SN>>>> Out of sheer frustration with the currently available
 SN>>>> offerings, I'm contemplating writing my own genealogy
 SN>>>> program.

 DN>>> Ok, although I believe there are some around for OS/2.

 ml>> there are but i've not looked at them.

 SN> I've not been able to find any except FTree (Warp 4 only), and
 SN> I already posted to Dave earlier in this thread what I think
 SN> of it.

hummm...

 ml>> he's using PAF (from the mormons or latter-day saints, i
 ml>> don't know  which)

 SN> One and the same.

thanks >

 ml>> i/we started with an old (today) copy of brother's keeper which i
 ml>> liked due to its simplicity and straightforwardness...

 SN> Is this the DOS version or the Win3.1 version?

DOS only... [time passes] just looked in the zip file(s) i have in that
directory... its the DOS version, brother's keeper v5.1 dated Sept, 1992
>

 SN> I don't really care for either one (I've been using both--mainly
 SN> the DOS version--for years).  It seems to do a pretty good job
 SN> of information storage and retrieval, but the user interface is
 SN> clumsy at best, and the GEDCOM import/export is out of date.
 SN> And it isn't as capable as some other programs out there.  The
 SN> latest Windows version seems to be better, but it doesn't run
 SN> on OS/2.

i've never used a windows version of BK... my mom sent my dad a DOS version
of PAF some years back... we had to do some "tricking" to be able
to have different trees in different directories... dad keep lots of small
trees and maintains them all the time... sometimes he'll merge data into
some of his median trees and then into his "master" tree... seems
to make it easier... one thing i can say is that their latest idea of
having a permanent id number for each person and marriage and such is
really flawed because it allows for the numbers to be generated from
different sources with no interaction between them... i see it kinda like
ICQ numbers, in a way, but not everyone has internet access and thus can't
reach the "id server"...

 ml>> searching google with "gedcom format standard" (sans quotes)
 ml>> turns up the following as the first hit...

 ml>> http://www.gendex.com/gedcom55/55gctoc.htm

 SN> That's the one.

 ml>> it was released Jan 2, 1996 and appears to be the current
 ml>> standard...

 SN> Yes, it is.  There isn't any genealogy database program out
 SN> there, for any platform, that implements the standard fully
 SN> and correctly.  All of them implement only a subset of the
 SN> standard (this is true even of PAF, which is written by the
 SN> same people who write the GEDCOM standard), some implement
 SN> some tags incorrectly, and some extend the standard in
 SN> non-standard (and often unnecessary) ways.

yeah... seems that maybe these things aren't all that well planned out and
too many want to freestyle some of their stuff to get that "special
feature" rather than a working system...

)\/(ark