You should be able to take one application, like GEDitCOM, and turn it into the genealogy application that exactly matches your needs. Thus, a goal of GEDitCOM is to make it as customizable as possible. In other words, GEDitCOM is a customizable genealogical application for viewing and editing GEDCOM files. Customization is provided by the user writing a series of templates. These templates can be written and edited directly within GEDitCOM. In brief, a template gives instructions on how to format a particular type of GEDCOM record or GEDCOM structure. A complete set of templates that provides a full user interface which is known as a GEDitCOM Format. Furthermore, you are not limited to one GEDitCOM Format; you can switch formats at will and thus edit, display, and print the same genealogical data in a variety of ways. You can even switch formats in the middle of editing a file. GEDitCOM comes with a default format called the Default GEDitCOM Format. Anyone can use this format for immediate and virtually complete access to all of GEDCOM's features. More advanced users will modify this format set or write their own format set. Other users might want to download GEDitCOM Formats from the Downloads section of this web site. You can use these formats to view and edit genealogy data in a variety of ways or to get ideas on how to write your own formats. 3. Data IntegrityMost genealogy programs "import" data from other sources and force fit the results into their proprietary internal standards. In the process, the data is often changed. In contrast, GEDitCOM gets all data from GEDCOM files and it treats your data with great respect. No data will ever be changed unless you explicitly ask it to be changed. You can even read invalid GEDCOM files and GEDitCOM will keep the data intact until you fix it to be in a proper format. People work long hours doing genealogy research. A guiding principle of GEDitCOM is that you should never lose the results of research stored in the genealogy files on your computer. 4. Open and Public Data FormatThe wave of the future of computers, as exemplified by Extensible Markup Language or XML, is to define documents that are human-readable (i.e., plain-text files) and have an open or public format. GEDitCOM follows this trend in computer programming because it uses GEDCOM, which is a public-domain and human-readable format. Most genealogy applications use proprietary and binary formats. Whether realized or not, the choice of such applications means the end user is buying into the proprietary technology of that company. This approach is kind of scary because it puts all your valuable genealogy data at the mercy of that company. You can only view and edit your data using tools provided by that one company. If they do not provide an option you need, you are out of luck. In contrast, all files created by GEDitCOM are plain-text GEDCOM files. You can edit it in GEDitCOM or you can view and edit it in any text editor. You can even edit the raw GEDCOM data right in GEDitCOM to do things that might otherwise be impossible. Now, dealing with raw GEDCOM data requires knowledge of the GEDCOM Format, but that format is in the public domain and fully documented in the GEDitCOM on-line help. Dealing with raw GEDCOM data will mostly be done by advanced users, but all users should be reassured that their data is accessible to them if needed. If they ever find something that can not be done in GEDitCOM, it might be possible to accomplish it with a text editing program. 5. "Sometimes I Feel Like a Modaless Child" (Richie Havens, Woodstock, 1969)First, for those of you unfamiliar with computer jargon, we need a definition of "modal". A "modal" window or dialog box is when your application presents you with a window and gives you no choice other that to respond to that window. When you are done, you must formally exit the mode (such as by clicking "OK" or a close box) before continuing to use your application. There are two reasons applications use "modal" windows:
The first reason is a good reason to use "modal" windows. An example of such "good" modal windows is when you are about to open a file. No application can open a file unless it knows what file to open. A modal window that forces you to select a file solves the problem. The second reason is not a good reason to use "modal" windows, but it seems to happen particularly often in genealogy applications. Lazy developers over-use modal windows because they make their life much easier for the programmer (but not for the user). With modal windows you can restrict the user's options. When the options are limited, the programming is much simpler. Modal windows, however, lead to an awkward human interface. People do not function modally in real life and they will view modal interfaces as "unfriendly." A guiding principle of GEDitCOM is to be as non-modal or as "modaless" as possible. All views of genealogy data are modaless. While viewing data you can always edit it as well. Many other features such as GEDitCOM's preferences, searching, and index windows are also modaless. There are some modal windows in GEDitCOM. Most of these satisfy the first reason above for modal windows. Any modal windows that fall under the second reason for such windows will hopefully be eliminated as GEDitCOM progresses. It can be tricky comparing genealogy applications when some are modal and others are non-modal. If you do a quick evaluation of highly-modal applications, they might appear to be good applications. Those modal windows might even be very pretty. Two examples of highly-modal, but pretty, applications are Reunion (for Macintosh) and PAF 4.0 (for Windows). Whenever you want to edit your genealogy data in such applications you have to first open a modal window, second locate and edit your data, and third close the modal window. It might be pleasing to try for a few minutes, but such modal behavior will quickly become tiresome if you are editing large amounts of genealogy data. The second page of the Macintosh User Interface Guidelines, published more than 15 years ago, devotes an entire section to "Avoiding Modes." An excerpt from those guideline states "It's tempting to use modes in a Macintosh application, since most existing software leans on them heavily. If you yield to the temptation too frequently, however, users will consider spending time with your application a chore rather than a satisfying experience." Many genealogy applications yield to that temptation far too often. There is no excuse for a genealogy application to require modal windows for most editing options or for file indices. GEDitCOM tries to do better and always tries to "avoid modes." Hopefully spending time with GEDitCOM will be a "satisfying experience." 6. ReferenceSome links for more information about GEDitCOM, more information about the GEDCOM standard, and sources of GEDCOM files, can be found in the Genealogy Links section of this web site.
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