Welcome to Outliners.Com!
Posted by dave
on 7/30/2001
dave
7/30/2001 10:39 am
Simple hierarchy editors
By Dave Winer, August 1999.
Way back in the 1980s, I worked on what was then a new kind of software called outliners.
They started out as simple hierarchy editors, used by lawyers, educators, students, engineers, executives; people who think -- to plan, organize and present their ideas.
Over time the products became more full-featured, especially on the Macintosh. Then the category died out, no one can explain fully why that happened, but in the early days of personal computers, outliners such as ThinkTank, Ready and MORE were popular programs.
Outliners are everywhere
Outlining as a user interface, survives to this day.
The expanding and collapsing file system viewer first appeared in Macintosh System 7, and now has become a common feature of all file system browsers. Word processors, presentation programs, script editors, project planners, personal information managers, all have outliners built into them now.
Perhaps this offers the most likely explanation of what happened to outliners, the idea was good enough that it found its way into every other application category.
Screen shot
Here's a picture of Frontier's outliner editing XML text that will be rendered as a preferences system.
Here's a screen shot of the home page of this site, edited in an outliner, of course!
Lost ideas
There were ideas in those early programs that are still unique, are not commonly available in the current-day counterparts. Examples include cloning, hoisting, mark-and-gather, outline math.
Antique software
In July 1999, my longtime friend Dan Bricklin did something really interesting. With Lotus's permission, he released an antique version of VisiCalc thru his website. To my knowledge, this was the first major release of antique software, and it was quite a milestone.
A couple of weeks later, David Intersimone of Borland, another friend from long ago, put up a website to distribute early versions of Borland's Tubo Pascal and C.
Then a few days later Dennis Ritchie, one of the major pioneers of our industry, and one of my heroes and role models as I was learning how to program in the mid-late 70s, released an early version of his C compiler, the one he used to develop the original version of Unix!
Thank you Symantec!
And then on the same day, I got permission from Symantec to release antique versions of my outliner software, ThinkTank, Ready! and MORE.
This is very exciting to me! The idea that my old software has a chance to survive thru the coming decades gives me a deep feeling of satisfaction that's hard to describe.
I want to thank Symantec for being so generous and open-minded. I hope good vibes and great publicity comes their way for letting us do this.
Apple and Microsoft
It's an incredible accomplishment for Apple and Microsoft that the ancient versions of this software, some dating back as far as 1983, still run on systems being shipped today.
Pointers
Read about the history of outlining software from my personal perspective.
Shortly after the re-release of MORE 1.1c, David Dunham and Symmetry re-released Acta, a classic outliner from the early days of the Macintosh.
We're following antique software, among many other topics, on Scripting News, a UserLand-hosted news site.
By Dave Winer, August 1999.
Way back in the 1980s, I worked on what was then a new kind of software called outliners.
They started out as simple hierarchy editors, used by lawyers, educators, students, engineers, executives; people who think -- to plan, organize and present their ideas.
Over time the products became more full-featured, especially on the Macintosh. Then the category died out, no one can explain fully why that happened, but in the early days of personal computers, outliners such as ThinkTank, Ready and MORE were popular programs.
Outliners are everywhere
Outlining as a user interface, survives to this day.
The expanding and collapsing file system viewer first appeared in Macintosh System 7, and now has become a common feature of all file system browsers. Word processors, presentation programs, script editors, project planners, personal information managers, all have outliners built into them now.
Perhaps this offers the most likely explanation of what happened to outliners, the idea was good enough that it found its way into every other application category.
Screen shot
Here's a picture of Frontier's outliner editing XML text that will be rendered as a preferences system.
Here's a screen shot of the home page of this site, edited in an outliner, of course!
Lost ideas
There were ideas in those early programs that are still unique, are not commonly available in the current-day counterparts. Examples include cloning, hoisting, mark-and-gather, outline math.
Antique software
In July 1999, my longtime friend Dan Bricklin did something really interesting. With Lotus's permission, he released an antique version of VisiCalc thru his website. To my knowledge, this was the first major release of antique software, and it was quite a milestone.
A couple of weeks later, David Intersimone of Borland, another friend from long ago, put up a website to distribute early versions of Borland's Tubo Pascal and C.
Then a few days later Dennis Ritchie, one of the major pioneers of our industry, and one of my heroes and role models as I was learning how to program in the mid-late 70s, released an early version of his C compiler, the one he used to develop the original version of Unix!
Thank you Symantec!
And then on the same day, I got permission from Symantec to release antique versions of my outliner software, ThinkTank, Ready! and MORE.
This is very exciting to me! The idea that my old software has a chance to survive thru the coming decades gives me a deep feeling of satisfaction that's hard to describe.
I want to thank Symantec for being so generous and open-minded. I hope good vibes and great publicity comes their way for letting us do this.
Apple and Microsoft
It's an incredible accomplishment for Apple and Microsoft that the ancient versions of this software, some dating back as far as 1983, still run on systems being shipped today.
Pointers
Read about the history of outlining software from my personal perspective.
Shortly after the re-release of MORE 1.1c, David Dunham and Symmetry re-released Acta, a classic outliner from the early days of the Macintosh.
We're following antique software, among many other topics, on Scripting News, a UserLand-hosted news site.
langberg
2/26/2003 7:42 am
Out of idle curiosity I did a Google search on MORE and found this site. It is kind of neat to find a site devoted to my old friend.
I have been an enthusiastic user of outliners for more than 15 years. First there was ThinkTank, in retrospect, a clumsy and unfriendly outliner, but I was thrilled when I found it and tried it.
Over the years I tried many outliners, but I never found anything as satisfying as MORE. I went through the entire sequence of MOREs up to MORE 3.1. I still use it for planning and analyses almost every day. As an adjunct I also use ThoughtMgr on may Visor handheld. This a very basic and well thought out ouliner. I use it frequently and upload outlines to my Macintosh via the MEMO application. There is another, richer outiner for Palm compatable handhelds called BrainForest. It is too much of a good thing for a handheld. ThoiughtMgr is, in my opinion, a perfect outliner for a handheld.
I have tried the outliners in MS Word and AppleWorks but they but their meager capabilities are too inadequate for sustained use.
This is an interesting site, but where is it going?
Arnold, langberg@attbi.com
I have been an enthusiastic user of outliners for more than 15 years. First there was ThinkTank, in retrospect, a clumsy and unfriendly outliner, but I was thrilled when I found it and tried it.
Over the years I tried many outliners, but I never found anything as satisfying as MORE. I went through the entire sequence of MOREs up to MORE 3.1. I still use it for planning and analyses almost every day. As an adjunct I also use ThoughtMgr on may Visor handheld. This a very basic and well thought out ouliner. I use it frequently and upload outlines to my Macintosh via the MEMO application. There is another, richer outiner for Palm compatable handhelds called BrainForest. It is too much of a good thing for a handheld. ThoiughtMgr is, in my opinion, a perfect outliner for a handheld.
I have tried the outliners in MS Word and AppleWorks but they but their meager capabilities are too inadequate for sustained use.
This is an interesting site, but where is it going?
Arnold, langberg@attbi.com