DOS Outliners: Framework, MaxThink

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 110

Posted by FinkelsB
1999-08-12 08:01:59

There are at least two MS-DOS outliners from the Golden Age that are still being sold and supported—Framework (http://www.fred.com) and MaxThink (http://www.maxthink.com/thinking.html).

I have been a MaxThink user since the mid-1980s, and would gladly pay for a version that runs on a modern OS. Yes, one can run it in emulation on a Windows machine or a Mac, and I do, but it’s a poor substitute for a proper port. Being limited to the keyboard-based text-selection, cut, and paste techniques of that era is not pleasant.

Another aspect of MaxThink that dates it, somewhat interestingly, is that the keyboard commands date back to when IBM keyboards had the function keys on the left side rather than across the top. The basic topic-creation keys are F9 and F10 to start a new topic above or below the present topic at the same level, F8 to create a new child topic, and F7 to create a new “uncle” topic. MaxThink is much more pleasant to use with a vintage keyboard, where the geometry of this key-mapping makes sense. This is equally true of other DOS programs dating from that era which made good use of the function keys for navigation, such as the MASS-11pc word processor (F5 and F6 for moving backward and forward by word, F7 and F8 for beginning/end of line, and F9/F10 for beginning/end of screen).

That said, however, having looked at the recently posted unsupported freeware versions of MORE and Acta, I can’t see myself growing attached to either one of them. If the idea of releasing classic software is to recirculate old but good ideas, please be aware that there are lots more good ideas out there. (Alas, there is, at the moment, no freely-downloadable version of MaxThink available for the next generation of authors to sample.)

The key feature of the MaxThink interface, if I can try to put it into the vocabulary of ThinkTank and its descendants (and I may not be doing a good job), is that hoisting is implicit. The screen is always focused on whatever level you are working on, with no need to expand or collapse levels manually. The right arrow key takes you deeper into the outline, and the left backs you out, with a resulting feel that is very similar to the way that web browser navigation works today. In addition, a single key (F2) toggles “folding” (switching between viewing full topics/paragraphs or merely the first lines of each), and when printing there is a corresponding control to let one print everything, or only the first line of each topic/paragraph, or everything BUT the first line of each topic/paragraph.

MaxThink thus has less flexibility in the on-screen display than do MORE or Acta, where topics can be expanded or collapsed individually, but the result is much greater fluidity in use. More and Acta feel to me like driving stick shifts; I like stick shift cars, but for thinking and drafting I want an automatic that doesn’t distract me. If I wanted awkward, I could just use the outlining functions in Word.

MaxThink also has unique “brainstorm” commands that provide very powerful ways to reorganize information.

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