Comments on: RootsMagic 4 Misbehaves! http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862 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=862#comment-393 Louis Kessler Sat, 26 Nov 2011 06:45:22 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-393 mtibesar: As you have come to realize, I'm of the camp that GEDCOM isn't all that bad. I'd say try to get your GEDCOMs into valid GEDCOM 5.5.1 and keep them that way. You'll be guaranteed that there will at least be a few programs that will be able to read them for the foreseeable future. mtibesar: As you have come to realize, I’m of the camp that GEDCOM isn’t all that bad. I’d say try to get your GEDCOMs into valid GEDCOM 5.5.1 and keep them that way. You’ll be guaranteed that there will at least be a few programs that will be able to read them for the foreseeable future.

]]> By: mtibesar http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-391 mtibesar Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:35:23 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-391 I am a user and, I have trusted that the big companies would follow the GEDCOM standard to a "Tee". However your research has enlightened me and, I am really pissed about this. You see I have been exporting gedcoms and re-importing them into other programs thinking all is well. Thank you Louis for educating me and, I will start looking for a program that follows the standard and go with them. If I can't depend on a ged file then what the hell can I count on?!? I am a user and, I have trusted that the big companies would follow the GEDCOM standard to a “Tee”. However your research has enlightened me and, I am really pissed about this. You see I have been exporting gedcoms and re-importing them into other programs thinking all is well. Thank you Louis for educating me and, I will start looking for a program that follows the standard and go with them. If I can’t depend on a ged file then what the hell can I count on?!?

]]> By: Louis Kessler http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-375 Louis Kessler Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:43:01 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-375 Herb, I've been contributing with BetterGEDCOM for a year now, expressing my ideas there. Even that committee has had trouble getting developers such as Bruce Buzbee involved. Maybe they're too busy doing their own developing their own way to get involved, or maybe everyone else to them is their competition. This analysis now is solidifying in my mind that current programs today are complicating your life and making you spend (i.e. waste) your time on formatting your reports and citations. What they should be helping you do is to record your sources, determine what is evidence, and use that to record and document your conclusions. To heck with how you format it. Most of RootsMagic's non-standard citation template stuff will be displayed in Behold as hidden text by default. It, after all, is not data. Louis Herb,

I’ve been contributing with BetterGEDCOM for a year now, expressing my ideas there. Even that committee has had trouble getting developers such as Bruce Buzbee involved. Maybe they’re too busy doing their own developing their own way to get involved, or maybe everyone else to them is their competition.

This analysis now is solidifying in my mind that current programs today are complicating your life and making you spend (i.e. waste) your time on formatting your reports and citations. What they should be helping you do is to record your sources, determine what is evidence, and use that to record and document your conclusions.

To heck with how you format it.

Most of RootsMagic’s non-standard citation template stuff will be displayed in Behold as hidden text by default. It, after all, is not data.

Louis

]]> By: Herb Mellinger http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-374 Herb Mellinger Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:13:50 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-374 Louis, I understand your frustration and have empathy for you as you are so close to your 1st release. However, source citations and sources are important to the proper recording of facts. Have you looked at any of the other programs that use similar templates?? Like Legacy, and I believe Master Genealogist also uses some. I was looking at Reunion recently and in the back of my mind they were also implementing Citation-source templates in their software. I know you are upset, possibly rightly so, but instead of throwing stones at RootsMagic 4 wouldn't it be better to contact Bruce and discuss your concerns with him yourself. He is one of your peers in programming and this should not continue to frustrate you but open new lines of communication for you and other Genealogy programmers on how to solve a thorny issue. This is where the programmers should look for a way to work together and solve issues like this before they become a issue. Herb... Louis,

I understand your frustration and have empathy for you as you are so close to your 1st release. However, source citations and sources are important to the proper recording of facts. Have you looked at any of the other programs that use similar templates?? Like Legacy, and I believe Master Genealogist also uses some. I was looking at Reunion recently and in the back of my mind they were also implementing Citation-source templates in their software.
I know you are upset, possibly rightly so, but instead of throwing stones at RootsMagic 4 wouldn’t it be better to contact Bruce and discuss your concerns with him yourself. He is one of your peers in programming and this should not continue to frustrate you but open new lines of communication for you and other Genealogy programmers on how to solve a thorny issue.

This is where the programmers should look for a way to work together and solve issues like this before they become a issue.

Herb…

]]> By: Louis Kessler http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-373 Louis Kessler Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:41:02 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-373 GeneJ, Unfortunately, RootsMagic's default is to do the GEDCOM export WITH the RM specific tags. Like you, many people will miss that option, or not decide to uncheck the option, and there are now many RootsMagic 4 GEDCOMs on the web with them. Developers will have to know which tags to ignore when importing the files. RootsMagic would have done much better to figure out how to export all its information in a way that is legal in GEDCOM 5.5.1. It wouldn't have been too hard for them to do that. ... and thanks for the good wishes. GeneJ,

Unfortunately, RootsMagic’s default is to do the GEDCOM export WITH the RM specific tags. Like you, many people will miss that option, or not decide to uncheck the option, and there are now many RootsMagic 4 GEDCOMs on the web with them. Developers will have to know which tags to ignore when importing the files. RootsMagic would have done much better to figure out how to export all its information in a way that is legal in GEDCOM 5.5.1. It wouldn’t have been too hard for them to do that.

… and thanks for the good wishes.

]]> By: genej http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-372 genej Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:32:04 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-372 P.S.... So great to see the "5 days" and counting! Congrats again, Louis. P.S…. So great to see the “5 days” and counting! Congrats again, Louis.

]]> By: genej http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-371 genej Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:30:27 +0000 http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=862#comment-371 A few of the researchers on BetterGEDCOM looked at RootsMagic (RM) and the other "extended" sourcing systems, too. On export, RM offers the user several options, including whether to export "RootsMagic Specific tags." This option is discussed only briefly in the RootsMagic Help file, "Creating a GEDCOM file." See Bruce Buzbee's 2009 blog, "RootsMagic 4 Update Released (4.0.2.1)" http://bit.ly/rZfe3t where he writes about the new features including "Added option to exclude RM specific tags when exporting GEDCOM files." Over at BetterGEDCOM, I learned about that export option the hard way. I had created some comparative GEDCOMS (same data input to several programs, then exported GEDCOMs to compare them) but I hadn't excluded the RM specific fields. :) Long story short--eventually I determined I needed to start all over on the RM comparisons--re-running the GEDCOMS (and recreating all the graphics .... ) with the RM specifics excluded ... GJ A few of the researchers on BetterGEDCOM looked at RootsMagic (RM) and the other “extended” sourcing systems, too. On export, RM offers the user several options, including whether to export “RootsMagic Specific tags.”

This option is discussed only briefly in the RootsMagic Help file, “Creating a GEDCOM file.”

See Bruce Buzbee’s 2009 blog, “RootsMagic 4 Update Released (4.0.2.1)” http://bit.ly/rZfe3t where he writes about the new features including “Added option to exclude RM specific tags when exporting GEDCOM files.”

Over at BetterGEDCOM, I learned about that export option the hard way. I had created some comparative GEDCOMS (same data input to several programs, then exported GEDCOMs to compare them) but I hadn’t excluded the RM specific fields. :) Long story short–eventually I determined I needed to start all over on the RM comparisons–re-running the GEDCOMS (and recreating all the graphics …. ) with the RM specifics excluded …

GJ

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