Re: Agenda in MobileOrg for Android

[Matthew Jones <bsdmatburt@gmail.com>]

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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.

- 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.


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
>
>

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