Post by Howard Metcalfe on Dec 18, 2006 16:35:41 GMT -5
Q: Can I enter same-sex unions?
A: No.
In 2002 when I started programming PAWriter II, I mostly patterned it after the old Mac PAF which only dealt with opposite-sex couples. Of course, things changed quite a bit as I progressed. But the requirement for a couple (married or not) to consist of a man and a woman didn't change. I really never thought about it, dealing as I was in my own genealogical research with mostly olden times (pre-1900) when such unions were not recorded, much less talked about.
Now, with the requirement embedded deeply within some 60,000 lines of code, I couldn't change it if I wanted to (at least not in my lifetime).
The best that can be done is to record same-sex unions in the notes of the people involved.
There is an unappealing alternative. If you view gender as a "role," and can stand having He and She, etc., appear in reports, you could enter same-sex unions with each partner in the closest (or an arbitrary) role. In this case, you might heavily edit reports referring to them. (Personally, I think that's not a good idea since it requires an awful lot of extra work and is liable to unintentional error.)
A: No.
In 2002 when I started programming PAWriter II, I mostly patterned it after the old Mac PAF which only dealt with opposite-sex couples. Of course, things changed quite a bit as I progressed. But the requirement for a couple (married or not) to consist of a man and a woman didn't change. I really never thought about it, dealing as I was in my own genealogical research with mostly olden times (pre-1900) when such unions were not recorded, much less talked about.
Now, with the requirement embedded deeply within some 60,000 lines of code, I couldn't change it if I wanted to (at least not in my lifetime).
The best that can be done is to record same-sex unions in the notes of the people involved.
There is an unappealing alternative. If you view gender as a "role," and can stand having He and She, etc., appear in reports, you could enter same-sex unions with each partner in the closest (or an arbitrary) role. In this case, you might heavily edit reports referring to them. (Personally, I think that's not a good idea since it requires an awful lot of extra work and is liable to unintentional error.)