Features plan report has been updated

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

HI ALL,

It really took me significant time to update features plan reports for
both Desktop and PPC.

But finally here they are:

http://www.mylifeorganized.net/products/my-life-organized/features-plan.htm

Andrey.

[david]

Great. The timing is good for me - I had started to look around for
alternatives, because of a few bugs that have made MLO-PPC a bit
frustrating. Keep up the good work

[Luciano Passuello]

Hi Andrey,

Thanks for updating the list.
Although I know it's something that's hard to maintain, It's very important
to keep visibility of the project to all us and potential new customers.

My thoughts on the new list:

Desktop
=========
1. In general, I'm very excited about the features that are in progress.
2. I especially look forward #f112 (ability to customize font color...),
which depending on how comprehensive it is can get very exciting (the text
mentions
colors, icons, locked tasks and all sort of stuff). I think the group input
on this feature could be very valuable, if you wish to share your exact
plans (since the text presents only scattered ideas).
3. The only item that made me sad to be postponed is #F106 (additional
columns in to-do), but I guess *something* has to be postponed, so ok.

4. Actually, as I already mentioned recently, all the new planned features
are really nice but what I REALLY CARE ABOUT before any of those is:
1)#F544 (to-do filtering, including filtering by effort #F454). That's the
killer feature that still isnt' in the product, IMO.

PocketPC
=========
All nice stuff, too, but unfortunately did't find any of my favorite feature
requests there. Any chance to add F#s for:
1. UNDO (sorry, cant' stress this enough, specially in PPC but in Desktop,
too) - or maybe any intermediate solution to avoid irreversible data loss
(such as #f156 - ability to hide checkboxes...).
2. "View by Due Date" (and other views present in the desktop).
3. View project information in the to-do view (just like in the desktop).

These are my top 3 for PPC from the top of my head.

Well, that's it. Thanks again for the list and I'm again very excited about
the directions for the product.
Luciano.

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

PPC:
1. Undo added as F701
2. Views added as F702
3. Do you mean encode project names to task names? Added for
consideratoin as F703

[Luciano Passuello]

Yes, just like the desktop version.

[Mark Levison]

Andrey - thanks for the update. I've given it only a quick review but it would appear that additional goals we've been asking aren't part of the list.

For goals I would like: Today, Tomorrow, Week, Two Week, Month, Quarter.

The longer term ones matter less to me but the short term ones are very important: Today, Tomorrow, Week, Two Week. If you really feel like going overboard :-) just make it complete customisable: we choose the goal name, symbol, font change (for the todo item) and affect on priority. Then we can have all the goals any of us ever want.

Cheers
Mark
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog: http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/

[Kevin Menard]

Hi Andrey,

Do you have a public issue tracker that end users can access, or is it
expected to use the list for all reports?

Thanks,
Kevin

[David Rees]

> From: Luciano Passuello

> 4. Actually, as I already mentioned recently, all the new planned features
> are really nice but what I REALLY CARE ABOUT before any of those is:
> 1)#F544 (to-do filtering, including filtering by effort #F454). That's the
> killer feature that still isnt' in the product, IMO.
>

Yes, MLO really, really needs this. Its great to see its on the "Next
Versions" list.

I'm actually playing with Bonsai today because I am once again feeling the
critical need for filtering. Bonsai doesn't have recurring dates (which I
also think is critical), but I'm to the point of maybe writing an XSL script
to add them to Bonsai just so I can have filtering (plus columns and text
coloring).

Thanks,

d

[David Rees]

Yes, customizable. And if that is a lot of work you can just give them generic names or numbers (A, B, C, D, E, F would work just fine for me).

 

d

 

---

[David Rees]

Hi Andrey,

I know you can give a fixed estimate, but can you give a feel for when the
"In Progress" and "Next versions" will be done. Maybe a month for the first
one and a couple months for the second one?

Thanks,

d

[David Rees]

I just re-read #F544. While the description covers outline filtering the
title "Improve ToDo filtering" does not. So I just wanted to point out that
outline filtering is critical.

Many generic filtering approaches simply turn treat what we consider the
ToDo list as one of the filter display options. For example, Bonsai's filter
has a "display as flat list". See "Filter the view" at
http://www.natara.com/Bonsai/UserManual/index.html.

Thanks,

d

[David Rees]

Pointer to my previous post on filtering and what Bonsai has that is worth
copying:
http://groups.google.com/group/myLifeOrganized/browse_thread/thread/e280ec47
3daddc72/56f50a5dcee14ce0?lnk=st&q=&rnum=12#56f50a5dcee14ce0

[David Rees]

I should add that I really think that once contexts (places) have coloring/icons they should be subsume goals. Goals already feel vestigial and most people are using contexts for today and other related filtering

 

Goals only do three things and they do it in a much more restricted manner than contexts can:

1)       show a red icon for weekly

F112 will give each context a color/icon which is much better than the current limitation of a red bang for weekly.

 

2)       allow you to quickly choose between the 4 choices

We have pretty quick support for picking contexts now and there are even more ways to improve it (like contexts groups)

 

3)       bump priority for weekly

This has always been weird because it only applies to weekly. I would suggest a more powerful approach would be to allow contexts to have urgency. This allows for all kinds of interesting priority models.

 

d

 

---

From: myLifeO...@googlegroups.com [mailto:myLifeO...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of David Rees
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 2:05 PM
To: myLifeO...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [MLO] Re: Features plan report has been updated

[Luciano Passuello]

Yes, I really buy this idea that the todo list is nothing more than the
outline with an "Active Tasks" filter applied (and sorted by the
"Importance" field).

I think there is no reason to implement features that apply only to the
to-do list or only to the outline. I usually see usefulness on both. For
example, the "By Goals" view is something that I always wanted to apply to
the to-do. And filter the outline by places, just like I do with the to-do.
And so on.

Having both lists as just two different filtered views of the same data
would accomplish that kind of stuff.

Regards.
Luciano.

-----Original Message-----
From: myLifeO...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:myLifeO...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of David Rees

[Luciano Passuello]

Excellent ideas here.

Thinking about this, it's amazing how such a generic architecture would soulve a lot of issues I see people having in this forum (including myself).

 

All these great ideas would require a major rearchitecture of the application and Andrey putting a lot of hours on it. But, in the long run, I still think that tacking these big design issues are the right thing to do.

But, even though they're major design implications, it seems the product would be much easier to use and maintain after they're implemented, because the design would be simpler (less concepts to grasp). And people certainly would find much more creative uses for this, too.

 

Regards.

Luciano.

---

From: myLifeO...@googlegroups.com [mailto:myLifeO...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of David Rees

Sent: sexta-feira, 25 de agosto de 2006 17:11
To: myLifeO...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [MLO] Contexts subsuming goals (Was: Features plan report has been updated)

[lifeaddict]

I echo David's comments with regard to Bonsai. While we are adding
filtering, it would also be nice if MLO adopted some of the intuitive
visual elements of the Bonsai interface.

[urlwolf]

Wow, terrific posts! I think Both David and Luciano are right on the
money.

David's analysis of the goal behavior is brilliant. I agree they seem
vestigial. All could be done with contexts, which in other words are
tags. There is a lot of momentum going right now about tags being the
best way to organize information.

Actually, MLO would have both, outlines and tags!

Here is a nice (though long) discussion on the good and bad for each
method:

http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/HierarchyVersusFacetsVersusTags

The arbitrary division outline/todo pointed by luciano is great!

Thanks a lot

[david]

Hi Andrey/Oleg,

Here are some more bugs/requests I have been holding on to. I don't
believe they are in the list:

BUGS:

-Sometimes tasks due on the same day have different colours - must be a
bug in the algorithm
-The details for a new task cannot be edited until it is deseleted and
reselected

FEATURE REQUESTS:

-Add ability to right-click and delete task in today view
-PDF helpfile, so we can read on ppc or print
-Autocapitalise task titles
-Option to add a subtask in the todo list and it inheret the same
place, goal etc.ie I think thatís a more efficient way to add a next
action to a task, rather than going back to outline view.
-Monthly/Yearly goals - (if we keep them in MLO - personally, am now
trialing not using them) should have coloured markers, like weekly
goals
-Goal view should provide option to also see tasks not allocated a
goal, so users can easily convert these tasks into goals

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

>Sometimes tasks due on the same
>day have different colours - must be a bug in the algorithm

We will check. If you have repro steps it would be good. Do you mean
desktop or PPC?

>The details for a new task cannot be
>edited until it is deseleted and reselected

Can not reproduce. Do you mean PPC? Once you finish editing task name
the Properties icon is enabled.

>Add ability to right-click and delete task in today view

You can do it now.

>PDF helpfile, so we can read on ppc or print

>Autocapitalise task titles

Will consider this.

>Option to add a subtask in the todo list and it inheret the same
>place, goal etc.ie

Will consider this

>Monthly/Yearly goals - (if we keep them in MLO - personally, am now
>trialing not using them) should have coloured markers, like weekly
>goals

Part of color coding on desktop.

>Goal view should provide option to also see tasks not allocated a goal,

Will consider this.

Andrey