Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
General brainstorming for Note-taking software
rjbull:
- dtSearch. Google them. They build an index to quickly search everything.
-Rover (May 19, 2006, 10:43 PM)
--- End quote ---
dtSearch has a long pedigree. It started as a DOS application. It's got rather expensive now, at least last time I looked. I thought it was more an "after the fact" data retriever, rather than an organizing tool.
nevf:
Following up on this "Virtual File Manager" idea ... have you guys discussed Soft Gems before? In particular, Virtual Treeview http://www.soft-gems.net/VirtualTreeview/
This project looks like a genuine attempt to develop a fast, efficient and fluid engine for data management / search / recall, based on "nodes". In other words, this kind of engine used within the context of note-taking software, hot-rodded PIMs and the like, could be extremely versatile. I like the idea here - trees that morph into other trees ...
Btw, there is a related site: http://www.mustangpeak.net/ with a demo of List View, based on VTV (or maybe it was was the other way round).
Andre
-Plasma Man (May 20, 2006, 02:23 AM)
--- End quote ---
Andre, I'm afraid I'm at a loss as to your point here. A Tree is just one part of the puzzle. I can't see any mention of a "fluid engine for data management" when I read their site. BTW It sure would be nice if the site rendered poperly in IE.
FYI my product Surfulater uses a Virtual Tree that I've written. This is a very important core component and enables me to morph the tree quickly and easilly.
This is an excerpt from Surfulater, Under the Hood and Down the Road
"A tree component that can display information directly from the XML engine. Windows applications typically have to copy information between the tree and its data store and build the hierarchical tree. These processes can dramatically affect performance, especially as trees get larger. Surfulater does not have these performance impediments."
--- End quote ---
Plasma Man:
...This project looks like a genuine attempt to develop a fast, efficient and fluid engine for data management / search / recall, based on "nodes". In other words, this kind of engine used within the context of note-taking software, hot-rodded PIMs and the like, could be extremely versatile. I like the idea here - trees that morph into other trees ...-Plasma Man (May 20, 2006, 02:23 AM)
--- End quote ---
Andre, I'm afraid I'm at a loss as to your point here. A Tree is just one part of the puzzle. I can't see any mention of a "fluid engine for data management" when I read their site. BTW It sure would be nice if the site rendered poperly in IE.
FYI my product Surfulater uses a Virtual Tree that I've written. This is a very important core component and enables me to morph the tree quickly and easilly.-nevf (May 21, 2006, 04:41 PM)
--- End quote ---
Nevf - I should have included "my interpretation" (OK, maybe reading a bit too much into this one)... I was curious if anyone here has actually played with VT (or similar) with the intention of incorporating it into a Note Taker / PIM, and whether it would work or not. Just following up on the points about possible choices of core components in general - that's all.
Btw, I like your ideas and your concern to develop a product that is focussed and well integrated. “Sometimes people you think are your customers aren’t your customers at all.” Great point!
Andre
superboyac:
Just to keep this thread moving along, I'd like to mention some of the strengths of the programs we've been discussing. I do this to fantasize about the Ultimate Notetaking program, and how it will include the
best of all the programs available:
SURFULATER
--The most flexible organizational options of any of the programs. The tree structure can be represented in multiple ways. You can have multiple databases open at once.
--Hands-down the most powerful referencing system available. Linking and cross-referencing is done almost as automatically as can be asked for. Date & time fields are seamlessly updated properly in articles. It's apparent that Surfulater has a powerful and flexible foundation (even if I do have several issues with it as far as a true notetaking application). Surfulater also has some really cool automation features, like creating virtual nodes for completed searches and stuff.
EVERNOTE
--Hands-down the smoothest searching/filter feature I've seen in any program. It's fast, it's silky smooth, it's the best. Evernote lacks many basic features, and there are many limitations to how it goes about doing things, including organization, but it's search/filter routine is so good, you almost don't need any organization. Of course, we know that organization is eventually necessary, so obviously there is still room for much imporvement in the program
--Evernote seems to have the best web-capturing feature of all the programs I've tried. It seems to be the most accurate and the smoothest. I don't think I've ever had an issue when trying to capture a webpage or part of a page. And it's fully editable like a regular note once it's captured without any complicated workarounds.
MYBASE
--Mybase has the most variety and most useful tools as far as a notetaking application goes. You can do so much with it as far as importing/exporting, editing, referencing, pretty much anything you would want to do with a notetaking application. Mybase has been largely ignored in our discussions here because it doesn't offer any innovative approach to organization (it just uses a simple tree), but it's tools for notetaking are far above and beyond anyone else's. And just for that, it remains in the running.
ZOOT
--Zoot is totally outdated to even be included here, but it does have a very interesting take on this whole genre. It reminds of of Evernote's automatically assigned categories in an email program-like interface. It has a tree of categories (with powerful automatic capabilities), another pane for the notes in the selected category (where the headers for an email program would go), and a bottom pane to show the note contents (where the email message would be displayed). It's cool, it's useful, but unfortunately, it's too ancient to use right now. Zoot also has a very cool search/filter feature.
For the Ultimate Notetaking program, here's what I envision. Starting off with Surfulater's engine as the backbone of the software and database, using Evernote's search feature and web-capturing abilities, and having all the tools of mybase for the actual notetaking part. Also, the search feature can be further enhanced by Zoot's influence.
urlwolf:
Hmm, I'm under time pressure for a project... but here is a quick post
I guess the ideal application that spidey suggested can be achieved
by mixing different existing programs.
Here is my approach.
Note that I don't need to insert figures to text often, so this is a text-based
solution. Not much html either.
(1) editor + outliner: VIM
http://bike-nomad.com/vim/vimoutliner.html
This is the fastest way of working with text by far. Vim offers spelling, tab
completion (really key for typing fast ideas), and with the tvo plugin, it is a
wornderfull outliner with different colors for different levels. If you want to
link different docs, then this is also called a personal wiki. I use viki (a vim
wiki) which is really fast. Just type the word in CamelCase, and hit the
shortcut. A new file CamelCase.txt will be created, and you can write to it
inmmediately.
I also use vim to fill any textboxes in opera (mail, and this very same post!)
(2) Search: locate 3,0 beta
Within a doc, I use vim (nice yellow highlighting of all
occurrences, and shortcuts to go to different ones). Across the filesystem,
locate 3,0 beta cannot be beaten.
(3) Html snapshots: Obook for opera (like Scrapbook for ff)
(4) sync and backup: incremental backups with either syncBack or backup4all (now
that I won a license :) ). I have daily backups with no compression, so I can
see different daily versions, and even compare them using Beyond Compare ...
-please mouser, get us another discount for B C :) -
That's my solution currently. total cost: the only pay-for software is the sync
and backup utility. You may not need it... Also, you can show differences in the
notes using vim's own vimdiff and save the B. C. cost. Everything else is free.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version