[tlug] Tired of losing contact data

[Dave Gutteridge <dave@example.com>]

TLUG,

    As I'm sure most people on this list do, I have a collection of 
contact information that I've accumulated over the years. I can't 
remember what software I started out with when I began my computing days 
back in the mid 80s, but I know that by the mid 90s I was using Outlook 
on Windows.
    Even while on Windows, I also tried other applications like Eudora 
and later Thunderbird.
    Now I'm on Linux, and I started with Thunderbird, then tried 
Evolution, and now back to Thunderbird again.
    All the while, I've attempted to keep contact information synced 
with my various Palm devices.

    The problem is that as I've moved my contact data between 
application and platform, it gets a little more malformed with each 
transition. I've lost whole entries, lost parts of entries, had strange 
duplicates, etc... And of course, trying to have Japanese entries is a 
whole other issue.

    Talking with a friend, he mentioned that really, there's no 
advantage to any particular address book software over having it all in 
a flat text file, because even the most simple text application has a 
"find" function which is all one really needs to do with contact data. I 
think he has a point, as far as ever finding any one contact goes. But 
then one loses certain conveniences like accessing email addresses with 
one click within the email application...

    Ideally, I'd like to be able to have my contact info in some form 
that is easy to maintain (editable by direct input in a text editor), 
and I can easily export to Thunderbird and to my Palm.

    But I don't think a universally applicaple file format like that 
exists. It seems that field names never fully agree between software, so 
if I built a CSV file that imported into Thunderbird, it wouldn't import 
into a Palm device.

    Does anyone here have any suggestions about how to keep a safe 
database of contact information that is interoperable with the 
applications that use that data?

--
Dave M G