Jdotxt - a GUI for Todo.txt

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Posted by shatteredmindofbob
Nov 9, 2013 at 01:54 AM

It would be easy to think that the todo list app market is saturated. I know I seem to see at least one new one posted weekly.

But…most of them are web apps. Sure, the coolest ones will have accompanying iPhone and Android and sometimes one comes along with a desktop app. Sometimes it’s not just for Macs, too.

That said, searching for todo list apps is also a great way to find a list of web apps that no longer exist, either shut down due to lack of funds, developers getting bored or being acquired by Yahoo.

What seems to be truly rare are todo/GTD (remember when those three letters were all the rage?) apps that store their data on your local machine and have a mobile app to sync to.

Enter Todo.txt (http://www.todotxt.com).

Gina Trapani’s specification for keeping todo lists in plain text files has been around for a while, including Android and iPhone apps. But honestly, I never liked the idea of dealing with my task list in a text editor…ok, ok, I want a check box that puts a line through the item when it’s finished.

Anyway, I recently came across a nifty cross-platform app called jdotxt (http://blog.chschmid.com/?p=1305) that acts as a front-end for Todo.txt files. There have been others but none of them really appealed to me.

I think what makes this one special is that the developer seems to be taking his cues from the well-designed mobile apps and putting that functionality on the desktop. It actually feels like a regular task list app.

It could certainly use some work and I hope it continues to be developed, but this is something I can really see using.

Now, admittedly, as far as plain-text todo apps go, I do prefer the Taskpaper format, but I’ve pretty much given up hope that anybody is ever going to make an Android version and I’m not changing phones for one app.

Besides, if I ever did change mobile platforms, somebody seems to have a Todo.txt version, even for Windows Phone.

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