Need software to convert paf to GEDCOM on freeBSD 4.11

Does anyone know of software that will read *.paf and produce a
gedcom file from it on freeBSD 4.11?

My cousin's wife sent me such a file of some research on our family
but it's a *.paf file. So far she hasn't been able to produce a
gedcom file.

Rebel Lion...

Earlier versions of gramps ie the below one versions did convert. I did
it when I moved from windows to linux. The later versions don't have the
option unfortunately. I might be an option to try installing an older
version if you can't get it sent as a gedcom

The only (working) software I have found formy system is lifelines
but it doesn't (as far as I've been able to tell) understand *.paf
so I'm stumped.

Any suggestions for that or any genealogical software that will
build and run on my (admittedly not up-to-date) system will be
sincerely appreciated.

Updating my operating system is not an option.

Thank you for any help.

Robert M. Riches Jr....

Can you run Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) on your system?
Is the .paf file using a recent PAF format version? If so,
get Wine version 0.9.29, (download and) install PAF 5.2.
There is an option to export to GEDCOM. See the PAF 5 AppDB
page for more info: (I'm a maintainer of the page.)

Or, if you'd prefer, email me the .paf file. I'll use PAF
5.2 under Wine 0.9.29 (or later if available) on Linux to
convert to GEDCOM (5.5, IIRC), then I'll email the GEDCOM
file back to you.

melsonr...

Charlie,

At last! Another admitted FBSD user!.

T.M. Sommers...

Admissions are statements against interest. The use of FreeBSD
is not something to be admitted, but something to be stated.

At any rate, FreeBMD uses FreeBSD, too.

melsonr...

Errr, would you then prefer "confessed"? As in, "I confess

T.M. Sommers...

The use of FreeBSD is not a sin, so there is no need to confess.
Windows, on the other hand ...

Jeff Wiseman...

Ahh, yes! If you ever want to see the "Gates of Dell"...

As far as using computers on this earth goes, there is no such
thing as the "Windows of Heaven" :-)

Kerry Raymond...

I have been a user/programmer on various flavours of Unix since 1978, but I
personally have a Windows laptop.

I love Unix as a robust operating system and as a software development
environment, but Windows is slicker when it comes to GUIs (even if they take
a lot of the ideas from Apple), there are more applications available for it
(especially for family history), and they do have a reasonably
well-integrated set of standard applications (Mail, Calendar, WWW, Word).
reasonably productive.

Hugh Watkins...

snip

But there are some tasks that Windows does not do so well. This is why I
have Cygwin on my Windows box so I can switch into the world of Unix for
tasks that aren't so easily done under Windows (like running sed/awk scripts
over GEDCOM files to fix problems). We also run our WWW server at home using
one of the Redhat Linux versions.

The problem with Unix that keeps it from being a real theat commercially to
Microsoft is its splintering into so many variants and into so many
communities. Sure there is a massive open source community out there, but
it's working to thousands of personal goals, pulling things in many
different directions. Microsoft simply by being a company can set
directions, goals, priorities in a way that an open source community cannot.
If a Microsoft employee disagrees with the company line, they can go
elsewhere but they can't keep developing Microsoft Windows if they do. If a
member of a Unix open source community disagrees with the community, they
simply go off and form another community and keep developing in their
preferred direction in that new community.

So, I stick with FTM on Windows for family history (not because I think FTM
is superb, but it's the one I know) and fiddle my GEDCOMs and run my WWW
servers under Unix. I try to get the best of both worlds.

Hugh Watkins...

me too (but I use other peoples unix servers like freepages.rootsweb.com)

FTM 16 >> WinXp sp2 >> Parallels 2.5 beta 3 >> Mac OS 10.4.8 >> unix

Hugh Watkins...

1200

"complete suite of the standard X11 display server software, client
libraries and developer toolkits, X11 for Mac OS X makes it even simpler
to port Linux and Unix applications to the Mac. X11 for Mac OS X gives
you a complete, rootless X11R6.6 implementation, as well as display
server and client libraries — plus headers in the SDK. X11 for Mac OS X
supports ssh tunnelling for secure display sharing. You can download all
the common toolkits from OpenDarwin.org. Plus, Tiger inludes native
support for popular toolkits such as Tcl/TK and W+widgets."

and I have not begun to explore that using the terminal

but it is genealogical heaven to see ancestry images at 150% on one
screen and read and write on the other

Parallels does not yet support two monitors from WinXP but the
developers are being asked about that almost daily

with a VM I can also use two log ons to one site at the same time

Hugh W

I've used FBSD since 2.1.7"?

T.M. Sommers...

2.1.5 here.

Smilin' Ol' Bob

Are you certain the file is a .paf file? Can you open it with
ed or vi or, shudder, emacs? It's possible it's a text file in
gedcom format and just renamed. If, in fact, it's in some sort
of proprietary format, it might be worth your effort to load wine
or qemu or one of the several dos emulation systems. Failing that,
perhaps one of the folks here would accept the file via email and
convert it for you. None of the commonly available genealogy

TomAlciere...

That would compromise confidential family history info.
DON'T DO IT.

If it's a PAF file, open it with PAF and export it as a GEDCOM file.

melsonr...

But, Tom, the OP indicated he's running FreeBSD - a non-Windows
operating system. Neither PAF nor any of the other Gatesware
genealogy programs run on *BSD without some form of emulation.
Barring an emulator of some sort, the OP can't run PAF, so his
choices are limited to (1) finding a Gatesware box he can borrow
and on which he can load PAF, (2) asking his relative to export
the file in gedcom format and resend it (but, he sez, she's been
unable to do that), or (3) asking SKS to convert it. Read the
original post carefully.

Sheesh!

Bob Melson

programs on FBSD (ftree, gramps, phpGedView) will, so far as I know,
read a .paf file, tho' all WILL read gedcoms.

You know 4.11 is reaching it's EOL, do you not?

Bob Melson