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GeneralRe: Does anyone else here get the evil hamsters... Pin
Anthony Mushrow4-Jan-15 1:00
professionalAnthony Mushrow4-Jan-15 1:00 
GeneralRe: Does anyone else here get the evil hamsters... Pin
DaveAuld4-Jan-15 1:03
professionalDaveAuld4-Jan-15 1:03 
GeneralRe: Does anyone else here get the evil hamsters... Pin
Matthew Dennis4-Jan-15 7:13
sysadminMatthew Dennis4-Jan-15 7:13 
GeneralRe: Does anyone else here get the evil hamsters... Pin
Brisingr Aerowing4-Jan-15 8:56
professionalBrisingr Aerowing4-Jan-15 8:56 
GeneralRe: Does anyone else here get the evil hamsters... Pin
Matthew Dennis5-Jan-15 5:30
sysadminMatthew Dennis5-Jan-15 5:30 
GeneralCreazy NHL, I like hockey and especally NHL very much, but this is strange Pin
User 110609793-Jan-15 12:40
User 110609793-Jan-15 12:40 
GeneralRe: Creazy NHL, I like hockey and especally NHL very much, but this is strange Pin
PJ Arends4-Jan-15 8:39
professionalPJ Arends4-Jan-15 8:39 
Generalfor old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
BillWoodruff3-Jan-15 11:17
professionalBillWoodruff3-Jan-15 11:17 
I hope you'll cut me an ounce of prime-slack if I float a general question hearkening back to the olden times when 64k was a big honking number as un-affordable as a Rolex. This is not "market research."

Back in the day, the More (son of ThinkTank) outlining-and-lots-more application created originally by that singular character, Dave Winer[1] [^] (who went to start some interesting pre-Net stuff, like Userland), was a big deal.

Sales of More, if I recall correctly, were up there with the big productivity apps of the day (WordStar ? Lotus 1-2-3).

And, there was a cool "desk accessory" outliner by David Dunham [^] for the Mac called "Acta" that was in widespread use. Dunham went on to create the Opal outliner for Mac OSX ... which I've never seen.

Here's the question: what led to the general decline (assuming there was a general decline) in the use of outliners/outlining ?

Could use of outlining have not really declined: it's just that the major productivity tools, like MS Word and Excel, now incorporated "folding" or outlining abilities ? So dedicated apps were no longer needed ?

Or, outlining was something of a time-limited phenom, a trend that did not persist ? Yet another "viral phenomenon" triggered by a bunch of power-users generating hype fed to them by marketers, followed by a bunch of lemmings singing: "oh yeah, I gotta have that ?" on the way to the app-store Smile | :)

I'd appreciate hearing from any old-time users of More or other outliners as to what you think may have happened vis-a-vis outlining tools in wide use.

Perhaps, it's just that UI's (apps, internet) featuring drill-down, folding, hierarchic navigation, master-detail, etc., are just so ubiquitous today, that there's no need to have a special tool ?

thanks, Bill

[1] My favorite memory of Dave was at the fancy dinner soiree thrown by Steve Jobs as part of the NeXT roll-out: Dave stood up and shouted at Jobs from across the spacious banquet-hall: "How are we going to make any money when it doesn't have a floppy drive ?" The issue of the high-cost of distributing software on the expensive media for the Canon magneto-optical drive for the NeXT machine was an issue on the mind of many developers.
«A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards ... as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push»  Wittgenstein

GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
Marc Clifton3-Jan-15 11:30
mvaMarc Clifton3-Jan-15 11:30 
GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
BillWoodruff3-Jan-15 12:44
professionalBillWoodruff3-Jan-15 12:44 
GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
Mark_Wallace4-Jan-15 5:34
Mark_Wallace4-Jan-15 5:34 
GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
Marc Clifton4-Jan-15 5:52
mvaMarc Clifton4-Jan-15 5:52 
GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
Dewey3-Jan-15 15:55
Dewey3-Jan-15 15:55 
GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
BillWoodruff3-Jan-15 16:26
professionalBillWoodruff3-Jan-15 16:26 
GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
Dewey9-Jan-15 21:28
Dewey9-Jan-15 21:28 
GeneralRe: for old-timers: remember "More," and David Dunham's "Acta" for the Mac ? Pin
Mark_Wallace4-Jan-15 5:28
Mark_Wallace4-Jan-15 5:28 
GeneralAPOD PinPopular
R. Giskard Reventlov3-Jan-15 4:13
R. Giskard Reventlov3-Jan-15 4:13 
GeneralRe: APOD Pin
OriginalGriff3-Jan-15 5:48
mveOriginalGriff3-Jan-15 5:48 
GeneralRe: APOD Pin
glennPattonWork33-Jan-15 7:20
professionalglennPattonWork33-Jan-15 7:20 
GeneralRe: APOD Pin
Super Lloyd4-Jan-15 0:55
Super Lloyd4-Jan-15 0:55 
GeneralRe: APOD Pin
glennPattonWork34-Jan-15 1:38
professionalglennPattonWork34-Jan-15 1:38 
GeneralRe: APOD Pin
glennPattonWork33-Jan-15 7:20
professionalglennPattonWork33-Jan-15 7:20 
GeneralR.I.P. Elly May Pin
Mike Hankey2-Jan-15 12:42
mveMike Hankey2-Jan-15 12:42 
GeneralRe: R.I.P. Elly May Pin
Nagy Vilmos3-Jan-15 1:01
professionalNagy Vilmos3-Jan-15 1:01 
GeneralRe: R.I.P. Elly May Pin
Mike Hankey3-Jan-15 6:03
mveMike Hankey3-Jan-15 6:03 

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