Misleading date range labels? (Before, After, Between)

It doesn’t seem that the original question for this discussion thread originates from an inconsistency in Gramps, but rather from a change made in the GEDCOM specification between versions 5.5.1 and 7.0.

Modified summary taken from here:

  • GEDCOM 5.5.1 (PDF) defined:
    AFT = Event happened after the given date.
    BEF = Event happened before the given date.
    This is exclusive and uses the meaning of the words “after” and “before” so the UI matches the standard.

  • GEDCOM 7.0 (PDF, HTML) has modified the definition to:
    AFT x = Exact date unknown, but no earlier than x.
    BEF x = Exact date unknown, but no later than x.
    This is inclusive.

  • FROM and TO are inclusive in both versions and match the meaning of the words and therfore the UI.

It doesn’t make much sense that Gramps will change its GUI or internal date handling/comparison when switching to GEDCOM 7.0. These changes will likely only need to be considered when importing or exporting GEDCOM files.
Since @DavidMStraub is working on supporting GEDCOM 7.0, he may be able to provide insights into which parts of Gramps will need to adapt to this change and how he is addressing it in his implementation.

There is an “unanswered” discussion about this specific change in the GEDCOM repository:

1 Like