Mac OS X GTD Update
On Tuesday, it will be exactly one month since my first blog post that hinted at my upcoming GTD app for the Mac. This post is to bring you up to speed on the progress and give you a peek inside the trusty 12 inch Powerbook.
First, The Goods
Thanks to the powerfull Xcode toolset, I had a working version of a GTD app to manage Projects, Actions, and Contexts ready in less than an hour. Yes, I’m serious…in less than an hour without writing a single line of code. This app was, of course, a little hard on the eyes but it worked as a sort of real time KGTD substitute.
If anyone is interested, I can post a quick tutorial on how to do this using Xcode, Interface Builder, Core Data, and Bindings. All of this is free and included with the OS, which in my opinion should be the case with any OS.
I know better than to release the aforementioned ugly app though, as Mac users have high standards. This higher bar is one of the things that makes the platform what it is today. Plus, my planned feature list includes much for than basic CRUD (create, read, update, delete).
After building this quick prototype to play around with my Core Data model, I started to build the real thing. At this point, things are getting closer to a private beta. The majority of the hours are being clocked against the user interface, getting it to look and feel just like a Mac user would expect, building icons and all of that good stuff.
The Books
The Hillegass book that I started with has turned out to be a real treat. He gets to the point, shows nice examples, and it lays flat to aid in reading on a treadmill :-)
I also picked up a copy of Step Into Xcode, by Fritz Anderson. This book is nice because it focuses on the Xcode tools specifically rather than getting into Cocoa or Objective C as much. It is an ideal companion to Hillegass. It is also worth mentioning that the Hillegass book doesn’t touch Core Data so the coverage in Anderson was nice to see.
The Resources
Most Cocoa developers probably already know about CocoaDev, Cocoa Dev Central, and Cocoa Builder. All of these sites have been most helpful when Interface Builder wasn’t. Specifically, the Core Data Class Overview and Build a Core Data App tutorials by Scott Stevenson served as a welcome kick start down the Core Data road. Having a background that includes a large amount of relational data modeling and object relational mapping didn’t hurt either.
One other boost was Uli Kusterer’s UKToolbarFactory. Oddly, both of the books didn’t even mention toolbars and Interface Builder doesn’t have direct support for them in the same drag and drop way as other interface widgets like buttons.
What’s the Next Action?
If you don’t ask yourself this question all day, then you’re not doing GTD :-) My next action is to open an image editor and turn my paper sketches into a kickin set of toolbar icons. Maybe I can get a few screenshots up after that and drop the private beta shortly afterward.
Scott Stevenson wrote:
Glad it helped
Posted on 28-Jul-06 at 12:21 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
Scott, I enjoy reading both Cocoa Dev Central and your blog. Thank you so much for these wonderful resources!
Posted on 28-Jul-06 at 4:40 am | Permalink
Andre wrote:
I would love to be involved in the private beta if that would be possible. I am brand new to GTD and have been looking at the various Mac software offerings but have not been smitten by any of them yet. I promise to give it a good workout from a complete novice point of view. :-)
Posted on 03-Aug-06 at 1:17 pm | Permalink
Jon wrote:
Andre, thank you! That would be superb. You’re on the list.
Posted on 03-Aug-06 at 1:24 pm | Permalink
Mark Fowler wrote:
I’ve been playing around a lot getting a good GTD enviorment, and I’m coming up short. I breifly had the idea of programming my own with XCode…
Of course, I thought it might be better to google around and find out if anyone else was working on it. And lo, you are. I’d love to see what you’ve got.
Mark.
Posted on 04-Aug-06 at 11:06 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
Mark, thanks for the interest. I’m probably due for another “update” post with a screenshot or two.
Posted on 04-Aug-06 at 1:02 pm | Permalink
Andre wrote:
Thanks for adding me to the beta list.
Posted on 06-Aug-06 at 11:58 am | Permalink
Ben wrote:
Jon,
I’d like to see a short tutorial as you offered in the post if you’re still up to it. I’d also like to be included in your private beta (I’m a semi-satisfied kGTD user right now).
Posted on 07-Aug-06 at 2:49 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
Ok, Ben. You’re on the beta list. As for the tutorial, I can probably get one up there after things wind down a little. Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed if you can. Thanks!
Posted on 08-Aug-06 at 5:03 am | Permalink
Will wrote:
As a fellow amateur Mac developer and avid GTD’er, I’d love to help out at least as a beta tester until Omni spanks us all with an app I’m sure they are working on. :) I think there’s definitely a need, and based on what you’ve described as an app for people *not* fortunate enough to live in front of their mac all day, I think your I/O tricks might really suit me well.
Keep up the good work!
-Will
Posted on 10-Aug-06 at 7:34 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
Thanks, Will. I’ve added you to the beta list.
Posted on 10-Aug-06 at 8:02 am | Permalink
Tomislav wrote:
Hi Jon. I’m a avid GTD’er and would love to beta test your app.
Posted on 12-Aug-06 at 4:31 pm | Permalink
Josh wrote:
Hi, Jon. I’d love to be added to the beta test list, too. I use kGTD right now, but I haven’t been very satisfied with it for quite a while.
Posted on 13-Aug-06 at 3:51 am | Permalink
Jon wrote:
Tomislav and Josh, you’re on the list.
Posted on 14-Aug-06 at 12:24 am | Permalink
Justin wrote:
Hey Jon,
I am very interested in the application your working on and would love to be part of the beta. I had been planning for a while to make my own GTD application with Xcode, but ended up just using kGTD (Which is so, uhh…. un-Mac-like).
I look forward to seeing what you’ve been working on!
Posted on 21-Aug-06 at 2:54 pm | Permalink