Re: Agenda in MobileOrg for Android

[John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 1:24 PM, Matthew Jones <bsdmatburt@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey guys, I'm one of the maintainers of MobileOrg for Android.  We've worked
> really hard to try to implement as many of the features of org-mode as we
> can and make it comfortable to use for the majority of people.  A couple of
> points:
>
> - Originally we were just storing the org files and parsing those on demand
> instead of using a database.   This proved extremely cumbersome when we
> wanted to add more features, and it really did not scale well when people
> had very large org files.  We made a decision a while ago to switch to a
> database almost exclusively for this reason, but there were a lot of other
> smaller reasons that also made it worthwhile.
>
> - The reason we do syncing the way that we do is to fit into org-mode's
> org-mobile-* concept.  Keeping multiple sets of plain text files in sync
> with emacs in the loop is no simple task.  The org-mobile-* functions were
> already defined and well used when I started writing the Android port of
> MobileOrg.  It may be suboptimal but currently it is the best and easiest
> (from the development side) way to keep a remote device and an instance of
> emacs in sync.  I'm actually not even sure if the org-mobile-* routines are
> even maintained anymore.  The synchronization problem is not as easy as just
> overwriting the files, however.
>

I posted this suggestion at the github site:
- https://github.com/matburt/mobileorg-android/issues/63#issuecomment-11391116

I think syncing over git, especially while piggybacking on the merge
driver that was developed to help deal with Org syntax, might be
exceptional. I can't use Dropbox since my org files at work contain
confidential information and don't particularly enjoy fiddling with
apache/WebDAV setup, so git and automagically knowing where to put
updates from the device would be fantastic.

> - If you have issues and you don't tell us then we have no way of helping
> you and the problem might not go away.  We try to stay on top of
> showstopping issues for our users (we have an email address and a bug
> tracker linked to in the app store) unfortunately some folks just leave a 1
> star review and uninstall and never contact us.
>

Agreed, and thanks for saying so. I try not to do this and while I
don't particularly enjoy pestering you on github all the time... still
choose to do so :)


Thanks for commenting over here!
John

>
> On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 5:28 AM, Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl>
> wrote:
>>
>> Dnia 2013-04-08, o godz. 06:52:02
>> James Harkins <jamshark70@gmail.com> napisał(a):
>>
>> > As it happens, one of the lead developers of mobileorg started a
>> > thread on the MobileOrg-Android mailing list asking for issues that
>> > need to be addressed, and features that are needed, before it's ready
>> > for 1.0.
>>
>> Well, I didn't know about the existence if that list;).
>>
>> > I'm using MobileOrg and enjoying it in general. I find it terribly
>> > useful and not especially cumbersome. The initial setup was a bit of a
>> > trek for me, because I don't have access to dropbox where I live
>> > (mainland China). Ultimately, because of unreliable connections to
>> > Ubuntu One, I ended up running my own WebDAV server locally and
>> > syncing at home over the WLAN.
>> >
>> > Otherwise, the only thing I had to adapt in my org/emacs usage was to
>> > schedule appointments (C-c C-s) instead of using timestamps for them
>> > (C-c .). I'm actually not crazy about that -- I'd rather use
>> > timestamps -- but it does work. (Come to think of it, I should propose
>> > that as one of the 1.0 issues... or check if it's changed since the
>> > last time I tried.) Items with scheduled or deadline timestamps appear
>> > in the Android calendar, and there is a preference in MobileOrg to
>> > attach reminders automatically. (One remaining point here -- another
>> > 1.0 issue -- is that creating a new node in MobileOrg with a schedule
>> > or deadline doesn't show up in the phone calendar until after
>> > syncing. I'll bring that up on the M/O mailing list.)
>> >
>> > I find that creating new nodes and minor editing of existing ones is
>> > not at all inconvenient. I don't see a big issue for the workflows
>> > that Marcin subsequently identified as being critical for this kind of
>> > app. They're already there.
>> >
>> > hjh
>>
>> As I wrote in my other email, I'll give it a try - but I'm very much
>> tempted to try to write my own implementation, for the sake of learning.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> --
>> Marcin Borkowski
>> http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
>> Adam Mickiewicz University
>>
>