Re: [Evolution] HELP/new explanation/Biggs

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> > They aren't "contacts" as such they are email addresses extracted from
> > your contacts.  Perhaps you have extra email addresses in some of your
> > contacts that are being listed there as well.
>
> Brewster:
>
> I don't understand those two sentences very well. If they appear as
> Contacts in that popup list, displaying name and email address, how
> does that make then "email addresses extracted from your contacts"?

What I mean is that each contact can have up to (as far as I can see) 4
email addresses associated with it.  All I was trying to suggest was
that a possibility for you seeing extra email addresses in that list was
because some of your contacts may have more than one email address
associated with it.  For instance, in my pop up list I have entries such
as 
     Joe Blogs <joe blogs somne com>
     Joe Blogs <blogsy gmail com>
     Joe Blogs <joe home org>

Where I have a single contact (Joe blogs) who has 3 email addresses in
their entry.

> And to the best of my knowledge, not a single one of the Contacts
> in my Address Book contains more than one email address. For one thing,
> if the condition as you describe it obtained, then I would be seeing
> duplicate listings in the popup, which of course I am not.

OK.  It was just a suggestion.

> Are you suggesting that every time I type an email address into
> a composing screen, eventually it finds its way into that popup?

No.  There are autogenerated contacts, but they are only generated when
you reply to emails, and you need to enable it, and they are put into a
separate addressbook.

> I know for incontrovertible fact that *that* is not the case. 
> Are you saying that the "TO:" popup is including addresses *other*
> than those that have been specifically entered in the Contacts
> database ("Address Book")? News to me if so.

No, you have to select the autogenerated address book specifically.

Mind you, you might like to see if it is autogenerating entries - go to
Edit -> Preferences -> Mail Preferences -> Automatic Contacts to make
sure everything is sensible.

>  And I know for a fact that
> in one specific instance, the original Contact *was* entered into
> the database, but with an illegal character in the email address - 
> - is the presence of the illegal character what allows it to show up in
> the popup, but not in the Address Book edit page? Under these conditions
> the error one will live forever, because if it doesn't appear in the 
> Address Book edit window, I can never delete it!

Don't think you ever said that before.  Try exporting the address book
as a Vcard file (Right click on the addressbook, save as Vcard) and then
search the generated Vcard file for the erroneous entries - if they are
there, then you know the problem is that your database is corrupted
somehow;  if they aren't then you know it's some other problem.
Whichever way, it may be that you can export the addressbook, clean it
up if necessary by deleting any erroneous Vcard entries, then re-import
it into a new addressbook.  You can then select the new addressbook in
the contact selection popup to make sure your are happy with all the
entries.


> I'm well aware of that. I just am finding it a little strainful to
> believe that nobody who reads the lists or forums ever uses that
> popup, or does and has never noticed that it ignores sort instructions.
> But that may well be the case.

The best thing is to file a bug for it.  If it has already been
reported, then it will be marked as a duplicate.  Once you file the bug,
it may be good to post the reference to it here so that others can
comment on it if they want.

P.