Addresses book (novice)

[Keith O'Connell <kroc@blueyonder.co.uk>]

Hi,

I have a question about address books. As I work through the wealth of
documentation about emacs/gnus, I find two places mentioned where
addresses can be kept, (I expect there are more).

In ~/.emacs or ~/.gnus in the form;

        (define-mail-alias "kkk" "kroc@blueyonder.co.uk")

or in ~/.mailrc in the form

        alias keith	kroc@blueyonder.co.uk

Now, assuming I have in ~/.emacs, the following line;

        (add-hook 'mail-mode-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup)

1: Why do addresses from the ~/.mailrc expand and the ones in ~/.emacs
   not?

2: Which is the best method for keeping addresses, and why?  Is there
   a better way

Keith
-- 
Keith.    
 [Debian Woody & GNU Emacs 21.2.1 - Gnus v5.9.0]