My PC is running Linux and the only Swiss Pairing software that is available for it is Vega by Luigi Forlano. The problem is that the USCF requires three dBase files to be submitted for tournament results and dBase is an antiquated file format that is not in general use.
The USCF provides the ratings listing for download in both dBase and csv format. Is there any chance that tournament reports could be submitted in csv format. All that would be required is the format for each file.
The rewrite of the ratings system will include a new reporting format, though decisions have not yet been made as to what that format will be.
Suggestions have been made that it be an XML-type format or a tab-delimited format, CSV seems a reasonable third candidate. It may be possible to support all three, though maybe not immediately.
I am pretty sure that it will NOT be a dBase format, though we will need to continue to accept the current TA (dBase) format in some fashion.
There may need to be economic incentives to encourage TD’s to move up to the latest version of their pairing program once it is able to submit files in the new format.
XML format is fine as long as it is an industry standard format that is used and not one modified by MicroSoft. Tab delimited files are also fine as the basic difference between csv and tab delimited is the field delimiter itself.