RE: Validation of genealogy data

Hi Mike

On Sat, 2011-08-06 at 09:18 +1000, Mike Hamilton wrote:
> Tamura Jones has a useful and (recent) roundup of GEDCOM validators at http://www.tamurajones.net/GEDCOMValidation.xhtml . If we have a hero who is prepared to improve Paul Johnson's validate() function, he or she might take the best ideas from those programs.

Thanx for the URL. I've read some interesting articles there.

> I agree with the comments by Darren Duncan and Steve Woodbridge. To me, a validator simply provides a report; the only "error" condition is if the file cannot be parsed. All other outputs are simply warnings of varying severity. 

Yep.

> The list of possible inconsistencies in a GEDCOM file must be endless, but in my experience problems of the "brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father is my father's son" type are rare. My biggest gripe is GEDCOM's free-form dates: for example, is 1/2/88 the first of February, or the second of January, and is the year 1988, 1888, 1788 [...] ? Date::Manip is useful, but cannot cope with that case (and many others). An option reporting "ambiguous or unparsable date" would be extremely useful.

Yep.

But how many different versions of the GEDCOM spec is anybody expected
to support?

Let me guess: Just 1, the 1 the user is using!

-- 
Ron Savage
http://savage.net.au/
Ph: 0421 920 622