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Archiver > APG > 2002-11 > 1036411921


From: "Richard A. Pence" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Place Names and GEDCOM
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 07:12:01 -0500
References: <20021102165856.80498.qmail@web13409.mail.yahoo.com>


Ray Beere Johnson II <> wrote:

> Richard;
> I agree that some programs implement GEDCOM
> poorly, as I noted in my message. However, in my
> opinion the standard should have been designed to
> allow coding for user defined fields, tags, etc.
> and for the correct labels for those fields.
> Then, the importing program, if it implemented
> the standard correctly, would 'know' what the
> data was it had just imported.

My undertanding of the specs is that they do what you suggest. I just looked
at an old copy and it has extensive instructions for implementing
user-defined tags and fields. Most developers either don't properly
implement this aspect of GEDCOM or, if they do, they don't tell their users
how to properly create their own tags. And, as you suggest, the root problem
is users who don't pay attention to recommendations.

Regards,
Richard


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