How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

This is a plea to programmers for a very simple program. QuickDex was an ultra-simple free-form database for early Macintoshes (I'm talking pre-System 7, 1MB RAM) that would be PERFECT for a Maemo tablet.

(I started a thread about this one year ago. There was one code-writer who was interested so I dropped the thread, but then his life got too complicated to start on the project. So I'm back, ... )

QuickDex has ONLY TWO FIELDS: a field where you type text (which is automatically saved) and a field where you type a character string for searching. The idea was (like Microsoft's Cardfile, which was not nearly as useful as QuickDex) that you had a "stack" of cards in a single file. The only really necessary commands are New Card, Delete Card, Find Forward and Find Backward. Clicking Find just jumps to and highlights the next occurrence of the character string in the saved text field. The view just changes to the next card that has that character string. If the Find field is left blank, then searching just pulls up each card in order. You can enter any random piece of knowledge, contacts' addresses, lists of bookmarks, lists of ToDos or movies you want to see, anything. It's a poor man's PIM.

Here's a little review of QuickDex from 1992. As the author points out, it uses only 20k and is lightning fast. http://tinyurl.com/3a5m8r

Here is a screenshot of the "current" Windows version of QuickDex:

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...kDexpicpng.png

This newer, Windows version is more complicated than necessary. (Also, aesthetically, it would be nicer if the cards had rounded corners; and if the shape matched the Tablet's landscape screen format.)

I have tried all the existing Maemo programs that are similar to QuickDex. I've also tried TiddlyWiki. None offer the perfect simplicity and utility. And QuickDex ought to be easier to program.

What's essential is a place to store (and find) any and all information and take it on the road in the N800 or N810. Even early QuickDex had some bells and whistles, like a phone dialer. Later incarnations (like iData) added the capability to embed images. But None Of That Is Necessary. Just a simple place to throw in text info (and find it again) would be an AWESOME addition to the Nokia Tablets! Import and export would be great; in the original QuickDex, the data file was just a big text file with a specific character string (something like $N%) to indicate a new "card".

The utility of something like QuickDex is hard to overstate. These days I don't use it since I'm on Windows and I'm one of those inveterate users of EccoPro. But for Tablet use -- in terms of format, simplicity, memory footprint, utility -- I can't imagine a more useful, so-far-non-existent program for the NIT.

Here is the Macintosh version of QuickDex running in Mini vMac on a PC. It's been a long time since I've used it, but I'm delighted again to see how fast and clean and wonderful it is! Here's a screenshot of QuickDex running in my Mac emulation:

[IMG]http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...onMinivMac.jpg[/IMG]

I have uploaded versions of both the Mac QuickDex and the Windows QuickDex to Rapidshare.

The Windows program is here. It is installable in the typical way. I know it runs on anything up through Windows XP; I don't know if it runs on Vista or not.

I have also uploaded a Disk Image of QuickDex for Macs or Mini vMac. It's here. Add .img to the file name for it to act like a disk image. I think it will run on any Classic Mac OS, or Mac emulator like Basilisk II or Mini vMac, but not on OSX. On the Mac, QuickDex is launched from the Apple Menu. Note also that QuickDex does not get its own set of menus (since it was meant to run ALONG with other programs); the upside-down question mark to the right of the other menus is the QuickDex menu.

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

mnotes maybe?

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

Notecase seems pretty close to what you are looking for....

I moved all of my Palm Notes to it as part of my switch to the N800.

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

I'll look at Notecase, but this was my conclusion about it one year ago: Notecase is also unnecessarily complicated and doesn't offer a database search function across all its information either.

I think I've tried mnotes, but maybe not. I'll install today and check it out, too.

If you have a Windows machine, or an old Mac, you really should download QuickDex and see what I mean about its simplicity and utility (compared to the Maemo apps, many or all of which I tried, though not since last summer).

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

This one is a great little app, too bad it is written in Mono, which is quite big...

http://www.incollector.devnull.pl/

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

I'd prefer a redo of Psion's Data. QuickDex seems just too simple.

(FYI, Data can be made to look exactly like QuickDex. The difference is that it doesn't have to)

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

Yes, InCollector is the closest Linux app I've seen. (I went searching for simple Linux free-form databases last year.) I just downloaded it after your mention, and I'm using it in Windows. It seems pretty smooth. I also like that it has import and export functionality. (It exports in .ied fomat, with which I'm not familiar. Maybe that's specific to Linux, but I'm using the Windows variation of InCollector. Since it's a flat database, could it just export in comma-delimited text format?)

Personally, I'd still prefer QuickDex. The main difference is that InCollector has a Title Field as well as a primary Content Field. On the input end, I prefer not having to come up with a Title or having to bother with going to an extra field to fill it in (even if I just put in X for every title). On the look-up end, you just can't beat the speed of QuickDex jumping to every instance of your character string and highlighting it. In InCollector, after you put in your search you need to scroll through your titles and open each "card" individually, then, if it's not what you want, you need to close the card and go back to scrolling and open the next possible candidate. In QuickDex, because it has just the one entry field, you just keep clicking Return and it immediately shows you the next instance of the character string in context (because of the highlighting). If you don't like that one, you just hit Return again. It's very fast. It's the simplicity itself that makes it so fast, not just that it executes instantly but it's fast in terms of the required user input (just hitting Return).

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

This is pretty close. Thanks for the suggestion. As with InCollector, I wish the thing were made simpler by eliminating the Title field and highlighting the sought-for character string. The interface is just faster when there are only two fields and the context of your found info is made immediately apparent.

Maybe if I'm lucky Benoit will branch off and, while continuing with his expansion of mNotes (to include photos and drawings), he will also make a simpler mNotes that eliminates the Title field and highlights the found character string. I feel very strongly that for this type of application, especially for the Tablet platform, minimizing how much dancing around the user has to do is a very worthwhile goal.

Or maybe someone else wants to take Benoit's work and modify it insofar as allowed for by open-source rules and ethics.

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

iirc, the title can be ignored as it will be filled by the first string of the text, if left empty...

also, your basically describing version 1.x of mnotes. maybe you can get him to repack it as mnotes-lite? ;)

Re: How about coding a simple free-form database like QuickDex?
 

It's all just text, and if you get over your GUI obsession, just use Vim or Emacs and homebrew your own. I use Vim as a personal wiki, and it works A LOT better than any of the specially tailored wikis.