Agents, Scripts and Plugins

[rdillman]

At the moment the goal is to develop a central repository for as many data types and usage scenarios as possible - e.g. note taking, outlining, multimedia management, text editing, writing etc. as DT has the potential to replace lots of applications (the Finder, Preview/Acrobat Reader, text editors, notepads, outliners, multimedia managers like iPhoto or iView, freeform databases etc.).

1. Kudos, and I’m glad to pay my DT license fees if this is where we’re going.

2. I’m curious as to your plans for supporting software that transforms data as it moves into and out of DT.

It’s one thing to store, organize and retrieve the data. It’s another to get it to where it can be used. Right now DT interfaces with most exterior programs via cut/paste (or drag/drop), and a few import scripts. [Even now I’m about to copy this text, go to Safari, and paste it.]  

If the tools for getting data formatted and moved aren’t going to be in DT itself, then they will have to exist as outside agents. And, given the many different requests for specialized processing that have been posted to the board, I’d guess that there are a fair number of scriptors and programmers would jump in as soon as a Plugin or Script menu appeared in DT. Encouraging this would avoid bloat, and it would leave the responsibility for maintenance and support of these functions elsewhere.

Could you comment on whether you’re planning for plugins and scripts? Thanks.

[cgrunenberg]

DT Pro will be fully scriptable and DT 2.0 will include a plugin interface to export data (e.g. to create HTML, XML, blogs etc.)

[jem]

Will this include the possibility to export to HTML and include links?

I’ve come up with a nice idea of storing, searching some data but to be really useful I would like to export the content as web pages (preferable also as LaTeX) that are cross linked.

[cgrunenberg]

Will this include the possibility to export to HTML and include links?

I’ve come up with a nice idea of storing, searching some data but to be really useful I would like to export the content as web pages (preferable also as LaTeX) that are cross linked.

The HTML export plugin of Version 2.0 will convert Wiki-style/Cross-links of version 1.8 to links of course. LaTex is another story, maybe in version 2.x. By the way - v1.9 should be available in Q2, version 2.0 in Q3. Today we’ll release v1.8 and there will be of course some 1.8.x versions too in the meantime.