Pro GEDCOM

[Uncle Buddy]

I'll be using this thread to post links to information that could be useful to people who aren't going to listen to my negative rap about GEDCOM. These links are meant to inspire and assist developers who are really interested in getting to the bottom of GEDCOM and getting it right.

There's a lot of information out there, findable in a piecemeal fashion. I haven't been able to locate a single comprehensive tutorial, manual, course or blog that takes you from step one all the way through writing your own GEDCOM parser for importing and exporting GEDCOM. I suspect that GEDCOM will be replaced before anyone bothers to create such a course. Most of the real GEDCOM experts are probably busy on proprietary products, so are not motivated to training the competition.

From Louis Kessler's blog. Searching his blog and forum turned up over 700 hits on the word 'GEDCOM'.
Discussion of GEDCOM versions 7, 5.5, and 5.5.1 including the involvement of Tamura Jones:
www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=3826#comment-1294

From Tamura Jones' blog. He's an English genealogist living in Leiden, Netherlands, where the Mayflower set sail for America with the Pilgrims on board. He's an expert on genealogy and computer technology. His blog includes many articles on how GEDCOM should be used:
www.tamurajones.net/GEDCOM555JustARevision.xhtml

The official docs, various versions. This is from FamilySearch's own GEDCOM site:
gedcom.io/specs/

The FamilySearch GEDCOM 5.5.1 Specification Annotated Edition is explained at www.tamurajones.net/GEDCOM551AnnotatedEdition.xhtml. This is Rev. 1 2018/07/05 (created by Tamura Jones and seven other experienced GEDCOM experts).

Another panel of experts:
www.gedcom.org/index.html

Louis Kessler: GEDCOM should not allow custom tags
www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=3723

Louis Kessler: any imported data that can't be used by the target app must be passed through to the export from that app so it can be used by a different app.
www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=1528

Louis Kessler: GEDCOM sources
www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=1480

Louis Kessler: Nine Necessities in a GEDCOM Replacement
www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=1313

I'll be adding to this list of links as I find more top-notch sources.