I haven't used an outliner for years but I'd love to use one again (More 1.1c was my favorite writing tool many years ago). Unfortunately I've taken an oath against proprietary binary file formats and protocols.

What about an outliner that writes plain text files, using a simple XML format?

I've had the concept of outline-as-XML rattling around in my brain for a few months now. I find the idea quite intriguing, and I guess this makes a great opportunity to write them down and get some feedback from other outlining fans!

Features/requirements:

Editing component

cross platform
minimally uses MORE concepts

tab key indents/outdents
ability to drag & drop head and its children to new positions
Command U,D,L,R for moving heads
hoisting
mark, gather, and clone
rules become CSS or XSL

incorporates post and non-MORE concepts

all the web stuff

embedded links, internal nodes as targets
javascript and DHTML-style events with bubbling, etc., though we probably don't want to reinvent the wheel here!
Multiple users, collaboration, DAV

generic data type plug-ins:

columns (ala GrandView, Agenda)
tables (ala Excel, html)
more structured documents (follow a DTD?)
each of these should have its own rules (XSL?) about how to display for different browser standards (should degrade gracefully)

XHTML
HTML 3.2
and on down

standard outline implemented in this fashion


Formatting component

node formatting rules

based on CSS
named styles (ala Word, CSS) rather than MORE rule groups
individual nodes can have direct, override formatting
may need extensions to CSS to support specific outlining concepts

head-depth used in presentation
others?



Views component

web page as default target
XSL used to change display types (printed, presentation, tree, etc.)?



 
So, given the following outline:
Outliners I have used

More 1.0
More 1.1c
Ready!
More 3.0
More 3.1

Here's what it might look like under the covers:
<outline>
<docinfo>
<hoists>
<hoist nodeid=4/>
</hoists>
<author>Howard Hansen</author>
<history>
<created>
<date>1999 Aug 7 14:49:00 -08:00</date>
<by>Howard Hansen</by>
</created>
<modified>
<date>1999 Aug 8 16:49:00 -08:00</date>
<by>Dave Winer</by>
</modified>
</history>
<formats>
<template>http://www.nimbus2000.com/standards/templates/laundrylist.css&lt;/template&gt
<style type="text/css">
node { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans; }
</style>
</formats>
<other stuff>
...
</other stuff>
</docinfo>
<nodelist class="tophead" style="text-size: 16pt;">
<node id=0>Outliners I have used
<nodelist class="bullets">
<node id=1>More 1.0</node>
<node id=2>More 1.1c</node>
<node id=3>Ready!</node>
<node id=4>More 3.0</node>
<node id=5>More 3.1</node>
</nodelist>
</node>
</nodelist>
</outline>

I like this concept, but couldn't this be done through the XTND-like import/export engine that MORE supports? The trick would be to get XML to be the default engine to use.

I just posted a message on a new topic A new outliner. that takes this notion quite a bit further.

Best wishes to outliner-uers everywhere.

Kurt