
Task tracking for nerds - tfjgeorge
https://hollyapp.com
======
mmariani
First of all, congrats on building and releasing something!

Now a few pointers.

The workflow isn't flowing. I know the whole idea revolves around managing
tasks as text, but unless you fit vim into a text area the app won't fly.

Another idea would be to ditch the concept entirely and add edit in place.
Your app would work similarly to omny outline. Two direct results of this
approach would be a better workflow and more users due to easy of use.

This last pointer is more of personal taste. Rarely brown goes well with
technology (remember the brow Zune?). I'd use one of the Solarized color
schemes, dark would be my choice.

Other than that, keep it up coding and shipping! :)

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notJim
Since this app is inherently modal (you can only enter text when you're in an
input field), it seems like a huge missed opportunity that it doesn't have
VIM-style modal keybindings. Especially because it advertises it self as being
for the text-editor set.

I will say that their no-signup approach to getting you into the app is pretty
great.

~~~
FuzzyDunlop
Funnily enough, I thought a missed opportunity was using emacs' Org-mode
syntax, or at the very least exporting to it.

~~~
endymi0n
I was missing the multiple cursors from Sublime...

On a sidenote: Isn't it somehow funny, how the top comments on every article
that remotely touches text mode or editors is an editor war? ;o)

~~~
cema
More like an editor truce this time.

As long as it lasts, I concur: having built-in export/import to existing
popular solutions would be very helpful.

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barik
Since it's described as "Task tracking for nerds" I think it would be nice if
the export were compatible with Emacs org-mode [1]. These days, it feels like
a lot of apps try to implement some of the features that org-mode has provided
for a very long time, but it always seems as though they miss key features.

Then it would be even more fantastic if you could import a .org file.

[1] <http://orgmode.org/>

~~~
FrojoS
Right. Or just use org-mode. As an example I switched from Textmate to Emacs
about a month ago because of org-mode. It is an absolute killer app! Before
that, I was merely using Emacs to write commit messages or make small changes.
Now it is taking more screenSpace*time per day than the browser :-)

If you are on the Mac, I [1] can recommend using Aquamacs [1] in the
beginning. It supports shortcuts like Cmd-z, Cmd-c or Cmd-v in addition to the
Emacs shortcuts. It does not allow for marking text with Shift-<arrow key> and
does not support Emacs 24 yet, but org-mode is already pre-installed and will
work like a charme. Just create a new file with the ending .org, open it in
Emacs and you are already in org-mode!

[1] Carsten Dominic, the creator of org-mode recommends it, too! [2]
<http://aquamacs.org/>

~~~
waveman2
This. I have been using org-mode for a month or so and it is wonderful.

I also use Kalarm for reminders, e.g. stand up every 30 minutes, but also for
longer term things.

And Anki for memorization and behavioral reminders.

~~~
adimitrov
I'm very curious: How do you use Anki for behavioural reminders (and what
exactly do you mean by that?)

I'm a big fan of Anki's for language learning (I've studied some 4 or 5
languages with it already, and it went pretty well in all cases,) and I know
many people use it for other things, but I haven't really seen something that
would really captivate my interest besides language learning.

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samstokes
Loving the Ubuntu Mono text on the website. (It's my shell and editor font of
choice - did a double-take when seeing it on a website!)

I also love the idea of the edit interface just being text, but the "most
powerful input method" rings a little hollow when the actual text editor
offered is a <textarea>, the _least_ powerful text editor ever. (That said, I
was able to use It's All Text[1] to open the contents in vim.)

[1] <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/its-all-text/>

~~~
qznc
CSS 2.1 allows to specify system fonts like "caption" or "icon".
Unfortunately, you cannot specify "terminal".

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AndrewDucker
For a similar tool I recommend <http://workflowy.com/> , which also allows you
to drive everything by the keyboard and do indented lists. Best simple to-do
list system I've used.

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avolcano
I tried really hard to do something like this for note-taking (outlining) with
VIM-style keybindings, but it never made it off the ground. Kudos to you for
finishing (or, depending on your perspective, maybe just starting) this :)

In fact, my recommendation is to take this interface and apply it to notes.
There aren't any good modal outline/note-taking editors out there, as far as
I'm aware.

While I do like the interface, I think it might be better off as a primarily
JavaScript app that syncs to the server, instead of having separate server-
rendered pages for the notes. Would feel much snappier (even on a server that
isn't being hammered by HN traffic ;])

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tfjgeorge
Just so that there is no misinterpretation, I have nothing to do with the team
that builded this webapp, I don't know them. I just thought it worked well and
could be helpful for a lot of hackers here.

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afc
I have actually recently started using Vim with folding (set shiftwidth=2, set
foldmethod=indent) for my nested todo list and also note-taking. I have a
single file with the following items:

    
    
      Work
        Topic 0 (work-related)
        ...
      Personal
      Tasks
        Ongoing
          ...
        Completed
          2012-08-22
          ...
        Future
          2012-08-23
          ...
    

One thing I like is that it's trivial to make subitems of an existing item. I
often end up taking notes (such as URLs of consoles or associated bug IDs)
under tasks listed in "Ongoing", which I think saves me a bit of time.

Anyway, while there are some things I still need to tweak, I am, overall,
quite happy with the workflow it allows and so just figured I'd share this in
case it helps someone else.

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blizkreeg
Good job on building something.

However, after trying out numerous task tracking/todo apps, the best and most
effective for me turned out to be a fountain pen (for added coolness) and a
Leuchtturm pocket notebook. Nothing has worked better.

~~~
rane
Isn't writing a bit slow compared to typing on the keyboard?

And you also have to take your attention off the screen (not necessarily a bad
thing), and pick up a pen.

What about referencing a URL or text from browser relevant to the task?

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RokStdy
I like it. I really love the minimalist styling. I think it'd be cool to add
keyboard navigation so that you can select items and complete them. (Arrow
up/down to select item, shift+alt+d{space, enter...} to mark as done?)

~~~
RokStdy
Oh, and I see that checking something as done prepends that line with "X ". So
if I start a line that way it begins as done. Admittedly I was intentionally
trying to cause this to happen, but maybe it'd be possible to flag the lines
in some other way than with the "X "?

~~~
sp332
That's intentional. You can mark an item as "done" in text mode by prepending
an X. It's even in the instructions.

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tarr11
I get that there's an idea around doing this all in text. Many developers do
that by default. I think that one of the reasons they do it is because they
have a text editor that they already love, that works offline, and has a lot
of features already.

But here, you've created a new todo editor. Granted, it's pretty fast, but I'm
not sure that it competes with sublime text, vim or whatever else people are
currently using.

I'd be curious to understand what motivated this app, and what you think it
adds over either text files in a text editor, or the existing ecosystem of
todo managers.

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sj4nz
I came expecting to see TaskWarrior (
<http://taskwarrior.org/projects/show/taskwarrior> ). I was disappointed.

------
andersnolsen
Excellent app! I've been playing around with it for an hour now and can really
see myself using it.

Inline editing is the one feature i miss the most. Also the tree list is a bit
hidden. If they were visible you could switch faster betweem them and setup
the app as a lightweight project management tool or issue tracker. Just add
your users, milestones etc as own trees and copy/paste between them. Also a
syntax like: (someissuenumber) ... which renders issue number in front of the
line would make it kick-ass.

Great job!

------
mgallivan
Why not use Org mode in Emacs?

<http://orgmode.org/>

There are a butt-load of features and 50% of you retain your favourite editor.

~~~
hogu
There are a number of reasons, the dominant one being, sharing my outlines
with other non-emacs users, especially non programmers.

~~~
mgallivan
It does have a few export options but I can understand your point.

~~~
sp332
"Export" is not "sharing".

~~~
mgallivan
Technically, it is - however, I already acknowledged that I can see why this
would be easier to collaborate.

~~~
sp332
If I export something and send it to you, then you have one and I have one. If
we share it, then we both have the same one.

~~~
c0rn
You could use git to track the file and share the repo. That way multiple
individuals can edit one file. It is just plain text after all.

~~~
hogu
this discussion started about sharing with non-emacs and non-developers. Git
is not feasible for non-developers.

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eranation
I really like it, I wish I saw more apps done the "nerd" way... would be
really nice to have an email client, calendar, and even a social network the
"hacker" way...

I wonder though why so much effort is made on TODO apps, it seems to me that
no one seems to have found the right formula, but still it seems that there is
an unanswered need

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jere
I had a _very_ similar idea a few weeks ago, since I usually track to-do lists
in a text editor anyway. But my idea (and what I would recommend) is no modes.
There's no reason you can't have the normal UI act like a giant textarea. The
really important part is supporting tab/shift-tab while doing this.

~~~
anthonyw
> There's no reason you can't have the normal UI act like a giant textarea.

Sounds like you're describing Workflowy: <https://workflowy.com>

~~~
rsl7
or TaskPaper, <http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/taskpaper>

There's a vim syntax for taskpaper's file format.

~~~
jrajav
Direct link: <https://github.com/davidoc/taskpaper.vim>

~~~
rsl7
I just love that plugin.

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dinkumthinkum
Interesting concept. I tried it and I was very confused what to do or what I
should be doing but maybe that was sort of the point! I think an intro video
would be helpful. However, I really like the colors and the font a lot, for me
personally. :)

------
rak
Here are my unimportant wishlist items:

* a stand alone app that syncs with either your service and/or remember the milk. * optional mark up * an option for a more keyboard-driven flow.

Even without those features, I think it's a fun app and I enjoyed how hassle
free using this was.

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cypherpunks01
Seems like a workflowy.com clone with monospaced font and a much more
confusing interface?

~~~
SatvikBeri
checkvist.com is a similar app with great keyboard shortcuts-I use that as
opposed to workflowy.

~~~
r4ps
+1 for Checkvist. This tool is so versatile it's unbelievable. I find myself
using it for everything, from time tracking to note taking.

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snikch
It'd be nice to have the shortcuts accept both ctrl and ⌘ as modifiers (for us
Mac users)

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lepht
Everyone here requesting a more vim-like interface or text editor integration
should check out VimOutliner:

<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3515>

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llawliet
Very nice, and I appreciate the dark UI. I would like to see a faster UI
though and an option to edit text in line. Also a native app for
Android/iPhone would be good. I found the webpage loaded very bad on my Nexus
One.

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asimjalis
Nice. It would be nice if there were more key bindings. For example, up/down
(or j/k) to move up and down the list. Spacebar could mark an item as done.
Etc. I like the simplicity. Also ? should display key bindings.

~~~
mmcnickle
Yeah, the tooltips are nice, but perhaps there should be a cheatsheet of all
the keyboard commands?

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chanux
Awesome stuff, really.

off topic: I find the comments to be very much in positive side after some
time. Perhaps it's all the posts that were complaining about negativity on HN.
Upwards.

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kondro
It would be nice to actually use this from a text-editor. Maybe git
integration? Auto-pull/commit in the web-GUI and standard git sync commands
locally.

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hcrisp
Awesome reference to Shane Carruth's movie, Primer, on the homepage. Funny, I
seem to be the only one who noticed it, judging from the comments.

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mkramlich
Love the visual style. Doesn't solve an unsolved problem for me personally.
But I like the fresh approach.

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matthewsinclair
If this model could be implemented into Sublime Text 2 (or your editor of
choice) I'd be all over it.

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f4stjack
don't "delete" the done items. Hide from my view but don't delete them.
Because at the end of the day I should be able to see what I've done for today
and what has been left for tomorrow.

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rane
The thumbnail-looking things on the right should be clickable.

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moe
It feels very sluggish here, immediate showstopper for me.

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thejosh
Thanks for this, especially the exporting to txt files!

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adgar
This is seriously worth checking out. For it to be really useful for geeks,
the keyboard shortcut interface has to be masterful (ie: worth learning). Or,
like others are suggesting, at least replicate significant portions of vim.
Doing 95% of the main ex/vim commands would be super easy. Emacs in the
browser has probably been done by somebody somewhere, too, but... ugh. A big
chunk of vim would be more than enough for a good app. Plus vim is more hip
these days anyway.

If there's source available, I'd love to run a hosted version of this for
myself. Unfortunately, I couldn't use this for work-related tasks, because any
meaningful task list for me is going to liberally reference details of my
company's IP.

Edit: Idea: Defaulting to HTML5 offline storage if available would be much
better, with remote storage required to use sharing features. Don't take your
user's data if you don't have to, right?

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jgh
Oh hey another TODO list. Great.

