Hey Luc and list, I've been planning and designing a language for data modeling and description, somewhat based on concepts borrowed from Python (which I learned in the process).
I'm now writing a tutorial, and it looks quite simple and straight-forward, and the language is very simple. Very soon I'll finish the tutorial and I'd like to have it reviewed and hear comments and advice. Is anyone interested? With a polished language I'll be able to proceed and write a parser and command-line tools, which can serve (with their underlying library) as a base for larger systems and GUI app integration (Gnote, GTG, etc.) regards, Anatoly On ד', 2013-05-29 at 21:10 +0300, Luc Pionchon wrote: > Hi Anatoly, > > if you really get such simple enough language, you certainly will get > some users. > > I see you are planning for more usages, though about TODO apps, did > you see todotxt [1] which is basically a text based todo/GTD. They > have a relatively simple language [2]. Is it similar to what you are > thinking about? > > [1] http://todotxt.com/ > [2] https://github.com/ginatrapani/todo.txt-cli/wiki/The-Todo.txt-Format > > I think you should go ahead and start to write examples, so people > could grasp it, and you will also get a better view of the > feasibility. > > Don't care much about "user testing", it's up-side down business > thinking. Do something useful, and you'll get some users. > > go ahead! > In any case that is certainly a good learning experience > > On 29 May 2013 18:02, אנטולי קרסנר <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > > > > > I'm an individual not working on any Gnome module. I'll try not to get > > into much detail (likely to fail on this one), but here's the idea I > > have: > > > > After reading about existing GTD software tools I made the following > > conclusions: > > > > * There are GUI tools > > * There are plain-text solutions > > * There are pen-and-paper solutions > > * There are text-based applications > > > > GUI tools have lots of features and visual widgets, but they somehow > > fail to satisfy most people. At the same time, plain text seems to > > become more and more popular. After reading I made these conclusions: > > > > * Each person has her own way of thinking, her own way of how the brain > > works. Therefore, each person should have a personally tailored solution > > > > * GUI tools, and GTD tools in general, tend to make the false assumption > > of "everyone is like me" and "one size fits all", which is why most > > tools fail to become widely popular. > > > > * Emacs Org-Mode is quite successful as a GTD tool, thanks to its > > flexibility and extensibility, but lacks an intuitive interface, which > > limits its adoption despite the success of Org-Mode > > > > * A next-generation tool should have the extensibility of a plain-text > > system, and the convenience, ease-of-use and efficiency of a visual tool > > > > > > > > Therefore, I decided to create a language for definition of properties > > and classes, intended for be used for describing tasks, timelines, > > projects, etc. This language is easy enough for non-programmers to use, > > and yet is expressive enough for practical use. It borrows concepts from > > RDF, OWL and scripting languages. > > > > On top of this language there will be a set of text-based tools allowing > > easy manipulation of the text. It means users can edit the files in > > plain text, but also have convenient tools and utilities for easier > > processing and visualization, similar to Org-Mode. > > > > On top of that there may be task/project-related definitions, a > > specialized text editor and/or Gedit plugins, and a flexible GUI app > > which replaces the "one for all" concept with a "personally tailored to > > a user's mental model" concept, which seems to work very successfully > > with plain text and Emacs Org-Mode. > > > > > > Existing free software I found: > > > > - Gedit (Gnome's plain text editor, extensible with plugins) > > - Emacs Org-Mode > > > > That's all. All other tools, including all GTD and To-do apps for > > Gnome/GNU, are either scripts intended for power users, or have a > > limited scope which is not flexible enough to customize. > > > > > > An existing GUI app for GTD called Getting Things Gnome (GTG) has great > > potential, but I'd like to back it up using a flexible text-based > > approach which is then used to describe semantic entities and attach > > them to program objects. This would supply both the flexibility of text, > > the convenience of GUI and automatic translation to RDF, which means > > instant Semantic Desktop integration (using Tracker and Zeitgeist). > > > > > > *** The Question *** > > > > My question is, what do you think? Does this idea sound useful? To me > > personally, it seems to fill the gap between plain text (which has no > > visualization and productivity utilities) and convenient GUI (which > > current is mostly not flexible enough). > > > > NOTE: Non-free software already exists, which uses plain text as a > > backend, such as Taskpaper: > > http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/taskpaper > > > > > > regards, > > Anatoly > > > > _______________________________________________ > > desktop-devel-list mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list _______________________________________________ desktop-devel-list mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
