Re: [Tb] Tinderbox, OmniOutliner, and GTD

Hello,

I have a similar experience to Roberto and Elaine. I too am a writer,
mainly on art, as well as a teacher. I make all my notes in
TInderbox, as well as early drafts, in the hope that someday, when I
have mastered agents, I will be able to reuse the notes in new and
unexpected ways. So far, that day has been postponed, largely
because I don't have the time to spend learning the necessary
scripting from the bottom up. It would be wonderful to have a palette
of examples, geared to different uses, with explanations and
suggestions about the different ways in which they could be
modified, so that one didn't feel that one had to keep going back to
the beginning all the time (I too tend to forget how I managed to do
something in the first place). I know this already exists to some
extent with the TB "Public File Exchange", but it would be nice if it
could be more extensive and systematic. Something like a book of
modifiable recipes.

I find TB extremely helpful, even in the limited way I use it now,
not least in overcoming writers block! But I am also aware that there
is far more I could be doing with it, and more examples might at
least help me and others like me to get half-way up the ladder.

Michael Newman

On Jul 11, 2006, at 7:21 AM, Elaine Sims wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm a writer, too. And I share Roberto's sentiments. I really like
> Tinderbox, and the new features in the latest upgrade are welcome.
> I do a little bit of scripting and I still found it frustrating to
> learn Tinderbox. When I originally bought it, I fussed with it
> because I was procrastinating with my writing, and then dropped it
> when I got going on a draft manuscript because I couldn't get it to
> work the way I wanted it to without having to go back to the manual.
>
> I've heard all the arguments for not having a more detailed (i.e.
> user examples in the) manual -- because it would be limiting. But
> sometimes too much freedom and too many choices can be
> debilitating. The creative person who can figure out how to do
> innovative things won't be limited by examples and instructions. A
> less technically inclined user, or someone who just doesn't want to
> do so much futzing around to get to a solution, would appreciate an
> instruction manual which is just that, instructional and relevant,
> as opposed to functional specs, which is what I consider the
> Tinderbox Manual to be. (Sorry to sound so harsh, its not meant to
> be.)
>
> I've come back to Tinderbox in the last six to nine months, and I
> still like it a lot, and since I now know how to do more with it,
> using it doesn't seem as daunting as when I first purchased it a
> few years ago.
>
> For example, I finally grasped the concept of creating a TB World,
> if you will, and placing lots of different types of notes in it,
> instead of creating a separate document for my journal, another for
> my manuscript ideas, and yet another for my research notes.
>
> My biggest fear is getting too dependent on it, and then losing the
> document. (Eeek). (And before anyone says it, yes, I do backups.)
>
> Elaine Sims
> An evolving Tinberbox fan
>
> On Jul 10, 2006, at 6:07 PM, Roberto Franco Moreira wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> I agree with Nick. Tinderbox is great but can be terribly
>> frustrating. I quit using the program when I was trying to export
>> an OPML. Ok, for you guys who can write applescript or use html
>> it's easy... but I'm a writer! I was amazed by the possibilities
>> but to implement simple agents I always had to go through all the
>> documentation. After some time I forgot how I did it and if I
>> wanted to change something I had to go through it again!
>>
>> Now I use Omnioutliner, but I would like to be able to use Tinderbox.
>>
>> roberto
>>
>>
>> On 26 de jun de 2006, at 04:14, David J Garbutt wrote:
>>
>>>> An example that might clarify what some people might mean when
>>>> they say that Tinderbox is kind of an "island" is just the
>>>> issue of text editing.
>>> Hi,
>>> I agree with much of the drift of this thread, I have at times
>>> found TB
>>> frustrating. But the text editing is a problem, I think I would
>>> be happy
>>> with a text format that was at least easy to type and remember...
>>>
>>> Going back to the original point about GTD I have been using a
>>> different
>>> solution - Tiddlywiki for about a year now. It has developed very
>>> fast and
>>> really is grown now into a hypertext environment - but
>>> implemented in a
>>> single file (that includes the program) useable with any modern
>>> browser.
>>>
>>> Inside the notes it uses wikiwiki text formatting and renders on
>>> the fly to
>>> the screen using CSS stylesheets. (these are dynamic and
>>> customisable, they
>>> are stored in tiddlers also).
>>>
>>> There are currently two GTD implementations d3 and MPTW- GTD.
>>>
>>> Start from the main web site at www.tiddlywiki.com. Make sure you
>>> have a
>>> free evening before you visit ;-)
>>>
>>> This fills an important condition for me - I need to have a
>>> system on
>>> Windows as well as my home Mac.
>>>
>>> TiddlyWiki however is not an outliner - it has NO outline
>>> structure - it
>>> only has notes (called tiddlers), links, and tags. It has plugins
>>> and an
>>> amazing array of formatting - for example tables in notes, and
>>> tools for
>>> splitting tiddlers and putting them together into larger pieces.
>>>
>>> I have planned one day to make a TB export template, but I still
>>> haven't got
>>> around to that :-(
>>>
>>> Check it out.
>>>
>>> I think it is very interesting (as a topic in interface design,
>>> etc.) that
>>> you can do so much with just a tag box and customisable macros. I
>>> know you
>>> could make something similar in TB (lets do it!), but having a
>>> flexible
>>> simple system just there is worth a lot. I do not understand
>>> exactly why
>>> this should be but perhaps it is to do with marginal costs, the
>>> cost of
>>> adding that to a TB file is too big to bother with a very simple
>>> application, so it doesn't get started, later the amount of info
>>> to transfer
>>> is too much, so it still doesn't happen.
>>> And the more expert you are the lower the perceived cost of TB
>>> is, and
>>> therefore the more useful.
>>>
>>> Ciao
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dave Garbutt
>>>
>>> Ingelsteinweg 4d
>>> CH 4143 Dornach
>>>
>>> +41 79 326 8970 (Home: 061 692 6349)
>>> http://www.mybasel.ch/verkehr_regioplan_karte.cfm?ID=Strassen,
>>> 14139&ParaZoom
>>> &Zoom=3000
>>>
>>> Dr Donne's verses are like the peace of God; they pass all
>>> understanding.
>>> James I (1566-1625)
>>> King of England. Attrib.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
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>
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Received on Tue Jul 11 2006 - 08:48:32 EDT