Re: New Address Book in Jaguar 10.2...
Re: New Address Book in Jaguar 10.2...
- Subject: Re: New Address Book in Jaguar 10.2...
- From: Michael Grant <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 10:14:32 -0500
On 8/26/02 10:47 PM, "Paul Berkowitz" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
> Now what'd be really cool would be a way to set up Address Book as a
>
> "virtual" FileMaker table... maybe via ODBC somehow?--it's over my head. I
>
> guess sync'ing via AppleScript would be an acceptable (but inferior)
>
> alternative.
>
>
Why would that be preferable? When all is said and done, the Entourage
>
Address Book is still much more full-featured than the Apple Address Book,
>
and people using Entourage often make full use of Entourage's complex
>
interlinking of contacts, calendar, tasks, notes custom views and email.
>
That's the main point to using Entourage, as a PIM, aside from its being the
>
best email program around. But it's a Carbon app, and so isn't available as
>
a Service in other apps. The Apple Address Book, which is really pretty good
>
now, is available in all other apps as a Service. So synching the two, for
>
people with Entourage, should bring the best of both worlds.
>
>
You can still do whatever you want with FMP or ODBC, but it's not relevant
>
to what I have in mind.
I wasn't really talking about the merits of Address Book vs. Entourage or of
sync'ing them, but about the benefits of having one central repository for
all addresses, contact numbers, etc. which would be available system-wide to
any and all e-mail, fax, word processor programs, etc. (and since I need to
tie that contact information into my specific business workflows, I want
that availability to include database environments, whether FileMaker or an
SQL database or whatever). When I first started reading about all the
wonderful goodies to come in OSX, that prospect was one of the things I was
most excited* by. Automated sync'ing is better than having to enter data
manually into umpteen different specialized apps, but what I want is to have
relational access to that data without the need to replicate it at all. What
would be ultimately groovy would be for Apple to provide a basic
implementation in Address Book, but also define and document the data
storage and interchange formats so that it could be *replaced* with
something more powerful, like a future version of Entourage or a
roll-your-own FileMaker/4D/SQL database. If you can access the data at
runtime from whatever application knows how to read it, without going
through an export/import procedure, then it doesn't really matter where it's
stored. Address Book would just be one possible front-end interface for
browsing and editing the data.
Michael
*OK, I don't get out much.
--
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is as if everything is."
- Albert Einstein
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