Wynther wrote: >Just as one shouldn't try to paint the Mona Lisa with a chain saw, neither should one try to sculpt a David with a paint brush.
Gee, that's what a lot of people said, back in the technological dark ages, when rumors began about a preposterous idea of a relational database narratives <g> So, lots of relational databases now produce narrative. It's just narrative that makes most people groan and few people want to read it. If the big thinkers of two decades ago figured out a way to make a relational database produce "written text," I have all the confidence in the world that they're smart enough to eventually make that "good prose" possible. As for size, well, my first computer had 64 K of memory and wrote very little more than that on a 8" floppy. Today, we can hold a few gigabites on a thumb drive. That gives me a lot of optimism that our brilliant software developers can figure out a way to handle the "word processing" size problem also. >Perhaps what is really needed is a third party full bodied, fully customizable, user friendly report generator That could be feasible--provided it lets the polished genie go back in the bottle, so we don't have to spend days and days reediting, shuffling data around, and otherwise generating what's needed every time a new copy of a descendant narrative is printed or sent to someone from an ongoing database. Optimistically, Elizabeth ---------------------------------------------------------- Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG *** Holiday discounts on Legacy 7.0, add-ons, books, and more. Visit http://tinyurl.com/65rpbt. *** Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
