Re: Why tree-based pims omit undo in the tree

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 3327

Posted by srdiamond15
2005-05-25 13:26:08

I never reach the point of actually trying the program, as I first reach some show-stopping objection. But the developer is constantly tweaking it, and objections that applied yesterday might not today. You may want to check that you’ve tried the last build.

This time my objection was this. Unlike InfoRecall, which does the best job with multiple windows, and the surprising InSight (http://www.dataomega.com)—which may have the most elegant multiple window procedures—WhizFolders doesn’t have any easy way to get rid of unnecessary open windows, which is a big practical annoyance in dealing with multiple windows. I’m not a developer, obviously, yet I can spot this defect instantly. So what am I to conclude when the developer says he has made a note to include a keystroke for this purpose in the next version? I’m gratified by his responsiveness to someone who hasn’t yet paid him anything, but I’m bewildered about how he could have missed so obvious a shortcoming, and about why he exhibits no visible disconcertment about not having seen it for a long time before getting this feedback.

But the picture I’m getting is that at this price-range ($39 per license), the developer is more an entrepreneur combining parts that he buys on the market than an autonomous designed of an application. In the ADM world, for example, a totally unanticipated feature might be bestowed upon the program, simply because (it would seem) the developer could buy it at a good price. I think WhizFolders is a pretty good program for the price. But for fairly complex operations, what you get for $39 aren’t first class components.

As to the name, it’s far from the worst. At least it’s unpretentious. And the developer seems to be honestly trying to describe his product. Didn’t you say that it feels like folders are whizzing around you, or words to that effect?

Stephen R. Diamond

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