Teaser - Polywick Story Server

Posted by Bobby Parker
Feb 26, 2019 at 10:49 PM

>@Bobby Parker
>I do not agree with you that the data structures and the code is
>trivial, not more then almost any other webbased app. There are still
>features that are unique to old software and uncopied even if genius
>because they are hard to implement and to detailed for the sales guys.
>For Ecco it is for example the possibility of multi values in the column
>row. For spreadshirts like Improv (release date 1990) it is the dropping
>of letter-number addressed cells and pivot tables, for AskSam (1994) it
>is the mixing of formated fields inside normal text, for Lotus Agenda it
>is the automatic assigned hierachical tagging system, for Spreadsheet
>2000 it is .... well the whole fucking program. I find that most SAAS
>web based apps are throwing us back to the 1980ths functionality but
>with great GUIs.

Sometimes you gotta take a few steps back, to go forward.

...but yes. I’m sorry to sound arrogant, or insulting, but I honestly do mean it. EccoPro is, fundamentally, a simple graph database(presented as an outliner), with (probably) an extra tree overlaid with links to the columns for the notes. It’s really *not* that complicated.

I’ve written, and used, a fair number of tools, that demonstrate all of these capabilities. In the context of the current fields of application development in which I normally work (Satellite data, retail email/ecommerce data in the hundreds of millions of records, scientific publication/journal attribution tracking(hundreds of thousands of scientific publications), 3D automated modelling & data visualization generation, data analytics, regulatory support information systems (search engines indexing *billions* of PDFs from court systems across the country),
so forth, so on), the tools & systems I use, while mostly existing server-side, are more than capable of putting anything on that list of features together at varying rates of rapidity.

TO BE HONEST, however: We exist in a time of computing, where if you can show an experienced enough developer a picture, he can design, and build for you, an application that will look and behave exactly as you want. If he can’t, you can probably find someone else. As one of these ‘experienced developers’, I find his claims to be specious, without backing evidence. That it’s taken him years to build his functionality, that’s immaterial. I’ve been working on my copy for nearly 10 years, and it’s still not out.

IF, his project is real, I will heartily applaud him. IF NOT, well…why is he wasting our time?

This is not to denigrate anyone’s effort. A lot of this is subjective, depending heavily upon the experience of: The engineer, the entire team, the engineer’s ability to lead, etc.

If it’s just one developer, it’s a lot more on that person (psychologically), to take the risk of publishing ANYTHING for use, free or paid, because they basically have to be the whole team. And while some people manage to pull that off, it’s a huge risk to almost everyone, personally, because the exposure of one’s intellectual-self in the form of software, is one of THE most dangerous things an intelligent, creative person can ever do.

All I am asking this good gentleman, is to present me with a video, that demonstrates his tools capabilities to exceed the original capabilities of EccoPro. I don’t really think that’s too hard.