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#1
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:



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][/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.
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Last edited by GeraldKo; 2009-02-08 at 17:34.
 

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