What would you want in a new PIM app?

I've been thinking about writing a new PIM application for my hpc. I've got quite a few ideas already, but I was curious what features other people feel are important, or are lacking in their current programs.

I use CEAgenda mostly, with ListPro for recording some long term goals, as well as a few .txt files and Word to manage a phone book and notes I commonly refer to (bus schedules etc).

Anyway, some features I would want if I do write something:

• very fast. When I enter a new appointment in CEAgenda, there can be a considerable (1 sec) delay for the New Appointment dialog. I would rather more keyboard based input. eg:


Open HPC, type: <Enter> Meet john in office (3pm)<Enter>, Close HPC

as opposed to open HPC, press Ctrl-A, wait a second, tap on description, type, tap on place, type, tap on time, tap, tap, etc..

• the only view I ever use in CEAgenda is the week view, so this is the only one I'd write initially


• it might be nice to have a tasks list visible at the same time as the agenda week view. I've been reading about "Getting Things Done", which sounds like a cool system and is similar to how I manage tasks now, so maybe the tasks list could be designed around this principle


• along with the keyboard-centered UI, it would be cool if you could type something like "new contact bob cell:124-3567", and then later just type "bob" and a popup would appear with his phone number.


• it would be open source

Well, if any one has any comments, I'd love to hear them
ps, i can't really say when/if I would have time to make this, just wanted to collect together some ideas.

You use CEAgenda much the way I use mine--Week View (the same way I use it in my Psion)--so I'm already happy with your decisions.

I don't know how hard this is to pull off but....

1) Could it be programmed backward to CE 2.0? I'd love to get my Mobilon 4100 on the same "page" as my J-720.

2) Would it possible to delete appointments by week, month, or even year rather than merely individually?

Thanks for even considering this undertaking,
Jake

Hey, nice idea, esw .. Anyway, I too would like CE2.0 support, as I am not going to be getting the MP900(c) after all..

How wonderful!
I wish you the very best of luck; altho I think you may have set yourself an impossible task here. Like many of us, I am an ex-psion user, and have never found the old agenda bettered. Probably like yourself, I always start with a week view, to see things in context.
Now I use Oyajin(as many people know, I'm often raving about it here). It does these things well:

1. Works on arm and mips, as well as PC
2. Database on CF card not memory, so can use without sync
3. Dynamic screen resizing to fit all resolutions
4. Ability to set repeating, overlapping, continuous appoinments, change colours, set alarms, etc
5. Ability to schedule items in combinations of different views - Month, Week, Date, to do, etc

What it doesn't do - and I think a PIM app should do - is allow the tagging of appointments by category, or etc, so you can filter by "project one" "family" etc.

If you are into GTD you might find this site useful, altho they are a bit mad for it.

Good luck!

Well, since you asked for it

I have no problem with CE Agenda, but it would be nice if I could set the default opening screen to something other than week view. (This is probably why many people are biased towards week view?) I've talked to the developer about this and he promised to add that option in the next revision....of course that was 8 months ago.

Oyajin is a nice program and since it is freeware it is probably of great interest to the folks on this forum, but it doesn't use the existing Pocket Calendar database and therefore it's a problem for me, because I would have to re-enter hundreds of preexisting appointments that are currently in my calendar. Of course if you are startting from scratch, then I would recommend Oyajin.

Pocket on Schedule is probably one of the best PIM programs around, but it's almost overkill and for many the high price is prohibitive.

If you are serious about creating a new PIM, then I would ask that you consider tieing it to the existing Pocket Calendar, Contact and Task databases and make appointments and tasks viewable in the Month View as well as the Week & Day Views. This is another thing lacking in CE Agenda!

Hopefully, you will find the time to create the ultimate new PIM....Lord knows we certainly can use more good software developers for our H/PC platform.

On a completely different tip u might prefer to develop something like NoteStudio which is a wiki that works on Palm and PC. I used to use it heavily, and the user group are mad for GTD; check out this for starters.

I don't think they'll ever port NS to WINCE, despite ongoing pressure from myself and others. I've tried personally to get wiki software running on WINCE, via STARKIT, but failed miserably (as documented elsewhere on this forum).

Thanks for the ideas so far I'm downloading Oyajin, OnSchedule (I see there's a demo version ), and NoteStudio at the moment, and I'll play with them a bit. NoteStudio sounds like a really cool idea - it's sort of a personal, offline wiki, I gues?