An idea is a nest, is a nest, is a nest… a nest
In 1983, the software program called “Framework” and its chief developer Robert Carr were already talking about integrated productivity software. That’s a quarter century ago, and the rest of the world is still catching up. Or playing the same game on a different field. While Microsoft uses identical commands across its office software, no one has captured the outlining genius of Framework and its Fred programming language. (Applescript comes close, but it’s not as simple as FRED.) The essential and outstanding difference between Framework and all other outlining programs is the radical (and obvious) concept of “nests.” Framework’s outlines actually nested into each other. Yes, they were “sibs,” but they were more than brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. They were actual containers, and what they contained was a free-flowing stream of thoughts. Hey, it was the age of “go with the flow.” Framework’s nests didn’t just sit side-by-side or one on top of the other. Each idea lived inside the other, preserving hierarchies while allowing penetration. Penetration? Yes, as in: penetrating ideas. By nesting the outline structure, a writer could dig down into his own best thoughts. Then, he or she could simply tap the “insert” key and open another new and “deeper” frame, allowing him to go further inside his original “frame” of thought It was like Tupperware for the mind. It didn’t take up space in the tool shed and it kept your thinking fresh. Framework wasn’t just an outliner; it was a thinking tool that lured the user out of the list, and out of the hierarchy and down into the “foul rag and bone shop” of creation. (Yeats, “The Circus Animals’ Desertion”) And, after such a revery, a single click snapped your notes back into a hierarchy, where — ah-ha! — a full-blown piece of rational, expository thinking emerged as if by magic. After that, the outline could be manipulated to more fully express the idea writer endeavored to evoke. Forgive this bit of nostalgia, please.
Incidentally, Framework lives on for PCs, but I can’t vouch for it, or for its price. http://www.framework.com/ Yes, it has the world’s ugliest, most loathsome and most utterly workable GUI left in computerdom; it’s an unkempt but highly serviceable artifact of the late, great breakthrough Intel 386 chip.
News you can use: At DEVONthink the buzz is that there will be an early 2008 release of Version 2.0. The new release has been a long time coming, no doubt complicated by the emergence of (ho-hum) Leopard. DTP 2.0 will probably contain tags and visualizations, but as always the developers are playing it close to the vest. Also, the DEVONfolks are coming out with a new product, something they promise will be Big, really beeeeg. So far, they are not saying much, just teasing their new offering with an image of a maze, an English garden maze. My guess? The new DEVONthing will be a Getting Things Done productivity tool that points you through the daily maze of information collection and production. Price point, guessing again, $79.95 if it really works, $59.95 if it will work within a year of release. Smile!
