[missing-sync-palmos-talk] Re: A hidden 5.1.0b14 feature you can test...

[Paul Berkowitz]

On 3/7/06 11:40 PM, "Paul Day" <paul+markspace at bur.st> wrote:

> On Tue, 7 Mar 2006, E-Commerce wrote:
>>> We invite you to try this new feature and provide feedback to us. We
>>> are debating whether the final version of 5.1 should have this feature
>>> on by default, or have it hidden so support can activate it as needed.
>> 
>> I would vote for keeping this as a hidden preference, for the reasons
>> outlined in the past. People moving to the Missing Sync from Palm
>> Desktop will likely expect it to work similarly - just overwrite the
>> *Palm* data,
> 
> I disagree entirely and was wondering why this feature wasn't already in
> the Missing Sync conduits seeing it's _always_ been in the Palm supplied
> conduits: "Handheld overwrites Macintosh". The sooner it becomes an
> official MS feature, the better. :)

No. The Palm supplied-conduits had (or meant) "Handheld Overwrites Desktop"
- meaning Palm Desktop, or Entourage if using the Entourage conduit. But
those conduits were designed with just the two devices in mind, and an exact
correspondence between all the fields. (Until Palm OS 5 came along, anyway.)

The differences now are that:

1) This conduit syncs with SyncServices, and this ALL the apps and devices
that talk with it, and

2) SyncServices doesn't seem to have an exact correspondence with anything
at all at the moment, and diverges from some apps a lot. That means that
several fields do NOT sync with SyncServices. As long as they're not being
overwritten nothing is lost. As soon as you do a Handheld Overwrites
SyncServices, all the extra non-Palm fields will get wiped, and then wiped
from the originating apps.

That's hardly the same thing at all, Unsuspecting users will lose precious
info that way an then become furious. Making it difficult and hidden, but
clearly documented, means only competent users will try it and will
immediately understand there' some risk attached.

-- 
Paul Berkowitz