Earlier this week, Tamura Jones wrote another couple of articles discussion GEDCOM standards and genealogy software. First up is a discussion of GEDCOM 5.5.1 AE, aka GEDCOM 5.5.1 Annotated Edition, and how it’s technically, as he puts it, “a new standard that’s presented as if it just the old standard, and that is a bit of problem, that can be seen as a shortcoming of the Annotated Edition” and it “isn’t a new standard, merely the old standard with annotations on how to do things the best way.“
The second discusses legacy GEDCOM support (not the software, Legacy Family Tree) and how genealogy software should be able to read files created by earlier versions of itself, regardless of issues with those earlier versions.
In the case of developers of new genealogy programs and apps, the article brings up the issue of just how far back they should support, with GEDCOM 5.5.1 being the minimum (given how ubiquitous it is over the last 20 years, even if 5.5.5 is out), but acknowledging the issues with GEDCOM 5.5.1 (the various character sets and encodings). GEDCOM 5.5.1 is also easier to detect (thanks to being UTF-8 encoded). Basically, limiting it UTF-8 encoded files makes the most sense and causes the fewest problems.
Articles:
As always, Tamura’s comments on the GEDCOM standard are worth reading, especially for those of us who need to work with GEDCOM files, either through sharing with family members or uploading online, working between multiple genealogy programs/apps, or having to import older genealogy data (going back decades).
If you are a genealogist and are serious about how you work with your data and genealogy software, Tamura Jones website is a must-follow: