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Opal -- new outliner for Mac OS X
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Posted by David Dunham
Jul 1, 2006 at 05:25 AM
Back in 1986, I released an outline processor called Acta. It ran on some of the earliest Macintoshes, and gained an avid following. It continues to run fine in the Classic layer. But Intel-based Macintoshes have no Classic, and many Acta fans were worried that they would be forced to stop using it. So I’ve created a modern successor to Acta. Provisionally titled Opal, it’s now available in preview form from our web site http://a-sharp.com/opal/ .
Opal retains the fluid ease of use of Acta, but is up to date with Mac OS X standards (it requires 10.4 and is a Universal release).
I hope to release Opal later this year. Until then, I encourage Acta fans to try this free preview, which will open 20 year old Acta documents.
And feel free to post Opal-specific comments or requests to our discussion groups:
Tips & Techniques- http://www.a-sharp.com/fogbugz?usingOpal
Wish List- http://www.a-sharp.com/fogbugz?opalFeatures
(Comments here are fine too, but I might not see them as promptly.)
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jul 1, 2006 at 06:06 PM
David, thanks for the update.
I am no longer in the Mac world, but back in the day I was.
Acta was one of the first programs I used. I very much appreciated its speed and simplicity.
Best of luch with Opal.
Daly
David Dunham wrote:
>Back in 1986, I released an outline processor called Acta. It ran on some of the
>earliest Macintoshes, and gained an avid following. It continues to run fine in the
>Classic layer. But Intel-based Macintoshes have no Classic, and many Acta fans were
>worried that they would be forced to stop using it. So I’ve created a modern successor
>to Acta. Provisionally titled Opal, it’s now available in preview form from our web
>site http://a-sharp.com/opal/ .
>
>Opal retains the fluid ease of use of Acta, but
>is up to date with Mac OS X standards (it requires 10.4 and is a Universal
>release).
>
>I hope to release Opal later this year. Until then, I encourage Acta
>fans to try this free preview, which will open 20 year old Acta documents.
>
>And feel
>free to post Opal-specific comments or requests to our discussion groups:
>Tips &
>Techniques- http://www.a-sharp.com/fogbugz?usingOpal
>Wish List-
>http://www.a-sharp.com/fogbugz?opalFeatures
>(Comments here are fine too, but
>I might not see them as promptly.)
Posted by Chris Thompson
Jul 2, 2006 at 11:01 PM
Looks great. It’s nice to see another good single-pane outliner with multiline entries on OS X. Any comments on your future goals/directions for the program? I’ll resist making feature requests because I know there are so many directions you could choose to take it. What are your interests (multiple columns, scriptability, complex filters, multiple views, text styles, etc.)? I think the biggest opportunity right now is in adding interesting, complex filters, perhaps in the form of smart folders. IMHO, that’s OmniOutliner’s current feature weakness; it seems most of the scripts people write for it do some kind of filtering. Though I suppose many interesting types of filters would require adding column support as a pre-requisite.
Keep up the great work.
Posted by David Dunham
Jul 3, 2006 at 12:44 AM
As far as additional features go:
1. I need to finish something before expanding it!
2. http://www.a-sharp.com/fogbugz?opalFeatures is a good place to post, so others can comment too.
The architecture should support multiple columns, cloning, smart filters. (Though I’m not sure why smart filtering requires columns.)
Posted by Chris Thompson
Jul 3, 2006 at 09:47 PM
David Dunham wrote:
>The architecture should support multiple columns,
>cloning, smart filters. (Though I’m not sure why smart filtering requires columns.)
That’s good to hear. You’re right, smart filtering doesn’t require columns—they’re just a convenient way to add additional metadata, which is useful for filtering.