From: beaurega@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Denis Beauregard)
Subject: Re: Trying a new Gen. Software
Organization: Institut de recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, Varennes, Canada
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 21:36:10 GMT

In article <725659608.AA00000@blkcat.UUCP> Frank.Williams@f356.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Frank Williams) writes:
> DB> In the full feature mode, you could do any thing supported by the
> DB> standard.  i.e. If someone has 2 conflictual birth date, you can have
> DB> them.  If one has 2 names, different parents in a record, etc.,
> DB> you can do it.
>
>        I did not realize the Gedcom standard provided for multiple opinions, 
>Denis.  That is a particular frustration with my current software.  I'd find 
>value in a two-tiered capability IF we could do something with the multiple  
>opinions, once collected.

Some nice usage I see for what you call "multiple opinions": 

- safe management of homonymous couples families
- keep track of _known_ wrong data so that you won't enter it twice
- keep track of data not yet validated (there is a VALID field in GEDCOM)

GEDCOM also includes a ALIAs field.  While I have not yet fully read and
understood the relevant information, I think you could put an ALIAs field
in a family record while you are not sure that all data concerns one
family.  I see this very useful in merging data from Vital Records to
various censuses (i.e. 1880, 1900, 1920).

As for the "frustration" with you current software, this is one major
reason why I want to write my own.  I once wrote a hypertext and structure
based text editor.  I think I have enough experience to do something
fine enough to use it in a few monthes, just to try it and see what I can
do.  I used the structure to generate the IF and brackets in a C or
Fortran program.  I did replace the IF etc. with diagrams.  Otherwise,
it is exactly the same as the genealogy problem, i.e. a program and a
tree are structured data.  Both have (why almost no editor can do this,
except mine :-)  ) variable point of view (genealogy: individual,
list of individuals, record, family, list of families; software: list of
routines and structures, routine, part of routine) and links (genealogy:
link from individu to family in many variations [biological parents, 
adoptees, godparents in catholic baptism or in many associations] and
between individues; software: link between the list of routines and each
routines, link between the routine and its components, link between
a line calling a routine and the routine per se).

As for a draft of the whole system:
a repository is a collection of many records.  Each record has a unique
number.  Only operations you can do on a repository are:
- append a series of new records
- merge together records (i.e. look for duplicate and eliminate them)
- extract some records for transfer (in GEDCOM format) or editing.

a work file is a subset of the repository.  A work file can not exist
when the repository is worked on (because some records may disappear).
You do usual editing operations on the work file.
The editor must read all the work file, so I have to limit the size of
it (limitation of DOS).  

an index table.  When working on a genealogy, you can take some data,
move them on a remote computer (i.e. a portable machine), then bring them
back, and make some editing operations (like replacing a name reference
by a number reference if you find a record).


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