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.

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

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

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

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.

Stephen, I hope I can contribute some substantative value though. So I spin off to a new thread.

(Howdy from a long time lurker ,first time poster)

I like the term "info-tree" for the hierarchical info organizer. A lot.

And yes, to me, "outliner" means the function of 1-pane hierarchical text. Oultining software may or may not have additional panes for navigation, attachments, and whatnot, but the central outline pane needs to be able to function by itself without having to click in the other panes. And should be able to show the whole outline - the structure and the content, with tools for showing more/less. Such as folding and hoist/focus.

I think getting some common understanding of terms is a better result than a strict taxonomy per se. Mainly because a lot of these apps do more than one thing and can't be pigeonholed. There are mindmappers which can also outline, there are info-trees that can also outline, etc.

-Tim


(Forgive me for putting this response here instead of the other thread "what outliners should be able to do...")

> From Fredy:
> When I’m speaking of outliners, I’m speaking of the 2- and 3-pane variety only (I’m not interested in the
> notion that “only 1-pane outliners are real outliners - that might be true, but then donate us with a term
> for the 2/3-pane things, and I’ll never speak of outliners anymore).

I call them free-form, hierarchical databases… however, that’s an awkward phrase and I
don’t expect it to be adopted by anyone else. What if we call them InfoTrees?
SZ