TMG sentences (and those #$%# commas!)

[jgr 0]

I swear, writing sentences in TMG is going to drive me to drink.

 

What I want to produce is:

If both parents known: Person was the son of Father and Mother

If only the father is known: Person was the son of Father

If only the mother is known: Person was the son of Mother

I'd love to be able to use PAR but that produces that #$%@ initial comma:

Person was the, son of Father and Mother

Is there any way to do this??? Thanks!

[Terry Reigel 0]

I don't believe there is a way to do it simply with variables as you are trying to do. But you could do it with roles, assigning a specific role to the principal indicating whether one or both parents are recorded. The sentences for those roles would be:

 

Parents: [P] was the son of [FATH] and [MOTH]

 

Father: [P] was the son of [FATH]

 

Mother: [P] was the son of [MOTH]

 

Similar female sentences would be required for each role.

[jgr 0]

I don't believe there is a way to do it simply with variables as you are trying to do. But you could do it with roles...

I was afraid you were going to say that. Okay... where's the wishlist??? I'd like to add a request for a variable that doesn't add that #$%@# comma!!!

[chasco 0]

Hi,

 

Not much of a drinker, but yeah, I'll join you! First couple of rounds are on me.

 

However, please try the suggestion Terry gave me in answer to my questions about adding parents & children to the individual narrative: sentence: [P] [PAR] In the individual narrative, it produces what I wanted: Elizabeth Smith, daughter of John Smith and Mary Jones.

 

I fiddled around with the above entry in my TMG and found that if delete the link to the mother, then "[P] [PAR]" automatically produces: Elizabeth Smith, daughter of John Smith. So, TMG automatically adjusts the produced sentence for son/daughter and omits unknown information.

 

I also assume you are trying to do this in the individual narrative report. Not sure what it might produce elsewhere, but try it and let us know if individual narrative is not what you are working with.

 

Thanks again to Terry for showing the way.

 

Sam

[jgr 0]

However, please try the suggestion Terry gave me in answer to my questions about adding parents & children to the individual narrative: sentence: [P] [PAR] In the individual narrative, it produces what I wanted: Elizabeth Smith, daughter of John Smith and Mary Jones.

The problem is the comma at the start of the phrase produced by the variable [PAR]. I want to produce a simple sentence:

John was the son of John Smith and Mary Jones.

That apparently can't be done without roles, and that's a royal pain... There are often uses for a simple parentage statement without having it as a subordinate clause to some other fact (in other words, not set off by the comma). And that apparently can't be done without roles, and I'd hate to have to do that every time I want this statement.