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Re: Managing the ToDo list



On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:47:12 +0200
Volker Grabsch <vog@notjusthosting.com> wrote:

> Maybe a more lightweight solution would be a simple "outliner".

It suffers the same problems as planner with regard to lack of access
for updates because it is incredibly difficult to maintain such a format
in a Wiki so it needs to be a separate file and therefore only updated
by those with SVN access. The advantage with planner is that UI takes
away all the hassle of understanding the format.

>                         [ ] Do that
>                         [ ] Do that
>                 Do that
>                         Do this
>                                 [ ] Do this
>                 Do that

This is already becoming unmanageable because the tasks are rarely one
liners. The explanations take up space which needs to be hidden in
some views. Yes, there are apps that can do this but that brings us
back to access again.
 
> However, no offense against specialized tools. But whatever you
> use, you'll be trapped into that tool unless they support such
> a simple file format. XML is IMHO no argument as it still expects
> you to use a good XML editor. However, any good XML editor would
> be more compicated than a simple outliner.

I hardly think we need to be concerned about being trapped into planner
- a simple XSL stylesheet is all that would be needed to convert to a
different XML or text based format. I'm sure I could find the time to
write one if the need arose. The XML is the raw planner data file so no
data is inaccessible.

> The Wiki has the advantage of using a quite simple format. Not
> as simple as it should be, but worlds better than any XML format.

The list simply becomes too long to maintain - the sections describing
the items get in the way of an overview of what is actually needed.
There needs to be some form of UI that can expand and collapse subtasks.

> Sorry for not providing any solution. I just wanted to reveal the
> basic problem behind your discussion.

I was aware of the issue but I need a solution, so I am prepared to work
around the problem should the need arise. As of now, planner is usable
for what I think we need, it isn't too much of an overkill, it provides
the collapse/expand handling that we need and adding new sub-tasks is
very simple. The HTML export could be improved with XSL to allow
automation but as there is no other way that I can find of combining
Wiki-type access with collapse/expand of sub-tasks and I do not have
the time to write one, I'm happy to go with planner, at least for now.

-- 


Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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