ADM's Concept

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2645

Posted by srdiamond15
2005-01-22 13:42:06

Chris Murtland’ comments a few days ago persuaded me to look again at ADM’s three pane view. I had pretty much ignored this view, because I couldn’t think of why I would want to see exactly three level in an outline.

The view is more useful than that. It includes an approach to navigation that makes it somewhat like hoisting and useful for brainstorming. ADM also has a focus view that is rather like BrainStorm’s process. When I would brainstorm in focus view and when in overview (3-pane view) is something I haven’t yet concluded.

So the 3-pane view and the focus view are both congenial to brainstorming. Have you ever wondered whether BrainStorm should have _both_ a regular outline view to manipulate headings (not just to view structure as in aerial view)? I have wondered about it and pretty much rejected the idea, but if it appeals, BrainStorm gives you this kind of dedicated brainstorming mode and an alternative mode (overview) also very congenial to brainstorming, along with the usual two pane view of outline and notes.

I like programs that instantiate a concept. I don’t know if my preference has any validity as a standard or it is merely a bias, but it seems to hold for the programs I think are very good. For example

MS Word (Yes, I think it has become an excellent program. I might be the only one who thinks this in this forum, but not the only one in the universe.) Word is build around the concept of object-oriented selection.

BrainStorm. Built around its approach for maintaining focus.

MS OneNote. Built around technologies permitting very flexible entry of data, anywhere on a page.

I think if UltraRecall _is_ a great program, it might be an exception to any generalization that great programs are built around a core concept. It seems an all-around competent program. It does most everything right. But its logical linking is a feature more than a central concept.

I think ADM’s concept should be its use of multiple panes to facilitate outlining. That’s where the originality is. Becoming the GrandView of this decade, combining outlining and data management, is a goal, not a concept. It doesn’t tell you how to get there.

I’m a beta tester of ADM, but I only discovered the value of the overview mode in this forum. That’s because ADM beta testers don’t talk about how they use the program. What they talk about—apart from reporting bugs—is features they want to see developed. You can’t develop an application integrally in relation to a core concept if the ideas for development bear no relation to it.

Stephen R. Diamond

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