Taxonomy for outliners...

Posted by Tim the Red
Aug 12, 2012 at 03:56 PM

(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