Re: Bugs in Palm-to-Evo sync

[James Moody <jemoody home com>]

I found an existing bug in Ximian bugzilla (Bug #12305) and appended
the below information to it. Hope it gets fixed!

james

On Sun, Oct 14, 2001 at 11:58:11AM -0400, Bill Day wrote:
> Seriously munged, indeed.  I have had the same problem.  Is this list the 
> most effective way to report the problem to whoever is developing the 
> evolution conduits, or is there a specific developer or project leader we 
> should write to?
> 
> As an aside, thanks to Eskil Olsen and the other developers of 
> gnome-pilot.  I do not get the full benefit of the program every day yet, 
> but I am looking forward to the day that I do.  Palm support sometimes 
> seems to rank fairly low in the Linux developer hierarchy, but for those of 
> us who are non-geeky professional types (e.g. lawyers), it is an essential 
> feature of the operating system.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Bill Day
> 
> 
> At 10:51 PM 10/13/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >I've seen this as well. However, I believe the ONLY way to fix this
> >is not to try to convert multiple first names into a first name and
> >middle name, as you propose below. The only way this will work is
> >based on the following. Both directions demonstrated.
> >
> >
> >        Palm Side       Evo Side
> >        ---------       --------
> >        Given Names =>  First Name
> >        (nothing)   =>  Middle Name (empty)
> >        Last Name   =>  Last Name
> >
> >        Palm Side       Evo Side
> >        ---------       --------
> >        Given Names <=  First Name + Middle Name
> >        Last Name   <=  Last Name
> >
> >This, of course, demonstrates a deficiency in Evolution. Namely,
> >nearly every application I've seen has discounted the idea of using
> >"Middle Names" as a component of a name. Besides the fact that it is
> >not always possible to determine exactly what the middle name should
> >be (due to compound first names, multiple middle names, etc.), cultural
> >variations make it impossible to assume that most of the people
> >in the world even have names that can be talked about in such terms.
> >
> >The fix above should work, but has the necessary deficiency that
> >if you have a name "First Middle Last" on Evolution, sync it to the palm,
> >where it becomes "First Middle, Last", change it on the palm to become
> >"First Foo, Last", and then sync it back to Evolution, it will become
> >"First Foo, Last" (i.e. an empty middle name). This I believe is a 
> >necessary
> >evil.
> >
> >I strongly suggest that Evolution change its name structure to eliminate
> >middle names.
> >
> >As an aside (and a case study), consider the genealogical format GEDCOM
> >(www.gedcom.com), which long ago decided that it was hopeless to assume
> >that you can do anything with a name other than, perhaps, denote a
> >substring of it that should be considered a "surname" (used for searching
> >and sorting). (By the way, this also applies to name prefixes such as
> >"Sir" or "General" and suffixes such as "II" and "Jr.").
> >
> >My 2 cents,
> >
> >james
> >
> >On Sat, Oct 13, 2001 at 05:34:14PM -0700, Philip Andrew wrote:
> >> Hi --
> >>
> >> I just sync'ed to Evolution 0.15.99 using gnome-pilot, and a large
> >> number of my address book records got seriously munged.  I suspect the
> >> fault is on the Evo side, but I'm sending this both places just in case
> >> (and as a warning?).
> >>
> >> Any record where the "First Name" field in my Palm contained multiple
> >> tokens got messed up on the second (and subsequent) sync.  For example
> >> (names changed to protect the yada-yada-yada),
> >>
> >>    Ewing, Bobby & Pam
> >>    1 Southfork Ranch Drive
> >>    Braddock, TX  75247
> >>
> >> (FirstName="Pam & Bobby" and LastName="Ewing") gets munged to
> >>
> >>    Pam Ewing, Bobby
> >>    1 Southfork Ranch Drive
> >>    Braddock, TX  75247
> >>
> >> (FirstName="Bobby" and LastName="Pam Ewing").
> >>
> >> Or even worse, a name like
> >>
> >>    Ewing, John Ross & Sue Ellen
> >>
> >> (FirstName="John Ross & Sue Ellen" and LastName="Ewing") gets munged to
> >>
> >>    & Sue Ellen Ewing, John
> >>
> >> (FirstName="John" and LastName="& Sue Ellen Ewing").
> >>
> >> Part of the problem is that one of the names is getting sucked up into
> >> Evo's "Middle Name" field, and the sync'ing seems to be happening on
> >> Evo's "File As" name (which defaults to "First Last" instead of "First
> >> Middle Last"); but more subtle part of the problem is the parsing
> >> sequence that Evo is using:  "Name1 Name2 (...) NameLast" gets stuffed
> >> into the Evo record as
> >>
> >>    First Name: Name1
> >>    Middle Name: Name2
> >>    Last Name: (...) NameLast
> >>
> >> instead of
> >>
> >>    First Name: Name1
> >>    Middle Name: Name2 (...)
> >>    Last Name: NameLast
> >>
> >> (which seems more intuitive ...).  Or maybe sync'ing should happen based 
> >on
> >>
> >>    Palm side        Evo side
> >>    ---------        --------
> >>    First Name <=> First Name, Middle Name
> >>    Last Name <=> Last Name
> >>
> >> Comments, anyone?
> >>
> >> -Phil
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> gnome-pilot-list mailing list
> >> gnome-pilot-list gnome org
> >> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-pilot-list
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >gnome-pilot-list mailing list
> >gnome-pilot-list gnome org
> >http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-pilot-list
> 
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> Bill Day
> bibliophile verizonmail com
> 
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