More GEDCOM 5.5.1 Errata

[lkessler]

Here are some other errata for 5.5.1 that are not yet included in: the 5.5.1 with inline errata document

Major issues:

1. For <<MULTIMEDIA_RECORD>> and <<MULTIMEDIA_LINK>>, the FORM tag needs to be {0:1}, and not be required as in {1:1}.

2. For <<MULTIMEDIA_RECORD>> and <<MULTIMEDIA_LINK>>, one has FILE.FORM.TYPE and the other has FILE.FORM.MEDI. As a result, either should be allowed and for both we should have: +3 [TYPE|MEDI] <SOURCE_MEDIA_TYPE> {0:1}

3. For <<MULTIMEDIA_RECORD>> and <<MULTIMEDIA_LINK>>, one has FILE.TITL with title at level 2 and the other has TITL at level 1. As a result, either should be allowed for both structures, since one was allowing the title of the OBJE record/link and the other for the individual FILE_REFERENCE. The two titles should have different elements to clearly indicate their purpose, i.e.
   +2 TITL <MULTIMEDIA_FILE_TITLE>
   +1 TITL <MULTIMEDIA_RECORD_TITLE>

I've seen GEDCOM 5.5.1 files mixing up the two MULTIMEDIA definitions, which is why the above should be included in the errata.

4. The values allowed for MULTIMEDIA_FORMAT are only [bmp | gif | jpg |ole | pcx | tif | wav]. Many others are missing, with obvious examples of png and mp4. so a FORM_DESCRIPTOR allowing anything should be defined and MULTIMEDIA_FORMAT should allow: [bmp | gif | jpg |ole | pcx | tif | wav | <FORM_DESCRIPTOR>]. Note: I would not put parenthesis around it as was done in <ROLE_DESCRIPTOR>. None of the other descriptors require the parenthesis.

5. SUBMITTER_TEXT used in notes is {1:248}. But many programs include no text on CONT lines, often for spacing betwen paragraphs. So on CONT tags, it should be {0:248}. The best way to do this to be consistent with 5.5.1's style might be to change the occurrences of [CONC|CONT] <SUBMITTER_TEXT> in NOTE_RECORD and NOTE_STRUCTURE to: [CONC <SUBMITTER_TEXT>|CONT [<SUBMITTER_TEXT>|NULL]]

6. In SOURCE_RECORD, for DATA.EVEN.DATE, it has +3 DATE <DATE_PERIOD>. It should be +3 DATE <DATE_VALUE>. That's a clear mistake.

Minor issues:

1. In the HEADER definition, HEAD.SOUR.DATA.COPR has under it +4 [CONT|CONC], but everywhere else in the document it is listed as [CONC|CONT].

2. The _UID tag has been adopted by many programs in 5.5.1 as a level 1 tag under any record type, and should likely be formally included to ensure it's accepted by programs reading 5.5.1, even though it is a user-defined tag and is technically legal,

[dthaler]

Discussion in GEDCOM Steering Committee:

• 1-3 are in the category of the spec is consistent but is commonly violated by multiple applications. We do not currently have an errata principle that would accept such cases as errata to allow them to be valid. Instead, we leave them as nonconformant cases that can have nonconformant extensions registered in the GEDCOM-registries repository.
• Points 4 and minor point 2 are requests for extensions that also aren't errata per se.
• For point 5, the GEDCOM 5.5.1 spec says in chapter 2: "All GEDCOM lines have either a value or a pointer unless the line contains subordinate GEDCOM lines." Thus, one cannot have a payload of size 0 except when there can be subordinate lines.
• For point 6, we don't believe this is a mistake. One can have periods with the same date in FROM and TO, such as FROM 1 JUN 2000 TO 1 JUN 2000 for a source that only covers one day. We don't believe it is an erratum to permit other forms such as dates with phrases.
• For minor point 1, we agree it is inconsistent but we don't believe this would adversely affect any reader or tool so isn't worth an erratum, under our principle to minimize document changes. Let us know if you disagree.