> The AddressDB structure is Open Source, so anyone knows about it and
> can access the AddressDB from his own application. That's fine, as long
> as the Address App programmers do not change their data structures.
>
> Do the Address App programmers provide an API-Interface to the
> AddressDB, which guarantees consistency across all Address App versions?
>
As far I know, there is no API provided - you're on your own.
> Or is there no such real problem at all (only a programmer's
> nightmarebooboomonster)?
>
Probably your best bet is to write your own API that isolates your app from
the internals as much as possible. At least this way you'll have less code
to rewrite.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong:
btw - does anyone know if Palm has ever, or ever plans to change the
structure of the built-in DBs? Seems to me that this would cause problems
when an old record interacts with new code - maybe Palm would have to
version the records themselves and maintain code for handling both old and
new records. If that sounds confusing, consider what would happen if you
were to beam an "oldstyle" record to a newer version of one of the Built-in
apps - the record would be in the old format. And beaming "newstyle"
records to an old version of the software seems even more troublesome.
Anyway, because of these problems, it seems to me the Palm never intends on
changing the underlying format of the records.
Does that sound right?
Hope that helps,
Brian Pearson.
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