On Fri, 2008-06-20 at 08:53 -0600, Mark wrote: > On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 12:40 PM, Patrick Ohly <Patrick.Ohly@xxxxxx> wrote: > >> Powerful, painless import and export > >> (and sync) are our friends. > > > > And you have that today? As someone who has worked on sync technology > > for quite a while now I can tell you that getting it right is exactly > > the PITA that you complain about. It just gets worse the more programs > > you want to sync with. > > > > I put "and sync" in parentheses for a reason: import and export is > easier to use and more powerful than sync, and at the same time is > easier to implement. It's less powerful. The user is restricted to an "edit on one device", "export", "import on second device", "edit there" cycle. True syncing is more flexible, but indeed, more difficult to implement. > >> Integrated=proprietary+closed+PITA. > >> Import+Export=complete freedom between many completely different apps, > >> not only apps that perform similar functions, but completely different > >> functions. > >> > >> And the vCard format is incredibly clunky and limited. Not the best > >> choice for the only supported format. > > > > So what is the alternative format that gives you this "complete freedom > > between many completely different apps ... [with] completely different > > functions"? > > Easy! Plain old CSV format. It allows for any number of fields of any > size and data type, and good implementation of import uses templates > to eliminate repetition of field matching after the first time. I've > been using CSV for transporting data between completely different apps > for many years, and my experience with the N800 is the first time I've > had any issues with import/export. Isn't CSV limited to a fixed number of columns? How do you deal with contacts which can have an unlimited number of addresses, phone numbers, etc.? You might have had negative experiences with specific vCard implementations, but the format itself is more flexible than CSV. -- Bye, Patrick Ohly -- Patrick.Ohly@xxxxxx http://www.estamos.de/ _______________________________________________ maemo-users mailing list maemo-users@xxxxxxxxx https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users
