Comments on: XML is GEDCOM; GEDCOM is XML http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641 the Development of my Genealogy Program named Behold http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/../beholdblog.gif Comments by Louis Kessler are Copyright 2000-2013 Louis Kessler, All Rights Reserved. Comments by others belong to the people who made them. By: Louis Kessler http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-62 Louis Kessler Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:51:50 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-62 Don't worry. I enjoy these conversations. Even today, XML has not made any significant impact in genealogy software. And you ask the average computer user about XML and they won't know what you're talking about. In fact most web developers don't know the difference between HTML and XML. And I don't say that it wasn't important. It just wasn't in general use, especially not the way it is starting to be used in the last few years. Until last week, I never had connected using XML for GEDCOM. I didn't know enough about it to realize that it wasn't just another data definition language. It only came back into my thinking again while reading one of <a href="http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=632" rel="nofollow">the new Delphi books I purchased</a> which had a chapter on it. But it's still not easy. There are many ways to implement it, and which way if any is best for Behold is still not clear to me. Hopefully, it will be soon. Don’t worry. I enjoy these conversations.

Even today, XML has not made any significant impact in genealogy software. And you ask the average computer user about XML and they won’t know what you’re talking about. In fact most web developers don’t know the difference between HTML and XML.

And I don’t say that it wasn’t important. It just wasn’t in general use, especially not the way it is starting to be used in the last few years.

Until last week, I never had connected using XML for GEDCOM. I didn’t know enough about it to realize that it wasn’t just another data definition language. It only came back into my thinking again while reading one of the new Delphi books I purchased which had a chapter on it.

But it’s still not easy. There are many ways to implement it, and which way if any is best for Behold is still not clear to me. Hopefully, it will be soon.

]]> By: uwe http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-61 uwe Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:09:20 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-61 Web designers used XML based solutions even before 2000, MSXML is around since 2003, and the same year there were already Delphi components available for both D4 and D5 (for example OmniXML or OpenXML). Adobe introduced XMP for PDF in 2001 and has since then used it in other products, too. To say that XML was not important before the onset of Web 2.0 is therefore ... well ... quite an exaggeration ... I didn't want to question your expertise, by the way - I just found it funny how XML "dawned" on you. Web designers used XML based solutions even before 2000, MSXML is around since 2003, and the same year there were already Delphi components available for both D4 and D5 (for example OmniXML or OpenXML). Adobe introduced XMP for PDF in 2001 and has since then used it in other products, too. To say that XML was not important before the onset of Web 2.0 is therefore … well … quite an exaggeration …

I didn’t want to question your expertise, by the way - I just found it funny how XML “dawned” on you.

]]> By: Louis Kessler http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-60 Louis Kessler Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:39:14 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-60 XML 1.0 only became a W3C Recommendation in February 1998. RSS feeds became based on them. But it really took until the onset of Web 2.0 and Microsoft's adoption of them for their default Office formats before it become something important. I've known about XML's attempted use and the to-date unsuccessful attempts to replace GEDCOM with XML versions of it. See some of <a href="http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/forum/search.php?w=blog&q=xml&u=" rel="nofollow">the other references to XML I've made in the past</a>. I did refer to the link you mentioned in <a href="http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=245" rel="nofollow">my November 20, 2004 post</a>. But it's newly available for me because Delphi 4 had no good hooks into it, whereas Delphi 2009 does. And I really didn't realize that XML and GEDCOM are really the same (Duh! Hit me with a brick!) until last week. XML 1.0 only became a W3C Recommendation in February 1998. RSS feeds became based on them. But it really took until the onset of Web 2.0 and Microsoft’s adoption of them for their default Office formats before it become something important.

I’ve known about XML’s attempted use and the to-date unsuccessful attempts to replace GEDCOM with XML versions of it. See some of the other references to XML I’ve made in the past. I did refer to the link you mentioned in my November 20, 2004 post.

But it’s newly available for me because Delphi 4 had no good hooks into it, whereas Delphi 2009 does. And I really didn’t realize that XML and GEDCOM are really the same (Duh! Hit me with a brick!) until last week.

]]> By: uwe http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-59 uwe Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:07:05 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=641#comment-59 XML a new technology? You must have been hiding somewhere in the Canadian woods, Louis... ;-) Here is a link that might help: http://xml.coverpages.org/genealogy.html#gedML HTH Uwe XML a new technology? You must have been hiding somewhere in the Canadian woods, Louis… ;-)

Here is a link that might help:
http://xml.coverpages.org/genealogy.html#gedML

HTH
Uwe

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