Re: Difference between EBDB and BBDB

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> What is the difference between EBDB and BBDB?
>
> Let's ask Emacs:
>
>     M-: (- #xEBDB #xBBDB)
>     ==> 12288

Here I thought it was 42!

I'm the author of EBDB. The two packages do pretty similar things: EBDB
started out as a refactor/rewrite of BBDB, which has been around a lot
longer. So it still _feels_ very similar, though it's written using
completely different elisp tools. The idea was to make a system that was
much more flexible and extensible than BBDB. EBDB is only reaching
maturity around this time, so a lot of that potential is still in the
future.

Right now I'd say two big differences are multiple record types (there
are separate record types for people and organizations, and records can
have "roles" at multiple organizations) and internationalization
(phones/addresses can be aware of national formats, as can non-English
scripts for names).

Hope that helps,
Eric