
Show HN: Object Oriented container file: A tool to make all data more useful - IsaiahShiner
https://www.ditabase.io/?hnshow=2
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IsaiahShiner
Hello everyone!

Its been 2 and a half months since I posted
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21263839](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21263839)

I've made a lot of progress. The most significant thing is certainly the demo!
([https://www.ditabase.io/demo.html](https://www.ditabase.io/demo.html)) I
only knew vaguely how the actual product would look, and the demo forced me to
put it to code.

This resulted in two important changes: 1\. No more schemas, only objects 2\.
Dit is the real product

Objects take the place of schemas in every way. I can no longer picture what
exactly you would want out of a schema that you can't get with an object. They
cover schema relationships, and because of the way scripts work, every object
can use a different language and it doesn't matter. Schemas seemed like a
headache, but object orientation is very simple.

Then, the only logical delivery mechanism is a single file type like dit.
Whatever you want that's related to DitaBase can be neatly packaged in a dit.
That includes all the things I know about now and all the features I might
want to add in the future.

The very next thing is certainly the MVP. This will consist of a CLI Linux app
that validates dit files in much the same way the demo does. I am optimistic
that I can release that by February 1st.

I am looking for feedback almost exclusively on the demo, and whether it makes
sense to you as a first product. What projects can you picture using it for?
What features seem make or break to you? Do you still think it's a terrible
idea? I want to hear it all.

And to be clear, I realize that many of you are probably not my first users,
but you are developers. In the future, I hope all of you will be users, so
your feedback is still important.

Please let me know what you think!

