Associations, who is telling the truth?

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Thanks @romjerome

Unfortunately, that hotlink preview on Discourse mangled the content a bit:

Here’s that linked section from RootsWeb:

ASSOCIATION_STRUCTURE: =

n ASSO @<XREF:INDI>@ {0:M}
+1 RELA <RELATION_IS_DESCRIPTOR> > {1:1}
+1 <<NOTE_STRUCTURE>> {0:M}
+1 <<SOURCE_CITATION>> {0:M}

[NOTE: The ASSOCIATION_STRUCTURE can only link to an INDIVIDUAL_RECORD.]

Directionality is clarified in the RELATION_IS_DESCRIPTOR linked section:

RELATION_IS_DESCRIPTOR: = {Size=1:25}
A word or phrase that states object 1’s relation is object 2. For example you would read the following as “Joe Jacob’s great grandson is the submitter pointed to by the @<XREF:SUBM>@”: person pointed to by the @<XREF:INDI>@":

0 INDI
1 NAME Joe /Jacob/
1 ASSO @<XREF:SUBM>@
1 ASSO @<XREF:INDI>@
2 RELA great grandson

[NOTE: The ASSOCIATION_STRUCTURE can only link to an INDIVIDUAL_RECORD.]

There is a relationship chunk in the vCard 4 .vcf specification. The Import plug-in could be enhanced to support that Association. (And have special parsing to build Families other of the Immediate Family pre-defined association terms. (And maybe any pre-defined Associations in Gramps.)

The cited gedcom.io section for GEDCOM7 has more exposition. (The use of the @VOID@ ASSO pointer to a Person who does not exist in the tree is intriguing.)