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Taxonomy for outliners...
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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 8, 2012 at 02:13 PM
I’ve spun off this topic from another thread. Bill suggested that we develop a taxonomy for outliners, which is a great idea in theory. In practice, however, I’m not so sure. For a glimpse of the uphill battle we’d have, I present the following exhibit:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1u8nb0jekad3v7o/Outliner-Terms-various-Applications.png
These are a few of the most popular outliners/PIMs and they don’t even come close to having a common standard for what they call even the most basic aspects of what their applications do.
Evernote’s terminology seems the most logical to me.
Anyway, I’m not saying we shouldn’t discuss this, just presenting a caveat that we’re not likely to have any impact.
Steve Z.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 9, 2012 at 10:22 AM
While I accept your point, Steve, I also think there’s a danger of confusing actual function with “mere” semantics (but I’m a linguist, so yes, I’m well aware of the magnificent scope for confusion offered by language alone). Many of these terms refer to what I will, for the sake of generalisation, describe as “entities” that are actually relatively easy (ahaha!) to compare once you look beyond the individual terminology preferred by the developers. Indeed, if we decide to engage in it, our efforts to build a taxonomy might actually serve to standardise such terminology! Now there’s a wonderful thought! In fact, my musings on this were catalysed by what I already perceive as the almost ridiculous profusion of daft terms used to describe the various “entities” that comprise an application environment.
Just how we set about building such a taxonomy is, of course, a significant challenge in itself. I shall give it some thought… but others writing here are undoubtedly better qualified than I am to offer suitable suggestions. Just working out a list of more or less comparable applications should prove quite taxing!
Cheers!
Bill
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 9, 2012 at 07:06 PM
Well, the first task then is defining what we mean by “outliner.” My own personal definition is different than those that seem to be used most here. The definition that fits what we collectively mean by OUTLINER is something like this:
“Software that uses a hierarchy for organizationing information.”
Is that too broad?
SZ
Posted by jimspoon
Aug 10, 2012 at 02:34 AM
Steve, by my own personal definition of “outliner”, what is often called a “single-pane outliner” is a true outliner, and the so-called “two-pane outliners” usually aren’t outlners at all.
But I think it’s most useful to focus on the specific features we look for in “outliners” - your reviews are a fine example of this. I am tempted to put in my two bits - not an outliner vs. outliner basis, but on a feature by feature basis. I would mostly be using my as-yet-unreplaced Ecco outliner to illustrate.
jim
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 10, 2012 at 01:35 PM
jimspoon wrote:
>Steve, by my own personal definition of “outliner”, what is often called a
>“single-pane outliner” is a true outliner, and the so-called “two-pane outliners”
>usually aren’t outlners at all.
I absolutely agree, but I thought we should agree on an overall definition of the types of software we talk about here… of which the type of “outliner” you refer to is a subset.
I’m not so sure this discussion will lead to anything of substanitive value, but it is fun… a CRIMPers delight.