I always thought a Calendar was a little strict (and extremely time-intensive to keep up) for my needs, and something like a plain-text memo-like reminder was too far the other way. Tasks was just perfect. Structure with compromise.
When I first got my N800, I was disappointed there was no Palm Tasks-like application. I've tried them all, and none were up to the task (no pun intended).
Recently (actually, like just the last couple days) I looked into programming my own solution. At this point it is merely a mock-up: no data storage, no functionality, no killer features (or features at all), but it presents the concept of my ideas.
I call it Quick Do (and no, it may have the same Quick prefix, but it will not be integrated in Quick Clip).
Here is the proposed main view: (also showing future filtering options)
And the Add Task dialog:
The Date selector:
Will this turn into an actual application, probably (after battling with the gtk.TreeView widget for hours already, I would hope so!). But more importantly, what do you think of the interface? Finger-friendliness is out-of-the-question, but anything else? I have a laundry list in my mind of features that could be added, so a little direction is welcome.
Feel free to leave comments below.
Posts
Hey, don't know if you saw the thread on itt, but I've recently started a ToDo manager with a focus on remember the milk backend (though I've written a rough file based backend).
ReplyDeletehttp://doneit.garage.maemo.org/
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28200
I put a package in extras-devel though I've done further work on it. Its written in python and works unchanged on both maemo and normal linux systems
I'd be curious about your thoughts and maybe merger of efforts?
Hi Ed,
ReplyDeleteI saw the thread at ITT but didn't seriously look into it. Probably the biggest reason being because I'm a local file type of guy; I'm kind of anti-cloud.
I just installed it, and without an RTM account, I can't really test things. Right now with Quick Do I've been focusing on the interface and will think about a backend later -- probably just do a mockup with Pickle then maybe something like XML.
I also looked into other ToDo applications before starting my own project -- mostly a very simple GTK/Python application called GoDo. I even ported it to hildon with the idea of improving it significantly, but after a while I found out writing my own application from scratch would actually be easier.
As for a merger of resources, where do you see DoneIt going? I still have no idea what direction Quick Do will go.
I started as a Palm user and switched to the cloud for convenience as a student and then got the NIT to make the cloud even more convenient.
ReplyDeleteI finally stopped being stupidly lazy and I just pushed UI support for the file backend. It'll probably make life easier for me in testing out UI ideas since providing a good finger based UI is my main concern.
Beyond a finger focused todo app with RTM and file backend support, I'm unsure of my direction. I'm not expecting to come up with anything innovative.
I am in the process of releasing a To Do application that is modeled after the Palm Task manager and syncs with Outlook. It has most of what you are looking for. I am awaiting approval to post the install to the extras repository so you can do the one button install. In the meantime, all of the install stuff is on my garage site. Check it out at http://garage.maemo.org/projects/ztodo. The home page has all of the documentation http://ztodo.garage.maemo.org/
ReplyDeletehave you thought about "getting things done tiddly wiki" or one of its variants?
ReplyDeletep.s. http://nathanbowers.com/gtdtw/
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering... have you tried the GPE utilities? The to-do application works quite well for me.
ReplyDeleteHELLO. I 'm a brand new user. Very slow to change from palm. Is there any apps for a calender or sync? I Have N810.
ReplyDeleteGive some more love to the task editor dialog. Priority does not have to be a combobox. Having three or four buttons there (depending on how many priorities you have) will be easier. Also, please put the date selection into the task editor window. Having to open lots of dialogs is just ugly.
ReplyDeleteAnd think about the progress - wouldn't it be easier to be able to set the progress by clicking on the progressbar in the treeview? This would make setting the progress easier, because opening the edit dialog and then picking the progress from a combobox is not very natural to me. Please use a GtkScale for the progress in the edit dialog.
Looks interesting, I tried out GPE tasks and wasn't to happy considering how long GPE has existed, though so far it seems the best of the bunch, though most of the others are new projects. Really GPE tasks would need to be somewhat functional is quick sorting by columns, which seems like an obvious and not hard to implement(considering how long GPE has existed) feature.
ReplyDeleteMy solution was obvious, once I realized gnumeric could run on maemo, spreadsheets make great task managers. you can recreate all the features of GPE and then some, also it is easy to use with any platform.
I just set up the columns I want, with the main columns I want the main sorts to be on first. I can then get the same unchangeable sort order that GPE has, with the quick sort buttons. Then just set up auto filters on each column, now you can see only those tasks that match selected criteria, I have a completed column which I just mark with y when done, then autofilter for blank, so I don't have to see completeds unless I want to. I have a second sheet were I move completeds every day, this way I have a detailed record of everything with out the performance hit of a large spreadsheet for daily use.
You can also do more complex sorts with gnumeric, but unfortunately this dialog screen doesn't fit in n8xx screen size and hasn't yet been adapted properly. But even without this I find it 10 times as functional as GPE. This took me all of 10 minutes to set up, though I'm sure I could make it even nicer.
You could easily create a kind of Hierarchical tasks for Projects as well. Though I don't bother yet with this, and use notecase pro outliner for my project planning, because I have lots of notes and info involved, which works better with notecase. Then I just take what ever task is the next action for a project and plug it into gnumeric.
@baka
ReplyDeleteI was largely unhappy with GPE; the UI seemed a bit clunky and missed some needed features.
@ bren
Look at the maemo.org wiki, there is some good information about PIM software available.
thp said...
>Give some more love to the task editor dialog. Priority does not have to be a
>combobox. Having three or four buttons there (depending on how many priorities you
>have) will be easier.
As you probably can tell, I have a problem with using too many combobox's in my applications, but in this case I kind of like it. There are currently four priorities (and I may add more), and I think that button representations of those would confuse the UI.
>Also, please put the date selection into the task editor window. Having to open lots of
>dialogs is just ugly.
At this point it is all automated (when you click Select Date, it hides the Task Editor dialog and pops up the Calendar one).
>And think about the progress - wouldn't it be easier to be able to set the progress by
>clicking on the progressbar in the treeview?
When you mark a task as completed, it sets the progress to 100%. But I agree, I should probably add that ability to the treeview.
>This would make setting the progress easier, because opening the edit dialog and then
>picking the progress from a combobox is not very natural to me. Please use a GtkScale
>for the progress in the edit dialog.
I'll look into that.
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ReplyDelete