Re: exported contacts problem

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Neil Jerram <neiljerram@gmail.com> writes:

> I've tried to work on contact conversion and synchronization in the past,
> aiming to merge and unify contacts that I've built up in BBDB, Google
> Contacts, email systems, pre-Android phones, etc.  The problematic aspect
> was different systems using different field names and structures, e.g. one
> with separate First Name and Last Name, and another with a combined Name
> field; different approaches to breaking up addresses; additional arbitrary
> notes fields; etc.
>
> With that in mind, I'm curious if the writers on this thread could comment
> on:
> 1. is this situation any better now?

If by "this situation" you mean fragmentation of data formats and
approaches, I don't think it's getting any better!

> 2. if you favour using org-contacts or org-vcard, what do you see as the
> benefit of Org as your master contact format, as opposed to say BBDB or
> .vcf?

I think something similar happens with Org as with happens with Emacs in
general: it's such a nice environment to be working in that people want
to move all their stuff into it. But there are some areas (contact
management, email, large datasets) where Org just isn't going to work as
well as a specialized tool.

But Org can be an excellent *interface* to those tools, mostly through
dynamic blocks. I've started using small sqlite databases to keep track
of things, and dynamic blocks as sql composers/views, and it works
great. It's very easy to play with the queries, and this is the first
time I'm actually starting to feel comfortable with sql.

I think in general Org is best used as a compositional tool for data
drawn from elsewhere.

Eric