Andy Hatchett

I might be in error, but I believe that the TMG-L Mailing List was established on RootsWeb long before they were bought by Ancestry.

The only other connection I know of is that Ancestry is a client of TMG as Ancestry licenses TMG's GenBridge technology.

IIRC, It was something that came up in a discussion at the Knoxville FGS last August. I know I didn't just make it up.

Seems I heard somewhere that one of the Microsoft tools used to build TMG was supposed to be updated and MS was late getting that update out and that that set the TMG schedule back a bit.

This can be categorized as fan fiction. Where do you come up with such things?

 

It would be helpful if people limit their discussions to things that they actually know. There is considerable fiction in a number of recent posts regarding the status of TMG8 and the reasons for the delay.

Seems I heard somewhere that one of the Microsoft tools used to build TMG was supposed to be updated and MS was late getting that update out and that that set the TMG schedule back a bit.

Just a refresher for those joining late...

Descendancy Narrative of TIt Master Genealogist

Version 1 tmg was born in Jul 1993. It died in Oct 1996 at age 3 years.

1 Version 2 tmg was born in Oct 1996. It died in May 1997 at age 7 months.

1.1 Version 3 tmg was born in May 1997. It died in May 1999 at age

2 years.

1.1.1 Version 4 tmg was born in May 1999. It died on 22 May 2002

at age 3 years.

1.1.1.1 Version 5 tmg was born on 22 May 2002. It died on 21

Dec 2004 at age 2 years, 6 months and 29 days.

1.1.1.1.1 Version 6 tmg was born on 21 Dec 2004.1 It died

on 28 Dec 2007 at age 3 years and 7 days.

1.1.1.1.1.1 Version 7 tmg was born on 28 Dec 2007.

So the wait has been a bit longer than between version 6 and version 7 but not outrageously so.

It will be released when it is ready- whenever that is; That is all we know and all we are likely to know before the actual release.

Could someone recap and summarise what the latest information from WG is, in relation to the release of V8? Am unable to find it anywhere....

How do you know there is a lack of progress? All we know is what we are told- and one thing you can bet we won't be told is a definitive statement about when the product will, or will not, be released.

I too am getting frustrated at the lack of progress of Ver 8. What would help is a definitive statement about when the product will, or will not, be shipped by. As a long term user of TMG i am being tempted to migrate to TNG which meets all my requirements and has a very customisable interface to suit all skill/integrity levels

 

Michael

[edited... jeb] The simply fact is that GEDCOM itself can't handle thefull output of *any* modern genealogy program- and hasn't been able to for the last five years or so. The wait for version 8 really hasn't been that much longer than for some of the past version so I don't understand all the angst. In fact, I find it all rather puzzling!

[Refer to the post above... jeb]

What more can be said about Unicode, FoxPro, or Version 8?

It has all been said- over and over ad nausaum.

If you want to comminicate with them directly, you can always call or e-mail them. I've always found them to be most helpful.

Frankly, the unicode and FoxPro issues are, to me, indicators of a much larger problem: COMMUNICATION. The lack of it. In any form. On any topic. unfortunatley, this does send a message and we are hearing it loud and clear:

 

"Our customers are too difficult/moody/cranky/uninformed to understand our business. They will just have to wait until we are good and ready to talk at them. Let them talk to each other - we're too busy to care what they think about our product."

 

In an era when companies from all industries, including software, are using Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, blogs, etc to get information to and from their customers Wholly Gene's lack of communication and attitude is all the more obvious and grating!

 

TMG is the most complete, most useful genealogy product on the market. It probably has a few years of viability before another product overtakes it. The company attitude is what will kill it.

 

Lori Bragg

When Bob skips a a pretty major show (Knoxville) to stay home and swat bugs- yes, they are working hard.

Is this new word processor library slated to come out with TMG8, or will it be a patch?

As just a user like yourself I cannot speak officially for Wholly Genes, but the new word processor library has been mentioned by Wholly Genes in a preview of TMG 8, so it is expected as a part of that new version. Rumor has it that this is a complete rewrite of the word processing part of the software, so my crystal ball expects it to only be part of the new version.

And is there any (even rough) timeline on it?

Since software development is such an uncertain activity, in the past Wholly Genes has not wished to give any timelines on new versions. But Wholly Genes has made it clear that they are painfully aware of the pressing need for this new version, so I expect they are working very hard on it.

Allocating resources to import and export support of GEDCOM is, imho, an utter waste of time. As more and more modern genealogy programs develop more bells and whistles GEDCOM becomes less and less relevant - Just look at the BetterGEDCOM Wiki that was just introduced.

As to the FoxPro issue...

Once version 8 is out the door that can be started to be looked at, assuming that it isn't already being looked at.

Once v8 is out it will, if past release history is followed, probably be at least 3-4 years before we see version 9.

Perhaps even longer as TMG will be on a new platform- and yes, I'm confident that there will be a version 9.

Directly importing other popular genealogy program databases into TMG was a great idea and feature over a decade ago. There were few popular premium genealogy programs and they were fairly stable in those days.

 

 

 

In my opinion, all of that has been changing. New popular genealogy programs are rapidly born and soon die. Those that survive seem to change format details quite often, as does TMG. Spending resources on GenBridge appears to be becoming more and more ineffective and futile.

 

 

 

Perhaps those resources would be more effectively allocated to GEDCOM import and export support and added genealogy report/chart oriented features. In addition, serious FoxPro problems seem to be looming on the horizon and must be addressed, eventually.

 

 

 

Just food for thought and wishes for a great future,