CSV export

[Mike or Penny Novack]

>>
>>What is the best approach?
>>
I'm going to raise an issue here which has so far been left out of the 
discussion of import/export via .csv or any other data format for that 
matter.

The export itself (format conversion) is only a part of the problem and 
not the least part at that. The reality is that with "positional data" 
there is no reason to expect that any two applications will be expecting 
the fields in the same order. That means any fully operational 
import/export tool requires a component that allows user reordering of 
those fields AND includes the problem that even given that sort of a 
tool end users are unlikely to be able to figure out the correct order 
via trial and error testing* -- setting up separate test data "books" 
and trying various orderings till the data imports correctly and then 
using that order for the actual import. In other words, the end product 
would probably need "built ins" to set the order for various supported 
applications and we will face repeated calls "now support app X".

Michael

* And they are even less likely to be able to get into the technical 
docs for the app where order might be specified.

-- 
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.