Cameron's Thoughts

Currently I am using IE, as my Laptop had to get the hard drive replaced (now it runs great!). Anyways, I might stick with IE for a little while, because when I had firefox I was pissed whenever I went to download something (links wouldn't work and some of the ones which have "automatic downloading" -not a link but a script button wouldn't do anything) so I ended up w/ IE anyways. One thing I need to say for firefox is that it is a great browser, but it has a serious link problem, and as far as I am concerned that is one of the main functions of a browser. I hope version 1.0 fixes those annoying bugs. (oh yes, and they need a fast and easy way to go from tabs to standard windows like IE, which is nice for me because I like those and helps those who want to switch).
-Neil Vitale

An Opera Customer Relations person has responded to your comments in this blog right here:

http://my.opera.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=700321#post700321

One extension that helps to tip the balance for me is NukeAnything: Right-click, select "Remove this object," and it disapppears from the page. It's great if you're trying to read an article that has a flashy pic or any other annoying thing right beside it.

Opera does have the "Show Images" icon. (FF users can get variants of that via the Web Developer Toolbar, Tab Browser Extensions, or Show-Hide-Images.) But NukeAnything works with more that just pictures... and it's under 10k, IIRC.

I agree that it can be a pain to keep upgrading extentions in addition to the browser. But I do like the idea that any and every neat idea can be added by any user who knows a bit of JavaScript.

I just wrote an ugly perl script to import Opera contacts to Mozilla Thunderbird. Don't know whether anyone here is interested in this, but perhaps posting it would be a good idea. If this does not fit here, please delete this comment.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# This perl script reads an opera contacts file
# (Chose "File->Export->Opera contacts..." in Opera)
# from STDIN and writes an LDIF file to STDOUT,
# which can be imported by Mozilla Thunderbird.
#
# usage: convert_contacts output.ldif


$incontact = 0;
$infolder = 0;
$folderopen = 0;

$name='';
$mail='';

@foldertext = ('');

while (<>) {
chop $_;
if ($incontact == 1 || $infolder == 1) {
if ($_ =~ /^tNAME=(.*)$/) {
$name = $1;
}
elsif ($_ =~ /^tMAIL=(.*)$/) {
$mail = "$1";
}
}

if ($_ eq '-') {
print $foldertext[$folderopen];
print "n";
$folderopen--;
if ($folderopen < 0) {
print "ERROR";
}
}

elsif ($_ eq "#CONTACT" || $_ eq "#FOLDER" || $_ eq "") {
if ($incontact == 1) {
&printcontact($name, $mail);
$incontact=0;

if ($folderopen) {
$foldertext[$folderopen] .= "member: $name,mail=$mailn";
}
}
if ($infolder == 1) {
$foldertext[$folderopen] = "dn: cn=$namenobjectclass: topnobjectclass: groupOfNamesncn: $namen";
$infolder=0;
}

if ($_ eq "#CONTACT") {
$incontact = 1;
$name = "";
$mail = "";
}
elsif ($_ eq "#FOLDER") {
$infolder = 1;
$name = "";
$folderopen++;
}
}
}

if ($incontact == 1) {
&printcontact($name, $mail);
$incontact=0;
}
if ($folderopen) {
print $foldertext[$folderopen];
print "n";
$infolder=0;
}


sub printcontact {
$paramname = shift;
$parammail = shift;

print <<PRINTEND;
dn: cn=$paramname,mail=$parammail
objectclass: top
objectclass: person
objectclass: organizationalPerson
objectclass: inetOrgPerson
objectclass: mozillaAbPersonObsolete
cn: $paramname
mail: $parammail
modifytimestamp: 0Z

PRINTEND
}

sub printfolder {
$paramname = shift;
$parammembers = shift;

print <<PRINTEND;
dn: cn=$paramname
objectclass: top
objectclass: groupOfNames
cn: $paramname
$parammembers
PRINTEND
}

I was just notified that there are two bugs in the script above:

1. The line which reads "while () {" should actually read: "while (<>) {". That's about line #20.

2. The comment at the beginning says that the script should be used like this: "convert_contacts output.ldif". This is wrong, of course. The actual usage is "./scriptname < input.adr > output.ldif".

This means:
- Export your opera contacts with "File->Export->Opera Contacts" to a file named "operacontacts.adr", located in a temporary directory.
- Then copy the above script and paste it into a new file called "adr2ldif", located in the same temporary directory.
- Replace the line "while () {" by "while (<>) {" and save the file.
- Make the file executable (eg. by running "chmod u+x adr2ldif")
- Run the following command:
"./adr2ldif < operacontacts.adr > thunderbirdcontacts.ldif"
- Import the file "thunderbirdcontacts.ldif" into Thunderbird.

Sorry for this mess.

I'm having the exact same problem as the user above :(

The script only works with Unix line ends. After converting "contacts.adr" to Unix text, run the script with:

./adr2ldif contacts.adr > contacts.ldif

Thunderbird can import "contacts.ldif". I suppose this could be built in, but for a one-off it's not worth the effort.

Hi.
The PERL script saved my live! As I am migrating from Unix to PC and had all my contacts (about 900) organized in lot of folders in Opera. Geting it in Firefox and organize it all again would heve taken enormous time.
Thanks!